Internal Admin Costs - what's reasonable?

[jsb]

Looking for info regarding "typical" internal costs to administer employee benefits programs, perhaps expressed as a percentage of total premium expense or on a PEPM basis. After years of severe cuts, I'm hoping to justify additional staff or consulting resources, but the first question from above is always "How do our costs compare with others?"

Of course there are way too many variables to take into account for a detailed analysis or response, but even a general idea would be helpful. Say you had 5,000 employees with +/- $100 million in annual premiums for medical, dental, life, disability, eap, voluntary programs, etc... What would you expect your internal costs for benefits admin - staff, communication, consultants, etc... - to run?

Has there been any coverage of admin costs in any of the big national surveys that you could point me to?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.