As a business owner, you deal with a lot of numbers, from sales to goals to balance sheets. An important number to consider as an employer is that of your employee benefits offerings and their costs. One of the largest challenges that business owners face is selecting the right benefits for their employees while maintaining an affordable premium. This pressure is impacted by COVID-19, while employers strive to provide additional support to the team while balancing the economic impacts of the pandemic.
Fortunately, you are able to control and even reduce the costs of your employee benefit plan without sacrificing the quality of the offerings. One of the most important steps in doing this is to understand how your members are utilizing the plan. By looking at the data, you have the power to control your costs.
Below are three questions you can ask to help identify the main cost drivers of your employee benefit plan:
Are members using the emergency room for genuine emergencies?
Emergency rooms across the nation record more than 140 million visits a year, while many of them could have been resolved by the patient visiting a primary care doctor or urgent care. If your employees are misusing the emergency room, your costs could increase. If this is the case, put in communication strategies or programs to help give members better alternatives to care.
Are members going in and getting their correct preventative screening?
This is one of the simplest ways to find conditions that can quickly turn into high-cost claimants if not taken care of. Preventative screening helps your team stay on top of their health and catch any red flags early on. Educate your employees and consider incentivizing them to see a doctor on a more consistent basis. This way, health issues will be spotted early on, and you will likely avoid significant claim costs in the long term.
Are your employees choosing brand-name drugs instead of generic alternatives?
It’s reported that a generic drug is 80 to 85 percent less expensive than a brand-name drug. If members choose generic drugs over brand drugs, you can lower your overall total prescription drug spending.
There are many advantages to leveraging your plan’s data. By starting with these three questions, you can gain better insight into how your plan is working, how your employees are using it, and where you can cut costs through education. For example, making plan design changes, implementing disease management programs, and increasing wellness initiatives.
ABOUT RMS Insurance Brokerage, LLC
At RMS Insurance Brokerage, LLC, our expertly crafted policies are written specifically for the hospitality industry. We offer custom-tailored solutions to meet any venue’s specific needs. For more information, contact our knowledgeable experts today at (516) 742-8585.