Personalized Benefits Statements Best Way to Communicate Employee Health Plans Says New Study BPS&M and Acordia Find Access to Essential Employee Information, Like Comparative Quality of Care, Increases with Employers Size and Willingness to Use Internet CHICAGO, April 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- A new national survey, citing a slowdown in the increase of healthcare costs (down to less than 12 percent in 2004, from 15 percent in 2003), also named key information like real costs, quality of care, and communication tools as factors that determine employees' comprehension of their healthcare benefits. The study, "2005 Trends in Employer Sponsored Health Benefits Survey Analysis," attributes the slowdown in costs to a combination of factors such as cost saving measures and market response after years of rapidly increasing prices. It also found that personalized benefits statements contributed greatly to employee comprehension of their plans. The survey was conducted by Wells Fargo companies Acordia, Inc and Bryan, Pendleton, Swats & McAllister (BPS&M, a Wells Fargo Institutional Trust's benefits consulting group). "It's clear our respondents are using cost-containment strategies to meet today's challenges, but do so more now by shifting to higher copays, coinsurance, and out-of-pocket user costs," said Dennis Donahue, Acordia's national benefits practice leader. "Respondents also appear cautious about adopting Consumer Driven Health Plans (CDHPs), citing issues ranging from the complexity of communicating the plans, the lack of attractive pricing, and the concerns about their own HRIS capabilities. However, interest is certainly gaining momentum." The study concludes that if employers hope to create informed healthcare consumers, they must show employees what healthcare benefits really cost, information on the quality of healthcare providers, and the tools needed to make wise healthcare buying decisions. Key findings include: Communication Methods -- How employers communicate about healthcare plans influences how well employees understand the true cost of their benefits. Meetings were given the highest value ranking as a communication method among employers. "The Internet is a good resource for information but nothing is more effective than employee meetings for effective health plan enrollment," said Donahue. "During the enrollment process, employees benefit most by receiving initial information on the Internet, but they need the personal touch through group or person-to-person meetings to ensure that they understand their benefits." The study found, however, that employees better understood the value of their benefits when their employer used personalized benefits statements or the Internet as the primary means of communicating with employees. Personalized benefits statements may well be the best way to help employees understand the dollar value of their health plans. "Personalized benefits statements -- or total compensation statements -- seem to be the best way to let employees know how much a particular benefit costs, but they don't provide detailed plan information. For that, you need a summary plan description, which could be available in print or online," said Kathie Tange-duPre, BPS&M Communications Consultant. "Making summary plan descriptions and forms available online is cost-effective for employers because they don't need to spend money on inventory and storage -- and convenient for employees and HR." Cost of Poor Quality Care -- Since the cost of poor quality care is a "major driver" of healthcare costs, an important step in empowering employees to make wise purchasing decisions is to provide them with comparative information about the quality of different providers. Yet, less than half of employers surveyed requested quality of care data from their broker or consultant on networks and physicians. Fewer than four percent ranked healthcare quality issues as a "major issue" and only one in four considered it a significant one. "New data mining tools, benchmarks and technology are just now helping to get our arms around the real cost drivers of continued medical inflation," said Donahue. Tools for Educating Employees -- Larger organizations are more willing to educate employees on healthcare costs. Respondents with more than 500 employees were more than twice as likely to provide employee education in print media. Size is also a factor in an organization's reliance on the Internet to communicate. Respondents with more than 500 employees were four times more likely to provide Internet-based media than those with 500 or fewer employees. "Smaller employers simply may not be giving enough credit to the impact of the Internet," said Donahue. "We know that young, computer-savvy individuals are entering the workforce every day. The number of Internet users is growing. Within a few years, employers will be hiring young people who will not know what it was like to live without the Internet," said Tange-duPre. The tenth employee benefits survey conducted by BPS&M surveyed 414 employers representing 378,631 employees, of whom 339,105 are eligible for healthcare benefits. Respondents represent a variety of organizations of all sizes and from all regions of the U.S., with a concentration among private employers with 1 to 500 employees. Wells Fargo Institutional Trust Services (ITS) provides benefits consulting, health benefit services, investments, retirement plan management and comprehensive trust and custody solutions for institutional clients. Its benefits consulting group, BPS&M, provides a full range of services focusing on the design, implementation, administration and communication of retirement plans, health and welfare programs and nonqualified deferred compensation plans. Acordia, Inc., a subsidiary of Wells Fargo & Company, is the world's fifth largest insurance brokerage and the largest bank-owned insurance broker in the U.S., with over 150 offices in 38 states. Its 4,500 insurance professionals place in excess of $8.5 billion of risk premiums with expertise in property, casualty, benefits, international, personal lines and life products. Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified financial services company with $428 billion in assets, providing banking, insurance, investments, mortgage and consumer finance to more than 23 million customers from more than 6,000 stores and the Internet (wellsfargo.com) across North America and elsewhere internationally. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. is the only bank in the United States to receive the highest possible credit rating, "Aaa," from Moody's Investors Service. For complete survey results: Amanda Kelly at 615-665-5345, . DATASOURCE: Wells Fargo & Company CONTACT: media, Susan Stanley of Wells Fargo, +1-415-947-3994 Web site: http://www.wellsfargo.com/

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