I was in a strategy meeting yesterday with my partner, Tim Kane, and I realized how we built our business. I actually had a dream about this and couldn’t sleep so I woke up 4:30 am to get the thoughts out!
We’ve built our business around the following theory, but have never actually put it into words or written it down. Below I lay it out as simply as possible, I think every business should approach benefits this way:
Insure catastrophic and unforeseen situations that have a large financial affect to an employee’s family. This includes things like Life Insurance, ADD, Drugs, and Disability Coverage. myHSA does not offer all of this but that’s why we’ve never been against our advisors using insurers, we believe in insurance.
Second step is to self-insure the predictable common expenses. These are employer paid expenses and don’t warrant insurance. By insuring it you are just using the insurance company as the funder or the bank; they add about a 30% fee (ex 70% TLR) to fund your employee’s predictable expenses. Every year the insurance company calculates how much they funded you during the year and set your costs for the next year of funding. When using a type of spending account (HSA or ASO) you pay 10% typically, and the Employer & Advisor can control how this spending account section is used when they set up the plan design.
Benefits are an attraction and retention tool for employees; it’s way to keep employees happy and healthy. Note the word that was in both of those sentences: EMPLOYEES. We want to focus on the employee experience which doesn’t have to mean exclusively insurance and can include other products or services that benefit the employee and their families.
A great employee experience can include things such as: making it simple to make a claim, and fast reimbursement. It can be the aesthetic and simplicity of the app’s design, and it can also be the approach you take to make benefits accessible and fun again. Unique offerings can be things like customized Wellness Spending Accounts.
Employees enjoy when benefits are packaged in a different way and offer flexibility. Flexibility is huge and a key component when creating a benefits offering to fit employees who are at different stages of life. Plans like myFlexplan or a marketplace that allows employees to pick and choose the add-ons that are best for them.
In addition to our various spending accounts, myHSA will continue to expand our offering to advisors by adding a marketplace and stand-alone products so we can achieve our goal to solve the above 3 items.