With the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in full swing, private insurance exchanges are picking up steam among midsize employers (those with 50 or more employees) that desire to offer a competitive benefits package and “a new way to buy insurance.” However, the solutions available to employers in this underserved mid-market are limited to a suite of insurance products and a single enrollment system, and many employers are seeking a broader scope of options to fit their individual needs.
A recent study by Accenture indicates that by 2018, private exchange enrollments will exceed public exchange enrollments. According to Mathew Augustine, CEO of Hanna Global Solutions, the power behind the United Benefit Advisors (UBA) Benefits Passport® private exchange solution, “this trend will be accentuated by solutions that go beyond an insurance exchange and enrollment system by offering more services that can also be unbundled. In addition to insurance, employers want access to advisory services, eligibility management, accounting and auditing, and employee support packaged comprehensively as a single, seamless, elegant, solution – yet they want the flexibility to choose a la carte solutions.”
This comprehensive solution now offers a great new way, especially for medium sized businesses, to offer their employees a ‘big company experience’ with their employee benefit program. With UBA Benefits Passport, employers get a complete benefits program management solution, and not just a suite of insurance products bundled into an enrollment system. UBA Benefits Passport also offers employers a choice of insurance carriers. If an employer prefers a carrier that is not one of the national insurance carriers currently offered through the UBA Benefits Passport network, it has the capacity to add a carrier of choice in order to better serve that employer.
UBA Benefits Passport has realized strong momentum in a very short period of time and added 30 new employer groups in the last six months alone. Richard Kosinski, Partner with Brio Benefit Consulting, Inc., a UBA Partner Firm in New York City, said, “my client was not only extremely satisfied, but ‘thrilled’ with what UBA’s Benefits Passport technology is capable of doing and the level of professionalism UBA’s Benefits Passport team showed during the implementation process. In fact, the advanced technology was one of the primary reasons why the employer selected UBA’s Benefits Passport.”
This is also a new way for employers to ease into cost-effective HR outsourcing, which was previously too expensive for mid-market employers to consider. Because pricing is different for various combinations of services, employers should seek the help of a trusted UBA Partner advisor to develop a cost-effective, custom solution to support their overall benefits and HR staffing strategy,” said Mathew Augustine.
According to UBA’s Senior V.P. of Partner Relations, Paul Zumbrook, “Benefits Passport is a perfect answer for the mid-market employer who wants to continue to offer group benefits, and believes it is a critical component of their employment value proposition. We are seeing a huge increase in interest and adoption of this benefits management program because of its flexibility, and we expect this to continue well into 2015 and beyond.”
Learn more about how UBA Benefits Passport can provide simple solutions for you and your employees.
About United Benefit Advisors
United Benefit Advisors is the nation’s leading independent employee benefits advisory organization with more than 200 offices throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. As trusted and knowledgeable advisors, UBA Partners collaborate with more than 2,000 fellow professionals to deliver expertise, thought leadership and best-in-class solutions that positively impact employers and make a real difference in the lives of their employees and families. Employers, advisors and industry-related organizations interested in obtaining powerful results from the shared wisdom of our Partners should visit UBA online at www.UBAbenefits.com.