Welcome to the Society of Professional Benefit Administrators (SPBA) website. SPBA is the national association of Third Party Administration (TPA) firms who are contracted to administer employee benefit plans on an ongoing basis. Our members are firms, NOT individuals who are employed within a firm to handle employee benefits & human resources. (That is usually called "in-house" or "self-administered".)
This website contains several informational pieces to help you understand the TPA industry and SPBA. As you will see, both the member firms and SPBA, the association, are very candid, because we want you to have the best insight possible. We suggest that you start by reading "Everything You Wanted to Know About TPAs, But Were Afraid to Ask" on this website. While that and the other pieces herein will answer 95% of the questions raised, we cannot emphasize enough that individuality is the key to the TPA industry and its success. Thus, DO NOT MAKE BROAD ASSUMPTIONS. When you have seen one TPA, you've seen one TPA (and many customs, operations and applicability of laws vary by type of client served).
TPAs are one of the best-kept secrets in the country. Many people do not know TPA firms exist...yet about 2/3 of all employee benefit plans in the U.S. use some kind of TPA out-sourcing services. (As mentioned in the "Everything You Wanted to Know" piece, there is no specific definition of "TPAs" or "TPA services", so you will find a great deal of creativity among the throngs who claim to be TPAs (when it is advantageous for them to claim to be a TPA). Thus, in answer to the question of How many TPAs are there?, the answer is that you can rationalize any number between about 400 and 4,000. However, suffice it to say that about 85% of the TPA market is composed of SPBA's approximately member firms.
The reason that TPAs are not a household term is that is has always been the nature of the industry to serve the clients and not grandstand. In fact, many TPAs answer the phone or communicate in a way to convey that it is the employer's plan, not some outside entity. So, it is not bashfulness or poor PR. It is a custom of professionalism & service. Personalized service is the key to TPAs' success.
SPBA is a unique organization, so let us (in our spirit of candor) explain some of the things which SPBA does NOT do:
We realize that this might seem downright anti-social compared to the razz-matazz of other associations and websites, but please take it in the spirit of our tradition of honest candor. Please read the materials carefully (and don't jump to pre-conceived assumptions and wishful thinking).
We have saved our biggest gift of candor for the end, so that it will stick in your mind. Too many researchers have lost their jobs because they lost sight of this important fact. If you are looking for absolute statistics relating to TPAs, employee benefits, insurance, health coverage & costs, etc., be aware that there is a 1,000% distortion factor built in to every number and statistic you will encounter. (Thus, tallying statistics will make the distortions grow geometrically.) The good news is that none of this is because of anyone lying. It is entirely due to vastly different uses & understandings of vocabulary throughout the various industries and among researchers. So, even the most prestigious research sources will have vastly different numbers...which will cause havoc with whatever numbers you are trying to compile. This explanatory warning & caveat is mentioned in virtually every piece in this website, both to remind you, and also so that you will have it in print to show whoever has assigned you to come up with "numbers" that to do so would be a fool's mission. Instead of hard numbers of dollars or firms or lives, we suggest you use percentages and other indices used in these pieces. We don't want your hard work to lead you to some crazy statistical results which destroy your credibility.
If you wish to contact SPBA you may email us at: spba@erols.com Be sure to have read all the articles carefully and completely since we find most questions can be answered by what's on the site.