A number of health systems around the country have started billing for certain types of messages, largely ones that are involved in clinical assessments or medical history reviews that take more than five minutes. Those costs will be passed on to health plan enrollees — likely in the form of copays or coinsurance — and insurers.

Online and app-based portals have become increasingly popular, particularly since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, as more people grow accustomed to not seeing their doctor face to face for every visit. Often these portals will allow the health plan enrollee to ask their care team questions, and that’s when providers say they are not being paid for their time.

Is a new trend starting?

Patient portals were seeing little usage prior to the pandemic, which spurred demand as patients and providers needed a solution that didn’t require in-person interactions. Studies have shown that more than 80% of patients used telehealth at least once since the start of the pandemic, up from about 10% prior to 2020.

These portals also sometimes obviated the need even for a tele-visit with a doctor and opened the door for patients to message their doctor directly.

The issue recently came to the fore when Cleveland Clinic and a handful of other medical centers started charging for this service. 

Cleveland Clinic in November 2022 said it would start billing patients’ insurance companies for messages requiring at least five minutes of health care providers’ time to answer.

What will it cost?

Sending messages could cost as much as $50 per message depending on the time and skill necessary to answer the request. According to the announcement, people with individual or employer-sponsored group health insurance may be billed an average of $33 to $50 for each message taking more than five minutes. 

In announcing the new charges, Cleveland Clinic wrote: “Over the last few years, virtual options have played a bigger role in our lives. And since 2019, the amount of messages providers have been answering has doubled.”

According to a report in Becker’s Health IT, seven more large health systems around the country have also started billing for some patient portal services: Northshore University Health System in Evanston, Illinois; Northwestern Medicine in Chicago; Chicago-based Lurie’s Children’s Hospital; San Francisco-based UCSF Health; Renton, Washington-based Providence; and UW Medicine and Fred Hutch Cancer Center, which both have their headquarters in Seattle.

These hospitals say they will only bill for certain messages, such as those concerning:

• Changes to a patient’s medications.
• New symptoms the patient may be experiencing.
• Changes to a long-term condition.
• Check-ups on long-term condition care.
• Requests to complete medical forms.

Messages may provide information on a treatment plan or recommend that the patient get a test done or schedule an appointment with a specialist. Doctors may often refer to the patient’s medical history and review their records for these communications, for example.

The providers say that other services on portals will remain free, such as:

• Scheduling appointments.
• Getting a prescription refilled.
• Asking a question that leads to an appointment.
• Asking a question about an issue the patient saw their provider for recently.
• Checking in as a part of follow-up care after a procedure, such as a colonoscopy.
• A patient giving a quick update to their doctor.

Experts predict that as more health services gravitate towards providers’ portals, hospitals and doctors will look to generate revenue from these services.

With Americans increasingly struggling to pay their health care bills, more employers are shying away from only offering their workers high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) that reduce premiums up front for higher out-of-pocket costs for workers.

Also, with mental health a top concern for workers, employers are seeking out benefits and plans that include virtual mental health services to make it easier to access care.

The expected health insurance cost growth of 5.4% is still less than general inflation, which was averaging just a tad below 8% in 2022. Because of high inflation, employers should be prepared for continued accelerated cost growth in 2024 and beyond, according to Mercer.

What employers are doing

With the tight labor market and health insurance benefits high on employees’ demands, employers are focusing on:

• Enhancing benefits to improve attraction and retention (84% of large employers cited this as “important” or “very important”).
• Adding programs/services to expand access to behavioral health care and mental health services (73% said this was important or very important).
• Improving health care affordability (68%).
• Enhancing benefits/resources to support women’s reproductive health (55%).

That’s not to say that employers are not concerned about costs. Instead, they are tackling it in different ways than in the past.

“Given the focus on affordability, it is not surprising that, despite expectations of higher healthcare costs, most leaders are avoiding ‘healthcare cost shifting,’ or giving plan members more responsibility for the cost of health services through higher deductibles or copays,” Mercer wrote.

It added that there was little change in the median amount of these cost-sharing features in 2022.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, employers were shifting workers to HDHPs to reduce their costs, but while employees enjoy lower premiums with these plans, if they need care they will pay more out of pocket.

Mercer found that fewer large employers are offering only HDHPs than in past years. Very large organizations (20,000 or more employees) had been adopting these plans with gusto until 2018, when 22% of them offered an HDHP as the only option for their employees. That fell to 13% in 2021 and was only 9% in 2022.

Instead, more employers were using salary-based premiums in 2022 (34%, up from 29% in 2021). Under these arrangements, lower-wage workers have smaller paycheck deductions for health coverage than those with higher salaries.

Cost-cutting

Employers are instead looking at other ways to cut costs for themselves and their employees. The Mercer study found that:

• 35% of large employers are steering employees to high-performing provider networks and other sources of high-value care.
• 36% of large employers offer telephonic navigation and advocacy service to help members find the right provider based on quality and cost.
• 17 % offer digital navigation.
• 24% are focusing on managing costs of specialty drugs.
• 23% are working with their carriers and pharmacy benefits managers on cost and clinical management strategies. 

And the increasing number of natural disasters is not just a U.S. phenomenon. It’s happening around the world.

According to a report by Swiss Re Institute, the research arm of the reinsurance giant, insured catastrophe damage totaled $115 billion globally for 2022, although total economic losses were much higher at $260 billion.

The increasing frequency and intensity of these natural disasters in the United States, combined with soaring inflation, supply chain issues and labor shortages, is also having a knock-on effect on homeowner’s insurance prices.

There were 15 billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in the first nine months of 2022 alone:

• Southern tornadoes: March 30
• Southeastern tornadoes: April 4-6
• Severe weather in the South: April 11-13
• Western fires: Spring through fall
• Severe weather in the South and Central U.S.: May 1-3
• Hailstorms in north-central U.S.: May 9
• Severe weather in north-central U.S.: May 11-12
• Hailstorms in north-central U.S.: May 19
• Severe weather in Central U.S.: June 7-8
• Central derecho (an inland hurricane): June 13
• Severe weather in north-central and Eastern U.S.: July 22-24
• Flooding in Kentucky and Missouri: July 26-28
• Hurricane Fiona: Sept. 17-18
• Hurricane Ian: Sept. 28-30
• Western drought and heatwave: All year

And just to cap the year off, we had the Christmas bomb cyclone (known as Winter Storm Elliot) that threw a blanket of arctic freeze across large swaths of the country, causing an estimated $5.4 billion in insured losses in 42 states, according to Karen Clark & Co.

There are a few things to note about the list of calamaties. You’ll notice that some of these events were “severe weather” that didn’t qualify as a hurricane or derecho. But these severe weather events are starting to have as much destructive force as these primary perils.

Much of the weather the U.S. is experiencing is more intensive and far-reaching than before. The nature of hurricanes is also changing: these storms have typically caused wind and storm-surge damage, but as they grow wetter, they are now causing more rain and flood damage on top of the other damage.

And hurricanes are bringing flooding far beyond the coasts and into the central parts of states such as in Florida and the Carolinas, according to the Swiss Re report.

Drought is also a serious issue, particularly how it affects wildfires and water supplies. Years of low rainfall and overuse have left the Colorado River a shadow of its former self, resulting in record low levels in Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the sites of two main dams that may soon stop producing electricity for millions of people.

According to the Sept. 27, 2022 “U.S. Drought Monitor” report, about 51% of the contiguous U.S. was in drought, up about 5.4% from the end of August. Drought conditions expanded or intensified across portions of the Mississippi Valley, central and northern Plains, Northwest, Southeast and parts of the Great Lakes.

The fallout

As of this writing, the full-year insured costs of weather disasters in the U.S. had not been calculated, but modelers predict the total property and infrastructure damage would be nearly $100 billion. Through the first nine months of 2022, total losses due to property and infrastructure damage reached $29.3 billion.

Those figures don’t include Hurricanes Fiona and Ian, the latter of which caused an estimated $65 billion in insured damage. Hurricane Ian was the year’s costliest catastrophe and the second-largest insured loss on record after Hurricane Katrina.

These events, plus the cost of repairing and rebuilding buildings and infrastructure also on the rise thanks to increasing material and labor costs, are having a knock-on effect on homeowner’s insurance.

Homeowner’s insurance rates rose 12.1% on average nationwide in 2022 from the year prior, according to Policygenius. However, people living in disaster-prone areas are seeing much higher rates. In the case of Florida and California, some people are unable to find insurance for their homes or face two-, three- or four-fold increases in their rates.

The changes, which the IRS releases in November each year, will affect contribution limits for HSAs, FSAs and 401(k) and other retirement accounts.

The maximum contribution levels are readjusted every year to account for inflation, along with maximum retirement plan contribution limits.

They also cover the minimum deductibles that qualify programs as high-deductible health plans (HDHPs), which an HSA must be attached to under law.

Here’s the rundown of the changes going into 2023:

HSAs and HDHPs

HSAs allow your staff to set aside a portion of their pre-tax earnings into an account they can tap later to reimburse for qualified medical expenses, including copays, coinsurance, deductibles and medications.

Every year, the employee must decide how much they want their employer to deduct (pre-tax) from their paycheck to set aside in their HSA. Funds in an HSA can be rolled over indefinitely year after year and invested, much like a 401(k) plan.

For 2023, the annual maximum HSA contribution is:

• $3,850 for self-only coverage (up $200 from 2022); and
• $7,750 for family coverage (up $450).

In order to have an HSA, an employee must be enrolled in an HDHP. To qualify, the health insurance plan must have a minimum deductible of:

• $1,500 for self-only coverage (up $100 from 2022); or
• $3,000 for family coverage (up $200).

FSAs

FSAs are similar to HSAs in that they are funded with pre-tax dollars and can be used to reimburse for qualified medical expenses. However, the funds in the account must be exhausted or the employee loses the rest, except if the employer allows them to carry over a set portion every year.

The annual contribution limit for 2023 has increased to $3,050, up $200 from 2022.

Employers, under the law, may allow employees to carry over FSA funds from one year to the next. Under this option, an employee can carry over up to $610 of unused funds to the following plan year.

In other words, a worker with $610 of unspent FSA funds at the end of 2023 could carry over those funds for use in in 2024. The catch: These funds must be spent by March 15, 2024.

The maximum for the current year is $570, and your employees, if you allow it, would have until March 15, 2023 to spend those funds.

Retirement plan maximums

In 2023, employees who participate in 401(k), 403(b) and most 457 plans will be able to contribute up to $22,500, up from $20,500 in 2022.

Staff aged 50 or older can include a catch-up contribution of $7,500 per year, up from $6,500.

Also, the limits on annual contributions to an individual retirement arrangement have been increased to $6,500, up from $6,000 — although the IRA catch-up limit for people age 50 and over is the same: $1,000.

The takeaway

As we enter the final stretch of 2022, it’s important that you inform your employees of these new limits so they can plan their salary deductions accordingly.

From holiday parties and risk of electrical shock to fires and trips and falls, companies have a set of safety and risk management challenges that may not be present during most of the year.

Decorations present their own set of safety challenges, and so does a company party. To ensure your staff’s and visitors’ safety, and reduce your liability, consider the following:

Safety while decorating

Keep all relevant OSHA regulations in mind when decorating your workplace: both when in the process of decorating and making sure you don’t create new safety hazards that will last for the duration of the month. 

When your staff are decorating the office, ensure that they stick to the same safety guidelines that they would otherwise follow:

Ladder safety — Make sure that your employees don’t stand on tables, desks or rolling desk chairs when hanging lights or other decorations. Insist that they use ladders and that they have a partner to hold the ladder when they are working on high.

Keep walkways unobstructed — You may have boxes of Christmas decorations that you bring out every year, or you may purchase new decorations too. When employees are decorating, ensure they keep all walkways free of wires, cords, boxes or any of the material you are putting up. When people are working in a disorderly fashion, they can easily trip and fall.

Install wisely — Also make sure that your employees do not put up decorations in a way that can impede movement of your workers or office visitors, or create trip hazards or expose staff to getting caught in the decorations.

Unobstructed exits — Do not place any type of decorative items in exit corridors or on sprinklers. It’s essential to verify that none of your decorations block exit signage or fire safety equipment.

Office parties

If you’re throwing an office holiday party, your biggest concern should be potential liability from labor laws and liability if alcohol is served.

Consider the following tips to ensure that festive cheer doesn’t turn into a legal nightmare:

Limit your employer liability — Make sure that the party is not tied to any specific religious tradition and is referred to as a “holiday party.”

Apply your workplace policies on behavior, including those on violence, harassment, discrimination and general code of conduct, even if you’ve chosen a venue other than your workplace. Prior to the event, let employees know the standards to which they will be held.

Avoid activities or items such as mistletoe, a game of Twister, or inappropriate music that could lead to physical contact, unwanted social pressure or inappropriate conversation.

Take any complaints stemming from the party seriously. As you normally would with any other incident, document, investigate and take appropriate action.

Alcohol at parties — Alcohol is a liability, so you should carefully think about whether you should serve it. Consider:

• Hiring professional bartenders who have their own insurance and are certified for alcohol service. Speak with the vendor to determine what protocols it uses to keep from serving minors and others who are visibly intoxicated.
• Offering an array of non-alcoholic beverage choices.
• Not having an open bar. Instead, hand out drink tickets to control consumption.
• Stopping serving alcohol at least an hour before the event ends.
• Serving food for party-goers to munch on, in order to slow absorption of alcohol into the bloodstream.
• Giving a supervisor or manager the authority to cut off the serving of alcohol to anyone who is intoxicated.
• Providing alternative transportation, which may include free cab rides.

The takeaway

The holidays are fast approaching, but if you get an early start on planning for them you can keep safety top of mind to ensure nobody gets hurt and your firm doesn’t get sued.

While this form of medicine seems like it’s here to stay, there are other technologies that employers can look to include in their group health plans to help employees get the most out of their benefits, better manage their health and make more informed decisions about care.

And surveys of employees have found that employees want more from technology to be further woven into their benefits. Here are three technologies that can boost your current health benefits.

Apps and patient portals

More health plans are starting to offer user-friendly apps and online patient portals to allow their enrollees to manage their health care.

They are essentially convenient one-stop shops where they can, among other things:

• Find a doctor.
• Schedule appointments or doctor’s visits, annual exams and other procedures.
• Receive reminders about important preventative care services, such as regular colonoscopies, blood work and vaccinations.
• Renew prescriptions.
• Check test results.
• Get advice on managing chronic conditions.

The best apps and portals will allow enrollees to access their medical records, and to share them with their doctors or specialists they are seeing even if a doctor is not in the same health system that stores the health records.

By being able to share records with specialists in this manner, employees and their providers can streamline and better co-manage patient care. This can be crucial for patients with chronic conditions.

Some health plan portals and apps will also serve as the platform for virtual care visits with their doctors.

Real-time health tracking

One of the new frontiers in health care is remote patient monitoring, thanks to an explosion in new smartphone and tablet apps as well as wearable technology.

A 2021 survey by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society found that 52% of providers had recommended that patients use a smartphone or tablet app to monitor and track their care and health.

Additionally, 36% said they had recommended that patients wear a smartwatch or other wearable technology to monitor vitals like:

• Heart rhythm and rate
• Blood pressure
• Temperature
• Glucose levels.

In fact, a number of tech companies, including Apple Inc., have made health maintenance a major part of their platform by allowing them to user their iPhone connected to an Apple Watch to help them better manage their health by monitoring items such as the above.

There is even a function that will check to see if you are alright after falling down. And if you do not respond and are immobile for more than one minute, the watch will automatically call emergency services.

Benefits experts expect wearable technology to play an increasingly large role in helping people maintain their health and get help when they need it. In fact, a survey by Employer Health Innovation Roundtable and Hello Heart found that 65% of benefits executives expect use of remote patient monitoring to increase.

Virtual second opinions

Studies have found that 10% of patients are misdiagnosed for cancer, infections, heart attack or stroke.

Those mistakes are costly and can cost someone their life. In fact, the cost of false-positive mammograms and overdiagnosis among women accounted for $4 billion a year in health care spending, according to a study published in the journal Health Affairs.

Some employers are now offering virtual second-opinion services, which allow their employees to have their case reviewed by another doctor no matter where that specialist is in the country. This service can save the patient on travel costs and time to visit the specialist.

The patients will often deal with a nurse liaison, who can:

• Gather all of the patient’s records and send them to a specialist to review.
• Schedule video consultations with a specialist.
• Arrange for reports to be sent to the patient and current provider after the specialist has reviewed their case and written a report.

Having access to a second opinion after receiving some bad medical news can help give the patient peace of mind, even if the original diagnosis is correct. In cases where mistakes were made, it could be life-altering or life-saving.

The takeaway

Technology will continue playing a greater role in people’s health. Offering new services that include technologies that can improve your employees’ health care experience is a win-win for you and your workers.

They’ll be happier with their health plans and the care they receive, and you can improve your employee retention.

The costs of defending against a lawsuit of that type could quickly mount, even if you come out victorious in the end.

But a commercial general liability policy won’t help pay for your defense. You’ll specifically need a professional liability insurance to help cover the costs of litigation, settlements or judgments. Without a policy, the costs can quickly sink a small firm.

The unfunded lawsuit

Here’s a scenario that could leave you scrambling for funds. You run an engineering firm and a manufacturer sues your business after one of the machine parts that you designed failed, causing one of the client’s machines to seize up, resulting in $58,000 in damage to the machine and production downtime.

The lawsuit accuses your firm of negligence. Your business could be facing serious financial hardship as the suit asks for the cost of repairs and the lost production.

Here’s what you’re looking at:

• Attorneys’ fees — Depending on where you live, these can range from $150 to $400 an hour, or more if you go with a topflight law firm.
• Court expenses — Fees for copying, filing and other miscellaneous tasks all add up.
• Other legal fees — You may need to call expert witnesses, as well.
• Damages or settlements — Even if you try to reach a settlement with your client, they may opt to take the case to trial in hope of winning the full amount of the damages they are claiming.

You can see how the costs can quickly mount and if it gets to a damages or settlements stage, the costs will increase significantly.

You should know too that even if the case was frivolous, you’d still have to pay attorneys to defend it and file motions to have it tossed out of court. That alone could run you at least $5,000 in legal fees — a lot of money to pay out of pocket.

In fact, the U.S. Small Business Administration estimated in a recent study that legal costs for litigation ranged from $3,000 to $150,000, and only one-third of small business owners reported spending less than $10,000.

And there can be other fallout, as well. Perhaps word has gotten out about the lawsuit, damaging your reputation and ability to attract new clients and retain existing ones.

And if one client has sued, others who may have held off and had similar experiences could also file suit.

Professional liability insurance

A professional liability policy could have saved you from these significant expenses. The coverage, which is relatively inexpensive, is what’s known as “claims-made” coverage.

That means your policy must be active when the alleged incident occurred and when the claim is filed, in order to receive your benefits.

Client allegations that your work caused them a financial loss are often covered by a professional liability policy.

This type of insurance can cover errors and oversights with your work, as well as legal fees and the cost of settlements or judgments.

Cost: The average yearly cost of professional liability insurance for a small firm, regardless of the limits chosen or the industry of the business, was $985 in 2015, according to the Insurance Information Institute. The median was $758.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ transparency rules were implemented to shine the light on what hospitals charge for their various medical services, the negotiated rates insurers have with health plans and the out-of-pocket costs enrollees can expect to pay for these services.

The rule has taken effect in stages and hospitals were the first required to comply, but the report finds their efforts have fallen short. Insurers were required to start posting negotiated rates for their health plans starting July 1, 2022, but currently much of that information is hard to find and decipher.

That means, for now, it may be difficult for plan enrollees to shop around for procedures that they will pay for partially or fully out of pocket. But hopefully, that should change as more rules take effect.

The non-profit Patients Rights Advocate found a number of omissions when recently analyzing price data for seven hospitals in Florida and Texas that are owned by two major health systems: Ascension Health and HCA Healthcare.

The transparency rule requires hospitals to publish machine-readable price lists and display rates for medical services in a format that allows consumers to comparison shop, meaning they are published online.

Insurers for their part are required to post their negotiated rates with providers in machine-readable format.

The effect on health plan enrollees

Health plan enrollees that want to shop around for medical services may currently find it difficult. While the data is posted on the insurers’ and hospitals’ websites, it’s hard to access and decipher since each entity handles the data differently.

Another report, by National Public Radio, highlighted the hurdles a health plan enrollee may encounter if they were trying to find their insurance carrier’s negotiated price for an MRI:

Locating the files — First they have to find the files, which are unlikely to be posted in an easy-to-find section of the insurer’s website. They may have some luck by searching on Google and typing in their insurer’s name, plus “transparency in coverage” or “machine-readable files.” Maybe.

Finding their plan — If they succeed with that approach, next they need to find their plan in all of those files. The files are supposed to have a table of contents, but insurers can have hundreds, if not thousands of different plans, some specific to just one employer. They’ll have to find their plan among those plans, many of which will have similar names to theirs.

Deciphering the data — If they are able to find their plan and download the information, they will have to decipher the various codes for the service for which they are trying to find a price. Each procedure has a specific service code, which the enrollee may not have.

It may get easier soon

The process may become easier on Jan. 1, 2023, when a new rule that requires insurers to provide apps and other tools to help policyholders estimate costs for visits, tests and procedures takes effect.

At that time, carriers will be required to make available online, or in hard copy upon request, patient costs for a list of 500 common shoppable services. That includes things like knee replacements, mammograms, X-rays and MRIs, to name just a few.

In 2024, insurers must add all remaining shoppable items/services to their comparison tools.

If the new rule takes effect, companies that use independent contractors will have to reevaluate their relationships with these outside workers. Companies who hire contractors that work exclusively for them will have the hardest time trying to continue classifying them as independent.

The debate about classifying workers has been brewing for decades. Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employees have rights to benefits that elude independent contractors, including the rights to a minimum wage, overtime pay, unemployment insurance, health insurance, sick time and employer contributions to Social Security taxes. Their employers also purchase workers’ compensation insurance to cover them if they are injured on the job.

Companies that misclassify workers as independent contractors can face significant fines and back taxes, as well as their workers’ compensation insurer clawing back premiums the employer should have paid. Misclassifying workers also gives companies that do this an unfair advantage over their competitors that don’t.

The proposed rule

The proposal would allow an employer to classify someone as an independent contractor if, “as a matter of economic reality,” that person is in business for themselves.

What “economic reality” is depends on the answers to the following questions taken together. Note: One answer by itself does not make a person an independent contractor.

Can the worker increase their pay only by working more hours or producing more?

If so, this might make the person an employee. Conversely, can he or she do so by negotiating pay, selecting projects, marketing their service, or cutting expenses? That would tend to make them an independent contractor.

Does the employer purchase most of the worker’s tools and equipment?

This might make the person an employee. On the other hand, if their investments are for purposes like expanding the types and amounts of work they can do or cutting expenses, that might tend to make them an independent contractor.

The proposed rules do not provide a specific dollar threshold for this. 

Does the employment relationship have a definite end date?

If so, this implies that they’re an independent contractor. Otherwise, they might be an employee.

How does the employer control the worker, and how much?

 The worker may be an employee if the employer:

• Sets their schedule
• Supervises the work
• Explicitly limits their ability to work for others
• Can discipline the individual
• Monitors their activity.

The less control the employer has, the more likely the worker is an independent contractor.

Is the person’s work integral to the employer’s business?

The more integral the work is, the more likely the person is to be an employee. The less integral it is, the more likely they are to be an independent contractor.

Does the worker use specialized skills developed outside the employment?

If the worker doesn’t use specialized skills or depends on the employer for training, they are more likely to be an employee. If the person brings those skills to work and does not rely on the employer for training, they are more likely an independent contractor.

The current rule

The U.S. Supreme Court has on a number of occasions indicated that there is no single rule or test for determining whether an individual is an independent contractor or an employee for purposes of the FLSA. Still, among the factors which the Court has considered significant are:

• The extent to which the services rendered are an integral part of the principal’s business.
• The permanency of the relationship.
• The amount of the alleged contractor’s investment in facilities and equipment.
• The nature and degree of control by the principal.
• The alleged contractor’s opportunities for profit and loss.

The takeaway

The proposal must go through a mandatory public comment period ending in late November 2022, followed by the publication of a final regulation that may differ from the proposal. This process will take several months.

We’ll keep you posted about the new rules and provide further guidance in the future.

The poll by MetLife found that nearly half of remote workers struggle to understand their employee benefits. As a result, these workers may end up choosing plans that do not meet their needs and they may also spend more time on trying to choose their benefits.

The survey results also reflect the challenges that employers continue to face in meeting their employees’ increasingly diverse needs and that they need to improve their communications, particularly with staff who are working remotely full-time — and especially if they are in another state.

It’s crucial that employers get this right in light of the importance these workers place on their employer-sponsored benefits.

The survey of 1,000 full-time employees at companies with at least two employees found that 61% of workers said that employee benefits are a significant part of what’s keeping them at their company. Those figures were even higher for work-from-home caregivers with children (72%) and millennial and Gen Z workers (67%).

Widespread concern

There are a number of benefit issues that concern remote workers. The survey found that:

• 45% of remote workers are struggling to understand their employee benefits, compared to 29% of their colleagues that work on-site.
• 55% of remote workers are highly anxious about their finances, compared to 46% of hybrid and on-site workers.
• 55% of telecommuters spend over one hour per week worrying about their benefits, compared to 37% of on-site and hybrid employees.

In fact, 65% of remote workers said that a better understanding of open enrollment would help make them feel more financially secure. That’s bad news for those employees, as their lack of knowledge can result in choosing the wrong plan, which may end up costing them more than necessary. As a result:

• Remote workers are twice as likely to say they enrolled in the wrong type of benefits last year.
• 57% of remote workers require more information to make the right benefit choices, compared to 47% of hybrid and on-site workers.

What you can do

Without clear communication, employees are less likely to understand and utilize their benefits.

Set up virtual information sessions where plan options, including key defining details and specific benefits, are outlined and covered clearly.

Depending on how many employees you have, you may want to consider offering a few sessions for them to choose from, to ensure they can all make it. If not, record the original session for employees to watch later if they can’t attend.

Also, you should make sure your human resources department is available for one-on-one questions. Some of your employees may need additional help in choosing a plan. You may want to consider offering phone or video chat meetings for them in case you need to show them documents and graphics.