Digital Administration

Nothing fits employee benefit plan administration better than the digital solutions offered here in the 21st Century. After all, what we really are dealing with is simply information and there is no better way to handle that than with a digital platform.

Most surveys I see say that admin costs average in the neighborhood of $9/10 per employee per month (PEPM) when the employer is using a traditional paper based system. This compares to less than $2 PEPM with a digital solution.

The key of course is to eliminate the tyranny of the file folder and the horrid paper chase that follows. The magic of digital admin is the ability to literally touch something one time and use programming and bandwidth to move the information everywhere it needs to go. All the while creating as many copies as needed by storing it in cyberspace.

Phase one is the data entry which is done by each employee - well in a perfect world anyway. Phase two is the movement of that data to the appropriate party - insurance company, investment account, TPA, etc. Phase three is any necessary "tweaks" or changes to the data as employee circumstances change. But no one need enter any data twice. The time saved and mistakes eliminated raise productivity to previously unheard of levels.

As younger people move into the work force at all levels and as all of us become more comfortable with the Internet and keyboards, it becomes even easier to put the digital solution in place. The real lag right now - believe it or not - is with the insurance companies. Most have legacy computer systems that cannot be upgraded to handle a true state of the art solution. More and more employers of all sizes are being frustrated by the behemoths that cannot get out of their own way when it comes to a nifty digital solution.

However, we continue to drag them kicking and screaming into the 21st Century. More on our efforts in this regard shortly.

RAM