Employee health insurance is a valuable investment in a company's competitiveness and care for its employees. But how do you find the best employee health insurance policy?
If the company has decided to buy its first employee health insurance policy, the first question is where to start. Typing the phrase “health insurance” into Google brings up countless pages of general information, program descriptions, lists of medical facilities, and specific terms. In addition, it is almost impossible to understand how much this policy will cost the company. At this point, the responsible employee of the company sighs and realizes that he will have to dive into this world and investigate what it's all about.
Together with companies of varying sizes and fields of activity, we have gone through the entire process countless times—from that first decision, to the policy. Therefore, we can safely say that the first and most important thing is to understand two things within the company at the very beginning of the quotation and price survey process.
The first—What are the wishes and needs of employees in general?
Without understanding what your employees need, a situation could arise in which funds have been invested, but the employees do not use the policy given to them because they have other needs. As a result, the employees are left with bitterness and the impression that the policy was bought just for a checkmark. Despite the company plan, they have to pay for what they need by themselves. Health-related issues are always delicate, so several approaches can be used to accurately find out the needs of employees.
Personal surveys and anonymous questionnaires work to obtain the necessary information. As insurance brokers, we recommend that you pay extreme attention to this stage, as it is one of the basic pillars for the choice to hit the mark from both the employee's and the company's point of view.
The second—How much is the company is willing to allocate for the purchase of the policy?
You have to answer this question very honestly to yourself at the very beginning, because the further choice and creation of the policy will depend on it.
Of course it seems good enough to buy the most expensive and complete standard package policy where everything seems to be included. In this case, it's quite certain that most of the needs will be fully or at least partially covered and the employees will be satisfied. But for the company, this means that it will have to open its wallet and also pay for coverage that the employees don't need. It's like going to the grocery store on Saturday for all the meals the family likes, cooking only 20% of them, and putting the remaining ingredients in a big bag until they expire. Uneconomical.
Instead, it would be wise to include as many of the priority needs of the employees as possible in the decided budget, thus purchasing exactly what the company needs with the allocated money. And if you manage to perform this task well, everyone benefits—employees get exactly what they need and are satisfied with the policy. The company has not overpaid and has shown genuine concern for its team.
Sounds good. The budget is decided, the survey created and conducted. What to do next?
This is where the most time-consuming work begins. A survey and comparison of offers and prices should be carried out. This means that the person responsible for the selection must approach each of the eight insurers that offer health insurance policies in Latvia, communicate about the company's needs and the available budget, and answer questions. Then you have to wait for offers from each and compare them with each other. It should be taken into account here that not only the offered prices should be compared, but also all the content, which will be different for each company.
You should also ask about the processes and rules, how to act when using the policy, where to find the list of contracted institutions, what to do if the medical institution does not have a contract with the insurer, etc. When the comparison is made, all the pros and cons have been weighed, you can congratulate yourself on a purposefully made quality choice. The policy is finalized and can be used.
If there's not enough time to find the best employee health insurance plan, you can hire a broker.
The broker knows this targeted selection process from beginning to end and is entitled to request offers from insurers on behalf of the company, compare them and assist the client in the choice. Before starting cooperation, you should find out exactly how the broker will participate in the process, whether they will help with a needs survey, how detailed a comparison will be made and whether this comparison will be explained to you. Also, whether the broker will assist and help with representation during the policy period in case of questions or more complicated situations.
In good practice, a broker assists at all these stages by
helping to understand the company's needs,
making a transparent and complete comparison of offers,
explaining the differences in these offers,
being ready to answer all questions and assisting with compensation issues throughout the life of the policy.
This sounds excellent. But how much extra will it cost the company?
The short answer is—it's free. It's not often that a customer has something for free and you'd think there must be a "catch". But not this time. Legislation regulates that the cost of servicing the policy must be included in the price of the policy. This portion goes to whoever is servicing the policy - whether it's a broker or an insurance agent. But more about that in another blog post...
Let Perks guide you through the insurance maze by getting in touch with one of our expert brokers. We'll handle the complexities of insurance so you can get back to what you do best—your business.
Phone number: 26 668 558
Monday - Friday: 09:00 - 17:00
Dārzciema iela 60, Riga
Email: info@perks.lv