Employers are increasingly saving money and time while lowering liability by putting more of their organization's processes online.

Before the BerniePortal™, though, employers had few good options for how to do this with the administration of health-related benefits.  All too often, this was a paper-intensive process with mistakes made all along the way.  These mistakes were costly in terms of time and money both during the process and later when employees and spouses did not get their ID cards on time.  The difficulty of keeping up with all of the paper also increased employer liability when things invariably failed to get recorded correctly.  The fact that employees' spouses are often involved in the decision-making around these benefits only compounded the problem and the unhappiness with the process.

With the BerniePortal™, employers are now able to move all of their benefits administration online.  Besides saving time for the office manager or HR personnel, employers save the time of all employees who used to have to deal with filling out stacks of benefits paperwork and enrollment forms each year and for changes during the year.  Spouses are now happy because they know they're getting all of the information, and they have access to it in a year-round, private-labeled benefits portal.  

Bottom line: no one likes filling out a lot of paperwork, and employers can now have happier employees while saving time, saving money, and lowering their liability with the BerniePortal™.

Before Bernard Health, most employers were faced with health insurance brokers who were dis-incented from helping them offer Health Savings Account-based health plans.  This is because the broker often made more money in commissions the higher the insurance premiums were.  With HSAs, premiums can be more than 50% less than with traditional health insurance, which hurt the traditional insurance broker.  Furthermore, HSAs represent change, and even though it is generally a good change, that meant more work for the broker.  So, more work and less money made it hard for the traditional health broker to help employers and their employees with HSAs to the degree necessary for success.

With Bernard Health, employers now have access to a team of trusted advisors that views its role in the world to be a most trusted advisor when it comes to planning how to pay for medical expenses.  That is a lot different than an insurance salesperson, or an employee benefits consultant.  Employers still need someone who can broker the insurance, and who can help to ensure their health benefits are competitive in the marketplace.  That said, the high and increasing cost of health insurance has created a strong demand for a most trusted advisor in planning how to pay for health expenses.  The need for that most trusted advisor is increasingly proving to be the most important of employers' needs in this area.

This is the need Bernard identified and stepped up to fill.  The result after over 5 years dedicated to crafting the right HSA message and pulling together the right, proprietary HSA support technology and services is a track record of 81% HSA participation when our clients offer an HSA-based health plan next to a traditional plan.  Industry averages are in the 7% range.  

How do we do it?  Apple Computer offered the iPad after lots of other companies tried to offer tablet computing with little success.  The other tablets had a lot of what the iPad had, but apparently did not have it quite right.  Apple got it exactly right and is experiencing huge success.  It is no different here.  Through a lot of trial-and-error, we've gotten this exactly right, and our clients experience huge success with HSAs.

Before BerniePerks™, employers had no way to help their current and former employees evaluate non-group health insurance options.

Now, with BerniePerks™, employers can pay a low monthly fee to Bernard's retail store team of non-commissioned, licensed, expert advisors.  In return, employees and their families get access to the best advice for a vastly subsidized rate.

Small employers and retail/restaurant establishments that are generally not able to offer group health insurance because of cost are now able easily to offer a health program to employees in the way of individual expert advisory services from Bernard's retail team of all private market and government provided options.  The employer can also provide, at its election, a tax-free monthly reimbursement amount towards the cost of individual coverage for each employee.  Bernard administers everything and makes it easy.

Larger employers who are asked about Tenncare, other state Medicaid programs, COBRA, non-group private options for dependents, and Medicare can now have a trusted place where those employees and former employees can go for independent, objective, and non-commissioned advisory services.  Many larger employers find that besides saving time and having happier employees, they can save a lot of money, too.  Why is that, you ask?  Because often what is in the best financial interest of the individual employee and their family also ends up being in the best interest of the employer itself.   

Let us do an analysis for your organization to see how the right BerniePerks program might work for you.

Often when an employer sees how Bernard can help them save money, save time, and gain peace of mind with online benefits enrollment, 81% HSA participation, and BerniePerks, the employer wants to know a Bernard team member will continue to advise them in the rapidly changing world of health insurance.

As such, most of our clients elect to pay Bernard by directing the ongoing brokerage commissions related to their organization's health insurance program to Bernard.  When that happens, we assist the client in all of the traditional brokerage functions such as quoting the insurance, providing support when there are claims issues, maintaining compliance with state and federal guidelines related to benefit plans, and maintaining a strong and mutually beneficial relationship.

Sometimes an employer even wants us to assume the advisory role related to their health plan even though they are not ready to offer HSAs this year.  It may be that the timing is not right, but the employer knows they want to move to HSAs in a future year and they want us to help them prepare employees for the transition.  

If you choose to work with us in this capacity, you can know that we are extremely dedicated to being your most trusted advisor when it comes to planning how to pay for medical expenses.  We will not "diversify" into 401(k)'s or property and casualty insurance.  Our view is that at this time of increasing health insurance complexity, employers more than ever need an advisor who is backed by a company like Bernard Health that is 100% dedicated to understanding and improving this ever-changing field.  That is the reason we exist, and we believe you will find that working with us is not 10% better than with someone else, but 10 times better.