Employee benefits brokers have an increasing number of innovative “value-add” solutions they can offer their employer group clients. In some cases, brokers can receive commissions from these solution providers for referring clients to them, but in all cases, the value-add services can generate greater appreciation from their clients, resulting in stickier relationships.

Here are five companies that use technology to provide innovative value-add solutions:

SONIC BOOM

High-tech wellness company Sonic Boom offers fun and active daily challenges via web-based portals and mobile apps. The program includes activity tracking, social networking, games, competition, and proprietary tools to influence behavior change. The firm offers a variety of activity tracking devices, or participants can use their own.

“We're all about social contagion—making wellness activities personally relevant, inviting, and fun so people actually want to engage in them and improve their health habits for life,” says Danna Korn, founder and “chief energizing officer” at the Carlsbad, California company. “Our competitors tend to focus too much on rewards—assuming people need extrinsic, remunerative motivation to do healthy things and accordingly bribing them with hefty incentives. We incorporate rewards into our program too, but they're secondary to social contagion and are only remunerative if clients insist.”

Part of the program entails a “Challenge-of-the-Day”—anything that “gets employees' blood pumping,” has stress-reduction or nutritional value, or otherwise provides an “a-ha!” nugget of wellness knowledge with an energetic call-to-action. For example, the nutritional value of rutabagas or an invitation for coworkers to join in doing wall squats for two minutes, or doing lunges on the way to the bathroom.

“It's a dance-floor mentality, like at a wedding,” Korn says. “No one wants to be the first out on the dance floor, but everyone wants to be out there together. It's fun because it's social—there can be 35 people participating, giggling, chatting it up. Or employees can do them at home with their families. Either way, it's a social break that's healthy.”

Sonic Boom's programs are “infinitely customizable.” Programs focus mostly on physical activity, optimal nutrition, stress reduction and other leading health indicators, but when client demographics call for it, programs might even focus on pet health, safety or financial well-being.

Programs also need to be customized to fit the level of activity of the employee base. For example, while many vendors focus on walking or “steps” challenges, certain employees might be marathon runners who would not want to participate. With Sonic Boom, employers can come up with any kind of challenge that fits their particular workforce, such as a swimming challenge or a ping-pong game challenge.

Employers that have outcomes-based wellness programs with biometrics particularly like the programs.

“We like to focus on improvements in addition to outcomes, so we're not over-rewarding the already healthy, and we're properly rewarding those who are making a legitimate effort to improve their health—even if they're not quite in the ideal biometric range yet,” Korn says.

The company markets primarily through brokers and consultants, though occasionally directly to employer groups. “For brokers and consultants,” she says, “it's a way to offer a value-add service that's out-of-the-box.”

TELADOC INC.

Teladoc Inc. delivers on-demand health care anytime, from almost anywhere, via mobile devices, the Internet, secure video and phone. More than 12.6 million U.S. members are connected to Teladoc's network of over 2,650 board-certified, state-licensed physicians and behavioral health professionals who provide care for a wide range of non-emergency conditions.

Median doctor call back time is eight minutes, and 92 percent of members resolve their medical issue with Teladoc. Unlike nurse-run call centers, Teladoc doctors can diagnose, recommend treatment, and prescribe medication, when necessary.

“To use our product to lower health care costs is one thing, but we don't talk enough about how it increases productivity,” says Lisa Bana, assistant vice president of broker/consultant sales at Teladoc Inc. in Purchase, New York. “Employees don't have to take a half day off to drive their kids to the doctor—they can have access to health care in their own homes and offices.”

Teladoc markets both to employee benefits brokers as well as directly to employer groups and health plans.

“Brokers are looking for something they can bring to their clients that is a value add, and Teladoc is a high-impact, low-risk solution for brokers,” Bana says. “When employers bring us in, our program highly impacts their health care costs, and it's low risk. We've been doing this since 2005 and we've done more than 1 million consultations.”

Implementations take few resources, and the standard implementation can be completed in 30 days. Teladoc's account management team monitors clients to make sure they are getting a higher return on investment through greater utilization of the product. To aid in this, Teladoc offers specific communications strategies to drive utilization.

Clients are satisfied because of Teladoc's scalability, she says—the ability to put on clients, the ability to have the technology that enables call backs from doctors within eight minutes, the ability to make sure things are running smoothly even when there are huge surges during flu season.

“Scalability is really important,” Bana says. “Even if a company has all the bells and whistles, if they don't have scalability, it won't make a good experience for their clients.”

Brokers can get commissions when their clients implement Teladoc, but some don't want commissions, as they are fee-for-service consultants. “They are marketing this as a value-add elective benefit for their clients.”

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