How open enrollment and an employee's health history go hand-in-hand

Fall is best known for the changing of the leaves, pumpkin-spice-flavored everything, and cheering on your favorite football team. But, human resource and benefit administrators like you are spending this season working long hours to ensure each employee decides on a health insurance plan that matches their individual needs.

Open enrollment is no easy task. Especially when the number of employees within an organization likely outnumber the amount of people capable of answering each question or concern.

Consider the open enrollment ABC’s

• Assess your employees’ health care needs. Whether you review your plan's claims, hold a “town hall meeting” or take a company-wide survey, always be listening and evaluating the ever-changing needs of your employees and adjust.
• Be active. Engage your employees when it comes to their benefits. Use an “active” enrollment strategy that requires employees to select the right health care plan and additional benefits they want, rather than making passive selections based on the prior year’s plan. Examples: Host lunch and learns, send out communications regularly, have 1:1’s.
• Communicate, communicate, and communicate some more. There’s no such thing as too much communication. No matter how many times you think you’ve shared something with your employees, know that it takes repetition to get the message through when it comes to health insurance benefits.

Resources at your fingertips

At Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, we want to make sure you have all the tools and resources in place to support your open enrollment efforts and make sure your employees become savvy health care consumers during what can be a stressful time.

For employers:

1. News from Blue^SM. Think of News from Blue as your personal health plan assistant that gives you actionable, educational and tangible takeaways delivered straight to your inbox each month. Are you subscribed yet?
2. Wellmark Marketing Toolkit. Access and order everything you need Opens in a new window to create a successful open enrollment campaign by logging in to the Wellmark Marketing Toolkit.

For employees:

1. Blue^SM. Educational and informational articles to navigate open enrollment Opens in a new window and decode health insurance plans and jargon. Simply send your employees to the “Plan Smart” tab on Wellmark.com/Blue.
2. myWellmark®. By registering for myWellmark Opens in a new window, they can make informed decisions by viewing past health care expenses and usage to better determine which plan is right for them before enrollment. They can also:

• Locate in-network doctors and hospitals.
• Estimate cost and care for services and procedures.
• View benefits used.
• Keep track of claims details, as well as current deductibles, copays, coinsurance and out-of-pocket maximums.

myWellmark and open enrollment go hand-in-hand

By using myWellmark prior to open enrollment, they can determine which network and plan best fit their health care usage and spending.

There are many ways you can deliver the information you need to your employees to help them be savvy health care consumers — all found on the Wellmark Marketing Toolkit External Site when you search "myWellmark."

• myWellmark promotional kit. Download this promotional kit to explore various materials to help you educate your employees about the benefits of myWellmark and encourage them to register. Search form number M-2018789 on the Wellmark Marketing Toolkit.
• Health insurance made easy (flyer and card). Teach your employees the value they receive by registering for myWellmark. Everything from easy-to-understand claim information, personalized insights, complete coverage details, finding an in-network doctor, estimating cost of care and making informed decisions for their health and spending.
• Finding care with myWellmark flyer. Your employees can learn how myWellmark can help them find where to get care, the cost and quality of care, and see patient reviews.
• Customized communications. Get newsletter articles, intranet content or emails and increase the number of employees using myWellmark through the channels they know and trust.

Questions? Contact your authorized Wellmark account representative or email us at blueatwork@wellmark.com Send Email.