A 5 Step Guide to Presenting Your Group Health Plan
You have decided to offer a group health care plan to your employees, now it is time to decide how you want to present this new benefit. There are 5 specific steps that you should take in order to make sure that your employees understand what a benefit this is and how to fully use it.
- First you must meet with your California health insurance representative in order to make sure you fully understand the plan yourself, before trying to explain it to others. Having a insurance representative speak with you might help you refine some of your words. If you are still not comfortable you can ask the representative if they would have some available time to meet with your employees to go over the benefits of your new group health plan.
A certified California health insurance representative will provide you with appropriate documentation and literature such as copies of the explanation of benefits, different types of health options available under your plan and even visual aids to help with your presentation.
- After you meet with your health insurance representative, you should schedule a meeting with your employees. This should be scheduled far enough in advance for the employees to come with some of their own questions, but not so far that they forget about it. A trick to gaining attendance is to hold the meeting during the workday. If that doesn’t resolve scheduling conflicts, you might consider breaking the training up into smaller groups, which is how people usually retain more information.
- Reviewing the material a few days before the meeting will provide beneficial to help keep the information in the front of your mind and to make sure that you fully understand the health plan and can answer questions. It will also help to create a questionnaire for your employees to fill out about a week before the meeting so that you can both, assist them with figuring out which coverage is best for them and also to prepare for any additional questions they might have. Keeping the questionnaire anonymous is key in protecting employee identity.
- Prepare the morning of the meeting. Make sure you provide the most ideal conditions to hold the training; after all, it is the health of your employees that depend on it. An atmosphere with snacks and refreshments will usually help lure those that are undecided about attending. Make sure to bring all of your presentation equipment with you and that everyone has a full view of all projectors and visual aids.
- Explaining the health plan in full and making sure that everyone understands will go a long way in producing employees to sign up for your group health plan. You will be well equipped to answer most of their questions and the meeting will be a big hit.
If you run into a question you cannot answer, don’t worry, just make sure to write it down, ask your California health insurance representative and get back with the person who asked the question within 24-48 hours. Doing this will give another added benefit; showing your employees that you care about their families.