Mercer and extend health sign agreement to help employers better
manage retiree health care benefits
New york & san mateo, calif.--(business wire)--mercer, (www.mercer.com) a leading global provider of consulting, outsourcing and investments, and extend health inc., (www.extendhealth.com) operator of the largest private medicare exchange in the country, announced today that the two firms have signed a national referral agreement, effective immediately. this agreement formalizes a multi-year relationship between the two companies in which both firms have helped numerous employers design and implement innovative solutions to managing health care costs for medicare-eligible retirees while increasing retirees’ choice and buying power. terms of the agreement were not disclosed. this agreement comes at a time when us employers are struggling under the burden of ever-increasing retiree medical plan costs. according to mercer’s 2010 national survey of employer-sponsored health plans, the prevalence of medical plans for medicare-eligible retirees continued to decline in 2010. among very large employers, however, 38% still provide coverage to retirees 65 and older. “many large employers prefer to continue providing medical benefits for medicare-eligible retirees by giving retirees a subsidy to help pay for individual coverage,” said david p. rahill, us region leader for mercer health and benefits business. “for these employers, the extend health exchange solution offers an easy, effective and proven way to transition their medicare-eligible retirees to the individual market. purchasing individual plans on a health insurance exchange empowers retirees with more choice and personalization in health plans. at the same time, employers can better manage costs and cap future liabilities.” “mercer is one of the leading hr and benefits consultants in the world and has been a trusted advocate of extend health as we have helped employers honor their commitment to providing retiree health care benefits,” said bryce williams, ceo of extend health. “we believe employers nationwide will embrace the combination of mercer’s deep knowledge and experience in retiree health care consulting along with access to extend health’s proven, powerful and scalable exchange solution.” together, mercer and extend health can relieve employers of the administrative burden associated with managing retiree insurance issues and annual plan review and renewal. both mercer and extend health will manage retiree communication at the time of the transition as well as annually for renewals during the medicare annual enrollment period, and provide ongoing customer service and advocacy with health insurance carriers. mercer will also provide consulting expertise to employers in the early part of the transition as they evaluate the move to a defined-contribution model, educating them on the actuarial and legal considerations and working through the design of retiree subsidies. these calculations can be complex, especially for large employers that have a number of retiree populations that are already part of different benefit programs. mercer’s clients will be able to offer retirees access to the extend health private medicare exchange, which enables end-to-end electronic transmission of enrollment information between the exchange and insurance carriers. this interoperability promotes accurate and efficient enrollment, premium administration, claims processing and reimbursements. extend health’s licensed benefit advisors work in us-based call centers where state-of-the-art routing systems direct every caller to an advisor with the appropriate licensure and insurance appointments that match the caller's geographic area and available plans. advanced decision support tools help benefit advisors provide clear and concise guidance and support, and make it easy for retirees to select the private medicare coverage that best suits their needs. over seven years, extend health has built the largest private medicare exchange in the country. more employers have used extend health than any other company to transition their retirees to a private medicare exchange. extend health also is the only company that has helped more than 350,000 retirees use an exchange to select from more than 3,500 private medicare plans from more than 70 national and regional insurance companies. about extend health extend health, inc., founded in 2004, operates the largest private medicare exchange in the country. for more information, visit extend health on the web at http://www.extendhealth.com. about mercer mercer is a global leader in human resource consulting, outsourcing and investment services. mercer works with clients to solve their most complex benefit and human capital issues by designing, implementing and administering health, retirement and other benefit programs. mercer’s investment services include investment consulting, implemented consulting and multi-manager investment management. mercer’s 20,000 employees are based in more than 40 countries. the company is a wholly owned subsidiary of marsh & mclennan companies, inc., which lists its stock (ticker symbol: mmc) on the new york and chicago stock exchanges. for more information, visit www.mercer.com.
