Spend More Time on Strategy and Growth

When you’re servicing benefits, you’re not focusing on client strategies and opportunities.

Smooth and easy plan implementation and service are critical not only to your clients’ satisfaction, but to your daily success and business growth as a broker.

“A benefits carrier should have seamless implementation processes so brokers can spend more time advising clients, growing relationships, and positioning new solutions—not chasing down admin tasks,” says Jake Bendler, division vice president of national accounts and national partners for group dental business at Ameritas. “Implementation done right creates space for brokers to deliver insight, not just administration.”

A broker should focus on several key factors when considering an employee benefits carrier. Bendler breaks down these factors and lays out how they help avoid problems that can take hours out of your day.

Communication of Timeline

Set the stage for effective and clear communication throughout the process of onboarding coverage to a new carrier. Plan regular implementation calls to fit the client’s needs and schedule. That will give you an opportunity to discuss timeline items and assure your client that things are going smoothly. The timeline should include the schedule for:

• Defining key points of contact;
• Designing benefit plans;
• Loading plan information into the claims system;
• Delivering and signing contracts;
• Building a well-designed framework for the employer’s well-being and products to support it;
• Deciding on a format for electronic eligibility data transfer;
• Loading membership information into the claims system; and
• Delivering ID cards and certificates.

Bendler says delivering custom timelines upon notification of sale helps set clear expectations with customers. “Quick carrier responses during implementation are critical,” he notes.

Resource Expectations

Full and efficient compliance and data exchange make implementation and service almost effortless for you and your clients. Ameritas has built in safeguards to continuously audit transactions—catching and correcting discrepancies before they impact coverage—and proactive error-handling to enhance both compliance and data accuracy. So you can spend more time on clients’ variable and custom requests.

Compliance and legal alignment with all federal and state regulations goes without saying at Ameritas, says Bendler. “Our compliance team is not only staffed to ensure we adhere to all new legislation, we are also dedicated consumer advocates regarding changes that affect dental benefits and their value.”

A strong API/EDI integration strategy that supports seamless exchange of employee data between the employer, the benefit administration system, and Ameritas reduces the manual work in enrollment and benefits administration, resulting in a faster and more accurate experience. This round-trip confirmation ensures complete visibility into the status of eligibility transactions for all parties involved.

“Ameritas has spent years building our benefits admin platform integration partner community,” Bendler says. “We work with more than 300 eligibility trading partners—both API and advanced connections—and we have our own in-house specialized EDI and digital integrations team. We’re poised and ready to expedite benefits administration with any company on any platform.”

Benefits Education

Employees are more likely to use and appreciate their benefits if they understand them. Robust employee benefits education makes enrollment go more smoothly and reduces the likelihood of problems and misunderstandings.

Customized plan brochures, videos, websites, and other resources that explain employees’ benefits help them make decisions with confidence. Customized plan benefit content can also be created for clients who have their own benefit sites.

“Ameritas has a dedicated team of experts who design these custom employee benefits education materials,” according to Bendler. “Knowing we have that handled allows brokers to stay focused on strategy and growth.”

Easing a Big Change

Constant changes in technology, legislation, and the market challenge you to remain productive day to day. When you’re shifting a client’s benefits to a new carrier, you should be able to rely on that carrier for successful plan implementation and administration.

“We’ve spent decades learning from our clients and the brokers we work with what is most important when implementing and administering dental benefits,” Bendler says. “Brokers can focus on their business knowing that Ameritas is serious about successful plan implementation and ongoing service.”