Is Your Broker Helping Your Wellness Program?

The collaborative approach to wellness is to utilize the three main characters within your employee wellness design; the employer, the insurance broker, and the carrier. All three bring specific components to the table and together it can make a comprehensive team for a sustainable, results oriented wellness strategy.

A broker’s wellness coordinator has a vast array of exposure to market trends, carrier offerings, vendor relations, and compliance issues. Having access to a wellness coordinator will give you more stability, especially if your group is fully insured and changes carriers often. As an example, I just worked with a group that changed carriers after many years and they had a lot of focus on their carrier’s wellness offerings. Their renewal hit just before their annual health fair and due to the size of their group they did not qualify for on-site biometrics with the new carrier. Since biometric screenings were important to the group and a major part of the health fair, I contacted the new carrier and we received approval for on-site biometrics. As a bonus I contacted their Diabetes Prevention Manager and coordinated a representative to attend the event as well and speak with the employees that were pre-diabetic. This scenario went from a disaster to a success because of broker’s connections and understanding of carrier’s offerings.