As we enter the busy season of securing renewal business while also striving to acquire new clients, I’d like to take just a minute to remind you— Roundstone is here to help. It is our number one goal to assist our benefit advisors and their clients in achieving successful outcomes.
Here are a few tips that I hope you find helpful along the way:
Convey Your Value Beyond a Spreadsheet
It’s easy to gather pricing from several providers and lay each option out on a nicely detailed spreadsheet for your clients. But other than price comparisons, what are you really offering? Dealing with health benefits—a top line item expense— frustrates many employers. They just want this problem to go away, but you have the ability as a benefits advisor to give them a better alternative. You’re well aware that clients depend on your expertise to point them in the right direction and trust you to navigate them through this somewhat complex process. Going beyond the spreadsheet, are you able to illustrate to your client ways they can control and/or reduce their health care spend while maintaining the same, if not better, benefits offering to their employees? With Roundstone, you have the ability to do just that. Highlight the differences between fully insured and self-funding with the emphasis on how a group, self-funded captive plan enables your clients to see their claims, pay for only what they use and most importantly, provide an opportunity to save both now and every year thereafter.
If you currently have business with us, you know we issue a “20/20” report to each employer that gives a thorough look at how your client is performing in the group captive. Additionally, we are regularly providing “cost containment recommendations” as well as an annual CSI Report to identify areas in which your client can potentially be saving on their spend. For example, we recently saved an employer over $60,000 in annual Rx spend by switching to a more cost-effective pharmacy benefit manager.
You can also view at your convenience our recently launched CSI Dashboard which displays your groups’ personalized information with details on each employer’s claims by service type, category, and condition. By sharing and discussing these cost saving resources, you can deliver a proactive approach to help your clients manage their spend. Imagine your value as a benefits advisor when you have actionable information to share beyond a yearly spreadsheet.
Take Advantage of your Regional Practice Leader (RPL)
A key ingredient to our success is the relationship between you and your Roundstone RPL. Our team of dedicated RPLs are always ready to discuss how an employer is performing, review pending proposals and even join you on calls with your clients to help explain the Roundstone solution. In fact, it has been our experience that close rates are much higher when we work together as a team.
Promote Long-Term Thinking
Buying health insurance should not be a rash decision made each year but rather a well-thought-out plan of managing this significant expense. While some providers may offer a low price to “buy” the business, maintaining affordable rates over the long run is often not a reality unless the funding strategy provides longstanding ways to save. With Roundstone, our health benefits plans deliver enhanced variable cost funding through the group captive. This allows for a greater return on savings over the long-term. Any unused funds in the employer claims account are retained by the employer. Unused funds in the entire risk-sharing pool are also returned to each participating employer on a pro-rata basis. Read here to learn about our recent $7.2 million distribution to our captive participants.
Thank you for taking the time to educate yourself on how Roundstone can help your business. We are excited to work with you and want you to have the best experience every time. In the meantime, download the Roundstone RFP Submission Checklist to learn exactly what information you need from your client to receive the most competitive quote from our experienced, in-house underwriting team.
