Understanding Benefit Riders:

If your group health policy is not as comprehensive coverage for your employees, you can use benefit riders to round out the coverage. Benefit riders are add-ons to an existing policy that provide more or different coverage in specific areas. Let's look at some examples of benefit riders.

Dental Benefit Riders

Health insurance plans typically do not offer dental coverage. If this is something that your employees need and they prefer not to purchase an additional dental insurance plan for their own use, you can add a benefit rider for this purpose. An example dental benefit rider would contain coverage for two yearly cleanings, basic and routine procedures and in some cases, dental surgery.

Vision Benefit Riders

Much like dental coverage, health insurance plans rarely offer vision coverage with an existing health plan. You will need to use a vision benefits rider to ensure that your employees will have coverage. A rider of this type will usually provide for annual or semi-annual vision checks, preventative screenings and eyewear.

Life Benefit Riders

A life insurance benefit rider will allow your employees to add life insurance coverage to their existing health insurance policy. This type of rider will usually provide a low amount or supplemental amount of life insurance. If your employees cannot afford a stand-alone life insurance policy, or if they prefer to combine their policies into one, a life benefit rider is very useful.

Maternity Benefit Riders

Maternity benefits are hard to come by, and the majority of regular health insurance plans do not offer coverage for maternity care, birth or surgery. If you have several employees who are of childbearing age, this is an important rider to consider. Your employees will be able to take advantage of covered wellness checks, and know that if something goes wrong, they will have the coverage they need.

Disability Benefit Riders

Disability insurance is very important for your employees. This type of insurance coverage can also be referred to as income replacement insurance. If your employees become disabled and are unable to return to work, a disability policy will provide them with a percentage of their usual income for a set period of time or until they are able to return to work. Even if you have worker's compensation coverage, this benefit rider can be very useful for your employees.

These are just a few examples of typical benefit riders. Each insurance company may offer different options for specific plans. It is a good idea to sit down with your employees and see what they are looking for in their health coverage. This will allow you to tailor make your employee's group health plan to their needs instead of offering them a one-size-fits-most solution.

If you cannot get you employees to come to an agreement on what they need, you may want to consider a flexible group health plan or cafeteria type health plan. This will allow your employees to select the type of insurance they need, what riders they would prefer to add-on and give them more control over their health care options.

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