Risk & Business Magazine Lovitt & Touché Spring 2016

Private Healthcare Exchange Would Your Company Benefit? BY: DOUG ADELBERG, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, LOVITT & TOUCHÉ L ike it or not, the Affordable Healthcare Act is here to stay for the foreseeable future. Employers nationwide are concerned about escalating healthcare costs, potential fines for non-compliance,and losing their best employees or failing to attract the top talent they need with the limited choices and lower quality plans that are now available to them. It’s commonplace for employees to set up their own investment and retirement portfolios to meet their individual needs. Shouldn’t they have the same flexibility when it comes to their health insurance? When employees are offered more choices and have a greater sense of control over their employee benefit dollars, they will be happier – even if they wind up purchasing less in benefit because they made the choice. Today, many employers are considering a defined contribution type of healthcare delivery system. Rather than paying the costs to provide a specific group health plan (a “defined benefit”) employers can instead fix their costs by establishing a monthly dollar amount (a “defined contribution”), which will allow employees to choose how to spend the company’s contribution to their greatest advantage. At renewal time, the employer can choose to cover some or all of the employee’s premium increase. A private exchange uses a defined contribution funding strategy and applies it to a benefits exchange – creating what’s better known today as a marketplace or online store. The benefits exchange is a web-based portal where employees can log in and choose from many different health insurance plans and ancillary benefits all in one place. Also included inside this online portal are all the stateof-the-art tools and educational support for employees to help them customize plans that are aligned as perfectly as possible with their specific needs. Lovitt & Touché has created a private exchange called ClearPath Prime. ClearPath Prime is a platform on which an employer executes a strategy to manage their benefits dollars and offers employees more choice and the opportunity to participate in their benefit selections. ClearPath Prime works like a company gift card that employees can spend any way they want to design a benefits package tailor-made just for them. Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, employees will be able to choose from a wide assortment of benefits options, including a variety of health plans ranging from traditional co-pay plans to lowpremium/high deductible plans that qualify for an HSA. The ClearPath Prime suite of tools provides a personalized shopping experience along with sophisticated statistical modeling, educational tools, and simplified plan summaries – all without the typical insurance jargon – along with side-by-side plan comparison tools to evaluate the key metrics of each plan for employees, and present options to them in easy-to-understand language that makes perfect sense. Employers can now have a predictable benefits budget and save time with streamlined administrative tasks And with ClearPath Prime, they can more effectively compete for top talent with a very attractive benefits package that allows new hires to personalize a plan that’s right for them. SPRING 2016 Understanding your business is our business. That’s why we partner with independent agents, like those at Lovitt & Touché, who live and work where you do. Together, our local resources and national expertise provide the protection your business needs to continue to thrive. Learn about the coverages we can offer your business at libertymutualgroup.com/business. Liberty Mutual Arizona Regional Office 2510 W Dunlap Ave Suite 100 Phoenix, AZ 85021 ClearPath Prime is a customized blueprint for proactive cost control, increased productivity and positive results for employers and employees. With it, employers can make healthcare reform work for their business – instead of against it. ClearPath Prime is scalable to just about any size business, offering a greater degree of predictability and control over group healthcare budgets, while providing a competitive advantage in hiring the best and brightest to move any business forward. Now’s the time to find out more about ClearPath Prime and exactly what it can do for the health of your business and your employees. Visit us online at www. Lovitt-Touche.com today. Doug has more than 18 years experience working in the health insurance industry. He has been with Lovitt & Touché for the past 13 years and oversees the Benefits operation. His experience includes strategic account management, client relations, sales and managing groups of employees. He has worked extensively with both self-funded and fully-insured plans. 30 You put your heart and soul into your business. We put ours into protecting it. © 2016 Liberty Mutual Insurance. Insurance underwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., Boston, MA, or its affiliates or subsidiaries. SPRING 2016 31

Risk & Business Magazine Lovitt & Touché Spring 2016 | Page 30