Prior to becoming an agent, I was a therapist for 16 years and later was the director of an employee assistance program. The column had some interesting information, but I was surprised to not see more options that could be available to the employer.

The first and best protection that a company can provide for its employees is an employee assistance program. An EAP is an employer-paid benefit that sometimes is included with a group health contract, or could be purchased separately. It provides free counseling to troubled employees (up to a set number of sessions), along with training that can be provided to management on how to better handle troubled employees, as well as resources and referrals for the employer's issues.

Agents might not truly realize the great advantage this service can be as a selling feature to employers. A lot of healthcare plans are not rich in mental health benefits, so this is a nice way to pick up some additional mental health services for free. What a selling feature for your product!

If the employer in the Jan. 6 column had an EAP, they would have only needed to make one phone call for a wealth of needed information right at their fingertips!

Sheila Harding
Russell Harding Insurance Agency
Milledgeville, Ga.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, March 10, 2003. Copyright 2003 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved. Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.