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 Employee Benefits
 Brokerage & Consulting
Areté services include but are not limited to:
- Annual and ongoing strategic planning
- Renewal analysis report, underwriting analysis and projections
- Marketing of Medical, Dental, and Vision Plans
- Self-funded plan consulting and management
- Group benefit plan design consulting
- Negotiation of rate and service levels with carriers
- Medical management oversight of large claimants
- Inpatient hospital admissions review
- Review of Summary Plan Descriptions (SPDs) / Plan Documents for legal compliance
- Benefit plan benchmarking
- Health care cost containment consulting
- Data analytics
- Wellness & disease management
- Provider contracting
- Health care quality initiatives
- Financial and utilization reporting
- Benefits administration / enrollment support
- Employee education & communication
- Resolution of difficult claim issues
- Guidance on federal and state regulatory tax / reporting compliance
- Large case claimant monitoring
- Voluntary / worksite products
Actuarial Services
Areté's actuaries provide sound advice enabling you to make smart business decisions. Our services include:
- Defined benefit plan annual valuations, plan design and government filing services.
- Health and welfare services - plan design strategies, actuarial projections and forecasts, self-insurance feasibility analysis, and participant contribution strategies.
- Retiree medical and other post-employment plan services-annual valuations, footnote disclosure preparation, plan design and cost projections, Medicare part D.
- GASB 43 and GASB 45 consulting services - consulting, plan design and funding analysis for Government Account Standards Board (GSAB) statement numbers 43 & 45 post retirement liability.
- Executive retirement plan services - creative plan design financial modeling and implementation.
Worksite Healthcare
Areté can assist your organization in the feasibility, design, implementation, administration and communication of on-site health, pharmacy and occupational health clinics. Our feasibility study can help your determine if it makes sense for all parties involved: employers, employees, and providers. Onsite clinics will typically help employers reduce healthcare costs while providing employees with quality care with greater convenience. In addition to delivering cost-effective, quality healthcare to employees, providers become a valued partner in disease management, health plan design and more.
Pharmacy Benefit Management (PBM)
 Pharmacy benefits have become a major concern for most employers as Rx double-digit inflation rates are expected to continue. PBM costs can account for 20% - 30% of an employers total healthcare costs. A well-designed and administered prescription drug program can actually help employers control total medical costs, reduce absenteeism and improve worker productivity by substituting appropriate medications for more expensive medical treatment.
However, most employee benefit brokers and consultants lack the specific knowledge required to effectively review, implement, and oversee prescription drug and other specialty injectable drug contracts. Unfortunately, PBM errors do occur and usually go unnoticed - costing employers significant dollars. Recently there has been a push towards Rx purchasing coalitions, that may have short-term cost savings but actually can cost employers more in the long run.
Arete has experienced tremendous success in lowering total health care spending by exposing errors in pharmacy costs related to spread pricing, rebates, and weak contract language.
The Areté PBM approach
Areté works with the client to list objectives and price points that should be included in its stand alone PBM contract. Next we negotiate the contract on the clients’ behalf. Arete provides a prototype transparent PBM contract that contains maximum price guarantees along with generous rights to audit and recovery of damages. The PBM vendor will be asked to use this prototype contract, that secures the best possible contractual terms. Arete then provides ongoing proactive PBM plan management and an annual audit of the PBM to ensure that it is adhering to the strict contract terms
Health Management & Wellness Solutions
 By employing the full spectrum of health management programs (health promotion/wellness, disease management and care/case management), employers can identify and manage major health care cost drivers for their entire population, regardless of individual health status.
Your Areté team and our in house nurse clinicians will work with you to identify and design innovative wellness and disease management solutions that specifically target your needs. The analysis of an appropriate disease or demand management program would begin with a stratification of the risk characteristics of your insured population. In addition, Arete’s nurse clinicians will use your specific date to identify episodes of care that are not reaching optimum outcomes and/or providers that are over utilizing services to the detriment of the member’s health.
The effectiveness of any care management program implemented will be largely based on how effectively these programs match the demographics and needs of the plan participants. These programs can work in conjunction with other consumer-education efforts you may already be providing to employees. In addition, Areté can help you develop an integrated absence management program with disability and healthcare to determine which absences are due to chronic illnesses. We’ll use this information to focus on treatable and manageable cases such as diabetes, heart disease, asthma, pregnancy, soft tissue and mental/nervous illnesses.
We recognize the care management programs needs to be specific to each employer and are often different across various operating or business units. Our strategies and recommendations will be based on the unique characteristics, demographics and utilization of each group. Regardless of your industry, location or size, Areté has unparalleled resources to help you develop effective strategies for your health and welfare benefit programs. We develop customized solutions to meet the unique needs of your organization. Experienced clinicians, actuaries and benefits and communications consultants can work closely with you control your costs.
Compliance
Areté's attorneys and paraprofessionals have extensive expertise and many years of firsthand experience in ERISA, the Internal Revenue Code and other laws and regulations affecting employee benefit plans. Employers often have questions for which answers are not immediately available. Arete provides a practical perspective -- in layman's terms to help you meet your obligations.
- Signature-ready Form 5500s with instructions
- Summary Annual Reports
Areté provides sophisticated consulting services with an emphasis on developing creative, yet practical, solutions for employers within the framework of statutory or regulatory guidance. The Areté team has assisted large and small employers across the country in addressing significant issues, including but not limited to:
- Pension plans
- 401(k) plans
- Health and welfare plans
- Executive benefits
- Mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs, restructuring and other transaction-based benefits consulting
- Benefits funding
- Vendor contracts
- Plan compliance
- Using captives to fund benefits
- Strategies to redeploy excess plan assets
Benefits Administration
Areté has comprehensive benefits administration and employee communication solutions that can include:
- employee call center support,
- online enrollment and administration services,
- bill reconciliation,
- retiree administration and billing,
- claims advocacy,
- urgent eligibility,
- COBRA and FSA administration, and
- personalized participant communication solutions.
Employee Education & Enrollment Services
 Areté utilizes state-of-the-art enrollment solutions. A full suite of enrollment options are presented to our clients so their specific needs can be met. Some clients may want group meetings, other clients may want face-to-face laptop enrollments, and others may want a combination of call center and web-based enrollments. At Areté, we can accommodate all of these enrollment methods for our clients.
Areté does not play a passive role during open enrollment. We work with your organization during all phases of open enrollment (i.e. from creating and printing benefit booklets; to presentation at enrollment meetings; to reconciling the carrier remittance; etc.). Our clients have access to a full range of Internet services with the ability to enroll in a plan or change benefit options, respond to requests for information, check employee eligibility. These services can be accessed by employees anywhere, anytime -- from any computer with Internet access.
Data Analytics
Areté continuously monitors your plan in terms of claims and administrative expense, plan design, and regulatory compliance. To control your costs we focus on plan design modeling, benchmarking, and financial reporting and detailed analysis. In the past, employers have reacted to healthcare issues based on historical data. Going forward, Areté can help your organization identify cost drivers using sophisticated web-based data analytics to provide data-driven, fact based research, and then develop targeted cost-saving intervention programs.
Our web-based health care data analytic tool, MedTrac is critical to managing self-funded plans with multiple locations and / or benefit levels. This sophisticated modeling tool is invaluable in maintaining the long term viability of large experience rated or self-funded health plans. Arete's MedTrac provides clients with relevant analysis, that has historically only been available to Fortune 100 companies – analysis that empowers us to formulate action plans to address rising medical costs. MedTrac also allows your Areté team to identify opportunities for intervention programs that better manage chronic conditions with in your insured population.
Communication
Areté believes effective communication with employees can determine the success or failure of a benefit offering. As such, we place a great degree of importance and emphasis on employee communications.
Areté offers a variety of communication and administrative products and services all designed with your companies look and feel. We will incorporate the brand you've already created, or build something specific for your organization. We deliver graphically customized communication materials, including language translation services. Areté helps organizations deliver the right messages to both internal and external audiences.
To help ensure the success of our clients benefit programs we offer:
- Customized benefit booklets outlining all benefit offerings
- Internal educational seminars / lunches focusing on health care trends and education
- Enrollment education provided via licensed insurance representatives
- Ongoing communications throughout the year via intranet sites or internal emails
Voluntary Benefits
Areté provides voluntary benefits programs for businesses of all sizes. Voluntary benefits can help bridge the gap between what you can afford to provide and what your employees may still want or need. A strategically designed voluntary benefit program allows employers to expand their employees' options without increasing their direct costs. Areté offers a wide variety of high-quality, affordable, voluntary benefit solutions delivered with the personal attention you expect. Our custom-designed voluntary benefit plans will not only complement your current benefit program but integrate seamlessly with it. |
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