As an employer, you’ve likely had a really bad experience (or two) with healthcare renewals and outrageous price hikes. These price increases are a common occurrence with many fully insured plans. Increases of 30 or 40% due to past claims or a high claimant (even if that person is no longer on the plan) can affect your school board in a negative way.
But what if those price hikes were reversible?
Recently, one of our clients received a 30% increase because of a high claimant on their plan, however, the employee that was responsible for the high claims left the company in July. Our clients were being penalized for a past high claimant. After digging through the data we were able to move our client to a different insurance environment that recognized the difference in their reality.
We were able to secure a 15% decrease for this client.
With this unlocked revenue, they were able to lean into their culture and better achieve their goals: to take care of their people. They are now able to provide enhanced benefits and truly give back to their employees aligning with the company’s overall vision.
Another client faced a 25% increase, but through appropriate risk evaluation and pursuing better alternatives, we secured a 19% decrease. This money was then used to lower employee contributions, essentially giving their people a pay raise.
We see increases like this frequently at renewal time, but with careful analysis and research into the plan, those costs can be reversed.
The impact of high costs is evident.
These high increases in renewals can not only affect the company’s bottom line but impact key stakeholders and employees. From the CEO to the people, a sharp increase in expenses that originate from your employee health insurance plan can impact your people, on an individual level. For example:
- CEO’s who are responsible for the culture of a business, keeping the people happy and maintaining positive numbers each quarter are heavily impacted by increases so large.
- A CFO wants to provide a generous and competitive plan to employees that doesn’t break the bank. Steep increases in renewal costs can alter this plan and force CFO’s to face an erosion of bottom line performance and possible destruction of budget forecasts causing undue stress.
- From an HR perspective, that increase erodes employee compensation, affecting overall employee morale, happiness and satisfaction negatively impacting retention and recruitment.
- Employees dealing with increasing premiums, deductibles and copays can leave them feeling frustrated and disappointed creating an unhappy workforce. This can lead to increased employee turnover or a policy that is underutilized.
By using a health plan to effectively solve these problems and manage risks, your key stakeholders all get a win.
Working with a professional, like us, to conduct an appropriate risk assessment and negotiate on your behalf can help you reduce high percentage increases, saving you money that you can use to give back to your people.
For our clients, their renewal was $473,000, with a thorough assessment a new price of $309,000 was secured. We were able to achieve a reduction of $70,000 from what they were currently spending, significant savings that can be used for school improvements, culture, or employees.
If you have experienced a renewal price hike, due to past claims, high claimants or for an unknown cause, reduce the price before it impacts your school. We can help correct these prices, don’t hesitate to call, let’s chat about it.
