Thinking About Resigning? Think About Your Health Benefits

Robin Seidman specializes in general HR policy and procedures. reseidman@ccahv.com

CCA Now Offers Members Health Plan Opportunities

By Robin Seidman

Unintended consequences. That is what happens when we don’t think things all the way through before making life-changing decisions.

An ongoing example of unintended consequences is affecting employees who are part of “The Great Resignation,” workers who resign before realizing that employer-sponsored health insurance goes away with the job. The repercussions can be huge — especially if the employee is the sole source of health insurance for the family.

“The Great Resignation” is the term coined by Dr. Anthony C. Klotz, an Anderson Clayton Professor of Business Administration and an Associate Professor of Management at Mays Business School at Texas A&M to describe how the pandemic has enabled workers to rethink their careers, work/life balance, long-term goals, and working conditions. Many people dissatisfied with their jobs resigned or are resigning to explore other possibilities whether in the same line of work or something different. They are not quickly re-entering the job market thus creating staffing and recruiting issues. While in many cases COBRA can be used to continue health benefits for a period of time, it is not a permanent solution and can be expensive to the now unemployed worker.

Whether they are losing staff or having trouble recruiting new employees, employers are feeling the effects of The Great Resignation on their businesses. However, the staffing issues are something that can be mitigated by the savvy business owner who knows that competitive salary and benefits are key to attracting and retaining workers.And what better benefit to employees is employer-sponsored health insurance — especially during a pandemic?

Selecting a plan to offer employees is based on a number of factors. How many employees will enroll in the plan? How much, if anything, will the company contribute toward the monthly premium? How much of a deductible and/or maximum out-of-pocket expenses is reasonable? How affordable is the premium for the employee?

Comparing plans is not usually comparing apples to apples. There are many different variables involved that it often takes an insurance professional to explain what makes one plan more advantageous than another. Frequently, we tend to look at health insurance plans from a worst-case scenario viewpoint rather than from a more practical viewpoint of what the employee and family will need on a routine basis. As you can guess, the worst-case premiums are generally much higher and pay for benefits that statistically most employees will not use. Again, it takes a health care expert to help an employer wade through the options.

Explaining a change in health insurance plans to employees can be a challenge when the benefits of the new plan to the old plan do not exactly align. While the company and the employee may save money with an association plan, a lack of understanding of what the new plan entails may produce pushback from the employee. The business owner should take the time with individual staff members to discuss how the new plan works, what the monthly premium payment will be and how the change will benefit them.

CCA NOW OFFERS HEALTH INSURANCE PLANS WITH COMPETITIVE RATES AND BENEFITS.

CCA has engaged member company Marshall & Sterling to facilitate the health insurance plans and uses a health care specialist who brings in-depth knowledge and expertise of health insurance to the table. Because the plans are with national insurance carriers — Aetna, Cigna, and Blue Card — the participating physician network is huge and are very likely to include doctors the employees and their families currently use. *All of the plans offer coverage for the employee only, the employee and spouse, or the employee’s family. For information call 845-562-4280.

*Final approval is based on the carrier/association discretion