Health benefits

CFG Insurance tool helps
employers analyze claims,
an often-overlooked step

Faced with rising health insurance costs, many employers shop for a new plan (62 percent last year, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation report) or increase the amount employees pay for their plan (51 percent ).

They often overlook a more useful route: analyzing data from claims actually made. So says Mickey Webb, vice president of employee benefits for CFG Insurance Services in Minnetonka. CFG has rolled out a new Web-based tool, called My Benefits Analyst, that helps employers dig in and analyze claims data.

Want to figure out if increasing co-pays actually discourages frivolous office visits? Want to know who is going to the emergency room frequently? Want to know which diseases your company’s health intervention programs should focus on? The answers lie in the claims.

“Given all of the tools and resources available to employers for reducing health insurance costs, not many realize the importance of analyzing claims data,” Webb says. “My Benefits Analyst gets to the root of what’s driving costs, so the employer can take the appropriate actions.

“You can drive key employees away by increasing their contributions, or jeopardize your insurance rating by jumping from plan to plan,” she says. “The right benefits decisions are more clear-cut and easier to access than most employers think.”

It’s free to CFG clients, who get a user name and password and log in via CFG’s Web site. Some group size restrictions apply; for example, groups must be larger than 50 or larger than 100 in some instances.

Webb says the tool is compliant with HIPPA, new federal rules regarding privacy and medical records. “There aren’t any names attached to the data,” she says. And if there are so few people with a certain diagnosis that identification is possible, the information isn’t revealed.

Mickey Webb, CFG Insurance Services: 952.945.0200; mickey.webb@cfginsurance.com; www.cfginsurance.com