Small employers should make a free annual review of their benefits setup a standard part of their yearly routine, according to John Zabasky, CEO of WorXsiteHR Insurance Solutions, Inc. The review, which Zabasky describes as a standing habit rather than a one-time favor, examines how a plan is being used, where workers encounter friction, and whether the employer is still getting a fair deal on cost. He recommends employers schedule the review automatically each year instead of waiting until something goes wrong.
“Most employers only look hard at their benefits when something breaks,” Zabasky said. “I want employers checking in every year, on purpose, whether anything is wrong or not.”
Zabasky distinguishes the annual checkup from a sales call. He describes it as a plain look at how a plan is working, not a pitch for a new one. The process should walk through enrollment numbers, claims patterns, and worker feedback directly with the employer. The idea, he said, grew out of his experience working with lower income, part-time, and seasonal workforces through the HealthWorX Plan, for which WorXsiteHR is the exclusive third-party administrator.
“With seasonal and part-time workforces, things change fast,” he said. “Turnover changes. Hours change. A plan that fit in January can be a bad fit by September, and nobody notices until renewal.”
According to Zabasky, a good annual checkup gives employers three things: a plain-language summary of how the plan performed, a short list of any changes worth making, and a direct answer on whether costs are still in line with what similar employers are paying. The goal is to catch small problems before they become renewal-time surprises.
“I would rather flag a problem in June than have an employer find out at renewal that their workers stopped using the plan months ago,” he said.
HealthWorX is a no-cost medical plan, subsidized by a non-profit, built to give lower income, part-time, and seasonal workers access to healthcare they can actually use. WorXsiteHR administers the plan for employers who want it. Zabasky said an annual checkup habit is one way employers can make sure that access does not quietly erode over time.
“A benefit only works if people use it,” he said. “A checkup is how you make sure that stays true year after year, not just in the first year.”
Zabasky said employers do not need a complicated process to get value out of an annual review. He recommends keeping the format simple: a short meeting, a plain summary, and a small number of recommendations an employer can act on right away.
“You are not trying to hand someone a hundred-page report,” he said. “You want them to walk away knowing three things: what is working, what is not, and what to do about it.”
Zabasky started WorXsiteHR in 2013 as the exclusive third-party administrator for the HealthWorX Plan. He holds a BA and an MA in History from UMBC, an MBA from Pepperdine, and a PhD in Information Systems from Concordia, and is currently a PhD candidate in Health Sciences at Liberty University.
