business group writing on white board

Beyond Health: The Ancillary Benefits You Need

2021-12-20
, , , , , , Employee Benefits

We’ve all heard of health insurance, but it’s not uncommon to hear the term “ancillary benefits” in the same sentence. But while everyone is familiar with health insurance, not everyone is equally familiar with ancillary benefits. So, what exactly are they and should you be offering them to your employees?

First and foremost, while health insurance is just health insurance, ancillary benefits can be made up of a variety of different insurance and benefits offerings made available to your employees. Oftentimes, instead of listing out each and every benefit and insurance offering a company may offer, the term “ancillary” may be used instead.

Potential Ancillary Benefits Offerings

But despite the unfamiliarity of the term, the types of insurance benefit offerings it can refer to are all too common. Offerings such as dental and vision insurance, term life insurance, long-term disability insurance, identity theft protection, pet insurance, among many others are among the most popular ancillary benefit offerings companies and associations can offer their employees.

Dental and Vision Insurance

Providing your employees with dental insurance can benefit you as much as them. According to the Mayo Clinic, regular dental check-ups can improve an individual’s personal health and having dental insurance can help save your employees from additional costly expenses should more serious treatments be needed. As is the case with anything health-related, regular check-ups are the key to catching any potential problems early and avoiding costly procedures later on.

Like dental check-ups, regular eye exams not only diagnose vision problems but can also provide early detection of serious health problems. Vision insurance is frequently offered alongside dental insurance and can be every bit as beneficial for employees to have as poor vision can result in everything from migraines, to blindness, and more.

Term-Life Insurance

Life insurance provides crucial financial protection for your family if something were to ever happen to you. An offering like this would help to give your employees peace of mind and let them know that you are looking out for their family’s financial future. It is not uncommon for accidental death & dismemberment (AD&D) insurance to be included as well.

Long-Term Disability Insurance

Long-term disability insurance has been designed to help protect your employee’s financial well-being in the event an accident or illness occurs outside of the workplace. It is estimated that just over one in four of today’s 20-year-olds will become disabled before they retire. Long-term disability insurance helps your employees replace their lost income if they have an accident or illness that prevents them from working. Leading long-term disability insurance provider Guardian, can provide your employees with up to $10,000 in monthly disability coverage.

Identity Theft Protection

In today’s internet age, you can never be too careful when it comes to protecting your identity. According to the 2020 Identity Fraud Study, conducted by Javelin Strategy & Research, $16.9 billion was stolen from consumers in the U.S. in 2019. With cybercriminals showing no sign of slowing down, it falls on individuals to protect their identity with smart banking practices and monitoring services.

Identity theft protection is a great ancillary benefit for employers to offer to their employees and is becoming arguably as important as health insurance to have.

Pet Insurance

Nothing will show your employees that you value them and their happiness more than by offering pet insurance for their four-legged friends. Just like the health costs for your employees, vet bills can be every bit as expensive. But by offering your employees pet insurance, they will be able to make sure that their pets stay as healthy as possible and be reimbursed for their vet visits via their pet insurance company.

father helping daughter with glasses with homework

Prevent Vision-Related Learning Problems Through Early Detection

2019-06-10
, , , , Health and Wellness

Vision plays a vital role in one’s ability to learn, but did you know that more than 61% of the United States population needs some sort of vision correction? Combine that percentage with this fact: In a person’s first 12 years of life, about 80% of their learning takes place visually. So, what does this mean for young children who have undiagnosed vision problems? Their learning may be impaired due to preventable, and detectable vision-related problems.

The Importance of Vision in Learning

There’s no denying that vision plays a key role in a child’s ability to learn from a very young age. Specifically, even as babies and toddlers, children need sound vision to acquire eye movement skills and focusing abilities. As they get older, their eyesight helps them acquire teaming skills, binocular vision skills, visual perceptual skills, and even visual-motor integration.

Still, with about one in four children suffering from vision impairment, those who don’t receive corrective treatment for poor eyesight, learning problems can result because these vision problems interfere with a child’s ability to reach full learning potential (American Academy of Optometry).

Problems That Can Arise

Unfortunately, vision problems can be difficult to diagnose. Often times, signs of a vision problem are first noticed by a classroom teacher, who may observe that the child is struggling in a particular area of study. Furthermore, some schools conduct vision tests, and this is also a common juncture at which vision problems are detected.

According to the American Optometric Association, when a vision impairment goes undetected for long enough. learning disabilities are more likely to form. Some examples of common learning disabilities that can be related to vision impairment include:

  • ADD
  • dyslexia
  • issues with spoken and written comprehension
  • challenges with reasoning

And while it’s possible to work around these learning disabilities, they can have a major impact on a child for the rest of his or her life.

Early Detection is Key

The best way to avoid a learning disability caused by vision impairment is to detect vision troubles as early as possible in children. This means scheduling them for regular eye exams at the recommended intervals, being six months, three years, and upon entry into school. From there, annual eye exams are recommended to ensure there aren’t any changes in a child’s vision. By scheduling eye exams early on and regularly, parents can get their children any corrective lenses that may be needed to ensure full learning potential in school.

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