Employee Benefits Blog

For the past 15 years United Benefit Advisors® (UBA), of whom JP Griffin Group is a proud member, has surveyed thousands of employers across the nation regarding their health plan offerings, their ongoing plan decisions in the face of significant legislative and marketplace changes, and the impact of these changes on their employees and businesses. 

The UBA Health Plan Survey has become the nation’s largest independent health plan benchmarking survey and the most comprehensive source of reliable benchmarking data for employers. 

In fact, UBA’s survey is nearly three times larger than the nations’ next two largest health plan benchmarking surveys combined. The resulting volume of data provides employers of all sizes more detailed—and therefore more meaningful—benchmarks and trends than any other source.

UBA recently released its 2020 Employee Benefits Health Plan Survey. This year’s survey aggregates inputs from over 11,788 employers, 21,980 health plans, and 1.3 million nationwide employees. 

The scope of this year’s survey allows regional, industry-specific, and employee size differentials to emerge from the data. In addition, the large number of plans represented allows for both a broader range of categories by plan type than traditionally reported, and a larger number of respondents in each category.

The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) recently published the results of their highly anticipated Employer Health Benefits Survey for 2020. This year’s survey includes data from 1,765 non-federal private and public companies in the United States.

KFF’s annual report provides an in-depth perspective on trends in employer-sponsored health coverage. Their results span everything from medical premiums and funding mechanisms to wellness and health plan design.

The following is a summary of some important trends for you to know, along with a link towards the end of our summary for you to download the full report.

It’s considered conventional wisdom that the fiercest competitors can be found in the world of professional sports. After almost 30 years working in employee benefits, I beg to differ.

Greatly exacerbated by today’s low unemployment rate, the competition for talent in the business world today is as fierce as I’ve ever seen it, most especially in the fields of construction, dining, cybersecurity, nursing, and finance, just to name a few. Bryce Harper and Tom Brady have nothing on today’s business professionals in charge of talent acquisition.

As if competing for customers wasn’t enough, companies often compete against each other for the same pool of talent, whether that be within specialized industries or simply within an overlapping geographic region.

In the quest to attract the best talent, employee benefits benchmarking is crucial. This practice allows employers to gauge their organization's position in terms of benefits versus the competition. Some companies regularly conduct benchmarking as part of a strategy of good governance, while others perform benchmarking in response to something specific, such as an acquisition, the need to fill a specific role, or the launch of a new division.

Introducing Our New Partnership & Benchmarking Study

This year the JP Griffin Group joined with United Benefits Advisors to produce the nation’s largest independent health plan benchmarking survey. In doing so, we’ve created the most comprehensive source of reliable benchmarking data for employers of all sizes.