Name: Open Enrollment: How to Select the Right Benefits
Uploaded: 2023-11-03T18:19:00Z
Duration: 10 min 51 s
Description: Employees selecting company-provided health benefits may find the list of options and rates confusing. Host J.R. Whalen is joined by Arthur Benefits Solutions founder Maameamba Arthur-Price, to discuss what people should assess in their lives before making selections. Plus, WSJ contributor Cheryl Winokur Munk explains the important benefits people often overlook. Photo: Istockphoto/Getty Images

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Employees selecting company-provided health benefits may find the list of options and rates confusing. Host J.R. Whalen is joined by Arthur Benefits Solutions founder Maameamba Arthur-Price, to discuss what people should assess in their lives before making selections. Plus, WSJ contributor Cheryl Winokur Munk explains the important benefits people often overlook. Photo: Istockphoto/Getty Images

https://m.wsj.net/video/20231103/3626fe64-763c-4fe7-b89b-8ae468904804/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Open Enrollment: How to Select the Right Benefits 

J.R: Here's your Money Briefing for Friday, November 3rd. I'm J.R Whalen for the Wall Street Journal. Millions of Americans will be signing up for company provided health benefits this month, but the range of options and alphabet soup can result in confusion. Maameamba Arthur Price, founder of Arthur Benefits Solutions joins me. So Maameamba, what should people consider in terms of their own situation when they're selecting benefits?

Maameamba: One of the things that people should be considering for this upcoming open enrollment season is number one, looking at their flexible spending account. Flexible spending accounts as it relates to dependent care or healthcare benefits are one of the ways that you can use pre-tax dollars to actually save money when going to the actual doctor. Another thing that you should think of is looking at your healthcare savings account. If you're in a plan that's a high deductible health plan, this is a plan that is beneficial to you because you can continue to use those monies within those accounts whether you leave the company or not. Whereas the flexible spending accounts, if you don't use them, you lose them.

J.R: Now how about their health on a day-to-day basis? What should they consider there?

Maameamba: When we think about considering day-to-Day Healthcare, you wanna definitely do your annual physical within all the plans throughout the United States. It is free to get your annual physical if you've got any upcoming expenses, you wanna budget that in now for next year. And again, take advantage of the flexible spending account or the healthcare savings account so you can decide which plan actually works best for you, whether it be going into a more fully funded plan, meaning if you are actually going to have to pay more outta your pocket on the front end, then you might wanna consider that versus paying a little less outta your pocket on premiums and then putting that money into a healthcare savings account.

J.R: Yeah, that consideration will come up when people see deductible in the language. And that's a really important factor here, isn't it?

Maameamba: Absolutely. It's a huge factor because again, inflation is a very real thing these days, and as we all know, money's tight and if we know that we've got a healthcare issue, you definitely want to consider planning for some of those procedures ahead of time.

J.R: You know, the challenge here for people is that the benefits programs are asking people to project 12 months out details about their health, their life events, their situation with not only them but their family members.

Maameamba: It's definitely a challenge and it is a hit or miss. And that's why I tell folks to, if you are going to the doctors regularly and if you know that you're fairly healthy, you may not want to buy into that plan that's costing you $400 a month. You wanna look at the plan that really is going to give you the best bang for your buck. And if you've got those few extra dollars, really save, save, save, that's where you're going to be able to really see the value of the plan.

J.R: What changes in terms of what's being offered this year should people be aware of?

Maameamba: What has come down from the IRS just recently is that they have made a change in what you can increase for your health savings account. So they've gone up a few hundred dollars in the healthcare savings account, which is pre-tax dollars that you can roll over if you're in a high deductible plan year over year. If you're 55 and over, you can now go ahead and then include another thousand dollars into your healthcare savings account and individuals went up another $330 this year.

J.R: Yeah you mentioned FSA and HSA, two acronyms. People will be seeing, other acronyms they might be seeing as well are PPO and HMO when it comes to the medical coverage that they'll be selecting. What's the difference between them?

Maameamba: So an HMO is a very traditional plan. These are plans where you cannot actually choose your doctor. So you've got a very specific network of doctors that you can use within the plan setup, and they're copay only plans. So you've got to get a referral to go see a chiropractor, to go see a specialist. Now for a PPO, you've got a much larger network and you don't need a referral from your primary care physician in order to go to see any sort of doctor. If you wanna go see a chiropractor you can without a specialty referral. And those are deductible plans. So what you'll see is you'll have some sort of plan oftentimes that are a lower deductible, but costs more out of your paycheck in your premiums, and then you'll see a more high deductible health plan with an HSA health savings account tied to that plan, which will have that 15 or $3,000 individual deductible that you wanna be aware of, but it'll be less premiums out of your paycheck. So that's where you're seeing most companies move to.

J.R: There's so many details here for people to follow and be aware of. What are the most common mistakes that you see that people make when they're signing up for benefits?

Maameamba: One of the biggest mistakes I see is overbuying a plan. So you taking a look at the two or three options that your organization has provided you and you making the choice of taking the most expensive plan thinking this is the plan that's best for you. So now you've spent all this money on premiums and you only went to go see the doctor twice and one of those two times was free. So you're still paying those premiums and now you can't get out of the plan until you have a qualifying status change or open enrollment. That is one of the biggest mistakes. Or folks not necessarily planning ahead for what they need in the flexible spending account and not having a carryover to be able to roll over the FSA flexible spending account dollars. I would say the most important thing to make sure of also is to make sure you update your beneficiaries. If you just recently got a divorce or you just recently had a baby within the last 12 months, or you just recently got married, these are the opportunities where you wanna be taking a look at your beneficiaries and making sure that they're updated.

J.R: That's Arthur Benefits Solutions founder Maameamba Arthur Price. Maameamba thank you very much for being with us.

Maameamba: Thank you.

There are also important company provided benefits that employees can sign up for any time of year, but many overlook them. WSJ contributor, Cheryl Winokur Munk joins me. So Cheryl, for a lot of people, their benefits package is as important as their salary and yet they overlook benefits they'd actually use. Why is that?

Cheryl: Well, it makes a lot of sense if you think about it. You know, when you join a company, you're given a lot of materials and there's just so much in there. A lot of people just thumb through it, but they just don't take time to understand the minutia. A study from MetLife shows that nearly one in five employees are either not at all confident or only slightly confident in their understanding of the benefits offered by their employer.

J.R: And benefits that focus on mental health are among the most underused. What kinds of programs do many companies offer?

Cheryl: They offer something called employee assistance programs and those are confidential. So a lot of employees are concerned that information is going to get back to their employer. And while employers do get general numbers, maybe about how many employees take advantage of the services, they don't get names. So there's really no fear for an employee to use an employee assistance program. And there are various types of benefits within the programs. It can be talking to a counselor, sometimes they have apps that help you with relaxation or meditation. Companies also offer wellness programs and incentives. So it may be benefits related to exercise or maybe you'll get free flu shots or free covid boosters or other perks that you would get for keeping healthy. Some companies do fitness center memberships, you can do health screenings, health risk assessments. There may be benefits for weight loss programs or smoking cessation and stress reduction. So there's a whole gamut of programs that companies offer.

J.R: Supplemental insurance is also offered by many companies. Why would somebody choose that?

Cheryl: At open enrollment time. You can buy supplemental insurance policies at group rates and those rates can be a lot lower than individual rates typically are. So it might be additional life insurance, it might be disability insurance or long-term care insurance, even critical illness and, and sometimes even pet insurance. And again, all for rates that might be less than you can get on your own.

J.R: More employees, especially millennials, are dealing with caring for elderly family members. What benefits might be offered that address that?

Cheryl: They have something called backup care. A lot of companies, and that means that they're recognizing that, you know, sometimes the regular care programs you have for a parent or a child or even a pet sometimes fall through. And so there can be subsidies and reimbursements for a child or elder care and a lot of these tend to go unused. And so what happens is, is that you can request care usually from a vetted network through an app or maybe an online portal and you would pay maybe an hourly or daily copay, which is decent if your care falls through. It means you don't have to take another day off from work.

J.R: What if there's a benefit you wish that your company had but it's not offered?

Cheryl: Just ask, what's the worst, the company can say, "Oh no, we don't offer that." Well, you might find out, hey, we're actually thinking about that. And the other thing is, is if companies hear from enough employees that they're interested in a particular benefit, the company may actually consider offering it and then you could be responsible for having a benefit that you didn't have before. It never hurts to ask.

J.R: That's Wall Street Journal contributor, Cheryl Winokur Munk, and that's it for your money briefing. We'll be back on Monday with WSJs Laura Kusisto to discuss how the recent lawsuit regarding inflated real estate fees could affect both home buyers and sellers. Today's show is produced by Ariana Osperoo. I'm your host, J.R Whalen. Our supervising producer is Melanie Roy. Aisha Al Muslim is our development producer, Scott Salaway and Chris Hinsley are our deputy editors. And Philana Patterson is the Wall Street Journal's Head of News audio. Thanks for listening.

WSJ's Your Money Briefing podcast is your personal-finance and career checklist. Finance reporters and experts break down complicated money questions every weekday to help you make better decisions about managing your money. 

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