Our Advisory Process

Discovery

In the early tenure of our relationship we conduct a Discovery Phase. We inventory all of the benefit plans sponsored by your organization and review the associated vendor contracts. We also review the funding arrangements and appropriateness thereof.

Identifying Wants and Needs

Once the Discovery Phase is complete, we attempt to determine whether or not the selected plan provisions and contracts are appropriate to the wants and needs of your organization and employees. We listen to the key members of your benefit team and attempt to draw out the crucial areas that are being served well as well as those that are perhaps being underserved by your vendors.

Analysis, Benchmarking and Validation

We then assist you by providing relevant information about comparable plans in Alaska and other relevant geographical regions. We benchmark for comparable plan design and cost information. We have a wide variety of tools to assist our clients in this area. We will then validate our findings with your plan and make initial recommendations relevant to marketing activity.

Marketing and Plan Vendor Management

As plan sponsor you will contract with many vendors to serve your group. Our job is to oversee and manage those relationships. At times a change may be necessary. There are a large number of vendors with whom we have worked and we feel confident that we can find the right ones to fit your needs. When we identify a vendor to contract with a client, we consider many things including history and demonstrated ability to provide quality service both within and outside of Alaska. Through our relationship with United Benefit Advisors, we are able to bring our clients preferred pricing with many vendors as well as access vendors who have been vetted by our member firms throughout the country.

The most visible vendor is the claims payer. We look for vendors who have a performance-based strategy and can deliver significant savings through a series of cost reduction strategies/procedures, rather than through provider discounts alone. We ask that claims payers offer a multi-step process encompassing credit balance recovery, options for transplant networks, disease management, secondary wrap networks, clinical editing software, fee negotiation, claims audit, utilization review and PPO discounts.

Recommendations and Implementations

Following any vendor review we will make recommendations to you regarding selection. We will then facilitate the implementation of any new contract as well as manage the termination process for an outgoing market

Monitor and Service

The team working with your organization will be available to you and your benefits team daily. Examples of assistance they provide are:

• Resolving Questions between You and Your Vendors
• Providing Insight and Guidance as it Pertains to Claims and Benefit Questions
• Providing Support with regard to State and Federal Legislative Compliance