So often employers are at the mercy of insurance companies and the renewals that they impose. The advice that many employers receive is the worn out suggestion to pass increases on to employees – either with higher deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses, or higher contributions out or their paycheck. The alternative to shop the market but usually produces the same outcome.
Most employers have to react to this annual chaos so they lack having a short and long term strategy. They aren’t in any sense controlling their healthcare spend – it’s controlling them. They take what their insurance company gives them and have to communicate the bad news to employees.
Would you like to take the offensive and create a strategy to hold the insurance companies responsible and at bay? Believe it or not, you can. But you can’t continue the status quo arrangements that everyone in the industry wants to maintain.
Look at these outrageous costs that Kaiser reports from their 2022 Survey Shocking numbers.
With Humana announcing their exit from the commercial marketplace, the remaining insurance options continue to erode. This will certainly allow those remaining companies to reduce competition, increase their rates, and have their profits swell – just look at Wall Street and their annual profits.
The first step in developing both a short and long term strategy is to explore the benefits of unbundling your plan and the Best In Class solution providers that support it. How to you find Best In Class solution providers? You talk to a Benefits professional that almost exclusively works in this space. If you ask your broker how much business they have with BUCA (Blue Cross, United, Cigna, Aetna), how many clients, revenue, commission overrides, etc. and their response is that it’s ‘significant’ then they are the status quo brokers who will bring you status quo results.
There are so many innovative and successful programs available in the market that it would blow your mind. Strategies to compete with insurance companies, Big Pharma, Networks, hospitals (not doctors) are abundant and have proven results. When I come across something new in the marketplace, it amazes me – it makes sense and works.
Don’t let healthcare and healthplan costs control you and your budget. Get proactive and change the paradigm. If you want some ideas, you can email me at [email protected] or call me at 970-349-7707.
Frank serves the employee-benefit needs of employers nationally, consulting on identification, design, and implementation of innovative and compelling savings opportunities for self-funded employers, rather than traditional cost shifting. He has over 40 years’ experience working with public and private sector employers and their partially self-funded health plans.
