Top 5 Ways Our Annual Review Helps Optimize Plan Performance

Employee benefits are an important and often strategic investment for companies of all sizes. Company leaders want to see a return on their investment in employee health and retention. To help our clients assess their investments, National Alliance provides annual plan performance reviews to all employer groups. Most health plan administrators have annual plan performance meetings, but at National Alliance, we constantly evolve our approach to help employers improve member care and make the most of their investment.

Our approach to this review is collaborative. We work with employers to review health plan data. We connect the data to show how our services helped members and saved the company money. Our main goal is to identify program strategies and tactics for the upcoming year based on results and company goals.

Through the years, we have enhanced our approach for annual reviews. We customize each presentation based on employer goals, and we’ve received positive feedback on this approach. Our medical director leads most of these meetings and gives groups insights into ways to improve population health, cost savings and network usage.

Curious about how our annual reviews could help you? Here are the top five ways our reviews help make the most of plan performance.

1. Our clinical team works with the group to build a focused agenda.

Our team works directly with the group. That’s what makes our approach different. The clinical team members are involved throughout the year in complex cases and each group’s unique plan delivery system. This makes them a natural fit to lead the annual review. Because they can cite examples of their work with a specific member or case, they can point out instances of where we were able to manage high-cost claimants and identify lessons learned to improve processes in the future.

2. We enhance our reports each year to account for market trends.

Unlike other carriers, who use canned system reporting, we customize each annual review report to make sure the information applies to the group. Our clinical, reporting and account management teams work together to deliver meaningful insights. These help clients understand their populations and self-funded plans better. We know our clients are busy. That’s why we take the legwork out of analyzing reports. We review the data and find ways to improve benefits administration.

3. We look for issues and provide suggestions.

In our analysis, we consider key indicators for the group. These may be things like low engagement with case management or overuse of high-cost imaging. Then we suggest solutions, whether it’s a new outreach strategy, a change to benefit design or a new program. Our account management team takes a consultative approach. It presents options for the group’s review that are in line with the group’s goals for managing the plan.

4. We drill down into details at follow-up meetings.

With limited time, it can be hard to cover every aspect of detailed benefit structures. Our account management and analytics teams work with employers to provide follow-up and analysis throughout the year. For example, employers may want to benchmark themselves against our book of business for a specific benefit. Or they may want to take a closer look at usage patterns in a certain service area.

5. We provide value through flexible partnership.

Since our partner Blue® Plans know the group and are connected to the local market, we look to them for direction on the annual review. This often includes conversations with brokers and consultants. We can accommodate partner Blue Plans’ unique approaches, and they drive their own level of involvement in the process. We work as a team to make sure the annual review aligns with the partner’s goals and shows the value of being Blue.

We use annual reviews to make sure benefit strategies meet objectives. Helping clients provide quality, customized benefits to their employees is our mission. We stay on the constant edge when we share results and find ways to improve benefits. We take pride in going beyond the traditional administrator role when we look at plan performance. This is just one of the ways we provide superior value to employer groups.