Recent surveys on healthcare have taught us one major thing – healthcare costs are expected to rise.  A survey completed by Willis Towers Watson reports that employers are seeking new strategies to manage rising health care costs, which are expected to grow by 7.7% in 2025. Instead of raising employee premiums, many companies are focusing on cost-saving measures like improving health plan designs and offering access to higher-quality care at lower prices. There is also a trend...

Affordable employer health insurance is becoming an employer burden and an employee wish.  According to the Kaiser Foundation in their 2023 report, the average annual premium for employer-sponsored health insurance in 2023 was $8,435 for single coverage and $23,968 for family coverage. The average annual single premium and the average annual family premium each increased by 7% over the last year. Comparatively, there was an increase of 5.2% in workers’ wages and inflation was at...

More than half of the working population in 2021, 155 million, relied on employer health coverage. While average premiums are up 4% from 2020, costs are up 47% when comparing 2021 to 2011. Deductibles have surged 68.4% over the last decade with the advent of high deductible plans.

In 2022, The Transparency in Coverage Final Rule, issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), became effective.  The rule requires health insurers to disclose pricing for covered services and items and must include the rates they have negotiated with participating providers for all covered services and items, as well as the allowed and billed amounts for out-of-network providers. Allowed amounts are the maximum rates insurers will pay for a given service and billed...

A new survey by Forbes found that 8% of respondents left a job they liked to seek better health insurance. Another 20% decided to get a full-time job instead of a part-time job so they could get coverage. 31% of respondents with employer-sponsored insurance said they stayed with a job they disliked for the company’s health insurance. 

ASE released its 2022 Healthcare Insurance Benefits Survey.  The annual survey, covering Michigan employers, examines the premiums, deductibles, and co-pays of employer-sponsored health plans as well as wellness benefits and cost control strategies.

 

Last Friday, the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion decided in an earlier Supreme Court case in 1973 called Roe v. Wade. In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas statute banning abortion, effectively legalizing the procedure across the United States. In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, No. 19-1392 (June 24, 2022), the Supreme Court ruled that Mississippi could ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, overturning Roe v. Wade.

For many employers, their healthcare benefits include access to pregnancy termination procedures, or abortions.  The right to abortions was decided in a 1973 case called Roe v. Wade. The case was controversial for multiple reasons, but the crux of it is that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas statute banning abortion, effectively legalizing the procedure across the United States. Before the decision, abortion had been illegal throughout much of the country forcing many women to...

Two years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual care has become a standard healthcare option among today's companies. In fact, 93% of HR professionals said their organization offers access to virtual care, and about a third of them said their company had started to provide that care within the last two years.  In the most recent ASE Healthcare Insurance Benefits Survey, 63% of ASE survey respondents stated they offer telehealth benefits.

Nearly 180 million Americans have employer-provided health insurance coverage, and 40% of them are covered by a Consumer-Directed Health Plan (CDHP), which combine a high-deductible plan with a tax advantaged health savings account (HSA).

As the pandemic continues to unfold, the ability of employers to have a positive impact on employee health and resiliency cannot be understated according to a recent Mercer Survey, Health on Demand.

Typically, HR coordinates open enrollment communications for most organizations, but the communications department should play a vital role. If your employees don’t understand their options, it doesn’t matter how competitive the benefit packages are.  With remote workers and plenty of distractions in your employees’ daily lives, most employees are confused.  According to a recent Voya survey, 66% of workers want a better explanation of their benefits. ...

As businesses manage the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, employers have increased their focus on creating benefit programs that address the evolving needs of their diverse workforces, especially mental/emotional health, work/life balance, and financial health. Moreover, 80% of employers report that diversity, equity, and inclusion influence their corporate well-being strategies. This is according to Fidelity Investments® and Business Group on Health’s Employer-Sponsored...

It is no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic has strained our healthcare system.  Now as the pandemic enters a new resurgence in the United States and hospitalizations increase, employers and their employees might be in for a surprise: hefty medical bills.  

Recently Delta Airlines announced that it will charge employees on the company health plan a $200 per month additional charge if they fail to get vaccinated against COVID-19. 

Delta argues that the costs of hospital stays for COVID total, on average, about $40,000-$50,000 per incident thus driving up healthcare costs for all employees.

 

We’ve all lived like astronauts for the past year and a half – we’ve been physically isolated from family and friends, our home was also our workplace, and we were surrounded by an unsafe environment (COVID-19). Astronauts train for this, we have not.

Organizations across the country have been forced to quickly adapt during the COVID-19 pandemic, and insurance benefits are one area to see significant modifications. The ASE 2020 Healthcare Insurance Benefits Survey details these changes by examining premiums, deductibles, and co-pays of employer-sponsored health plans among 174 Michigan employers. Wellness benefits and cost control strategies are also benchmarked.

Last month’s Bostock decision ruled that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects LGBTQ rights.  This decision has a number of subtle impacts that employers need to be cognizant of, including compensation and by extension employer sponsored health plans.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) made it easier for employees to make mid-year changes to their health insurance coverage for 2020 during the Coronavirus pandemic. Notice 20-29 allows employers to amend their healthcare plans so employees can now make mid-year changes that would be in effect for the rest of the year. For instance, an employee who declined coverage could enroll in a plan, and current enrollees could change plans or add or drop family members.  Prior to this notice,...

With health care costs growing more than two times the rate of inflation consistently over the years, and employers growing weary of increasing deductibles and cost shares, an old idea has resurfaced for employers:  Referenced Based Pricing (RBP) programs.  Under Obamacare, the transparency of costs among providers has become more commonplace, thereby enabling these types of programs.

According to UnitedHealthcare’s 2018 Consumer Sentiment Survey, 77% of respondents with health benefits said they felt prepared to select their health plan during the upcoming open enrollment.  When looking at the different generations in the workforce, 81% of Baby Boomers felt prepared as well as 80% of Gen Xers. However, the Millennials reported feeling the least certain of the three generations with only 69% reporting that they are prepared.

The results are in for ASE’s 2018 Healthcare Insurance Benefits Survey. A total of 215 organizations participated in the latest study, which examines the premiums, deductibles, and co-pays for employer-sponsored health plans across Michigan. Highlights from the survey are listed below:

Employers that work on a calendar year budget are starting to think about budget planning for 2019. The cost of health insurance is a major concern for employers.  Locally, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan announces 2019 insurance increases in late October or the first part of November. If increases stay below 10%, employers may decide their level of benefits can stay the same another year. Higher than that, and co-pays and deductibles as well as insurance benefit packages get...

Employer health care spending has grown from 6% of total wages in 1988 to more than 12% in 2018.  The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) estimate that this growth will continue, with national health spending projected to be 20% of the economy by 2026.  Employers are seeking innovative approaches to keeping healthcare costs down.

A lawsuit by 20 states was filed in federal court in Texas challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in February.  Texas argues that last year’s tax reform law, which stripped the ACA of the individual mandate, made the ACA unconstitutional.   If the individual mandate is stripped away, the Department of Justice (DOJ), agreeing with Texas, argues that two other key parts of Obamacare should fall with it.