3 Advantages of Self-Funded Health Plans

Finding the right health benefits plan for your employees can be difficult, especially when there are so many different options available. Determining what you want for your employees is crucial to their satisfaction levels and the overall success of your business, which is why knowing what options are available is more important than ever.

While there are more traditional options available when it comes to employee health benefit plans, there are also alternative options, such as self-funding that employers should consider as well. According to Healthgram, “As employer healthcare spending continues to rise, self-funded health plans remain a popular option for employers aiming to regain control.” You might have never considered self-funding as an option, or you have, but it was not exactly clear why you should choose that option. Self-funding can not only help control business costs but can also be beneficial to your company and your employees. 

Here are three advantages of self-funding: 

1. Visibility Over Plan Performance

With fully-insured plans, it’s not uncommon for companies to not know their actual claims relative to the premium paid due to relying solely on fixed costs. With a self-funded plan, you have visibility into each claim that is incurred, which allows you to manage costs and secure savings. The difference is that you have more control over your plan and have more exposure to what those costs actually are.

2. Create Tailored Health Plans

Due to the nature of how self-funded plans are set up, employers can create tailored health solutions that work best for their overall population. This reduces overall claims expenses, and they can also choose providers, become part of a proprietary network, and put their employees in a position to make smarter consumer choices. Self-funded plans allow you to have better control over your plan and your costs. 

3. Increased Control Over Risk

The term “self-funded” can sound scary. However, the truth is you do have reinsurance behind the scenes to protect you from any catastrophic claims. While fully-insured groups transfer risk entirely to a carrier, they miss opportunities for significant savings. With self-funded plans, instead of simply transferring risk, employers are proactively managing it.

Finding the right employee benefits plan can be frustrating, and a lot of companies are not even aware that self-funding is an option, let alone the advantages of the plan. Self-funding not only puts the control back in your hands but also allows you to customize based on your needs. To see if your business is a candidate for self-funding, take the five-minute questionnaire: https://snellingswalters.com/benefits/#questionnaire. 

Check out the top misconceptions of self-funding below: