If it’s October, it must be time to check our employers’ menus of health care benefits for next year – the month when we should examine the options for covering ourselves and family members.
But human health care options aren’t the only ones listed among some companies’ benefit options. A small but growing number of employees have the option to cover, too, the likes of Rex and Fluffy – their pets – as more employers recognize the important role of those furry, feathered or scaly friends who greet us when we get home after a hard day’s work.
Research from the Society for Human Resource Management shows that 5 percent of the 379 human-resources respondents said they offered pet health insurance as a benefit this year. That was up from 1 percent in 2001.
And there’s little wonder, say benefits experts, who point to employers’ desire to expand and enhance their benefits packages with low-cost voluntary options even as they have to pass along increased costs of human health coverage and cut the number of plans offered.
Employers can obtain discounted employee-paid pet coverage and set up payroll deductions to make the plan convenient, says Paul Van der Bergh, a senior vice president in Manhattan in the voluntary benefits practice of Marsh Inc., a risk and insurance services firm.
He says he expects to see a 10 percent to 15 percent growth in this offering in the next two to three years.
“Employers offer it because it is a voluntary plan – paid for by the employee – with little administration for the employer,” says Gerard Duffy, senior benefits consultant at Chernoff Diamond & Co. LLC in Garden City, N.Y.
