Product Trends/Success Stories

• Regional collaboratives pool data to meet community-wide goals

  Employers and health plans are increasingly recognizing the value of pooling their resources into regional health care coalitions so that they can better achieve common objectives. Those efforts are now being turbo-charged, thanks to the emergence of regional collaboratives designed to help employers, health plans and providers set aside competing interests and jointly pursue greater cost and quality transparency and community-wide health improvement.

• Inspiration for Unum's simplified benefits platform comes from blue-chip companies

  Changing demographics, including an increasingly ethnically diverse workforce with up to four generations of employees, are driving the need to customize employee benefit design, communication and enrollment strategies.

Advertisement

• Guardian enhances its DHMO coverage with consistent plan design, major cost savings

  A series of comprehensive enhancements to one of the nation's leading dental benefit networks significantly sweetens the pot on dental HMO (DHMO) coverage by promoting good oral health, which is increasingly linked to overall health, eliminating a patchwork of plan designs for multi-state employers, and broadening access to more affordable treatment options.

• New MetLife tool provides unique holistic view of employee benefit choices

  The launch last month of MetLife's Employee Benefits Simplifier offers a comprehensive online employee benefits educational tool built around learning about the most appropriate coverage as part of a holistic view at open enrollment.

• Holistic approach to wellness and behavioral health ensures a happy, healthy workforce

  Employer-based wellness programs are commonly used as a strategy to reduce the cost of business associated with unhealthy behaviors and lifestyles. However, many employers underestimate how deeply connected physical health can be to mental health. Physical symptoms identified through a corporate wellness program often mask a deeper mental health issue that should be addressed in order to achieve total health and lasting lifestyle changes.

• New MetLife tool provides unique holistic view of employee benefit choices

  The launch last week of MetLife's Employee Benefits Simplifier offers a comprehensive online employee benefits educational tool built around learning about the most appropriate coverage as part of a holistic view at open enrollment.

• Guardian's Enrollment Success Plan stands test of time via educational focus

  Fall marks the beginning of open enrollment season, a time when millions of employees across the United States re-assess their workplace benefits elections. Given that many Americans and their loved ones are often left under-insured and unnecessarily exposed to financial risk, it is evident that employees could use some support with understanding what types of protection makes sense for their needs so they can make the most of their companies' offerings.

• Guardian's Cost Estimator promotes pricing transparency, educational content on oral health

  If knowledge is power, then the Guardian Life Insurance Company of America's Cost Estimator is bound to put a smile on the face of its dental plan members.

• Europ Assistance USA's ID Theft Resolution service offers comprehensive protection

  Employers need to address the issue of identity theft head on, considering the Federal Trade Commission estimates that it can take up to 600 hours, or the equivalent of 75 eight-hour workdays, to restore an individual's credit history. But beyond productivity concerns, there's also the need to comply with state and federal information security laws, such as the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act of 2003, designed to safeguard an employee's personal information.

• MetLife's 2008 Web-based Benefits Benchmarking Tool offers strategic insight across 35 topics

  When it comes to benchmarking employee benefit plans, employers and their broker partners have a wealth of valuable information at their fingertips that can come in handy for the upcoming open-enrollment season.