The 5 Biggest Mistakes Benefits Administrators Make At Open Enrollment
After our last post about employee open enrollment missteps, it seems only fair to discuss the biggest bloopers by benefits administrators. I’m sure none of these apply to our clients, so you may want to share these with a friend…
1.) Starting the Open Enrollment Process Too Late – We are generally reaching out to our clients 60 days before their renewal with rate and plan options. If we can get a decision within a 2-3 week period, we are miles ahead in running a successful open enrollment!
2.) Not Requiring Employees to Complete or Participate in Open Enrollment – With most of our clients using an online enrollment system, there is very little time or effort required by employees to complete enrollment. This not only helps employees make more informed and timely decisions, but fulfills a huge compliance burden for employers as well!
3.) No Educational Outreach to Employees – One of the huge gains during COVID was the use of Zoom open enrollment meetings and recorded open enrollment meetings. Even if you can’t (or don’t want to) get your employees together for an in-person meeting, use these new technologies to bridge the educational gap! At minimum, we are happy to prepare an approximately 10-minute video outlining your benefits. Just ask your account manager.
4.) Not Ending Open Enrollment on Time – This is obviously related to point #1, but has merit on its own. We often will start open enrollment on time, but due to a few laggards (on vacations, or sick, or…), don’t close or end it in a timely manner. Carriers don’t accept partial enrollments, so one or two lagging employees will delay all of the employees’ changes. Employers really need to “encourage” lagging employees to finish their enrollment on time.
5.) Not Auditing Your Carrier Bill After Changes – This step is complicated by the fact that during a carrier’s busy season (Q4) it may take 1-2 months for a bill to accurately show proper billed amounts. We do audit these bills in our office at month two, but 4 eyes are better than 2, so please help us help you.
As always, if you have any questions or if we can help in any way, please reach out!
Call us at (805) 687 - 3225, or send us an email at info@petersmilam.com. We can't wait to hear from you!
-Dave Peters & Steve Milam
