Managing insurance benefits is a complex task that involves more elements with your group medical coverage being just one of them. The first step you should take is deciding who will be responsible for managing medical benefits in your enterprise: an old employee or a separately hired person. In order to make up your mind on that matter, here are some factors to consider when evaluating all of the possible ways:

General administration. Any of the plans you choose to employ should comply with the functional requirements submitted by the Internal Revenue Service, and should deliver the required information on time both to the policy owner and the insurer. The person responsible for benefits management will be working with your insurance company’s agent or broker, as well as make monthly, quarterly and annual reports to the IRS and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

Communication. Any group health insurance program provided by the enterprise makes it a much more attractive place to work for employees, especially for newcomers. But it is very important to present the information about your program in the right manner, which requires the benefits manager to work together with the company’s management in order to properly inform the entire staff about available options and plans.

Implementation. To make any plan work just like it should work requires certain efforts from the benefits manager. The person responsible for this section of your company’s health insurance benefits has to make sure everything is implemented according to pre-set requirements and work with the management, staff and legal counsel when necessary. Read the rest of this entry »