Benefit Plan Design

Cost Control and Flexibility

Today, cost control requires the ability of a health plan to effectively manage claims, monitor use of health care services, and empower employees to accept more responsibility for their health care.  When you consider the diversity of today’s workforce, the need for flexibility in employee health benefit plan design has never been greater.  Self-funding allows the greatest degree of plan customization that can help growing companies meet the needs of a changing workforce.

ASR works closely with each self-funded client to help determine the best plan of benefits, from deductibles and coinsurance to wellness and utilization incentives.  ERISA also allows self-funded plans the choice to avoid many costly state-mandated benefits, if they choose.  Therefore an employer that sponsors a self-funded plan has flexibility to determine the best benefits to meet employees’ needs and company objectives.  As a result, the typical self-funded plan often provides better benefits at a lower cost than the employer could obtain from a fully insured plan.

Because ASR manages the plan and administers all claims, we collect a tremendous amount of data that can be used to provide comprehensive benefit and utilization reports.  These reports provide a road map to help continually improve the benefit plan and control future costs.  That is truly what managing health benefits is all about.

An Ongoing Process

ASR will begin the plan design process by reviewing the current plan of benefits and the resulting claims experience or premium history from approximately the last three years.  Once we understand where your health care dollars have gone, we recommend alternatives based on experience and predictive modeling.  This process is ongoing and focuses on providing benefits your employees need while controlling plan costs.  The flexibility of self-funding allows the plan design to change from year to year.  As the needs of your group and the conditions impacting your bottom line continue to change, so can your self-funded plan, which is an advantage you simply do not find with traditional health insurance plans.