Like death and taxes, insurance premium hikes are one of the certainties of life.
While health insurance is an important investment for employers, that doesn’t mean you have to always accept rising insurance premiums. There are several ways to reduce your insurance premiums, ranging from re-evaluating your plan to reducing coverage or finding another provider.
However, there is another approach that will not only reduce your insurance premiums, but it will improve the health of your workforce as well.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, health care is one of the most expensive benefits that employers provide, making up 8.2% of total compensation in 2020. Covering almost 155 million Americans, employer health insurance cost employers $7,739 per single policy and $22,221 per family policy in 2021, up 4% from 2020.
While the 4% rise in premiums over the last year is considered modest, insurance premiums have been rising steadily for employers over the last decade. As an example, the average premium for family coverage has increased 22% over the last 5 years and 47% over the last 10 years.
And, there’s no reason to believe this trend won’t continue into the future.
With health insurance premiums on the rise, you aren’t alone if you are looking at ways to reduce your costs. But it might seem impossible to get a better deal. Aside from adjusting coverage options to reduce your premiums (or canceling), it can be a tall order to take control of the mounting cost of insurance while still supporting your employees.
Instead of looking at what you can take away, it might be time to look at what you can add to your plan in order to save costs.
Insurance premiums are assessed on risk and based on previous insurance spending. One way to reduce future premiums is to look at the current risk factors and take a proactive approach to minimize them. This might involve investing in an employee wellness program or offering a supplementary pharmacy plan to improve medication adherence.
While spending more money to save money may seem illogical, setting up a supplementary pharmacy plan for your employees can help minimize insurance premiums in several ways.
Health insurance premiums are always going to rise. It makes business sense to anticipate this trend and take a proactive approach to minimize your spending. That’s why you should consider investing in a supplementary pharmacy plan for your workforce.
By partnering with a dedicated pharmacy provider, your employees get low-cost (or in the case of HomeMed "no-cost") access to chronic medications. While this is a good deal for your staff, your business will also benefit from having an employer-sponsored pharmacy plan in these ways:
In addition to the many benefits to your business, introducing an employer-sponsored pharmacy plan will also deliver advantages to your employees:
HomeMed is a nationally licensed mail-order pharmacy that partners with businesses to provide employer-sponsored pharmacy plans. Committed to reducing insurance premiums and the skyrocketing costs of healthcare, HomeMed works with employers to deliver pharmacy benefits that not only help businesses minimize costs but also improve the lives of employees.