They’re also finding growth opportunities associated with the single-platform trend, which emphasizes online benefits delivery and billing. The strategy has proven so successful for Unum Group that the insurer expects a tenfold sales increase this year, from about $14 million in 2008, since rolling out its Simply Unum solution for small and midsize groups with two to 500 lives in 47 states.
Mike Simonds, the insurer’s senior vice president and chief marketing officer, recently told The Wall Street Journal that sales were strongest in the hardest-hit markets.
Flexibility plays an important role in the Unum package, which allows customers to subsidize a fixed percentage of baseline coverage, with employees paying the rest of the tab. A new version of the platform being piloted just in time for the upcoming open-enrollment season will allow employers to make fixed-dollar contributions toward coverage – a plan that could be rolled out nationwide in 2010.
Another insurer, MetLife, began bundling benefits for firms with 10 to 99 employees in February, initially targeting Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Portland and Seattle before expanding into Cleveland and Cincinnati. Various enticements that include three-year rate guarantees on life and disability coverage, as well as free will-preparation services, are aimed at helping gain traction in a competitive marketplace.
MetLife also recently published Small Business Benefits: Cost-Effective Strategies for Maximizing ROI aimed at helping organizations with fewer than 500 employees better understand how to optimize the value of their benefits program without necessarily adding significantly to their overall benefits spend.
