There's a lot going on. Wait, what did I do yesterday?
With everything going on, are you staying on top of your benefits? And if you are a third-party administrator (TPA), are your members?
These are some of the questions we considered when First Dollar commissioned The Harris Poll to survey 1,000 U.S. adults with health insurance and either a flexible spending account (FSA) or a health savings account (HSA); we'll refer to the adults as "members" in this blog post.
This blog post will share a section of the report regarding benefit tracking. To access all of the report's findings, you can review and download the complete report here.
Benefit Tracking
Let's start by examining how members are or are not able to keep track of their benefits.
Most members (58%) agree that they cannot keep track of their healthcare benefits; this is a pain point for all members. Let's dig deeper into the numbers to see what else we can learn about benefit tracking.
Benefit Tracking: Fans vs. Detractors
We asked members about their experience with their current health plan. For this blog post, we’ll refer to members who answered “very positive” or “somewhat positive” as health plan fans and members who answered “somewhat negative” or “very negative” as health plan detractors.
With the definition of fans and detractors in mind, let’s revisit the study results to examine how the two groups do or do not track their benefits.
Fans and detractors both struggle to track their benefits, but detractors struggle more strongly to track their benefits. While more than four in ten fans find it easy to track their benefits, more than three in four detractors struggle to track their benefits. That's a lot!
Benefit Tracking and Benefit Awareness
Next, let's review the data to see if there is a relationship between member benefit tracking and benefit awareness. Are members able to track their benefits more likely to feel confident about what benefits they have?
It looks like the two pain points have a relationship. While almost nine in ten members who track their benefits with ease are confident in their benefit offering, less than five in ten members who struggle tracking their benefits are also confident in their benefit offering. And this makes sense, right? If you can keep track of your benefits, you probably know a bit about what you're tracking. (And if you know what benefits you have, you are also more likely able to track them.)
An Opportunity for Plans and TPAs
In conclusion, members who find it easy to track their benefits are much more likely to report knowing what their benefits are. Health plans and third-party administrators (TPAs) would be wise to consider both pain points if they are trying to improve either member pain point.
About The 2022 Healthcare Benefit Census
This blog post is an excerpt from First Dollar's 2022 Healthcare Benefit Census: Understanding Benefit Utilization and Member Dissatisfaction. To review all of the report's findings, you can review the complete report here.
