Here at The Karis Group we are constantly trying to better understand our client’s needs.
With that in mind, we commissioned a survey of brokers during last month’s ASCEND Agency Growth & Leadership Summit to learn which new benefits, if any, their clients are asking for.Survey Overview
To start, we asked ASCEND brokers to rate how open their clients are to new employee benefits offerings. Broker responses led us to segment our audience into 3 groups:
Next, we asked brokers to determine their client’s interest in purchasing a series of benefit offerings. The survey questions included brief (1–2 sentences) descriptions explaining the benefits and how they would support members, then asked brokers to rate their client’s interest in purchasing these benefits.
What We Found Out
Brokers thought their clients would be interested in all benefit offerings presented, with an average rating across all benefits of 62%.
Overall brokers indicated their clients were most interested in offering a 2nd opinion service and health navigation/concierge offering and expressed least interest (though still interested) in health education/coaching and virtual care/telehealth offering.
When breaking down the responses by group, the ranked order was roughly the same; however, a larger percentage of forward-thinking clients expressed interest in adding new benefit offerings.
The forward-thinking group rated the second-opinion service highest across all benefits, sharing that 77% of their clients are significantly interested in this service. This group also rated a health navigation/concierge offering highly, with 71% expressing interest in adding this offering.
The more traditional clients provided less enthusiasm across all benefits, with the most interest in a health navigation/concierge service. Though it is worth noting that all benefit offerings received interest from 50% or more of the traditional clients indicating that even these employers are looking for new services to support their employees.
What This Means For You
Whether you are a broker, employer or health plan it’s clear there is an appetite for value added benefits that connect patients with doctors and support wise healthcare decision making.
While we did not query why brokers rated client interest higher on certain offerings than others, it stands to reason that employers are keen to avoid unnecessary procedures via second opinion services and to support their members with navigation/concierge services as they attempt to maneuver a complex health system.
No matter your role in healthcare, it’s crucial to stay updated on the latest benefits offerings to ensure you are offering your employees or members the benefits they want and need.
To that end, in an effort to better understand our client’s needs, we will be releasing a report detailing the results of a Karis commissioned original consumer survey of 510 employed adults with health insurance designed to determine the value of patient advocacy services like Concierge-style Healthcare Navigation.
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