Previously, in one of my posts we have discussed about the ways of saving dollars on health care cost. That discussion was based on individual requirements. Today I'm changing things up, and we will talk about the strategies, helpful for employers and employees to REDUCE their health care cost. These ideas are not just some concepts but rather, proven & tested ways of lowering the cost of health insurance. Depending on the type of coverage you are providing, you might need to change your strategies to get the better deals on a budget.

Health insurance has a high claims loss ratio compared to other conventional insurance policies. Practically, the policy holder gets 80 cents paid back as claims from each dollar he had invested towards premium. It is known as “minimum loss ratio”, or MLR (Included by The Affordable Care Act). Today health care cost is getting very high as well as the health insurance costs. So, employers must adopt few strategies that employees can avail the health insurance benefits at a reduced cost. Here go some of the main tips:

SHARING PREMIUM COSTS OF EMPLOYEES

You must review & modify the strategies regarding employee premium contribution & benefit plans. If required, change premiums costs sharing procedure (for both employee and dependent) and benefit sharing method. It is more necessary when a you are about to introduce health insurance plans. According to the rules of ACA you must modify your way of sharing health insurance premiums and benefit offerings.

CONSIDER THE ELIGIBILITY OF THE EMPLOYEES

You need to calculate dependent coverage costs along with the number or percentage of spousal coverage applicant employees. You need to check the eligibility of those employees who applied for spousal benefit coverage. Another effective system will be conducting spousal assessments process. In this system, those employees will be charged more money whose spouses are eligible for other employer based coverage.

PLAN THE DESIGN

Focus on implementing CDH (Consumer Directed Healthcare). Recent studies revealed that there are numerous high deductible/account based plans which can increase your savings. You need to run some assessments before modeling a plan regarding CDH. You need to evaluate the “take up” rate before offering the CDH option.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS USAGE MONITORING

Keep an eye on the usage of prescription drugs and their costs. Check whether your Prescription Benefit Manager (PBM) is working duties at his best. Make sure whether your healthcare plan administrator is giving you sufficient rebates/credits. Give opportunities to your employees to save costs by choosing various options.

EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION WITH THE EMPLOYEES

You must put a stress on educating your employees regarding your health plan details and suggesting them cost reduction ways. It was revealed through studies that employees most of the time misuses the health care plans due to lack of awareness. Employees could benefit from the plans if they get an in depth knowledge regarding their healthcare plans.

WELLNESS/HEALTH RISK ASSESSMENT PROGRAM

Initiate health risk assessment system (HRA) for your employees and their spouses. The data of HRA will be beneficial for you as you'll get a fair idea about the problems the organization is facing day by day, and initiate a future plan. You may start a wellness program for the employees & use your HRA data for creating a proper system.

CONSIDERING INDIVIDUAL MEDICAL POLICIES

Depending on various interior and exterior factors, like organization, premiums, participation, benefits and many more , you might find out that group health care is not your cup of tea. So you might consider individual medical insurance despite of group health insurance. The cost will be generally lower than group healthcare plans.