EAPs are an intrinsic part of group risk products, but how do you assess them? What are the tax implications? Paul Avis explains.
Materials for promotion can cover a range of traditional media, such as posters and wallet cards, flyers, case studies (to illustrate the value) and employer guides on specific health topics. Webcasts and interactive guides can enhance communications and on-site support at employee fairs serves to help the promotion of the services.
Insurers that want their services to be used have embraced the idea of supporting the employee provision through such communications programmes. When an employer is choosing whether or not to use an insurer version of the EAP, this has to be considered. If not fully promoted, the EAP will not serve its purpose as an effective employee benefit.
At a base level all will have telephone counselling and ideally will offer a set number of face to face counselling sessions. All should offer more sessions on a pay basis for the cases that warrant them.
More advanced EAPs may offer initial Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) assessments, if the traditional face-to-face session suggest this approach would be beneficial. Additional benefits such as online resources and health risk assessments (HRA) are becoming widespread and can assist the organisation’s health and wellbeing strategies.
Critical incident support should be available for events that significantly impact the workplace, such as a robbery or unexpected death. This is usually on a ‘paid for’ basis but, as with other aspects of EAP, this can support the employer’s duty of care.
The most advanced offerings have online and telephone legal support, offering compliant documentation, legislative updates, advice on tax and health and safety issues, and case-by-case support for individual situations. This legal aspect may help employers reduce legal costs from retained or outsourced legal services, so could benefit organisations of all sizes.
Adviser considerations
So, what should advisers consider? Savings on direct-pay versions of EAPs can be made, but only alongside a professional evaluation of the alternatives offered by insurers.
Should an insurer be chosen, it is important to remember that terms and conditions can change at each review period. It is important to check regularly for more competitive offers and even remove the EAP, if it is no longer financially viable.
Bearing in mind that many insured products (group risk, medical or liability) may have these services embedded, advisers need to evaluate each proposition to ensure the right EAP is put in place.
As well as ensuring all employees are covered (at nil or minimal cost), the depth and breadth of the communications programme should be assessed for both the quality and quantity of materials available. Additional services such as critical incident, HRA, legal and CBT accessibility may all be factors in decision making.
The provision and quality of management reports for both EAP and other services also needs to be assessed. The insurer’s willingness to share their insurance and third party services management information (MI) can aid an organisation’s strategic targeting of health issues. The most rounded insurers offer preventative guides and specialist support, either from in-house specialists or their third-party suppliers.
The adage ‘prevention is better than cure’ reflects the importance of the EAP to group insurance. Canada Life’s Group Income Protection claims experience for 2012 showed that almost 30% of claims were for mental health reasons.
Any support offering that may reduce such incidences should be explored, and full and effective use of an EAP can help to create a happy, healthy and productive workplace.
Paul Avis is marketing director at Canada Life Group Insurance
