Top Five Ways to Reduce Health Care Premiums

It’s guaranteed that every company out there is looking for ways to save money on their health insurance premium.  It’s been said that health insurance is expensive but no health insurance is even more expensive.  So, if you’re going to provide this benefit for your employees, you’ll want to get control of what it costs.  Here’s a short list to help you get started making a dent in your premiums.

1. Be Healthy:  This sounds like a no brainer, yet so many people in the United States are inactive and eat an unhealthy diet.  Employers who pay for a portion of this valuable benefit have an obligation to remind, encourage and educate staff.  Then everyone can do their part; things like getting regular checkups, understanding how health choices impact everyone’s cost and then choosing appropriately, putting healthy foods in the vending machine and encourage everyone to move their bodies.
2. Get the right plan: Plans are not all created equal and the cheapest plan doesn’t always save you money.  Understand the needs of your employees and then educate them on how to leverage the benefits you provide.  For example, if you offer a health savings account (HSA) does everyone understand how it works and what the deadlines are?  Do you have a prevention program built into your plan and do your employees take advantage of it?  Look for ways to customize your plan to fit your group.  When it fits right, you receive greater value for your dollar.
3. Research: If medical treatment is necessary but not an emergency, take the time to research it.  There are often large disparities between the charges of service providers and hospitals.  It can take a lot of time, energy and know how; but, this is where an advocacy service through your Advisor can pay for itself by saving your employee time away from work and save your health care plan from unnecessary costs.
4. Audit: Look through your list and verify that everyone on your health care plan is eligible.  Sometimes dependants who have aged out or had qualifying life events should have been dropped but weren’t.  It is just paperwork after all and paperwork gets misfiled all the time.  This takes time to do but can pay big dividends if your roster has people that don’t belong.  Additionally, when it comes time for renewal it’s important to let your Advisor know if any high risk individuals have dropped from the plan.  Make sure health information flows both ways.
5. Hire the right people:  Hiring people who have a positive attitude, a good work ethic, and are team players make maximum contributions to your bottom line in multiple ways, including this one.  A lot can be said for the staff person who can motivate others and think optimistically.  These are traits of healthy people, regardless of their body type or whether or not they run marathons. 

This is our short list.  Do you have any that worked for your group?  Post them in the comments.