Best Practices: Managing Employer Health Insurance

In today’s working environment, offering a competitive employee benefit package is essential for companies who wish to recruit and retain high quality employees. However, it is also important that business owners control the costs associated with competitive healthcare packages. Business owners often experience difficulty settling on a package that offers the optimal balance of affordability and ambition. The following best practices will outline the ideal approaches for employers who wish to offer optimal healthcare packages to employees, while controlling the costs associated with those packages.

A Proactive Approach

The number of times that employees visit the doctor’s office is directly correlated with the cost associated with employer health insurance premiums. Employers can address this cost by encouraging employees to take a proactive approach toward their health. Employers can offer gym memberships or discounts on gym memberships, provide employees with healthy diet information or even provide healthy lunch options for employees.

Further, employers can address this issue within the structure of the healthcare package. Employers can limit the number of visits to health care providers that are not considered medical necessities. For instance, employers can limit the number of times that employees are eligible to visit chiropractors or other physical therapists within a given time frame. Addressing the structure of the package without altering the key coverage area standards allow employers to offer health care packages that adhere to the Affordable Care Act guidelines while still controlling cost.

Consumer Driven Health Plans

Many businesses are saving money by offering their employees consumer driven health plans (CDHP). CDHPs allow employees to maintain flexibility of their health coverage and shift much of the cost associate with employer health insurance to the employee. These plans are high deductible health plans with low premiums. Employees who choose these plans often pair the plan with a Health Savings Account (HSA). HSAs are savings accounts that employees, and their employers, make monthly contributions toward to pay for medical expenses.

The benefit of CDHPs with HSAs is that employees who take advantage of these options often give more consideration toward the treatment that they choose to receive. If employees are controlling the amount of money that they’re contributing to their medical care, they’ll be more considerate of the amount of money that they’re spending on treatment and, perhaps, more discerning.

By following these best practices, business owners can continue to recruit high quality employees by offering competitive healthcare packages and also controlling the costs associated with those packages.

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