How Employers are Managing the Rising Healthcare Costs in 2019?

Posted by Diane Smith on February 22nd, 2019

The price of health insurance is continuously rising and there is no surprise. As per the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), employer healthcare costs in 2019 are expected to witness 6% surge when compared to 2018. Well, that is certainly not significant, but it abruptly matches the year-to-year increase from that of the previous years.

What are the Strategies for Reducing Employer Healthcare Costs?

As the average cost of employer-provided health insurance in 2019 is likely to witness an upswing, organizations must look for options to cut down the costs as much as possible. Today organizations are in continuous search of healthcare cost solutions for employers, as a 6 percent increase is not that dramatic as it had been witnessed in the past, it is still as much as thrice the rate of inflation. And this clearly means that businesses possibly would not be able to increase the price of their products or services in order to cover the increased expenditure. Let us have a look at the common ways which will help find the perfect healthcare cost solutions for employers:

• Augment Employee Participation

It’s a sheer idea, though not necessarily a good one. Shifting the burden of cost to the valued employees is always a risky move, and this is particularly true when the economy is humming and they have a potential buyer’s market of employment options. Besides, increasing the employee healthcare premiums is just as good for morale as deduction in salary at bad times.

• Minimizing the administrative costs

One of the biggest burdens that organizations confront is the time and personnel involved in the management of healthcare plans. Therefore, it is worth looking into software solutions that can help managers save time tracking and reporting healthcare data and gain accuracy in the desired results. Here, software can prove to be one of the most powerful healthcare cost management solutions for employers.

• Encouraging Healthcare Spending Education Programs

A well-informed healthcare consumer can prove to be a powerful ally in the current battle to control the rising costs. Employees who are well aware of how their actions influence the costs might choose to act more responsibly. There are some insurers that offer advocacy services, which help employees to know about preventative medicine and cost-efficient care. Promoting the importance of exercise, smoking cessation, stress reduction education and support will encourage healthier living among employees, which in turn will help lower the healthcare costs.

Healthcare will always be a challenge, but business leaders should not be unnerved by any of the predictions of employer healthcare costs in 2019 continuing to rise exponentially. However, employers must look for options to soften the impact and promoting healthcare education among the employees.