Survey Results Report
ELCIC Group Services Inc. (“GSI”), in its role as Benefits Plan sponsor for the ELCIC Group Benefits Plan (“Benefits Plan”) regularly monitors each of its components. As part of this process, the Board of Directors (“the Board) regularly receives and reviews statistical reports detailing how members are using the Benefits Plan, as well as financial information in terms of how the Benefits Plan is running. Adjustments are regularly made to the Benefits Plan contract and design, based on this process.
Background
Approximately every five years, the Board undertakes a detailed look at the Benefits Plan, which might include comparison to the external market, a more in-depth review of utilization information, and consideration of how the Benefits Plan fits into ELCIC’s organizational and compensation philosophies.
The journey into examining the health and dental components of the Benefits Plan began in early 2015, with an educational presentation on the pharmacy landscape. This presentation provided the Board with insight into this rapidly changing and growing industry, which accounts for the majority of claims paid by the Benefits Plan. The Board then looked more closely at ELCIC’s claims trends and the related premium rate increases over the past decade.
Based on this research, and with the assistance of benefits consultants, the Board began to explore options to update the Benefits Plan’s health and dental components, in order to incorporate features that could provide greater flexibility, while also addressing fiscal responsibility. Ensuring that the Benefits Plan will be sustainable into the future was identified as an important guiding principle to this process.
To this end, the Board put forward its ideas for updating the Benefits Plan in October 2018. Some Benefits Plan members and congregations provided feedback to these suggestions, and because members indicated that they consider the Benefits plan to be a key component of their compensation, the Board felt that it was important provide a greater opportunity for feedback. To achieve this, GSI sent out a survey and held a series of consultations.
Survey
On December 16, 2019, Benefits Plan members (299 Rostered and 121 Non-Rostered) were sent a survey with benefits-related questions, as well as a brief section to collect basic demographic information. In the end, 34% of Rostered and 22% of Non-Rostered Benefits Plan members completed the survey.
At the same time, 347 employers subscribing to the Benefits Plan were sent a survey with benefits- related questions and a brief demographic section. 28% of employers completed the survey.
We sincerely thank all survey participants for their time and thoughtful comments. In the next section, we are pleased to provide an overview of what we heard from Benefits Plan Members and employers.
You may download the full Survey Results Report here.