Western States Benefit Planning

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Expect better questions. Its time to ask hard questions about your fundamental approach to benefits. Are they a necessary evil, a cost of doing business or a costly but worthwhile tool to lure and retain valued employees? Its time to ask hard questions about the cost of administering your benefits programs, about stabilizing your costs as rates climb upward and about striving to keep your employees healthy. Western States

Its time to ask hard questions about strategic benefit planning, technology-based solutions and creative and insightful ways to balance employee needs with your bottom line.
How do you know what questions to ask?
Talk to your Western States benefit professional. Hard questions are his or her specialty. So are the answers.
Expect better answers. Our benefit-planning specialists have been providing insurance and employee-benefit consulting services to local businesses for years. They know about all of the available options, and where the best value can be found. Theyll help you determine what you want in your total employee benefits package, and then find the added value that makes your package worth more than the sum of its premiums.
If youre a smaller company, we can provide you with access to information and HR tools that help make managing employee benefits easier and more efficient.
If your company is growing, we can help you address your processes and risks now so we can negotiate better rates and plans in the future. If you need to cut or cap contributions to your plan, we can look for other, affordable benefits that will bring value to the employeeand soften the blow.
And if you are on the path to becoming a big company, your benefit professional can help you think big: instituting wellness programs, improving corporate communications to help your employees become informed healthcare consumers and helping you develop a more favorable loss experience. Theyre all answers that only come from a benefits agency that knows you, your company and your expectations well.
Expect partnership. How many hours do you and your staff spend lost in the phone tree of your current benefits provider? Let us make those calls for you; we have relationships with the key decision makers on the provider side. With Western States, you only have one point person to call for answers to any and all insurance and benefits questions.
Your Western States benefit professional will get to know you, your company and your situation thoroughly. He or she will stand up in front of your employees and explain their benefits in plain language, assist in resolving claim disputes, help with eligibility problems and contract interpretations, and keep a close eye on your insurers or service providers when it comes to cost control, timely service, claim issues and performance. At Western States, thats what we do.
Expect involvement on a first-name basis. We dont think problems get solved by pressing pre-recorded number options on a telephone. We do the legwork: talking, observing, taking notes, asking questions and taking action. And we get you involved. Its the combination of your benefit professionals experience, expertise and personal knowledge of your company that leads to better options and added value for your company. Thats why we make sure we stay on top of new offerings, regulations and trends.
Expect better tools. There are a lot of hidden and not-so-hidden costs associated with benefits programs. What is the cost of the hours spent researching the ever-changing regulations and legislation impacting your program? How much time do you or your staff spend running down answers to employees routine questions about their coverage? Using advanced technology, Western States has developed value-added professional services for our benefits clients, tools that reduce your costs, increase your productivity and improve employee satisfaction:

Benefit-planning tools. You and your company receive full access to MyWave, a secure, personalized Web site devoted to helping you with plan administration, legislative compliance issues, and employee communication. MyWave brings your HR department and benefits personnel a wealth of relevant tools and information, including an online resource library, online forms and reference materials, and the MyWave Community section, for online networking with other HR professionals across the country.
Human-resources tools. Employees have constant questions about their benefits. You can put many of the answers at their fingertips with Western States HRconnection, a complete online employee communication tool that manages and communicates benefit information with a few clicks on a mouse.
Data-analysis tools. If you are an experience-rated group, your benefit professional can perform data analysis to determine your health-plan utilization, which could yield exceptional insurance savings and give you leverage in negotiating your plan.

Expect a great relationship. It used to be that service counted for a lot when it came to insurance. Now the concept has virtually disappeared. But not around here. At Western States, we may have nationwide resources, but our business is about taking care of the people and businesses in our community. When theres a question, a problem or a claim, you have a professional you can callone who knows you and your benefits picture well. We cant imagine working any other way.