Three Questions to Ask When Vetting Disability Carriers

Every day, employees face a host of medical issues that could affect their productivity at work or lead to a disability leave. While you can’t always plan for the unexpected, your organization can positively impact what may be a challenging time for an employee by ensuring you have the right disability program in place.

Choosing a disability carrier comes with numerous decisions. These include analyzing options, comparing services and determining how a choice could impact your bottom line. However, one of the most important aspects a disability carrier will focus on during the vetting process is how they will help with an employee’s stay-at-work or return-to-work accommodations. While all carriers promise results, the key here is to ensure you actually get those results.

When vetting carriers and services, here are three questions you can ask a carrier to help make sure that you and your employees will receive the support you need during what may be an already trying time.

1. Can all eligible employees receive return-to-work and stay-at-work services?
   Determining which employees are eligible to receive return-to-work and stay-at-work services, and any additional costs associated with coverage for those who aren’t, is important to know before a medical issue arises. It’s easy for a carrier to say it will provide assistance to all employees, but there can often be unexpected red tape for an employer if the employee isn’t enrolled in the appropriate short term or long term disability program, or has elected voluntary coverage.
2. Who will work directly with my employees?
   Some carriers will use vendors from across the country to provide timely, local accommodations assistance. What you’ll want to learn when investigating how return-to-work or stay-at-work plans are handled is how a carrier manages these vendors. What type of training do they have and how will they report back to you and the carrier about progress that’s been made? This ensures everyone is on the same page and you’re comfortable with the individuals who are supporting your employees.
3. How do you showcase return on investment (ROI)?
   You may need to report to your executive team the ROI of your company’s benefits package. Will your board of directors or senior executives want to know your employees’ average disability duration? Or the number of temporary or permanent workers who weren’t hired as the result of your company’s comprehensive disability management? It’s important to understand how a carrier can help you translate your ROI in a way that’s understandable to all stakeholders.

The knowledge from these answers could not only translate into success for your company and its approach to disability management, but demonstrate that you understand and value your employees’ needs.