How can we use employee feedback or surveys to refine our plan design each year?

The best health plans evolve with your workforce. Employee feedback (collected through surveys, focus groups, or direct conversations) reveals how well your benefits meet employees’ real needs. When paired with data such as claims and utilization, this feedback helps you refine your plan each year for stronger engagement, satisfaction, and health outcomes.

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Make benefits feedback part of your annual planning cycle
Treat employee input as a core step in your renewal process, not an afterthought. Collect feedback three to six months before renewal to understand what is working, what is not, and what employees want improved.

Best practice: Align survey timing with your renewal and open enrollment schedule so insights directly shape next year’s plan design.

Ask the right questions—simple, specific, and actionable
Keep surveys short (10 to 15 questions) and focused on the factors that drive satisfaction and use. Core topics should include:

• Access: Is it easy to get care? Do you know where to start?
• Affordability: Are costs predictable and manageable?
• Experience: Is the plan easy to understand and use?
• Value: Do your benefits meet your needs and those of your family?
• Engagement: How often have you used primary, virtual, or mental health care?
  Include open-ended questions as well, since qualitative feedback often reveals barriers that numbers alone cannot.
  
  

Segment responses by employee class or location
Different groups—hourly, salaried, remote, or part-time—often experience benefits differently. Segmenting responses helps you uncover trends and equity gaps.

Example: If hourly employees report affordability issues while salaried staff do not, consider increasing employer contributions or adding a MEC plus primary care option for that group.

Connect feedback to real data
Combine employee sentiment with claims and utilization data to understand what drives perceptions.

Example:

• If employees report difficulty accessing care and data shows high ER use, you may need to expand primary or virtual care access.
• If employees are confused about benefits and preventive care utilization is low, your communication strategy may need simplification.

Linking feedback to metrics helps you address the causes, not just the symptoms.

Close the loop and communicate results
Sharing outcomes builds trust and demonstrates that employee input drives action. Summarize key takeaways and the steps you are taking.

Example message:
“You told us you wanted simpler, more affordable care. This year, we added $0 virtual primary care and expanded mental health support.”

Impact: When employees see their feedback lead to change, engagement and trust increase.

Involve your broker or analytics partners
Brokers, carriers, and TPAs can help connect survey data with claims and cost trends to measure ROI from potential changes such as lower copays, new virtual care options, or bundled services.

Best practice: Use a benefits scorecard that combines satisfaction, cost, and engagement metrics to guide continuous year-over-year improvement.

Repeat and track progress annually
Use consistent survey questions and key performance indicators to measure improvement over time. Focus on metrics such as “ease of access,” “affordability,” or “benefits satisfaction.” Even small increases in engagement often lead to lower turnover and better health outcomes.

Vitable provides employers with insight into how employees engage with care by tracking primary care use, virtual visits, and mental health participation. These metrics demonstrate how $0 access impacts satisfaction and costs. Vitable also supports employers with post-launch feedback tools and dashboards, helping you measure impact and refine plan design each year.

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 Employee feedback is one of your most valuable data sources.

• Ask focused, relevant questions.
• Combine feedback with data to uncover real opportunities.
• Share results and take visible action.

When you listen and respond, employees feel heard, and your plan becomes something they trust and value. With Vitable’s primary-care-first model, feedback turns into measurable improvements in health, satisfaction, and retention year after year.

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