Tag Archive for 'Health costs'

Poor Benefits Communication Damages Both Employee and Employer Health and Financial Wellness

As busy as it can be, open enrollment is a good time to reflect on the effectiveness of your company’s benefits communication. While everyone seems to agree that benefits communication on the whole needs improvement, many organizations are in denial about how critical that improvement is to their own organization.

Findings from the 2011 Aflac WorkForces Report highlighted the discrepancy between how companies and their workers view benefits communications:

  • 85% of employers believe their HR departments are effective at benefits communication

BEWARE: Usual, Customary and Reasonable Charges

I visited my childhood pediatrician until age 28.  Why?  Well, I trusted his judgment and there was just a huge amount of peace of mind that came with dealing with a physician who had first-hand experience with just about every entry in my medical history.  Dr. Blair was never once in the network of doctors offered by my medical plans and therefore I had to pay 20% more for care.  Fortunately for me, it was only 20%.