AFLAC

Rockie

Have any of you guys switched to AFLAC insurance? We have lots of employees who would like for us to explore this possibility for our voluntary benefits program.

Let me know if you had good or bad experience.

Thanks

Rockie

amwkim

We offer AFLAC on a voluntary basis. There are pros and cons.

The pros:
-the deductions qualify as section 125 and are pretax
-You have a local rep working with you

The cons:
-you are still responsible for the administration aspect of the plan
-the AFLAC rep HAS to come on site to enroll employees
-you cannot add or delete anyone's deduction without AFLAC telling to (they are not always timely)

About 20% of our employees use this and seem happy with it. I don't know if anyone has filed any claims.

cebudragonlady

I can only add this and emphasize : a lot will depend on the AFLAC agent you have. Ours has been absolutely great in enrolling and claims.

Chari

Cotterwood

Hi,

We're a CA employer (Special District at Lake Tahoe). We're just gotten the news of the Governor's budget, and it's going to cut our budget by $3.1 Million. Sooo, we are looking for ways to cut expenses, yet still provide benefit options for our employees. Can you give me an idea of what benefits you provide through AFLAC, and the average costs, etc. Thanks so much ahead of time for your response.

[email]cwood@tcpud.org[/email]
or FAX: 530-583-8452

Dutch2

We begain with AFLAC four or fivv years back and have been very fortunate to have had very good Reps. from their company. We offer Cancer, Accidental and "I Care." We pass the full cost of each to our employess. Therefore, our cost is just the time it takes to shuffle the papers. We too have right at 20% of our staff taking advantage of one or more of their products.
The biggest complaint I have about AFLAC is they don't communicate very well to their sales people. We have had their program for at least four years and every month or two someone will walk in off the street and try to sell us their AFLAC products.
Dutch2

stilldazed

We picked up AFLAC for supplemental policies 7/1/03. We discontinued a relationship with another provider as of 6/30, with whom we were very displeased on many levels--major communication problems, billing problems, information problems, PR problems, benefit problems. Employees were complaining. Accounting staff were complaining. Employee enrollment required the presence of a licensed agent from that company, who made almost no effort toward support. In the review and negotiations process, we found AFLAC policies to be less complex policies but comparable and more affordable for our employees. During open enrollment, we had many employees pick up extra AFLAC policies for a premium similar to what they spent before for less coverage. We have a local representative rendering excellent support, which is probably central to our positive experience to date. It's been 7 months, and our employees are generally happy with AFLAC. Those of us who work on the administration side are happier because we have full access to AFLAC enrollment forms and policy benefits--one of our biggest complaints with the last provider. The few employees who have filed claims are satisfied with their benefits. It's been a good change for us so far. We'll be in negotiations for the next benefits year around April, and our plan right now is to stick with AFLAC. Their billing cycle is a little different from the rest of our companies, but it has not been a problem with us so far. They tend to bill after the coverage month rather than before, and there is a 45-day delay in their billing cycle. From an accounting standpoint, it looks like we are 2 months behind in payment at any given time, but we aren't, and it is an invisible aspect to employees. With the problems we experienced with the prior carrier and the level of dissatisfaction we were experiencing, AFLAC's delayed billing/reimbursement cycle is insignificant to us.

marc

We have had AFLAC supplemental policies for several years now. As others have said, the agent makes a big difference and ours is a good one. Comes every year to sign up new EEs and has done a great job with the handfuls of claims we have every year. Those that have used it generally like it. Those that have paid for it and not had to use it have generally maintained the coverage.

The administration has not been a pain for us and the agent is always willing to step up to the plate when needed.

Positive recommendation from us.

irenesmsaclaims

Ok,ok, I'm sorry, but I can't stand it anymore. I was the sole HR/Payroll person at a company of about 100, and my own, one-time experience with AFLAC (although the duck is cute)was that an agent came in and signed up several people, left the state shortly thereafter, and I assumed the responsibility of solving problems with deductions, enrollment, lost applications, etc. for the trusting, unsuspecting employees. The broker lucked out because I am an experienced, licensed insurance broker, and he could rake in the commissions from wherever he went. And no, the company I worked for did not appreciate (or even know of) my efforts. Personally, I think that disease-specific and limited disability-type products are a waste of money, if you have comprehensive coverage, partly because the primary insuror can, and does coordinate with other coverage(s)as defined in the COB provisions.

irenesmsaclaims

Forgive me, but I must amend my previous post. I do not sell anything, except to family, and the other posters are exactly right about the quality of the agent that the employer allows to come into the business.

hrinmi

I had asked this same question about 6 months ago, b/c we had been getting a lot of interest from employee's.

We spoke with a financial planner and they said that AFALC makes 50-60% commission off of the prices. I guess no one around makes commission like that.

Their advise was to make sure people are maxing out their 401k plans where they are getting the most return of investment on their money.

dynamite9551

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 02-02-04 AT 03:13PM (CST)[/font][br][br]we have not switched to AFLAC as a sole provider but offer as a supplemental benefit. I can only speak from my own experience about performance. EXCELLENT.
However, I do believe the agent has a lot to do with satisfaction. In any event, I have the cancer and accident plan. each year I receive a check for having preventative screenings, e.g. mammograms, pap smear, etc. males would receive for annual prostate exams, etc.

Additionally,both my husband and I were covered (under my employer) on the accident plan. When he was struck and killed on the job this past August, I did not realize that this plan had a death benefit of $10,000 not to mention the benefits associated with the plan, e.g., he (i) received a cash eligible for a cash benefit: air care ambulance, surgical intensive care, fractures of both tibia, femurs, rt/lt scapulas, skull fracture, 56 units of blood (although plan pays for first unit only) but a total additional benefit of $4,000. (sorry it was not $4000 for each benefit) Promptness is another excellent service, as long as all the documentation requested is provided! important.

so much for my 2 cents worth. good luck with your decision.

JM in ATL

I asked AFLAC to come in for a meeting after the employees pretty much demanded that we offer it.

We went over the plans available, I asked him to get me some information in July of 2003 and I still haven't heard back from him.

So, Can you guess what my opinion of AFLAC is?

If this is any indication of how their company works, then I don't want any part of them. They are sloppy and don't know how to run a business.

If you go with them, I'd say, be prepared for a whole lot of headaches. But hey, good luck with that!

KP68

In response to JM's post, we had continuously been hounded by probably dozens of different AFLAC reps on a weekly basis over a period of I'd say 7-8 months. They would call once a week or so and would also stop in unannounced and ask to speak with us. So our impression was not a very good one, to say the least. Their approach was way too pushy and we have decided against going with them for the time being as a result.

stilldazed

We had that same problem with several agents (whom we happened not to go with). (I saw it as a problem because I didn't like the aggression.) I finally decided they must all be independent agents working in a very competitive environment. I have the traffic stopped for the time being, but who knows when it may pick back up again. I really dislike the unsolicited visits and generally won't make time for anything more than an exchange of business cards. They probably think I'm not very hospitable, but I happen to think they are unrealistic to expect I can meet at a moment's notice. It must be a chemistry thing!

HR in CA

Dynamite

You have renewed my faith in AFLAC. I will no longer roll my eyes when they are here for their monthly (unscheduled and unannounced) visit.

I am so very sorry for your loss.

Beckie

mwild31

Hi Rocky - I don't know if you noticed the trend in this post or not, but I sure did. The trend is: poor AFLAC customer service rep. = disatisfaction with AFLAC & good rep. = good feelings about AFLAC.

I have a good rep. - a great one really, and our experience has been excellent. I personally signed up for some of the insurance & I neither feel taken advantage of or manipulated. The reimbursements come through cleanly, the administration is clean & our employee satisfaction of the program is 100%. It's a voluntary program at our company and about 12% of our employees take advantage of the offerings. If you're really interested - call around & have the AFLAC CSR's interview with you until you feel comfortable enough to select one to represent your company. I love it.

stilldazed

I sure hope my post (early in the sequence) didn't sound like your formula. That was not our intent. About 19% of our eligible employees purchase AFLAC policies. We have a great agent, and we (employees & employer) are happy with our experience so far.

Nat

I had AFLAC Ins. at a previous employer. They offer very good products. A word of caution though: sometimes they try to sell insurance to employees that they don't necessarily need. Example: Accidental Ins. We had employees buying this when accidents were covered 100% by our medical ins. I realize that AFLAC pays the employee directly, but they were paying for something for which they were already covered. Also, my experience has been that their reps are very pushy. Since I have changed jobs, I have been inundated with calls from different reps. Evidentally they don't have a specific "region" that they service and its a free for all. I never had any problems with their products though.

stilldazed

I think our organization has been among the fortunate few with the agency we chose. (It didn't come without the organization paying a steep price for less than desirable choices in the past.) We have been innundated from other agencies who sell AFLA, some very aggressive. We took offense to aggressive sales practices and poor support and service with the agency we moved away from prior to AFLAC, and I have no desire to get us involved in anything like that again. We had a prior relationship with the agency we chose to make AFLAC available. They understand our workforce pretty well and are very helpful to our in-house staff. So far they have been smart enough to figure out that rural location means everyone knows everyone and reputation counts, every sale they make in open enrollment or orientation is one they didn't have to pound the pavement for, and whether our employees know who they are depends to some extent on how happy we are with them. It's working out well for us so far.

slogan

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 02-19-04 AT 02:07PM (CST)[/font][br][br]We have had AFLAC for about a year and a half now & i can't really say anything good about them. Yes a lot depends on how good your agents are. Ours are lousy. I don't like their policies either. I am also a licensed insurance agent and I know of better policy's for less money exist out there. I am so fed up with AFLAC that we have gone back out for bid to have someone else do our suplemental insurance.

My problems with AFLAC starts with them just doing their job right to servicing the contract. If you want more specific information I will give it, but it will take up a lot of space.

Just to re-emphasize, my biggest problem with AFLAC is a so-so policy at high cost. Colonial, MetLife, and some others have better policy's for lower premium cost. SHOP AROUND.

Roberta

Our agency had AFLAC several years ago. The agents couldn't answer questions about the plans and generally "disappeared" after the initial enrollment period. As part of the plan, AFLAC did the administration of our flex spending plans, which turned out to be a nightmare for participating employees--long waits for checks, having claims being mailed back for correction then having to be re-mailed by the employee.

Our Executive VP will not even respond to AFLAC at all. I personally have told several of them over the phone that it would be pretty close to never before we would go with AFLAC again. I haven't received a cold call for a long time now.

We offer a variety of supplemental plans from different groups which are enrolled "in-house" which seem to meet the needs of our employees.

2445428

Rockie

We have had AFLAC as a supplemental insurance for at least 15 years. We've also had the same AFLAC rep and have been satisfied. He does come by unannounced at times and speaks to the employees covered to see if they have any questions or concerns. One great thing is, he stays on top of things and will step forward when he knows an employee is due a claim return.

I'll use my experience as an example. I had a baby who was required to be in intensive care for 3 days. I have an intensive care AFLAC policy that pays X amount of dollars a day. I really forgot that I had this policy, but he didn't. When I returned to work after 6 weeks of maturnity leave he telephoned me and asked how everything was going. I told him all went fine and mentioned that my son was intensive care for 3 days. To make a long story short, he personally delived a check made payable to me within 2 weeks of our phone conversation. Now that's personal service!

hrbanker

We've been with another company for about 10 years. Every year I price AFLAC in comparison to the company we are with. Their products are very similar, but AFLAC is always just a little bit more expensive.

I am considering switching to them next year, though, as I'm not satisfied with the service we are getting from our current company. (Here again, the company rep makes it or breaks it.)

jmcaa

What kind of administrative work is involved when you have employees with AFLAC policies? How is the enrollment, etc. done when you have locations in 3 different states?

Thanks!

Don D

First there's the obvious administrative requirement for payroll/accounting to manage deductions and forward money to AFLAC and drop and add, etc. AFLAC reps will tell you that is minimal work. Ha! The hidden cost to your HR people is the never-ending volume of questions and complaints and requests for mothering from employees who assume this is just one more thing 'the girl in HR should do for me'. Or Guy. AFLAC says "We handle all the paperwork, you don't do anything." Right. They set up a card table and enroll people to get the commissions flowing and that's it.

National Guard

BAD BAD BAD Experience. My boss won't even let them come back in to pitch their product. She said they screwed them twice!.

stilldazed

Sorry to hear of your bad experiences. It's been pointed out in prior posts that employer experience with AFLAC depends greatly on the agent. The chances for change might be slim, but maybe a step you could take would be to communicate your frustrations with AFLAC. After all, it's their image that is getting tarnished. We switched from a competitor to AFLAC a year ago and have had nothing but good service and support, which depends primarily on our local agent. Our employees are happy with the products and premiums. Our administrative staff like the positive changes in how we can manage the process. The local agency staff make themselves available to us much more than any other company has done in recent years. They have truly made a difference for us and are 1000% better than what we had going before.

jrzgrl

I agree with Don - as soon as the rep said that there is no administration on my part, I knew it had to be a pipe-dream. There's no such thing as no administration when it comes to offering any benefit. I also have not appreciated the constant cold-calls asking to set up another appointment with us...even getting two calls within five minutes of each other and asking to be taken off of their list during each.

Recently we received a letter from one of our funding sources that has teamed up with AFLAC. They gave a specific rep from AFLAC all of their agencies' names and numbers (thanx for that!) and said that if we sign up with AFLAC through THIS rep only, that it will benefit the funding source greatly. Jeez. Just more proof that this is not the type of company with which I want to be affililated. Our insurance and STD & LTD policies cover most of what they offer, anyway.

I did some research and found this article [url]http://www.newschannel34.com/consumerreports/story.aspx?content_id=983C5733-1B71-47A2-B5CF-CC81F7EFDB8B[/url] and recommended (once again) that we do not sign up with them.

stilldazed

Thanks for directing interested readers to the article. I think it basically speaks to all supplemental policies, not just AFLAC. As for AFLAC, though, our area must be a huge untapped opportunity for unprofessional/unethical behavior. We are certainly not seeing what some of you describe.

We'll keep our location a secret (not that any of you would know the name of our business and where we are anyway).

Thanks,

dlail

Our experience has been positive. We had a good agent who had a relationship w/ our health ins agent and the time was right to establish a 125 plan. This was about 1996 or so. We've had only 2 agents and they have been extremely responsive, not a hard sell and made the difference as the other replies attest to.

We have about 75% participation and yes, there is still payment reconciling, but through excel I've not found this to be too cumbersome. I do not do any selling, we just have the rep available to new hires. We do enrollments at open enrollment once/year, we set up periodic visits as needed for new hires. We process disenrollments by internet and have not had billing issues at all. We can download claim forms and fax to our rep who makes sure claimants have checks in the mail within 10 days. The employee can also access the claim forms and completely bypass me if they choose.

For those that have accident policies, I give them a claim form when we process a WC claim, because the policy pays a benefit even w/ this type of claim.

Believe me, the agent makes all the difference. We continually turned them away before we set up the 125 plan.

NancyJ

After years of pooh-pooh-ing AFLAC, we finally decided to take a chance with it last year - GREAT IDEA. The employees LOVE it - I thought only a few would sign up, but at least 50% have taken one or more of the AFLAC products. And AFLAC has done what they say - they pay claims quickly and transfer the policies when employees leave.

The only caveat is that you have to be diligent with the billing - their A/R department leaves a bit to be desired. As long as you stay on top of the invoice and make corrections timely, you'll be in good shape.

All in all, a very positive experience for our employees.