CHARLESTON, S.C., May 29, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Benefitfocus, Inc.
(NASDAQ: BNFT), a leading cloud-based benefits management platform
and services provider, today announced the release of its 2019
Consumer Benefits Coverage Index™ Report. The report offers insight
into how well U.S. workers' benefits meet their expected needs. It
was created using Benefitfocus' proprietary Consumer Benefits
Coverage Index ("the Index"), which was launched in April 2019, to measure and evaluate U.S. consumer
spending on employee benefits. The report's findings indicate most
Americans may have insufficient protection in key areas.
According to the report, the typical U.S. consumer's employee
benefits portfolio is out of balance due to a lack of coverage in
two major classes of voluntary benefits on the Index: wealth and
lifestyle.
The Index organizes voluntary benefits – defined as any
non-medical benefits offered through an employer but paid for
partially or solely by the consumer – into three primary
categories:
- Health products supplement core medical coverage; the
category includes traditional insurance products like dental and
vision, as well as newer offerings like health advocacy.
- Wealth products help consumers protect and/or replace
their income; the category includes insurance products like life
and accident, as well as tax-advantages health savings accounts and
flexible spending accounts.
- Lifestyle products address a variety of other consumer
needs; the category includes products like pet insurance, legal
insurance and identity theft protection services.
Each category on the Index is assigned a score reflecting the
average spend by a consumer in the category relative to their peer
group. Scores can fall in one of three ranges that approximate
optimal and sub-optimal coverage based on how similar or dissimilar
an individual's coverage is to their peer group.
The Index report shows that the typical U.S. consumer has an
optimal-range score in health, but sub-optimal-range scores in
wealth and lifestyle. The results were sampled from the industry's
largest benefits platform with over 25 million consumers and
representative of the entire U.S. population.
"Often, consumers are on auto-pilot when it comes to
researching, buying and using their benefits. There is a
significant gap in the American workforce around truly
understanding benefits coverage and value, " says Ray August, President & CEO of Benefitfocus.
"We believe knowledge is power, and this report is meant to open
dialogue across the benefits ecosystem about opportunities to help
consumers raise their benefits IQ so they can make smart decisions
and protect their total well-being."
The report also looks at the Index across various demographic
groups, as well as three distinct worker persona groups,
highlighting key differences in benefit spending and coverage
situations.
The full report can be found here. Benefitfocus will hold a
webinar on Thursday, June 6,
highlighting the report's key findings and providing top takeaways
for employers and their advisors. Visit here to register.
About Benefitfocus
Benefitfocus (NASDAQ: BNFT) unifies
the entire U.S. benefits industry on a single technology platform
to protect consumers' health, wealth, lifestyle and property. Our
powerful cloud-based software, data-driven insights and
thoughtfully-designed services, enable employers, insurance brokers
and carriers to simplify the complexity of benefits administration
and deliver a world-class benefits experience. Learn more at
www.benefitfocus.com, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Safe Harbor Statement
Except for historical
information, all of the statements, expectations, and assumptions
contained in this press release are forward-looking statements.
Actual results or performance might differ materially from those
explicit or implicit in the forward-looking statements. Important
factors that could cause actual results to differ materially
include: the need to innovate and provide useful products and
services; our ability to compete effectively; the immature and
volatile nature of the market for our products and services; our
ability to recruit and retain qualified personnel and maintain our
culture; management of growth; risks related to changing healthcare
and other applicable regulations; privacy; security and other risks
associated with our business; and the other risk factors set forth
from time to time in our SEC filings, copies of which are
available free of charge within the Investor Relations section of
the Benefitfocus website
at http://investor.benefitfocus.com/sec-filings or upon
request from our investor relations
department. Benefitfocus assumes no obligation and does
not intend to update these forward-looking statements, except as
required by law.
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SOURCE Benefitfocus, Inc.