By Ruth Berkowitz, VP at Liazon Corporation
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Each year, we reach out to the employees who have used private exchanges to find out what they think of the experience. We also use this as an opportunity to find out what they think about their benefits, including how aware they are of their company’s funding contribution. The results are always illuminating, especially when we track attitudes and usage patterns over time.
For background, a private exchange is an online store or marketplace in which employees purchase benefits using funding contributed by their employers. There are various exchange models available, each with different features and differentiators such as decision support tools, consumer education, and employer reporting.
Projections place private exchange adoption at over 40 million by 2018, as more employers take notice of their cost-savings advantages and streamlined benefits administration, while improving employee satisfaction.
The results below are based on survey findings from Liazon’s population of employers and employees, and the learnings can help the industry understand how exchanges can perform in the marketplace in light of existing predictions about adoption