Research Council Forms to Provide Insights on Consumer Behavior in Shopping for Benefits Online

BUFFALO, NY--(Marketwired - Apr 1, 2015) - Today, Liazon announced an initiative to analyze data from hundreds of thousands of employees who have purchased benefits through Liazon's Bright Choices® Exchange and other Liazon-powered private exchanges. The Private Exchange Research Council (PERC) is comprised of private benefits exchange experts and top national brokers and consultants. As private exchanges are poised to strengthen employee engagement, empowerment, and education, this think tank will provide the market with insights into how people are making decisions when shopping for their benefits.

PERC plans to explore frequently asked questions with respect to private exchanges, such as delving into how demographic and behavioral factors influence buying decisions, the impact of decision support on buying patterns, and the benefit to employers of greater consumerism, among others.

The company has already discovered interesting trends that stem from analyzing employees' use of the Exchange's full marketplace of choices, guided shopping experience and recommendation engine. For example, employees are purchasing specialty benefits on the Exchange in greater numbers than the national average. Further data have shown that the majority of employees are open to various plan types in order to save money and that they tend to buy the lower-cost health plans available in the Exchange, with over half buying HSA-qualified plans. Behavioral trends are also emerging. For example, when selecting medical insurance coverage, men are significantly more likely than women to accept their plan recommendation, as are younger employees in comparison to older employees.

"People have a new role -- they are now in the driver's seat when it comes to choosing their benefits and personalizing their family's health and financial protection," said Ashok Subramanian, Liazon co-founder and CEO. "This employee empowerment yields great advantages for employers, so we're excited to provide real-world data on consumer behavior patterns and bring the market interesting private exchange trends."

PERC expects to deliver its data and consequential research reports on a periodic basis.

About Liazon
Founded in 2007, Liazon Corporation operates the industry-leading private benefits exchange for businesses. Its flagship product, the Bright Choices® Exchange, is an online benefits store that is changing the way employers and employees buy benefits. Bright Choices helps employers manage their health care costs by setting predictable budgets through a defined contribution funding strategy while guiding employees to purchase better coverage of health, dental, vision, life, disability and other benefits. Advanced cloud computing infrastructure and robust security protection ensures continual access and safeguards confidentiality of data transmission. Liazon works with top national and regional insurance providers and supports businesses nationwide through a distribution network of leading broker partners. Liazon was acquired by Towers Watson, a leading global professional services company, in November 2013. To learn more about Liazon and the Bright Choices Exchange, go to http://www.liazon.com.