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Ancillary Coverage

Dental, vision, life, disability and the voluntary lines — the benefits that decide how a package feels to the people enrolled in it.

The other lines

A few dollars a month each. Most of how the package feels.

Medical dominates the budget, so it dominates the attention. But employees judge a benefits package on whether the dental plan covers their crown and whether disability would actually replace their income — and those lines cost a fraction of the medical spend to fix.

Dental

The plan employees use most and complain about most. What matters is the annual maximum, whether major services are covered at fifty percent, and whether the network includes the dentist they already see.

Vision

Inexpensive and disproportionately appreciated. An exam allowance plus a frame or contact allowance covers what most people actually claim.

Group life & AD&D

Usually a multiple of salary, often at no cost to the employee. Watch the guaranteed issue limit — above it, employees must answer health questions, and most never get round to it.

Short-term disability

Income replacement for a few weeks to a few months. In states running a paid leave programme this needs coordinating carefully, or you buy the same benefit twice.

Long-term disability

The most under-appreciated line on the sheet. The definition of disability — own occupation versus any occupation — matters more than the percentage figure everyone compares.

Voluntary lines

Accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity, legal, pet. Employee-paid, so they cost the employer nothing but administration — which is the reason to be selective rather than offer all of them.

Two things worth doing at renewal

Bundle deliberately, not automatically

Carriers discount for holding dental, vision, life and disability together, and the discount is real. It is not always larger than the difference between the best standalone dental plan and the bundled one. We price both, because on a group of forty the gap is occasionally several thousand dollars a year in the direction nobody expected.

Check the rate guarantee, not just the rate

A two or three year rate guarantee on ancillary lines removes them from the renewal conversation entirely for that period. Given how much attention the medical renewal takes, that is worth more than a marginally lower first-year rate.

Have the ancillary lines reviewed

Request a review

Send the renewal, and we will tell you what we would change

No fee, and no obligation to move the business. Most employers who contact us are simply trying to work out whether the number in front of them is a fair one.

We reply to enquiries within one business day. We do not sell or share contact details.

Waugh Agency has advised employers on health and welfare benefits since 1985. Our full site — including Medicare, individual and travel coverage — is at waughagency.com.