Why You Should be Offering Ancillary Insurance

Ancillary benefits are becoming more and more necessary for attracting top talent. Find out why your company should be offering ancillary insurance in addition to traditional health benefits.

What Is Ancillary Insurance?

Ancillary insurance is a secondary form of healthcare, which supplements the everyday benefits packages that are typically offered. These employee benefits are becoming more and more crucial as they offer coverages that go well beyond that of typical healthcare plans, and often cover more extensive medical expenses. 

How Do Ancillary Benefits Work?

Ancillary benefits can be offered via two different coverage options:

1. Voluntary

• Voluntary benefits are benefit plans that are available to employees without the financial assistance of the employer. These benefits require employees to pay for the premium required by the carrier and are funded by employee payroll deductions. The employer is allowed to contribute a small portion if they wish. 
• For example, if employers offer voluntary life benefits outside of the core benefits package that an employee wishes to enroll in, such as voluntary life, then the employee would be responsible for the full cost of coverage. The organization only subsidizes the cost of the core benefits such as health, dental, vision, and life, not voluntary life.

2. Employer Contribution

• For an employer contributory benefits package, employers must contribute the bulk of the premium. 
• The employees pay the amounts leftover after the employer contribution for that pay period.

What are the Different Types of Ancillary Insurance?

Ancillary insurance is an additional benefits package where employees are covered for more extensive medical expenses. Some common examples of this include:

1. Vision coverage

2. Dental coverage

3. Life insurance

4. Short-term disability insurance 

5. Long-term disability insurance

6. Overnight hospital expenses.

What are the Benefits of Ancillary Insurance?

Fringe benefits are becoming more and more necessary for attracting top talent and full-time employees. It is no longer enough to simply offer bare-bones health insurance plans. 

• People need dental and vision insurance. Health insurance alone is not going to keep your employees healthy. 

• Most health insurance plans don't cover things like taking blood or riding in an ambulance. Extended hospital stays are also very expensive. Offering ancillary benefits can help your employees to remain healthy and happy for the long term.

• Life insurance coverage is another huge benefit of ancillary insurance. Typically health policies do not cover the death of an employee. Having a life insurance policy can offer peace of mind for employees with dependents, spouses, and families in general. 

• These benefits go well beyond standard health plans. They often cover much more extensive medical expenses, such as ambulance rides, overnight stays in the hospital, and many others. 

• These benefits allow for a smooth onboarding process. Ancillary benefits are becoming an integral part of the modern workplace. 

Offering these benefits packages will certainly give you a leg up on attracting top talent. More and more companies are moving to ancillary coverage to try and entice the best talent to join their team. The key is knowing what all of the other companies in your industry are offering. If you can do your research you will have yet another leg up on the competition. 

Employee satisfaction is essential to company success. Having ancillary benefits shows potential hires that you prioritize your employees and your team.  That alone sends a huge message to potential talent. This creates a stronger hiring process as well as better employee retention. And if companies choose to go with a voluntary plan they only need to contribute a portion, therefore pleasing employees while also keeping costs down.