Welcome to 2023. Your employee health plan took an uncomfortable rate increase this year again. If you’re fully insured you probably weren’t given a plausible excuse why. All you really know is that you’ll be spending more on health care and less on other things your business really needs. You’ll have to cut budgets in other areas like increased wages, capital expenditures, expanded marketing, and other areas that would’ve helped your business grow and stay competitive. So what? What can you do about it?
Now is a good time to think back on what your intentions were when you first offered employee benefits. It was probably things like it was important to protect the well-being of your employees and their families from financial catastrophe when a serious illness or accident overshadowed them. You also thought a comprehensive health plan would attract the most talented candidates and help you keep your best employees. And surely you expected it to enhance your company culture, helping you to be the best place to work in the community. Or maybe it was because the Affordable Care Act mandated you to offer health coverage.
Whatever the reason, now is the time to reassess your health plan. We know you just renewed your plan, but it’s the perfect time to ask yourself how your ever-increasing health plan costs fit into your business objectives. How does it make you more competitive? How does it support your employees’ well-being when their share of the premiums and their out-of-pocket costs are so high that they avoid going to the doctor? How is that effecting your company culture and morale? How can your health plan help you attract the most talented employees (who, by the way already have jobs) when it’s no different than all of the other status quo health plans out there? How do you determine a Return on Investment on the snowballing plan costs and decreasing benefits?
These are strategic questions. The kind of questions that align your health plan with your business objectives. And they probably weren’t discussed with your broker during your renewal process. That’s because your broker isn’t a strategic advisor. His/her job is to “shop the market” for you to come up with the smallest rate increase at renewal – when you probably shouldn’t have had an increase in the first place.
We use our 80 years of combined insurance carrier and hospital/clinic experience at the executive level to solve business problems like yours, not sell insurance policies. No other employee benefits firm compares to our diverse depth of expertise. We use tools and tactics based on supply chain management principles that create a clear path to aligning your health plan with your strategic business plan. Whether you have 30 or 3,000 employees we’ll show you how to control your employee health costs. We will significantly lower your health care expense, enhance the safety and quality of the care your employees receive, and improve your plan benefits. You’ll achieve results with our strategy. We put a portion of our fees at risk to prove it. Ask your broker to put up a portion of their fees (commissions) if he/she doesn’t help you control your health costs this year. You may get a different answer.
If you’re interested in re-aligning your health benefits to fit into your business plan instead of being a burden to it, you need to start a brief no-obligation conversation with us now. Waiting until you’re closer to your renewal will guarantee another renewal increase. Call us at (815) 742-2066 or (815) 209-8711