Healthcare organizations devote significant resources to supporting their workforce.

Recruitment.

Retention.

Compensation.

Health insurance.

Retirement benefits.

Paid time off.

Professional development.

Employee wellness.

All are important.

But there is another question employers should consider:

If an employee dies unexpectedly, how financially prepared is the family left behind?

For many families, the answer may be uncomfortable.

Life insurance is one of those benefits whose importance can be easy to underestimate—until a family actually needs it.

For healthcare employers, the issue deserves particular consideration because there is an important difference between providing some workplace life insurance and giving employees meaningful access to long-term life insurance protection.

Those are not necessarily the same thing.

Workplace Life Insurance May Not Be Enough

Many organizations already provide basic group term life insurance.

That coverage can provide important protection.

But employer-sponsored term coverage does not necessarily address every family's long-term life insurance needs.

Coverage amounts may be limited.

Protection may be linked to employment.

Employees seeking additional coverage may need to enter the individual insurance market, where age, medical history, underwriting requirements, coverage amount, and other factors can influence availability and pricing.

This creates an important distinction for benefits leaders.

The question should not simply be:

“Do we offer life insurance?”

It should also be:

“Do our employees have access to protection that can address their individual circumstances?”

For some employees, obtaining additional individual coverage may be relatively straightforward.

For others, it may not be.

Employees Can Encounter Barriers to Obtaining Additional Coverage

Traditional individual life insurance underwriting can involve health questions, medical information, laboratory testing, or other forms of health assessment, depending on the insurer, product, applicant, and amount of coverage requested.

Health history can influence pricing, coverage availability, or insurability.

An employee may therefore understand the need for additional protection while still encountering barriers to obtaining it independently.

Healthcare employers have an opportunity to help address that access problem.

Through CG Moneta Consulting (CGM), participating healthcare organizations can introduce eligible employees to a MassMutual whole life insurance offering with a guaranteed-issue enrollment opportunity.

During the applicable enrollment opportunity, eligible employees may enroll without medical exams, health questionnaires, bloodwork, urine testing, or medical interviews, subject to program requirements, eligibility, enrollment timing, coverage limits, and policy terms.

That changes the nature of the benefit.

It is not simply another insurance option.

It is expanded access.

Access May Be the Most Important Feature

Consider two employees.

One may be able to obtain individual life insurance relatively easily.

Another may have a health history that could make traditional individual underwriting more challenging.

Both may have spouses.

Both may have children.

Both may have mortgages, household expenses, educational obligations, or family members who depend upon their income.

Their need for financial protection may be similar.

Their ability to obtain it through the individual market may not be.

A workplace benefit that reduces traditional medical-review barriers can therefore have particular value for eligible employees who might otherwise encounter challenges obtaining additional coverage.

That is what makes the guaranteed-issue opportunity different from simply adding another voluntary benefit to an enrollment menu.

For some employees, the workplace may provide access to an option that could be difficult to replicate independently.

A 40% Group-Rate Advantage Changes the Economics

Access is only part of the equation.

Affordability matters as well.

The MassMutual offering available through CGM is structured with an approximately 40% group discount compared with certain standard individual whole life premiums for comparable coverage, subject to program and policy terms.

That distinction matters because this is permanent whole life insurance rather than basic term-only workplace coverage.

Whole life insurance is designed to remain in force when required premiums are paid and applicable policy provisions are satisfied.

It also includes a cash-value component, although employees should review both guaranteed and non-guaranteed policy elements carefully and evaluate the coverage based on their individual circumstances.

The combination is what makes the offering unusual:

Permanent whole life protection.

Reduced traditional medical-review barriers during the applicable guaranteed-issue enrollment opportunity.

An approximately 40% group-rate advantage compared with certain comparable individual whole life premiums.

Portability beyond employment.

Each feature has value individually.

Together, they create a benefit that may be difficult for some employees to replicate in the individual marketplace.

Portability Matters in a Mobile Healthcare Workforce

Healthcare professionals change employers.

Nurses move between hospitals.

Physicians change health systems.

Employees relocate.

Organizations merge.

People retire.

A life insurance benefit tied exclusively to employment can therefore create a potential coverage issue when the employment relationship ends.

The whole life offering available through CGM is designed to be portable. Coverage may remain with the employee after changing jobs or retiring, subject to the terms of the issued policy.

That changes the nature of the benefit.

The employer provides the opportunity.

The employee owns coverage that may continue beyond that employee's tenure with the organization, provided applicable policy requirements are satisfied.

For a mobile workforce, that distinction can be important.

The Employer Does Not Have a Direct Premium Obligation

One of the most important aspects of the program from the employer's perspective is its voluntary structure.

The offering can be introduced as an employee-paid benefit with no direct employer premium obligation.

Eligible employees decide whether participation makes sense based on their family needs, financial circumstances, budget, and coverage preferences.

The employer provides access.

The employee makes the decision.

That creates an unusual benefits equation:

Potentially meaningful employee value without requiring the organization to assume the employee's insurance premium.

This does not mean implementation requires no employer involvement. Leadership still needs to evaluate the program, coordinate rollout, and facilitate appropriate administrative processes such as payroll deduction.

But not every enhancement to an employee benefits package requires the employer to fund another insurance premium.

Sometimes value can be created by expanding access.

The Benefit Can Extend Beyond the Death Benefit

The program also includes policy-governed rider features, including waiver of premium, accidental death, chronic care, and terminal illness riders.

These features are subject to the terms, conditions, eligibility requirements, limitations, exclusions, and provisions of the issued policy.

They reinforce an important point.

Life insurance should not necessarily be evaluated solely by asking what happens upon the insured's death.

Depending upon the policy and qualifying circumstances, certain rider provisions may provide benefits during the insured's lifetime.

Employees should review these provisions carefully and understand when and how they apply.

Benefits Remain an Important Part of the Employee Value Proposition

Employee benefits continue to influence how workers evaluate their employers.

Current LIMRA research finds that roughly two-thirds of workers say their benefits make them more inclined to remain with their current employer. LIMRA also reports that workplace benefits remain among the leading factors employees consider when evaluating employment opportunities.

That does not mean adding a life insurance option will independently solve recruitment or retention challenges.

It means benefits are one component of the broader employment relationship.

Employees evaluate more than salary.

They consider health insurance.

Retirement benefits.

Paid leave.

Financial protection.

Flexibility.

Work environment.

And the range of benefits available to them.

A differentiated voluntary benefit can contribute to that overall employee value proposition, particularly when it addresses a need employees may have difficulty solving independently.

There Is a Difference Between Providing a Benefit and Providing Access

An employer can provide basic life insurance and still have employees whose individual protection needs exceed the amount available through the employer-paid plan.

An employer can offer voluntary supplemental coverage and still have employees who encounter underwriting limitations under other forms of coverage.

And an employee can understand the importance of life insurance while postponing it because the individual purchase process appears expensive, complicated, or uncertain.

A workplace program can help remove some of those barriers.

The value of the offering therefore should not be measured solely by enrollment.

The employer is providing something more fundamental:

an opportunity for eligible employees to evaluate additional permanent protection under terms they may not otherwise have available to them.

Education Is Essential

Life insurance is a financial product.

It should not be presented to employees as something they automatically need to purchase.

Employees have different family structures, incomes, existing insurance, financial obligations, budgets, health circumstances, and long-term objectives.

The appropriate role of the employer is not to tell employees what to buy.

It is to provide access and education.

CGM supports participating employers with onsite educational presentations, employee Q&A, enrollment coordination, and complimentary lunch-and-learn sessions.

Employees can learn how the coverage works, review available options, ask questions, and decide whether participation is appropriate for their individual circumstances.

That educational component is particularly important when discussing permanent life insurance because employees should understand both the benefits and the ongoing premium commitment associated with maintaining coverage.

The Carrier Behind the Promise Matters

Life insurance represents a long-term contractual commitment.

The financial strength of the company making that commitment therefore matters.

The program is issued through MassMutual, a mutual life insurance company founded in 1851.

MassMutual currently reports financial-strength ratings of:

A++ from AM Best — Superior

AA+ from Fitch Ratings — Very Strong

Aa3 from Moody's Investors Service — High Quality

AA+ from S&P Global Ratings — Very Strong

Ratings are subject to change, apply to the applicable issuing companies, and are not recommendations to purchase insurance or indications of investment performance.

Any policy guarantees depend upon the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company.

For employees considering coverage that may remain in force for decades, the financial strength and operating history of the carrier are relevant considerations.

A Simple Question for Healthcare Leadership

For a hospital CEO, CHRO, CFO, or benefits leader, the decision does not have to begin with whether every employee should purchase whole life insurance.

That is an individual decision.

The organizational question is simpler:

Should eligible employees have the opportunity to evaluate it?

If an organization can potentially give eligible employees access to:

Permanent whole life insurance,

without medical exams, health questionnaires, bloodwork, urine testing, or medical interviews during the applicable guaranteed-issue enrollment opportunity,

at an approximately 40% group discount compared with certain standard individual whole life premiums for comparable coverage,

with portable coverage designed to remain with the employee after a job change or retirement, subject to policy terms,

and without requiring the employer to assume the employee's premium obligation,

then it may be worth determining whether the benefit fits the workforce.

Employees can decide whether to participate.

But they cannot evaluate an opportunity they were never given.

Sometimes the Most Valuable Benefit Is Access

Healthcare organizations devote enormous resources to caring for patients.

The people delivering that care have financial protection needs of their own.

Not every employee will need the same amount or type of life insurance.

Not every eligible employee will choose to participate.

And no single benefit will solve the broader challenges of workforce satisfaction, retention, or financial wellness.

But certain benefits can be valuable precisely because they provide access to something that may otherwise be difficult for an employee to obtain.

For one employee, this offering may simply provide another option to consider.

For another who has encountered traditional underwriting barriers, the access may carry considerably greater significance.

And for a family that eventually depends upon the coverage, the value may be greater still.

The most valuable employee benefits are not always the ones an employer spends the most to provide.

Sometimes they are the opportunities an employer makes possible.

About CG Moneta Consulting

CG Moneta Consulting works with healthcare organizations to identify and evaluate financial, operational, technology, workforce, and innovation opportunities capable of creating measurable value.

Through its group life insurance offering, CGM helps healthcare employers evaluate access to a MassMutual whole life insurance program and supports implementation through employee education, onsite presentations, Q&A, enrollment coordination, and payroll-deduction coordination.

Availability, eligibility, coverage amounts, riders, guaranteed-issue provisions, enrollment periods, pricing, and state-specific provisions are subject to applicable program and policy terms. Guaranteed-issue availability is subject to applicable enrollment periods and program requirements. Employees should review issued policy materials carefully and consider their individual circumstances before electing coverage. Whole life insurance contains a cash-value component, but this information should not be interpreted as investment, legal, tax, accounting, or financial-planning advice. Any policy guarantees are based on the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company.