Employee Benefit Services

Professional Services

Saving money on employee benefits is imperative in today’s economy. The cost of providing benefits continues to rise, and employees consistently seek more. Many employers struggle to balance employee needs with their own bottom lines. Helping you meet these needs is the specialty of Comprehensive Benefit Services, Inc.

Obtaining competitive quotes for coverage and handling claims problems is only a small part of what you should expect from your insurance and employee benefit advisors. We go much further by providing quality services throughout the year. Providing your current carriers with a simple letter that names Comprehensive Benefit Services, Inc. as your “Broker of Record” will allow us to complete an in-depth market analysis, obtain quotes from more markets and leverage our relationships with carriers.

Brokers typically receive commission dollars from carriers on a monthly basis, which means that your plan renewal dates do not affect your ability to change brokers at any time during your plan year.

Your employees are paying for a portion of your benefit plans, and consequently are paying a portion of your broker’s fees. Ensure that you are providing the best value and service for your company and its employees by working with a quality organization. Our professional employee communications will keep your employees informed, healthy and safe.

In addition to employee communications, our professional services include the following:

• Plan Strategy
• Data Analysis
• Plan Administrative and Legislative Compliance Assistance (including access to a client portal)
• Employer Education
• Employee Communications
• Wellness Services

Plan Strategy Capabilities

Comprehensive Benefit Services, Inc. offers the following services to help you offer competitive and cost effective benefit plan designs:

Eliminate guesswork from your benefits renewal process. Our goal is to turn viable solutions into real results through value-added tools that benefit your business. We offer a simplified way to approach your benefits design planning by balancing both cost and value for your company and employees. We can help you:

• Analyze your benefit plan costs against reliable benchmark information
• Project the impact of medical and dental plan design changes
• Streamline the plan selection process for your employees
• Compare yourself with other employers by region, size and industry

Benchmark Surveys & Statistics

Our benchmarking data provides you a standard to which you can compare your benefit programs. We will make recommendations to help you enhance your plan while at the same time remaining competitive and reducing your overall plan costs.

Valuable benefit trend statistics and surveys are one of the core pieces of information that we provide to our clients to help support your benefit plan design strategy and decisions. These surveys and statistics provide benchmark data from leading consulting organizations around the country and cover the following topics:

• Ancillary Benefits
• Benefit Costs
• Benefit Management
• Health Care Costs
• Health Plans
• Prescription Drugs
• Wellness Benefits

Plan Design Assistance

We offer our clients plan design educational pieces so that they are fully informed when determining their plan design requirements.

As the health care industry continues to change, we have remained ahead of the game. With leading-edge technology, we obtain meaningful information that helps us evaluate cost drivers, trends and savings opportunities associated with our clients’ medical benefits. In addition, we work to evaluate the impact of future plan changes.

We provide employer groups with tools that will provide consistent year-to-year data, reporting formats and comparative benchmarks. This highly meaningful – yet understandable –information enables us to work together with your data in a continuous, interactive manner as plan management issues arise.

Our Employee Benefit Plan Service 

Comprehensive Benefit Services, Inc. is uniquely qualified to provide the following services: 

• Serve as designated insurance broker of record for your employee benefit programs. 

• Negotiate and place employee benefit plans according to the policies approved by the Board of Directors or company officials.

• Request and analyze insurance proposals and present the results of such analysis to the appropriate parties.

• Negotiate all insurance renewals, including meeting directly with insurance company representatives and place insurance as directed. 

• Apprise you of local and national trends and innovative ideas, and recommend new products, programs and services to ensure a competitive benefits plan.

• Analyze claim experience for all insurance plans as needed.

• Assistance in preparation of documentation for employee communication, including a review of booklets, announcement materials and benefit statements and open enrollment forms, as applicable. 

• Manage carrier/vendor relationships, review carrier service levels and compare to performance guarantees, assist in resolving administrative issues, conduct periodic meetings as necessary.

• Assist in COBRA, HIPAA, and any other relevant compliance and reporting to include Summary Plan Descriptions and other Plan Documents. 

• Act as a technical resource and provide periodic updates on legislative developments and emerging trends. Assist with any evolving compliance or mandated changes as necessary. 

• Review and make recommendations regarding various benefit and insurance plans, insurance carriers, or other such services as would benefit you and your employees.

• Provide open enrollment support, including, but not limited to, developing timeline, assisting with the development of open enrollment materials and coordinating and participating in open enrollment meetings as reasonably requested. 

• Assist with budget projections on future costs of benefit programs. 

• Assist management with changes in employee coverages, claims, or billing issues, terminations, new hires, or any other service changes as needed.

• Attend meetings of the Board of Directors if requested.

• Assist in the planning and related services for our client’s employee benefit and retirement programs, plan design education, and making recommendations as needed. 

• Advise you of new developments in Federal and State law concerning employee benefit programs on an ongoing basis.

• Review claims experience, claim service, and claim administration to help ensure maximum benefit.

• Assist in finding the most economical funding methods for the benefit programs while maintaining and assuring high quality and service levels.

• Assist with negotiations with vendors on all issues including those related to premium costs, benefit levels, plan design, administrative fees, administrative services, vendor renewal terms, and special terms and conditions.

• Meet with and provide reports to Human Resources staff and Senior Management, as requested.

• Assist you with the implementation and communication of new programs or changes to existing programs which may include attending and presenting information at employee meetings and senior staff planning  meetings.

• Review your COBRA, Section 125 pre-tax plan administration, HRA and HSA administration and make recommendations if needed.

• Prepare bid specifications and solicit proposals from insurance companies which specialize in group insurance plans as needed.  Identifying the most cost-beneficial package from among the various bidders; following up to finalize agreements reached.

• Assist with claims administrators and insurance carriers as needed to assist the agency in the resolution of problems associated with the benefit programs.

• Prepare for, provide guidance, and present information to the HR Department and senior management.

• Review and provide related guidance and assistance on plan documents for regulatory compliance and service agreements.

• Work professionally and cooperatively with our health plan partners and providers.

• Set and monitor vendor goals and performance, and report findings

• Identify and monitor potential catastrophic claims

• Review large claims management activity, and network utilization

• Provide you with access to our online HR Library to assist your HR department with day to day HR issues.

• Review and/or update your current employee benefit summary that is provided to your employees for all of your benefits.

• Provide best practices and industry benchmarking information

• Provide added value staff and plan sponsor communications
  • (i.e. Retirement Plan Newsletter and our HR and Benefits E-News Letter.

Our Retirement Plan Services

• Provide a complete review of your retirement plan to help you determine if your plan is presently in compliance with the new retirement plan regulations and upcoming fee disclosure requirements.

• Work with you to establish your retirement plan investment committee and help prepare an investment policy statement if not in place

• Educate your retirement plan trustees as to their proper fiduciary duties and the liabilities that all plan trustees have.

• Develop an executive bonus or compensation plan to reward, attract and retain your key employees