Hiring a Consultant

If you want to get plenty of information and competitive offers from vendors but don't want to spend a lot of time doing the legwork and analysis, hiring a consultant may be an option for you. Remember, though, consultants can be expensive. Try to do as much legwork on your own as possible to cut down on your consultant's billable hours.

Save Money One easy way to save on billable hours from your consultant is to prepare your own census of employee information. This will be a must for any health insurance agent or company to have, and it's easy to put together. Having your consultant do it with information you'll have to provide anyway is not a good use of your money.

List of services. Your consultant's involvement in the benefit research process can be as deep or limited as you want it to be. Here's a list of services that your consultant can provide for you:

• prepare your employee census
• contact insurance companies and agencies to get quotes for your group
• help you evaluate proposals from the insurance companies on the basis of cost and coverage
• help you negotiate with the insurance companies
• help you communicate benefits information to employees
• assist you with administration and enrollment

When at all possible, do as much as you can up front to keep the consultant's costs down. Use their expertise when it's really needed, such as when you're trying to balance good coverage with good prices.