John Zabasky, CEO of WorXsiteHR Insurance Solutions, Inc., is urging small employers to adopt a free annual benefits checkup as a regular part of their yearly routine. The review, he says, should examine how a plan is being used, where workers are encountering friction, and whether the employer is still getting a fair deal on cost. Zabasky frames the checkup as a standing habit rather than a one-time favor, recommending that employers schedule it automatically each year instead of waiting for a problem to arise.
“Most employers only look hard at their benefits when something breaks,” Zabasky said. “I want employers checking in every year, on purpose, whether anything is wrong or not.” The distinction matters, he argues, because benefits plans can quietly drift out of alignment with a workforce. He describes the checkup as a plain look at how a plan is working, not a pitch for a new one, and says it should walk through enrollment numbers, claims patterns, and worker feedback directly with the employer.
The idea grew out of Zabasky’s experience with lower income, part-time, and seasonal workforces through the HealthWorX Plan, where WorXsiteHR is the exclusive third-party administrator. “With seasonal and part-time workforces, things change fast,” he said. “Turnover changes. Hours change. A plan that fit in January can be a bad fit by September, and nobody notices until renewal.” That volatility makes regular review especially important for employers whose staff levels and hours fluctuate, since a plan that suited one season may not serve the next.
According to Zabasky, a good annual checkup delivers three things: a plain-language summary of how the plan performed, a short list of any changes worth making, and a direct answer on whether costs are still in line with what similar employers are paying. The goal is to catch small problems before they become renewal-time surprises. “I would rather flag a problem in June than have an employer find out at renewal that their workers stopped using the plan months ago,” he said. That early warning can help employers avoid the more disruptive and costly adjustments that come when issues surface only at renewal.
The checkup habit also fits the HealthWorX model. HealthWorX is a no-cost medical plan, subsidized by a non-profit, built to give lower income, part-time, and seasonal workers access to healthcare they can actually use. WorXsiteHR administers the plan for employers who want it. Zabasky said an annual checkup is one way employers can make sure that access does not quietly erode over time. “A benefit only works if people use it,” he said. “A checkup is how you make sure that stays true year after year, not just in the first year.”
Employers do not need a complicated process to get value out of an annual review, Zabasky said. He recommends keeping the format simple: a short meeting, a plain summary, and a small number of recommendations an employer can act on right away. “You are not trying to hand someone a hundred-page report,” he said. “You want them to walk away knowing three things: what is working, what is not, and what to do about it.” For small employers with limited time and resources, that simplicity may be the difference between a review that happens and one that keeps getting postponed.
Zabasky started WorXsiteHR in 2013 as the exclusive third-party administrator for the HealthWorX Plan. He holds a BA and an MA in History from UMBC, an MBA from Pepperdine, and a PhD in Information Systems from Concordia, and is currently a PhD candidate in Health Sciences at Liberty University. The push for annual checkups reflects a broader concern that small employers often treat benefits as a set-and-forget expense, when in practice plans require periodic attention to remain useful and affordable. By building the review into the yearly calendar, Zabasky argues, employers can protect both worker access and their own cost position.
