Wednesday, June 12, 2019

Completing Healthcare Post Acquisition Integration

By Raymond Stewart


Small and large companies merge all the time. When they do, there is an incredible task ahead of both as they begin to pull together the different systems used for human resources, customer service, and others. Employee benefits are one area that needs special attention because mishandling it may cause discord and even an exodus of important team members. Doing proper healthcare post acquisition integration takes time and effort to be done with minimal negative results.

The tech that is used to track employee records is important and needs to be able to be modified to include benefits from both sets of employees. Some companies will opt to keep using both systems until a single employee benefits package can be acquired. The database often needs to be able to import the records of both companies in order to provide salary and benefits as needed.

Since the two companies are now combined, they have a new number of employees to negotiate with the health care providers. The executives need to be involved because this is a significant expense for the company. Simply rolling all employees into an existing plan often results in discord and will cost the company in lost talent as dissatisfied employees seek jobs elsewhere.

For this integration to be successful, a benefits review needs to happen. Both insurance companies will send representatives and work with the HR staff in coming up with a better deal that includes the larger set of workers. This may take months to accomplish since everything from the benefits offered to the cost the company or employees will have to pay may change from the previous plans.

Do an employee benefits survey. This not only gives the HR staff a great amount of valuable information on what options the employees desire the most but also gives the employees a stake in the process. Simply being asked what they want is a great way to increase employee satisfaction with the process.

Singing up for a new plan is not easy. Get the insurance company to send reps to help with the process. They can train HR staff to answer questions about the options and how to fill out the form. Having prefilled forms will help speed up the process. The costs and options should be easy to understand and staff should be able to help guide people to the right choice based on their own family situation.

Once everything is in place, it is time to have another survey. This one will help point out flaws in the system of signing people up. It can also provide feedback on how satisfied everyone is with the new plan. Don't expect everyone to be thrilled, but you can gauge if the new plan works for the majority of people based on the cost and options.

Mergers are a complicated and cumbersome process. Keeping the employees happy is something that can be accomplished by including them in the process of setting up new health care plans and getting everyone signed up together. Losing a valued benefit will cause discord and knowing this can prevent a revolt from valued staff.




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