yeah87 t1_iujq6id wrote on October 31, 2022 at 9:10 PM

An underutilized benefit some companies offer is a Benefits or Health Advocate. I basically call them about any questionable issues on my bill, give them permission to speak on my behalf, and they spend the day on hold and figuring out what's up. Sometimes there's nothing wrong, but they can at least explain what's going on to me.

ziibar t1_iuk3p7e wrote on October 31, 2022 at 10:53 PM

I agree with this 100%. I recently had a claim denied without reason (we had pre- authorization even), and after I reached out to my company's Benefits manager, they had the claim paid in 4 days. I was shocked at how easy it was.

The Benefits team speaks for all the employees signed up with the insurance company... That can be a huge amount of leverage.

Raisin_Bomber t1_iuk5ddo wrote on October 31, 2022 at 11:06 PM

The leverage scales with the size of the company too. At my major uni of 30,000 employees, some say the benefits coordinator holds more power than the Board of Regents when it comes to dealing with the insurance company.

alienman t1_iuk6rhr wrote on October 31, 2022 at 11:17 PM

Oh wait. I thought Benefits was just the division of HR that merely manages contracts and accounts with benefit providers. I didn’t know they offered advocacy!!