EMPLOYERS
99% OF US EMPLOYERS BELIEVE THE RISE OF HEALTHCARE COSTS WILL CONTINUE TO IMPACT THEIR COMPANIES OVER THE NEXT FIVE YEARS.
RISING HEALTHCARE COSTS ARE ONE OF THE TOP ISSUES FACING COMPANIES TODAY.
What can you, the employer, do to tackle the rising healthcare cost challenge that has plagued and continues to plague you? Employer Advantage Healthcare Solutions (Employer Advantage) believes every good decision starts with understanding the current situation. We have researched, reviewed and consolidated important information from various surveys, white papers and reports that we believe are essential for you, the employer, to understand BEFORE you can create a solution to reduce healthcare costs.
FOR EVERY $1 INCREASE IN HEALTHCARE COST TO THE EMPLOYEE, THE EMPLOYER’S COST HAS INCREASED $3.
Who is bearing the brunt of these costs? You, the employer. While many companies have been forced to pass on a portion of the cost increases to their employees, from 1999-2013, the employees’ contribution percentage has remained an average of 24% of total cost. The employer is still the primary contributor of healthcare dollars paying 76% of the total cost.
In dollar terms, for every $1 increase an employee has experienced in the last 14 years, you have experienced $3 in increased costs. Employer Advantage has a proven track record of reducing healthcare costs for companies so both your contribution and the employee’s contribution to healthcare can be decreased.
HEALTHCARE COSTS HAVE INCREASED 178% OVER THE PAST 14 YEARS.
*Kaiser/HRET Survey of Employer Sponsored Health Benefits 2013
EMPLOYEES CONTROL YOUR HEALTHCARE COST
Human resources, benefits consultants, and insurance companies provide boundaries for healthcare spending and generally encourage better health but employees are actually spending healthcare dollars. Americans on average die sooner and experience higher rates of disease and injury than the populations of 16 other high-income countries.* And YOU, the employer, are bearing the brunt of the cost of the population’s poor health conditions. Your employees’ insurance cards serve as essentially no limit credit cards to spend healthcare dollars with any healthcare provider or organization they choose.
Employer Advantage services are designed to provide direction for your employees to make high quality, lower cost healthcare decisions which benefit both your company and the employee.
What is causing the rise in costs? Employer Advantage believes that in part it is due to the numerous parties involved in the healthcare process each of which has its own objectives and motivations. And more importantly, none of these providers with the exception of insurance brokers are accountable to the person footing the bill, the employer.
In addition, because the system is so disconnected and disparate, employees get lost and confused when it comes to making effective healthcare choices. Once again, there is no accountability of the employees to the organization paying the majority of the bill, you, the employer.
76% OF EMPLOYERS BELIEVE WELLNESS PROGRAMS ARE EFFECTIVE IN KEEPING HEALTHCARE COSTS DOWN.
2013 Kaiser/HRET Survey of Employer Sponsored Health Benefits
WHY AREN’T WELLNESS PROGRAMS TRANSLATING INTO HARD DOLLAR SAVINGS?
Most employers believe the best way to reduce their healthcare spending is by improving the health of the population.* This is the reason we have seen a consistent focus on wellness programs in companies over the last 10 years.
Even with the focus on wellness programs and a belief that they are 76% effective, the amount of healthcare dollars being spent year over year is still rising. It is no wonder that, according to the Human Resource Executive 2013 “What’s Keeping HR up at night?” Survey, 29% of the respondents listed controlling healthcare costs as one of their top 3 concerns. The survey also showed Human Resource professionals are spending 35% of their time on employee benefits, with healthcare being a major component.
Why aren’t the success of wellness programs translating into hard dollar savings for companies? In working with our clients, Employer Advantage has discovered that while broad brush wellness programs are effective for educating your employee population, they are not effective at changing an individual’s health behaviors.
Making a dent in the overall healthcare spend relies almost exclusively on the health of the individual employees in your company. In order to reduce your healthcare spending, you must change your employees’ health behavior one person at a time with individualized plans of care and wellness goals.
As an employer, you cannot legally create or be involved in individualized wellness programs nor in the healthcare choices of an individual. Why not? Patient confidentiality. That’s why most wellness programs are for the entire population, not for an individual. You need a partner who manages the individualized care of your employees. That’s where Employer Advantage comes in.
TOP WORKFORCE TRENDS ACCORDING TO HUMAN RELATIONS PROFESSIONALS
