On the 4^th day of benefits, the industry gave to me a 4% literacy rate for the terms “deductible,” “co-insurance,” “co-pay,” and “out-of-pocket maximum.”

Despite how integral these words have become in the world of medical benefits, only 4% of Americans can accurately define what they mean. This may come as a shock to the well-versed HR professional, but considering how complicated medical benefits have become in the past decade, expecting average employees to keep up with each line of their benefits policy is a lot to ask. Smart employers will share this information with regular communications campaigns, open-door HR policies, and benefits resources accessible beyond open enrollment.

On the 3^rd day of benefits, the industry gave to me a 3^rd birthday for Businessolver’s Sofia! It seems like she’s been with us forever, but our personal benefits assistant Sofia turned three this year. And she’s come quite a long way in supporting the benefits enrollment process. Driven by AI—meaning she learns very similarly to human beings—Sofia’s learning capabilities have expanded significantly to include literacy in English, Spanish, and French, benefits decision-making support, and the ability to demonstrate empathy. We’re happy to count Sofia as one of the many AI innovations pushing the HR field further this year.   

On the 2^nd day of benefits, the industry gave to me two new HRAs. Starting on January 1, 2020, employers have two new types of Health Reimbursement Arrangements that they may choose to offer to their employees. The Excepted Benefit HRA is a more limited option designed to supplement other benefits and is not considered Minimum Essential Coverage. The second option, an Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangement (ICHRA) is considered minimum essential coverage (see Notice 2018-88) and can help employers offer coverage and mitigate risk for employer shared responsibility assessments.

On the 1^st day of benefits, the industry gave to me one wallet to manage it all!  With all we’ve been ‘gifted’ these past 12 days, managing all the data of various benefits products is a major task in itself. Luckily, with a tool like Businessolver’s One Wallet, employers can easily display to employees the total cost and value of their full benefits and compensation packages, from health benefits to voluntary products. With concerns about rising benefits costs front-and-center for most employees, an aggregated look can help ease that tension—and show how much investment their employer is truly making in their well-being.

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