To prevent information overload from introducing voluntary benefits in combination with a move to a high-deductible plan, some benefits consultants recommend that employers add benefits in stages, coupled with a concerted communication and education campaign.

“When we sit down with the client and customize a strategic plan for them, usually over a three- to five-year period, we usually recommend adding two or three new voluntary benefits products at a time based on their employee population’s needs,” said Ron Agypt, chief sales officer of employee benefits at Hub International Ltd. in Chicago.

Then, when introducing these additional benefits offerings to employees, “what we’re really finding to be extremely valuable is the communication-education process,” he said. “You’ve really got to think about the consumer — the employee. We’ve found that employees have started to feel the pinch of higher premiums and in many cases lower benefits. Voluntary benefits can buffer employees’ anxiety from greater uncertainty; they just feel better when they have the voluntary product.”

Beacon Health System, a Hub client, used this staged strategy when it introduced an HDHP earlier this year as an option beside a preferred provider organization plan, according to Annette Vota, benefits manager for the hospital system with locations in South Bend and Elkhart, Indiana. Using financial incentives including significantly lower employee premium contributions and depositing seed money into HSAs, 40% of Beacon’s 4,500 benefits-eligible employees enrolled in the HDHP, she said.

Employees who elected the HDHP with either a $2,000 single deductible, $3,000 employee-plus-one deductible, or a $4,000 family deductible received $400, $600 or $800, respectively, in their health savings accounts. Premium contributions for the HDHP were approximately 40% lower than for the PPO plan, which offered deductibles of $600 for single coverage, $1,200 for employee-plus-one coverage and $1,800 for family coverage.

Later this year, Beacon will offer those employees the additional options of accident coverage with a sickness confinement rider, critical illness with a cancer rider, and permanent life insurance with a long-term care rider.

“We’re giving our employees these different options because we’re finding that benefits are not one-size-fits-all,” Ms. Vota said, adding that in addition to benefit communications, employees will receive individual counseling so they can “craft their benefits portfolios to match their individual needs.”

“One-on-one provides the best opportunity to educate, because people can ask questions,” Mr. Agypt said.