Video marketing through email and web links is a great opportunity to present information to a broad population of people efficiently and in an engaging manner. NJ CAR’s health benefits partners, HUB International and Corporate Synergies, plan to produce a series of 1-2 minute videos on a variety of important topics related to health benefits management within the dealership. The videos will be emailed to dealers, posted on the NJ CAR website, and shared by both HUB and Corporate Synergies, as appropriate.

The initial topics being considered for these brief, informative videos include:

Individual Cover Reimbursements (ICHRA) — In effect, an employer would provide a fixed level of funding to employees, allowing those employees to purchase coverage in the individual market. There are vendors to ease the administrative burden.

Reference-Based Pricing (RBP) — Reference-Based Pricing is a self-funded model where facility costs are greatly reduced by paying the facility a modest markup to Medicare reimbursements. Third-party administrators manage the program and assist employees with potential balance bills (a potential risk, as there are no contracted rates in place that all parties have agreed to). These programs may or may not include a physician network.

Benefit Administration Technology — There are many platforms, both stand-alone and through payroll vendors, that utilize technology to help administer the benefits plan. Still, many dealerships have been slow to embrace technology. Both HUB and Corporate Synergies offer platforms, which are carrier- and payroll system-agnostic.

Ensuring Benefit-Related Advocacy — This ensures employers provide a quality experience and easy-to-access support. Originally, this would likely include telephonic support, but today, many apps are available that bring all benefit-related vendors/topics together in one easy-to-use app. Both HUB and Corporate Synergies have such technology available.

Benchmarking — While we prepare the annual survey, we can speak to individual dealerships (one-on-one) to complete a deep dive that compares one’s own benefits program to the marketplace.

Compliance — An ongoing concern for employers as rules and regulations are constantly changing or being updated. Particularly, there seems to be an uptick in IRS ACA letters.

Bruce Mazzarelli is Vice President of Employee Benefits at HUB International and can be reached at bruce.mazzarelli@hubinternational.com. Stephen Horvat is Vice President and Senior Benefits Consultant at Corporate Synergies and can be reached at Stephen.Horvat@corpsyn.com.