by Sarah Gunter
As we hit the halfway mark in the plan year and benefits leaders look to the future, we felt like now is the perfect time to evaluate benefits programs in terms of stop, start, and keep. We asked some industry experts to weigh in. We asked…
What practices do you see employers stopping?
Matt Lubbers, VP of Sales at Your Money Line, speaks to the current emphasis on benefits following the Great Resignation.
“Our experience has shown that it's more additive than subtractive, meaning employers are taking on MORE for their employees without removing existing benefits. The competitive employee market is requiring companies to put more towards benefits to attract and retain top talent.” —Matt Lubbers
Chuck Henderson, CGO at ARC Fertility, describes how benefits are impacted by a changing corporate culture.
“I am not sure employers will ever completely stop these, but I think many employers are moving away from executive focused benefits that were popular in the ‘90s and early 2000’s. Employers today are about being equitable and fair and inclusive.” —Chuck Henderson
April Lee, COO at ARC Fertility, recognizes the role of benefits in recruitment and retention, while addressing the value of tailoring benefits to employee populations.
“Employers are being more cost-effective with their benefits and extending efforts to be sure their benefits support their workforce along with the ability to be competitive to attract and retain top talent.” —April Lee
Ryan Rice, an executive with Prism Health, focuses on emerging strategies for cost containment.
“I believe plan sponsors / employers are wising up to the fact that they can no longer pay claims until they’re broke, maintaining an unsustainably wealthy benefit. Rising costs continue to reach unsustainable thresholds, and savvy employers are realizing they’ll have to adopt a range of nuanced / less traditional cost containment strategies that will aim to mitigate steep rising cost curve, while also maintaining a reasonably valued benefit.” —Ryan Rice
Other notable responses from the experts included seeing a stop to old-fashioned, traditional wellness plans and underutilized benefits such as carrier-based DM.
What practices/programs are you predicting more employers will start?
Lubbers nods to the expanding definition and understanding of what employee benefits entail:
“We're seeing employers thinking more broadly about the overall wellbeing of their employees. If we back up 5-10 years, having a competitive health plan and 401k met employee expectations. Now, companies are having to think broader about the overall health and wellbeing for each individual, including areas like mental health and financial health. These are a couple examples of areas that employers are seeing feed into the overall happiness of their employees.” —Matt Lubbers
Arc Fertility executives Henderson and Lee view family forming and planning as a benefit of growing importance.
“Selfishly, I hope fertility benefits! In this economic climate, employers are looking for anything to give them an edge in recruiting and retaining but they still have an eye on cost, especially with the fear of a recession. Employers are also struggling to help address the mental health challenges of their employees, so I foresee a continued focus on any programs that are low cost/high impact for their populations in the wellness space.” —Chuck Henderson
“Employers are using data to be sure their benefits are supporting their employees, and there is a focus on mental health as well as family-forming benefits, which are in the top 1-5 of benefits employers are implementing.” —April Lee
Rice understands that in order to maintain and expand their benefits offerings, employers are having to get creative financially.
“Given the tone and tenor of the client partners we serve from across the spectrum of comfort level, ALL folks are desperate to retain and maintain the quality of their work force. Benefits are a major part of that equation, and it’s clear there’s a growing appetite for implementing more aggressive cost containment strategies, consumer tools, and value add services such as free insulin, zero-dollar copay incentives, cash incentives, etc. Every employer is digging deep within their own core values, budget projections, and aspirations for sustainable growth to find creative paths to maintaining a high bar of quality, at the lowest possible price.” —Ryan Rice
Matthew Baki, Sr. VP of Strategic Accounts at Tria Health, sees a new interest in pharmacy spend, a previously overlooked area.
“I believe plan sponsors and their consultants are going to start looking for outcomes related to their pharmacy spend and utilization. If medications are supposed to cure, prevent, or treat symptoms of a condition, employers should know if their investment in pharmacy is providing the desired outcomes. Optimized pharmacy utilization at the patient level can protect an employer’s medical spend. The conversation is shifting from only cost and utilization, to now outcomes and value of investment.” —Matthew Baki
Mike Riley, CEO at Sustainable Health Index, describes how companies are updating their approaches to wellness.
“Most mature companies have some sort of wellness offering. Millions have been invested in individualized siloed solutions that are underutilized. That box has been checked and now they are wondering what's next? There is no shortage of slick and sexy individual wellness applications. But to truly impact Total Worker Health, you have to understand the causes and conditions impacting the current health of the population and need a partner to help develop strategy for community level interventions that impact the social ecological framework. Companies are realizing individual solutions are not enough and they have to have a way to impact the culture and ecosystem that is affecting their health outcomes.” —Mike Riley
Other predicted interests included enhancing EAP or Mental Health benefits, adding MSK solutions, fertility, and carve-out diabetes/metabolic benefits, as well as integrating physical and mental wellbeing solutions.
What areas of the plan design are working, and you expect employers to keep the same?
Lubbers, Henderson, and Lee share their expertise:
“We're hearing positive feedback that the more customization they can offer their employees, the better. This is a trend that has been in the works for a while now, and we expect that to continue.” —Matt Lubbers
“I don’t know that they are “working”, but I don’t see high deductible health plans going anywhere, nor do I see HSA/FSA options disappearing.” —Chuck Henderson
“Telehealth for convenience along with good plan design that helps drive quality outcomes in support of employees, beyond telehealth.” —April Lee
Rice provides guidance where it comes to pharmacy strategy and different pricing models.
“Based on what we’re seeing across our respective book of business, we’re seeing plan sponsors think critically about the specialty pharmacy benefit and reasonable and compliant means of incorporating Copay Assistance, Patient Assistance Programs, International Sourcing solutions, etc., and though there’s no sure timeline as to how long these subsidy dollars will be around, employers will continue to tap into this vein for the foreseeable future. Since these program offerings have become more of a commodity that most all PBM entities support, the guidance we encourage plan sponsors to become bullish on is limiting any shared savings pricing models to be as low as possible, and to also include respective transactional caps that maximize the amount of shared savings carriers can tie to their fee basis.”
Guidance for the vendors…
Innovation in benefits solutions is moving fast, but unless the people using and promoting your solution (brokers and employers) are fully educated about it and equipped with the proper tools, the deliverables won’t have an impact.
Rhonda Marcucci, VP of Innovation with Gallagher, one of the largest insurance brokerage groups in the US, shares her advice:
“Right now, the investment community is driving a great deal of innovation, in all kinds of solutions for employers to extend more personalized benefits to their employees. And, although technology is advancing, it can be difficult for the advisory community to stay in front of innovation. Conversely, vendors who want to distribute through organizations like Gallagher and other firms must create win-win partnerships to garner mind share for these advisors to be comfortable presenting solutions to their clients.”—Rhonda Marcucci
Although personalized benefits solutions are growing in popularity and importance, vendors who want to tap into large groups such as Gallagher need to invest the time and energy necessary to make sure the advisors/brokers are fully educated on the product or program before they go out and sell it to their group members.
