A Closer Look at Benefits Administration in H1 2012: Part 1

Amy L. Gurchensky, HRO Research Analyst, NelsonHall

Earlier this year, I wrote a two part blog about how the benefits administration market was poised for a good year. Part 1 highlighted Q1 earnings results and part 2 focused on other signs indicating success such as acquisitions, hiring, and surveys.

Halfway through the year, signs are still indicating that 2012 will be a solid year for many benefits administration service providers.

 Aon Hewitt: For Q2, its Outsourcing segment reported organic revenue growth for the third consecutive quarter. In fact, the 6% reported was the company’s highest organic revenue growth rate for Outsourcing in several years. While Outsourcing revenues consist of more than just benefits administration, much of its growth was for benefits-related point services such as dependent eligibility audits. Its active employee exchange is set to be launched in Q4, which will begin to realize revenues in 2013.

Towers Watson: Towers Watson’s Benefits segment has been consist with positive organic revenue growth beyond the last four quarters. It’s Technology and Administrative Solutions segment revenues grew mid-single digits for the period ending June 30^th and its pipeline is very healthy. The company’s Exchange Solutions segment, which was created after the acquisition of Extend Health, has had strong sales with a record number of participants enrolling, exceeding the 30% previously forecasted.

Mercer: Organic revenues for Mercer’s Outsourcing segment had another positive quarter, but were lower than reported in Q1. The suite of health care exchanges it launched earlier this year, which includes a retiree medical exchange, is expected to have ~500,000 employees enrolled across all three exchanges in 2013. 

Morneau Shepell: Canadian-headquartered Morneau Shepell has reported double-digit revenue growth for the last four consecutive quarters. In Q2, its pension and benefits outsourcing segment, which makes up ~25% of its revenues, had the largest contribution along with its health management business. Its growth is from new client wins, and its acquisition of SBC Systems has led to new business in the U.S.

According to the NelsonHall HR Outsourcing Market Forecast: 2012 – 2016, the projected growth rate for the benefits administration service line is modest compared to areas still experiencing rapid growth like RPO. Since benefits administration is the largest revenue generator in HRO, even moderate single-digit growth will add billions more to its total.

Later this week, look for more benefits administration mid-year updates from TRO and H&W service providers in Part 2.

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Benefits Administration Poised for a Good Year: Part 2

Earlier this week, I highlighted revenue growth reported by benefits administration service providers. In addition to the positive earnings reported, there are other signs indicating that 2012 will be good to benefits administration including acquisitions, hiring, and surveys.

There have been a few strategic acquisitions that will boost benefits administration revenues for vendors this year. For example, ADP’s benefits administration business will see a nice increase from SHPS, which had annualized revenues of ~$80m. Morneau Shepell’s acquisition of SBC Systems Company will modestly increase its revenues, and more importantly will strengthen the company’s presence in the U.S. Finally and most recently announced is Towers Watson’s acquisition of Extend Health, which will enhance its benefits administration offering by adding exchange services for retirees.

Another positive sign of expected future growth is the hiring of personnel. Towers Watson announced that it will be hiring employees within all of its segments. The benefits segment, specifically, will get an additional 172 employees, 60 of which will be for technology & administration solutions (TAS).

Finally, regardless of the constitutionality of the PPACA, benefits administration will likely flourish as compliance becomes increasingly complex as new regulations are issued or as older ones are amended for other federal laws such as COBRA, HIPAA, FMLA, etc.

A recent study by ADP cites that health care reform and compliance complexity are expected to lead to more benefits administration outsourcing. The survey, which included input from 504 HR and benefits decision makers in the U.S., found that ensuring compliance is one of the top reasons cited for outsourcing benefits administration.

In a recent article, Mercer is also advising employers to act to ensure compliance and to implement cost-control strategies now regardless of health care reform. It recommends the following, which are all dollar signs for benefits administration service providers:

• Managing the cost of dependent coverage, which will strengthen demand for dependent eligibility audits and verifications
• Shifting to CDHPs, which will lead to an increase for reimbursement account administration services including FSAs, HSAs, and HRAs
• Offering cost-competitive health coverage, which will boost demand for private health care exchanges for both active and retired employees
• Encouraging a healthier workforce, which will lead to the implementation of wellness programs (i.e., health assessments, biometric screenings, etc.).

Benefits administration is one of the oldest foundations of HR business process outsourcing and it is also one of the largest segments in revenues and yet it remains vital, adaptive, competitive, and ready for continued growth!

Amy L. Gurchensky, Research Analyst, HRO, NelsonHall

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Benefits Administration Poised for a Good Year: Part 1

If last quarter’s earnings reports are an indication of what will continue in 2012, then benefits administration service providers will have a good year.

Some of the financial highlights include Morneau Shepell’s record growth for Q1 of 22% year-over-year (y-o-y). Modest growth was reported elsewhere, but it’s significant in light of the economy and pending health care reform legislation. Providers with modest growth include Aon Hewitt, Towers Watson, Mercer, and T. Rowe Price.

Aon Hewitt’s outsourcing segment reported 3% y-o-y growth, 3% organic growth. Its organic growth began last quarter after four consecutive quarters of either flat or negative organic growth. New client wins are for its retiree health care exchange offering, dependent eligibility audits, and absence management services.

Towers Watson’s benefits segment reported 2% y-o-y growth, 3% organic growth. Its technology & administration solutions (TAS) line of business, which incorporates majority of its benefits administration revenues, had mid-single digit constant currency growth. Towers Watson also reported some new client wins for pension administration services within its retirement business.

Mercer’s outsourcing segment reported 0% y-o-y growth, 4% organic growth. The good news is that its outsourcing segment has recovered from its steady decline of organic growth that began in Q3 2011; the bad news is that growth was from 2011 client wins that came on this quarter, so this positive level might be temporary.  However, Mercer’s health & benefits consulting segment reported strong growth of 7% y-o-y, 6% organic, as did Towers Watson, which reported low double-digit constant currency growth for its health & group benefits segment. This is significant in that this strategy work may flow downstream and result in benefits administration contract awards later this year.

T. Rowe Price, although not a TBO service provider, reported 3% y-o-y growth for its administrative segment, which includes revenues from retirement plan services (RPS). RPS consists of DB, DC, and non-qualified plan administration services.

A new company to monitor is WageWorks, a H&W service provider offering reimbursement account and COBRA administration services. It commenced its IPO of 6.5m shares of common stock for $9 per share on May 10^th.

Tune in later this week to learn about the additional signs pointing to a good year for benefits administration service providers.

Amy L. Gurchensky, Research Analyst, HRO, NelsonHall

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M&A Activity in Benefits Administration: Round 2

Following the benefits administration merger and acquisition (M&A) frenzy of 2010 that resulted in some major consolidations including Aon Hewitt, Towers Watson, Xerox/ACS and ExcellerateHRO, to name a few, are we poised to see round 2?

The second wave actually began in early 2011 and tends to consist of the more established providers, in their own right, acquiring Tier 2 health and welfare (H&W) administration companies in the U.S.  Examples include:

• Towers Watson acquiring Aliquant in January 2011
• Sedgwick, a leader in the leave of absence administration market with ~20% market share, acquiring the productivity solutions unit of Nationwide Better Health in May 2011
• Morneau Shepell, the leading total benefits outsourcing (TBO) provider in Canada, acquiring SBC Systems Company in January 2012.

As of last week, we can now add ADP to this list since it signed a definitive agreement to acquire SHPS Human Resource Solutions—a subsidiary of SHPS, Inc. ADP has actually been making key acquisitions to strengthen components within its benefits administration offering for the last 18 months. It started with Workscape, which added compensation management services, and was followed by Asparity Decision Solutions for decision support tools and analytic capabilities.

Now, the SHPS acquisition strengthens ADP’s leave administration and reimbursement account administration offerings. The HSA and HRA components will be especially important considering the rising cost of health-care and the transition toward high-deductible health plans paired with these health savings accounts.

The H&W acquisition trend is also expanding beyond the U.S. It started in September 2010, when Capita – a U.K.-based HRO vendor providing total retirement outsourcing (TRO) exclusively in the U.K. – acquired FirstAssist Services Holdings for £12.5m. Then it continued when Mercer acquired REPCA – a brokering and advising firm for health and benefits (H&B) plans – to strengthen its H&B administration offering and advisory services in France.

The remaining question on my mind is whether U.S.-based TRO providers such as ING, Great-West, T. Rowe Price, etc. plan to jump on the H&W acquisition bandwagon to provide a one-stop shop for benefits administration like Fidelity Investments.

I’m eager to see who will make the next M&A move in benefits administration.  In the meantime, it’s always fun to hear about cross-selling opportunities that resulted in contract scope expansions.  Stay tuned.

Amy L. Gurchensky, Research Analyst, HRO, NelsonHall

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EAPs: A Key to Increasing Workplace Productivity

According to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 1 out of 20 Americans were clinically depressed in 2005-2006. Since that period, economic conditions worldwide have worsened, the unemployment level has reached all-time highs, and foreclosure rates have skyrocketed. Frankly, I’m a little bit frightened to check an updated statistic on depression.

You might be thinking that those individuals who have managed to maintain their jobs at this time would be grateful. But, the truth of the matter is that the glass is quite often viewed as half empty. There are many reasons why employees suffer from mental health issues. However, instead of just identifying the source of the problem, employers should focus on offering a solution that is known to improve mental health and therefore lead to increased productivity.

That solution is Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs). In 2011, Morneau Shepell conducted a study on EAPs that had two interesting findings for HRO buyers and suppliers:

• Decreased productivity and absence costs employers ~$20,000 per year per employee
• EAP intervention resulted in a 34% reduction in costs related to lost productivity.

With HR departments outsourcing processes such as payroll to focus on more strategic activities while obtaining best-in-class practices, EAPs as an activity has long been a prime candidate for outsourcing as well. After all, many EAP issues are sensitive in nature and employees may hesitate to seek help if there’s a chance that their confidentiality could be breached.

Two HRO providers that include an EAP offering are Ceridian and Morneau Shepell. While both companies conduct business in North America, Ceridian’s primary market is the U.S., while Morneau Shepell’s is Canada. These two providers are dominating their respective target markets due to a lack of competition from other HRO service providers, not to mention having extensive EAP offerings.

For example, Morneau Shepell already offers an EAP app and most recently launched online access for its EAP clients through its workhealthlife.com website, which allows clients to:

• Confidentially request help on issues including health, family, work, financial, relationship, and legal support
• Learn more about suggested EAP support services
• Select the service and how it will be delivered.

Ceridian, on the other hand, provides services beyond common EAP offerings including aging parent counseling.

Outside North America, U.K. providers have also recognized the importance of wellness programs: Capita with its occupational health services offering and Vebnet with its health and well-being programs.

As an alternative to launching a full EAP offering, some HRO providers have implemented services to address hot topics including saving for retirement. Examples include:

• Mercer’s self-service and decision support tools including its RetireTalk and Financial Engines Income+
• Aon Hewitt’s recently launched advisory service for its defined contribution clients.

However, the secret to a productive workforce is offering services that address work, life, and health issues. While saving enough for retirement is one possible source of the problem, there are many others that can be addressed with a full EAP offering.

Amy L. Gurchensky, Research Analyst, HRO, NelsonHall

Interested in reading the latest HRO news from NelsonHall? Subscribe to our newsletter by emailing amy.gurchensky@nelson-hall.com with “HRO Insight” as the subject.

The Rise of Smartphone Apps in Benefits Administration

Over the past year, HRO service providers have launched various smartphone apps. One of the first apps I became aware of was ADP’s RUN app for small business owners. It’s been interesting monitoring the progress of this app since its launch in October 2010. Within six months, it reached 100,000 users while only available for Apple devices. It has since been made available to the Android and RIM platforms, adding even more users.

Payroll seemed like an ideal place for HRO service providers to develop apps. ADP then took it one step further and launched the ADP Mobile Solutions app, which provides users with HR, payroll, and benefits information including retirement savings information such as current 401(k) allocations, distribution percentages, account balances, and rates of return.

Towers Watson also has an app, TWGlobal50. It provides HR and benefits professionals with various information including planned pay increases, changes in employee engagement levels, talent mobility interest rates, and changes in healthcare benefit costs.

Unlike payroll, apps within benefits administration can cover a broad range of topics such as Morneau Shepell’s My EAP app, which provides the following:

• Health and wellness articles (from its workhealthlife.com website)
• Access to confidential e-counseling
• LifeSpeak On Demand video clips on a range of personal and work-related topics.

Other apps available from benefits administration providers allow users to access more personalized data. For example, Buck Consultants’ Benefits Genie Lite and Benefits Genie apps enable users to track a wide variety of health and insurance information for themselves or other family members including:

• Allergy information
• Prescription medications
• Vaccinations
• Operations
• Family history
• Physician contact information
• Benefits co-payments and deductibles, etc.

Although not an app per se, Aon Hewitt is also enabling its client employees to access their personal health and retirement information from smartphones via secure websites, allowing users to make changes to their retirement plans and even enroll for benefits.

These more interactive personalized apps make it easy for employees to stay connected and engaged as more responsibility is being shifted on individuals to manage their own retirement savings and health. Also, with healthcare reform, we are likely to see apps expanding to new areas such as healthcare exchanges.

Mobile access from any device will quickly move from a differentiator to a requirement, including for HRO. The difficulty is the development time, costs, and security challenges for services that will not likely generate new revenues as much as protect revenues and support continued growth. Technology investment decisions will be critical in staying current and still managing needed margins.

Stay tuned.

Amy L. Gurchensky, Research Analyst, HRO, NelsonHall

 

Interested in reading the latest HRO news from NelsonHall? Subscribe to our newsletter by emailing amy.gurchensky@nelson-hall.com with “HRO Insight” as the subject.