Our strategic approach always begins with a thorough understanding of the client needs and objectives.

We not only focus on the benefits and human resources, but the overall organizational culture, organizational objectives, and the cascading goals and objectives of the various departments within the organization. This process allows us to more fully understand the corporate culture and both the financial and human capital objectives of the HR and benefits team with respect to the overall organization.

 
 
 
 

We first gather as much information as we can about where the employer has been, where they are today, and where they want to be in one, three and five years with respect to their programs. We run a complete assessment of their current programs, then build out a strategic plan on the front end that serves as our guide for building out the monthly action plans.

 

Below is a snapshot of the various guide posts that we implement throughout the course of a year.

 

Initial Needs Assessment

  • Ownership Structure

    • Complete an organizational and ownership assessment to fully understand any controlled group matters, multiple employer plan considerations, and compliance aspects.

  • Internal Budget Process

    • Complete a budgetary assessment to fully understand the current budgetary process with respect to the benefit programs. This enables us to internally underwrite your programs and project liability based on the plan year as well as fiscal year, and customize our monthly financial dashboards specific to your internal budgetary processes. We can further assist with best practices around internal budget processes, IBNR reserve methodologies, etc.

  • Health Plan Assessment

    • During the health plan assessment, we evaluate your current programs and identify opportunities for cost-containment and enhanced ROI, as well as any compliance gaps. These assessments include:

      • Plan document compliance review

      • TPA, PBM, Stop loss contract reviews for negotiation opportunities

      • Internal underwriting (to know what your renewal should be before receiving it from the market)

      • Alternative funding analysis

      • Plan design benchmarking

      • Predictive Modeling

      • Provider performance monitoring

      • Identification of drugs run through medical and negotiation opportunities

  • Retirement Plan Assessment

    • During the retirement plan assessment, we evaluate your current programs and identify opportunities for cost-containment and enhanced ROI, as well as any compliance gaps. These assessments include:

      • Plan document compliance review

      • Service agreement reviews

      • Fiduciary and governance infrastructure assessments

      • Alternative funding and design assessments

      • Plan design benchmarking

      • Fiduciary fee benchmarking

  • Risk Management Assessment

    • During this assessment, we evaluate current risk management and property & casualty programs to assess gaps, overlaps and cost containment strategies.

      • Benchmarking of limits

      • Policy reviews for critical terms, gaps and overlaps

      • Assessment of coverage appropriateness

  • Human Resources Assessment

    • During this assessment, we perform an internal audit/checklist of current HR programs and practices to help identify potential priorities.

 
 

Strategic Plan

Next, we assess your 1, 3 and 5 year goals and objectives for the organization, HR, risk management, and benefits

Provided on the front-end and serves as an ongoing guide to the action planning that will be implemented throughout the year

 
 

Weekly Updates

Every week, clients receive a Weekly Update outlining the action plans and status of projects, deadlines, etc., that have cascaded from the strategic plan. Any project or compliance deadline that is within 4 weeks of becoming active is integrated into the weekly Friday Updates.

 
 

Monthly Financial Dashboards

Our monthly financial dashboards keep you fully informed as to how your programs are running compared with budget. This reporting builds accountability into the process and helps employers avoid any surprises.

 
 

Ongoing Measurement and Monitoring

Programs and strategies are measured and monitored on a quarterly basis.

 
 

Annual ROI Report

At the end of each year, our team prepares an ROI stewardship report. This report benchmarks our fee against the market and calculates the ROI of your overall programs.