What do you mean by “Ancillary Benefits?”
While looking for group insurance, you may have come across this term. Benefits that are used to supplement group health insurance are referred to as “ancillary benefits.” Dental, vision, and life insurance are three of the most sought-after employee benefits.
What’s the point of providing ancillary benefits?
Employees continue to require dental and vision care. It is not enough to provide a health plan to keep employees healthy.
Dental and vision plans have been shown in studies to be effective preventive healthcare tools that may reduce medical claims costs in the long run. Early signs of high blood pressure, diabetes, and other diseases can be detected in an eye exam before they manifest themselves in a physical examination.
In the event of a death, health insurance does not provide income protection. Employees can protect their loved ones by purchasing life insurance, which provides a monetary benefit to cover the cost of a funeral or a debt.
Group life insurance is also regarded as having a high perceived value! According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, 96 percent of employees who had access to group life insurance used it in 2010.
Ancillary benefits have the added benefit of being cost-effective.
Purchasing these benefits as a group is less expensive than purchasing them individually. There are three causes for this:
Because group insurance plans disperse the risk across a broad population, premiums are kept low.
Premiums are paid with pre-tax cash if your company makes use of Section 125 of the IRS code.
The employer can either cover the entire expense or split it with the employees through an employer-employee split.
What are auxiliary employee benefits and how do they work?
Ancillary benefits can be supported in two ways: voluntarily or through employer contributions. The employer typically pays 50 to 100 percent of the premiums for employer-contributory supplementary benefits. Employers can contribute 0 to 49 percent of premiums to voluntary plans.
Employees pay whatever amount of the premiums that the company does not fund through payroll deduction. When an employee utilizes their benefits, a claim is filed, and benefits are paid directly to the network-contracted provider or the member (if a network provider is not used). The beneficiary of a life insurance claim is paid directly (in the event of a death).
An employer may pay more or less for the cost of an auxiliary benefit for a variety of reasons. Companies may only cover the full cost of their health plan and allow employees to purchase a dental or vision plan on their own dime. Others may discover that providing employer-sponsored ancillary plans encourages more employees to sign up.
The trick is to figure out what works best for your company. Your insurance agent can help you identify the optimal combination of these benefits by discussing your company’s and employees’ needs.
Offering ancillary advantages, whatever you choose, can be a win-win situation:
Employer Advantages
Reduced employer FICA contributions if your company uses Section 125 to allow employees to pay for these perks with pre-tax cash.
Employees place a high value on auxiliary benefits, and they would improve the employer’s reputation.
Offering ancillary perks increases your company’s competitiveness in the job market. You can compete with other employers who may already provide these value-added advantages if you use them.
Employers don’t have to pay for optional auxiliary benefits, or they can split the cost with employees to keep costs down while keeping employees happy.
Employee Advantages
They can pay for ancillary benefits using pre-tax cash, cutting their taxable income.
The price is reasonable. To keep premiums low, the risk is shared among a big group of people.
Workers’ needs for vital benefits like dental insurance, vision insurance, and group term life insurance are met by ancillary goods.
Workers can get preventative dental and vision care with supplementary dental and vision coverage, rather than merely care when a problem arises.
Auxiliary benefits and group insurance might provide them with peace of mind and security.
As it becomes more difficult to attract and retain excellent people, your small business’ benefits package becomes even more important. While group health insurance may dominate headlines when it comes to what job seekers want in a new position, it isn’t the only healthcare benefit that employees desire.
Ancillary insurance can help you make your workplace more appealing to both job seekers and current employees. Supplementary benefits such as dental and vision insurance, on the other hand, maybe viewed as less valuable by some businesses than other products. Let’s take a look at how supplementary insurance works and why you should offer it to your customers.
What are the advantages of ancillary benefits?
Ancillary insurance, by definition, is a supplemental healthcare benefit that’s usually obtained in addition to major medical coverage. These optional benefits are designed to complement your existing health coverage and provide further support for your employees’ general well-being. Employers can also provide auxiliary insurance in a variety of ways.
Employees pay 100 percent of ancillary premiums, but by being a part of a group plan rather than obtaining insurance on their own, they can get reduced prices.
Benefits with an employer contribution — The employer pays at least half of the premiums.
While dental, vision, and life insurance are the most well-known auxiliary benefits, they aren’t the only ones available to small business owners and employees. Any of the following choices can be added to your benefits package as ancillary benefits.
- Long-term assistance
- Critical sickness and cancer
- Intensive care and hospital indemnity
- Accidental death insurance
- Disability, both long-term and short-term
Why Should Small Businesses Provide Vision Insurance and Other Supplementary Benefits?
Simply put, auxiliary insurance is important to employees. A survey of 2,000 respondents asked them to select between a higher-paying job and one with more appealing benefits. A stunning 88 percent of those surveyed indicated they would take a lower-paying job if it came with better health, dental, and vision insurance – and that’s before you factor in the other perks that might make your benefits package even more appealing.
Including ancillary insurance in your benefits package not only improves the value of your benefits package but also shows your employees that you care about them. Giving your employees access to auxiliary insurance might let them relax and focus on their work instead of worrying about buying contacts or organizing their next dentist appointment.
That increased focus on your employees’ well-being can have a direct impact on your company’s future. Employees that are respected and satisfied at work are more likely to be eager and able to contribute to the success of your organization. Increased employee engagement can result in a slew of advantages for your company, including:
Improved staff retention
According to Gallup, businesses with engaged employees have a 90 percent lower employee turnover rate.
Increased productivity – According to the same Gallup study, engaged workers were 17 percent more productive.
Reduced absenteeism — Gallup discovered that engaged employees are 37 percent less likely than unmotivated individuals to miss work.
Increased profitability – According to Inc., a 10% increase in productivity can result in an annual profit boost of $2,400 per employee.
Another significant benefit of providing auxiliary benefits is that they might assist your employees in maintaining their health. The example of vision insurance is a good one. Poor vision and eyestrain can have a direct influence on job performance as well as significantly impact your employees’ health.
Dry eye illness can lower employee productivity by 20 to 25%, according to the American Optometric Association. Offering vision insurance and other ancillary benefits to your employees will help them stay happy, healthy, and productive.
Collaborate with a PEO to provide affordable ancillary insurance.
It is not easy to run a small business. You have a lot of administrative responsibilities on your plate, and one of them is managing your benefits programs. Fortunately, you aren’t on your own when it comes to employee benefits management.
Small business owners turn to Group Management Services to help them offer and administer outstanding benefits packages while saving time. Our higher buying power as a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) helps you to offer reasonably priced group health plans and ancillary alternatives to a large number of people, including at-risk employers or small groups.
Partnering with GMS also means you’ll have a dedicated resource on hand to assist you. We’re always looking for ways to improve our services, which is why we recently moved our vision provider to VSP to guarantee that you and your employees get the best ancillary benefits available. We continue to provide additional benefits to our clients, including Metlife Auto & Home coverage, in addition to our new vision provider. We also have a team of professionals on hand to answer your inquiries and help you navigate any future HR challenges.
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