In This Post:
Presenters:
Don Anderson
Sr. Director, Partnerships
Employers keep adding benefits, yet employees keep leaving them unused. On Wednesday, October 28, Shortlister hosted Don Anderson, Senior Director of Partnerships at Inspira Financial, for a first look at Inspira’s next generation benefits platform and a different explanation for why utilization stalls.
Don’s central argument: the benefits utilization problem isn’t a data problem. It’s a confidence problem. The data that could help already exists. It’s just trapped across disconnected platforms, and employees are left to piece it together on their own.
Two gaps, two different fixes
Inspira defines the confidence gap as the space between having access to benefits and feeling good about using them. Don separated it from the more familiar knowledge gap.
- The knowledge gap is about awareness. It closes with more education, campaigns and reminders.
- The confidence gap is about hesitation. Employees may know a benefit exists and still not act. It closes only by changing the experience itself.
That distinction matters for advisors. If another round of enrollment emails hasn’t moved utilization, the issue is probably not awareness.
What fragmentation costs everyone
When benefits live in separate systems, both sides of the relationship pay for it.
For employees, it means separate places for benefits, balances and care information. They’re often unsure about eligibility and costs, and that uncertainty turns into hesitation when it’s time to act.
For employers and advisors, it means disconnected vendors and reporting, repeated questions and manual work. Worst of all, they have little visibility into where employees actually get stuck.
Inspira’s answer is one modern, intelligent platform with real experts behind it, built around three ideas: connected data, clear guidance and confident action. As Don put it, your people already have the benefits; the goal is giving them the confidence to use them.
“Your people have the benefits. We give them the confidence to use them.”
For employees: one wallet, one card, built-in guidance
The employee side of the platform is the health wallet: one app and one card for health spending benefits. Employees can view accounts, submit and manage claims, and get guidance in the same place. The card works with Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay.
The wallet sits on top of a broad product suite, so employers can consolidate rather than add another vendor. It covers HSA, health care FSA, limited purpose FSA, dependent care FSA and HRA accounts. It also supports fertility, mental health, commuter, parking, lifestyle spending, wellness, rewards, tuition and adoption reimbursement, custom benefits, and COBRA, direct and retiree billing.
Two features speak directly to the confidence gap:
- Integrated HSA investing. Fractional shares and auto-investing let employees start with any balance and put contributions on autopilot. Those who want more control get thousands of ETFs, mutual funds and individual stocks through a select brokerage, with no trading fees.
- Guidance at the moment of hesitation. Smart alerts and self-service tools flag problems before they become HR tickets. Don showed a claim where the expense date didn’t match the receipt: the employee gets a plain-language notice explaining the discrepancy, how long they have to fix it, and exactly what to do next.
For employers and brokers: less manual work, better questions
The health wallet manager is where employers and their advisors configure benefit rules, connect payroll contributions, and pull enrollment, utilization and spending reports to focus benefit reviews.
The automation is where much of the time savings shows up:
- Payroll contributions sync in two clicks with the health wallet manager, which integrates with leading payroll providers. No spreadsheets or manual uploads.
- Instant claims approvals. Inspira reports that 85% of claims auto-approve through smart card controls and co-pay matching, which speeds reimbursement and cuts the questions that land on HR.
- Scheduled reports go to stakeholders automatically, so deadlines don’t depend on someone remembering to run them.
“Let automation handle routine tasks, so your team can focus on what matters.”
For brokers and consultants, the standout is AI-powered custom insights. Alongside pre-built reports on enrollment, utilization and spending trends, users can ask a question in plain language and get a custom report back, with no SQL or data expertise required. In the example shown, a question about pharmacy spend for the plan year returned a total and a chart of spending growth through the year.
Technology, with people behind it
Don was clear that the platform isn’t meant to replace human help. Digital tools handle the moment: built-in guidance, smart alerts, self-service account and card tools, and mobile claims with notifications, including receipt capture from a phone.
When a question needs care, people step in. Account holders can reach support by phone, email and live chat, and each client relationship has a designated account manager. The aim is that employees get an answer fast either way, and HR isn’t the default help desk.
What it means for brokers and consultants
Inspira framed the platform’s value across all three groups in the benefits relationship:
- Employees get clearer account information and guidance, and easier access to help at the point of need.
- Employers get self-service administration and reporting, plus visibility into where employees need support.
- Advisors get more informed benefits reviews and a clearer basis for recommendations and for measuring progress.
Get in Touch with Inspira Financial Today!
That last point is the opening for brokers. Connected utilization and spending data turns the annual review from a report-building exercise into a strategy conversation. Instead of telling a client to communicate more, an advisor can show where employees are getting stuck and recommend a change to the experience, then measure whether it worked.
The practical pitch to clients is simple: fewer vendors, less manual work for HR, and a better return on the benefits they’re already paying for.
For more information, get in touch here: quoterequest@inspirafinancial.com
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