In order to attract and retain top talent, especially in today’s competitive landscape, employers must offer a comprehensive benefits package that provides value to their employees. Whether these benefits are employer paid, employee paid, or a mix, employers must be able to meet their employees’ benefit needs without incurring unsustainable and unrealistically excessive costs.

Spring works with clients to design employee benefit strategies that work for the modern workforce. We help employers invest in their people through structured benefit programs that demonstrate a return in productivity and efficiency. Benefits are designed to be competitive recruitment tools and to effectively reduce absenteeism, disability and chronic illness. We avoid a “one-size-fits-all” approach and instead recommend tailored strategies that address the unique employee demographics and corporate objectives of our clients. Our integrated and innovative solutions will create value for employers and their employees by protecting their health, creating wealth and ensuring their interests.

Our employee benefit consultative solutions include:

• Program assessment, plan design, pricing, placement and implementation
• Funding analysis and financial evaluation
• Health and productivity management, including integrated disability and absence management
• Wellness and disease management, including identification of point solutions or other programs to target your population health issues
• Mental and behavioral health mitigation
• Vendor/carrier selection, negotiation and management (from RFP development through to selection and onboarding)
• Employee relations, communication and training (i.e., open enrollment, training manuals, e-learning materials), including our AleraHR platform
• Employer and employee satisfaction surveys
• Benefits benchmarking
• Compliance assessment and ongoing support
• Claims cost management
• Benefits administration services and systems, including technology and process evaluation

Lines of Services

Our consultants are deeply familiar with the employee benefits landscape, with experts spanning the full range of coverage, from traditional lines to emerging benefits, such as:

• Medical
• Dental
• Vision
• Pharmacy
• Life (including group-term and retiree)
• Disability (short- and long-term)
• Accidental Death & Dismemberment (AD&D)
• Voluntary benefits (including but not limited to):
  • Supplemental insurance such as accident, cancer & critical illness, hospital indemnity, and supplemental life
  • Long-term care
  • Identity theft
  • Pet insurance
  • Property/casualty
  • Employee purchase plans
• International benefits and multinational pooling
• Retirement benefits (i.e. pensions)
• Medical stop-loss
• FSA, HRA & HSA
• Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs)

Learn more about Spring Insurance Group

Our clinical pharmacy team is ready to help you tackle cost containment tactics for prescription drugs, and integrate a pharmacy strategy into your overall benefits program. Specifically, we offer the following:

• Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) vendor procurement and contract negotiations
  • Evaluate all PBM options and benefits of each; carve-in, carve-out PBM options, including direct contracts and access to pharmacy collectives
• PBM auditing services
• Clinical consulting
  • Leverage clinical programs to implement and achieve overarching Population Health goals
  • Evaluate utilization care management program offerings
• Pharmacy benefit plan design and analysis
• In-depth claims data analyses to provide recommendations such as:
  • Plan design changes
  • Alternative formulary options and excluding targeted high-cost drugs that have lower-cost substitutes
  • Audit of current prior authorization, step therapy, and quantity limit programs
  • Creation of a limited or preferred retail pharmacy network
• Strategic account management

To identify your best practice, regardless of the specific area of employee benefits being addressed, we assess and rely on the following five pillars:

Employee Benefits Benchmarking Process

Benchmarks

Leveraging benchmarks is critical for success. A holistic view requires consideration of peer groups in order to appropriate compare and contrast your offering and potential enhancements. At Spring we leverage many sources including our primary research as well as DMEC research and IBI measures

Plan Design

Includes assessment of the current plans compared to best practice and providing suggestions for more appropriate plan design details or better overall structure(s)

Process

This is all encompassing from communications to leave management to touch points between providers and internal stakeholders. Clear processes ensure a smooth offering

Funding

Spring will explore insurance, self insurance, captive insurance and other hybrid options to pinpoint the best option(s)

Technology

Establishes appropriate metrics to evaluate financial impact as well as areas for process and plan design improvements. This examines both internal and external technology

Healthcare is an ever-changing, expensive, and often head-ache inducing area for all stakeholders – employers, employees, carriers and providers. We are here to not only minimize the complexity on your behalf, but also to ensure your programs are optimized and running as intended. Spring tackles all facets of health plan design and financing, including:

• Plan design
• Data analysis and plan analytics, including identification of coverage gaps/redundancies
• Actuarial services including pricing, reserving, financial analysis, pro-forma projections, and predictive modeling
• Underwriting
• Eligibility provisions
• Preventive services
• Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs)
• Self-insurance feasibility, or assessment of alternative funding solutions
• Reinsurance arrangements
• Benchmarking
• Competitive bidding
• Health risk assessments
• Pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) evaluation
• Pharmacy carve-outs
• Compliance

We understand that a benefits program is not just about providing coverage for an event – be it health, dental, vision, life or disability insurance. A benefits program is a comprehensive statement that an organization makes to its employees and it must align with the core cultural values of the organization. We believe that the plan designs for each line of coverage should not be determined on an individual basis, but by considering how the various programs may interact with each other. We have helped hundreds of clients create unique benefits programs and bend the healthcare cost curve in a difficult climate.

Spring’s actuaries and consultants are recognized thought leaders in this space, with awards that include Risk & Insurance Power Broker, Employee Benefit News Rising Star, Business Insurance’s Women to Watch, Captive Review Top Actuarial Firm, and more. Our team, backed by the expanded network and power of Alera Group, brings the following differentiators to the table:

• Integration: our actuaries are looped into our absence management projects, and our benefits captive team works closely with our property & casualty team. In this way, we not only meet client expectations but frequently surpass them by identifying cross-departmental areas for improvement.
• Collaboration: we prefer to work with clients versus separately, as we have found that this is the best way to achieve client goals. We take the time to listen, absorb, and evaluate before making any recommendations.
• Customization: we recognize that every organization is different, and specialize in tailored solutions that address specific needs, which may vary by geography, size, industry, population health, and more.
• Objectivity: no hidden agendas here; we are simply committed to client service and to delivering results.
• Familiarity: with industry trends, carriers and vendors, technology, the regulatory environment, and our clients and colleagues – this level of intimacy goes a long way.