Many employers are relying on incomplete information to make key decisions relating to ACA and plan sponsorship. Dropping plans, meeting affordability or maintaining status quo may not be the best strategy. But, without the right information from their benefit advisors, clients end up confused or compelled to make poor decisions.Going into 2015 benefit practitioners will find themselves faced with more detailed questions from clients and needing to dive deeper into how decisions impact employers and employees at the same time.

One example of this is the vast majority of solutions focused on a few high-level employer-specific calculations such as pay vs. play or affordability. Delivering these calculations has been a standard approach for many advisors over the last few years. As employers have started to become more educated on the economic impact of The Affordable Care they are looking to know how the math works on a more granular level. Tools such as HealthCostManager provide this deeper level of insight.

Another common approach is over-emphasize the need to make the plans affordable for all. From an employer perspective they may benefit by paying penalties if the cost of providing coverage for the employees that are dropping coverage exceeds the penalty. For the employee it’s about making sure they have access to available subsidies especially when it makes a large enough difference in the overall plan cost. Unless this is flagged employers and employees will end up in a less than optimal situation which defeats the purpose of plan sponsorship.

All of this ties back to a deeper view of the employee data and ultimately can save the employer and employee a great deal in cost and improve the plan sponsorship equation. To learn more see www.healthcostmanager.com.  Webinar info here