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December 13, 2011 at 09:49 AM
Benefits companies looking for new sources of revenue have been working harder to turn employees’ confusion about benefits into a chance to sell communication services
Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP), Roseland, N.J. (Nasdaq:ADP), a payroll company, discusses employee communication services in a new report based on an online “pulse survey” of 501 human resources decision-makers at private U.S. employer with 50 or more employees.
ADP analysts found that 66% of employers with 50 to 999 workers and 36% of employers with 1,000 or more workers have no employee communications budget.
About half of the survey participants said their companies’ communication budgets has remained in the past year, and only 21% expect the communication budget to increase in the next two years, ADP says.
About 86% of the large employers and 71% of the midsize employers put benefits informations on Web portals.
Technology companies and benefits companies have been marketing automated “decision support tools” that can supplement or replace traditional worker education vehicles, such as enrollment meetings, brochures and one-on-one counseling sessions.
Despite the energy put into developing and marketing the decision support tools, 51% of the large employers included in the survey and 72% of the midsize employers offer workers no decision support tools.
BILLIONS AND BILLIONS
Over at the House Ways and Means Committee, Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., has posted an analysis suggesting that hospitals are exaggerating the likely effects of H.R. 3630, a bill that could reduce Medicare hospital spending by $14 billion over 10 years.
The reduction sounds big, but Medicare is on track to spend $2.6 trillion on hospital services over the next decade, and H.R. 3630 would reduce that total by just 0.5%, Camp and other committee officials say.
