Many employers seem to be content with the status quo and avoid discovering and implementing proven, innovative strategies that can significantly benefit their organization as well as their employees. It seems to be just easier to do nothing – but there is an increasing cost.
Sticking with the status quo of the traditional insurance company PPO approach doesn’t work any longer. Hospitals are charging more and more every day, and Big Pharma costs are completely out of control. Then why do traditional brokers and consultants continue to recommend these traditional approaches? It’s all about the money!
The same industries and organizations that could change the status quo, will never do it. There’s too much money in it for everyone – everyone except the businesses, organizations, and employees that are paying for it. Everyone on your healthcare team (hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, brokers, consultants, PBM’s, etc.) all make more money when your costs go up! And every time employers take more money out of employees paychecks to pay for the insurance, employees are taking a pay cut.
Imagine what is possible – lower costs for employees and employers, better member experience, streamlined administration, higher wages, and improved employee morale. Better benefit packages will allow employers to attract and retain valued employees. Less work for HR will result because of improved systems and technologies, and better care for everyone.
The cost of doing something – change – isn’t what it used to be. I’ve been in this business long enough (longer than I care to admit) to have observed and implemented change for my clients in recent years. It’s not the perceived, overwhelming experience and work that employers and their team think it is. But that’s the number 1 reason why employers are content with the status quo, even at the significant expense that it is to their organization and to their employees.
Our clients who have embraced change are experiencing a 30-40% LESS cost per employee per year than other employers, year after year. They have realized that they have to “jump the tracks” and make change happen. Once we have assembled the right healthcare team that is aligned and working on behalf of the employer and their employees, good things happen.
So the question is: “how much is increasing the cost of doing nothing” costing your organization? Unless employers do something (and I don’t mean simply switching insurance companies, increasing deductibles, or increasing employee contributions) the cost isn’t going down. Everyone will continue to increase charges.
If you want to learn about the “decreased cost of doing something” reach out to me and I can explain.
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.
