Health & Benefits Consultant

DescriptionThe Health and Benefits (H&B) Consultant will support the lead consultant in managing client accounts and begin to project manage on their own by researching, analyzing, and evaluating medical, dental, life and disability benefits plans and programs for employers with more than 5,000 employees. This may involve developing client strategy, interfacing directly with clients and developing vendor relationships. To fulfill this role, the H&B Consultant will:

• Provide financial, contract and/or administrative analysis, and manage portions of projects, including reviewing the work of lower level analysts
  
• Data analysis (example includes but is not limited to review claims and utilization data and look for trends and patterns); may involve use of the underwriting model to develop self funded claims projections, rate setting and employee cost sharing
  
• Review internal compliance and client disclosure requirements, external vendor contracts, summary plan documents (SPD's) and employee communications to ensure alignment with client expectations and legal requirements
  
• Manage ad-hoc client requests including problem-solving on administrative and operations issues
  
• Participate as a member of the consulting team in developing overall client strategy
  
• Interpret benchmark data and present to client
  
• Manage the quality and timeliness of client deliverables
  
• Assist in the development of project budgets and billing reports
  
• Participate in client calls and meetings as appropriate
  
• Delegate to and review project work of more junior colleagues
  
• Assist with the preparation and delivery of clear and concise client-friendly communications
  
• Understand Health and Benefits products, services and tools including vendor/carrier markets, including developing relationships with vendors in order to understand and compare products and services being offered and recommend solutions to clients
  
• Understand more advanced underwriting and financial skills, Health & Benefit products, services and technical tools, and intranet resources such as H&B MercerLink by participating in training courses, online learning, or through learning from more experienced colleagues
  
• Delegate data entry to more junior colleagues and review for accuracy and reasonableness; provide data template (Excel) where necessary; conduct data entry in cases where no lower level analysts are available

Qualifications

• BA/BS preferred
  
• At least three years of industry related experience
  
• Knowledge of MS Office Tools (Excel, PowerPoint)
  
• Excellent interpersonal skills; strong oral and written communication skills
  
• Ability to prioritize and handle multiple tasks in a demanding work environment
  
• Ability to partner and lead teams to deliver project objectives; ability to work independently and on a team
  
• Required to obtain and maintain appropriate licenses as required by state regulations and Mercer policies