Proactive Steps to Streamline Your Ben Admin Technology Search

By Kisha Moliere

According to best estimates, there are approximately 400 Benefits Administration Technology and Service (ben admin) providers in the market – all with varying levels of sophistication and capabilities.  If your organization is considering acquiring or changing your Benefits Administration platform, just hearing that number can make your eyes glaze over.  However, taking the strategic measures below will help streamline your search. 

Assess Your Organization’s Payroll/HRIS connectivity capabilities and HR bandwidth.  This is an often neglected step that can make your search more concise.  At a minimum, your internal team (inclusive of HR and payroll leads) should have a discussion to:    

• Determine if your payroll/HRIS system has the ability to communicate electronically with ben admin platforms.  If it can, inquire if there are any ben admin platforms with which they have established electronic integrations.  This step can potentially kill two birds with one stone.  First, identifying ben admin platforms that integrate with your payroll/HRIS system can narrow your search tremendously, since most have a limited numbers of partners with which they build this type of connectivity.  And second, selecting a ben admin provider with the capability to integrate will eliminate duplicate manual data entry of new hires, demographic changes and status changes into the ben admin system, as well as automate the process of inputting payroll deductions into your payroll system.   

• Determine whether your staff has the bandwidth and technical skill necessary for administering benefits via a ben admin technology platform, or if you should narrow your search for a vendor that also provides some level of ben admin outsourcing.  For example, you may want to limit your search to ben admin vendors that have a call center to assist your employees with their annual enrollment and/or year-round Qualifying Life Events (QLEs).  Other limiting criteria could be whether they have the ability to manage the Evidence of Insurability (EOI) process for your voluntary benefits and/or if they offer billing reconciliation services.

Audit the data in your current systems against one another, and then reconcile it.  If you currently have a ben admin system in place and are considering changing it, the 2-step audit process below is recommended. (If you do not currently have a ben admin system, you would simply audit your payroll vs each carrier’s system.)

• Audit your payroll data against the data in your ben admin system.  This helps evaluate whether the information in these systems are synchronized.  It also allows you to identify whether your current processes are leaving room for errors – and if they are, provides you an opportunity to eliminate them when implementing your new system.  For example, if during this audit you discover there are employees that are terminated in payroll but still active in your ben admin system, you can uncover whether or not your staff is remembering to consistently process the employee termination in both systems.  Or, if your payroll and current ben admin systems communicate electronically, it can help uncover EDI or API disconnects that you may have been previously unaware of.

• Audit your ben admin system data vs your carrier systems’ data.  Again, you want to confirm whether the information in these systems is consistent.  In the example above, if the employee was terminated in the payroll system, but not in the ben admin system due to human or electronic error, then the carrier would still be billing you for that terminated employee.  Or conversely, if your payroll and ben admin systems show an election for an employee that is not reflecting in the carrier’s system, not only could there be a disconnect in the transmission of the data, but access to care issues could arise.

Identifying and resolving discrepancies between the current systems – in advance of implementing the new one – ensures that the data you use to populate the future platform is accurate, reduces overpayments to carriers, avoids unnecessary access to care issues and makes for an overall smoother implementation experience.

Advise your carriers (including voluntary and worksite) that you are going to be adding or changing your ben admin platform.  This will allow you to know several important things before beginning your search for a ben admin partner. 

• First, you can ascertain whether your carriers have any limitations for accepting electronic eligibility. 
• Second, you can learn whether they have API connectivity with specific ben admin platforms for enrollment and/or management of the EOI process, for example, which reduces the administrative burden for your HR staff.

Investing in the process above will assist in making your search – and subsequent implementation of a new ben admin platform – much more effective and efficient.