As healthcare costs rise, so do insurance premiums. This increase is probably significant enough for your business to feel it. After all, group health insurance isn’t cheap, and it likely makes up a large chunk of your business expenses.
If you’re new to group health insurance and wondering how high the costs are exactly, you can find the details here: https://www.taylorbenefitsinsurance.com/small-business-health-insurance-costs/.
As you can see in the breakdown, the premiums can be quite high. Luckily, there are several ways to minimize them. Let’s look at some of the most effective ones.
1. Encourage Healthy Habits in Your Employees
From the insurance perspective, some employees will be motivated to live healthy lives by default if your plan covers 100% of the costs of their preventive service. But in most cases, you might have to give your employees a further nudge to take care of themselves.
Making wellness a part of your company culture is a great starting point. You can provide fresh fruits for the office or have them delivered to your employees’ homes if they work remotely. You can also organize sports days and company-wide competitions to motivate your people to stay healthy.
There are all sorts of initiatives that’ll promote healthy living in the workplace. They’ll help you lower your premiums due to lower utilization while showing your employees you care about them.
2. Advise Single-Visit Check-Ups
Each doctor’s consultation calls for a separate bill. More bills mean higher insurance premiums. To counter this, you can encourage your employees to find doctors or clinics that can perform multiple check-ups at once.
A big part of making this happen is ensuring your employees understand the importance of prevention. Generally speaking, people don’t tend to visit a doctor unless something’s already bothering them. Check-ups can catch any potential issues on time, lowering the number of trips to the doctor’s office.
3. Consider Telehealth
Telehealth became highly popular during the COVID pandemic. Even though people were pushed towards it due to the restrictions, many learned to appreciate its simplicity and convenience.
So how does telehealth fit into insurance premiums?
Well, as a low-cost service, telehealth lowers the overall cost of insurance plans. It’s also more accessible, so your employees are more likely to seek preventive care. Both of these factors contribute to lower premiums.
4. Encourage Employees to Question Prescriptions
Over-prescribing has been a serious public health concern for years now. Patients are encouraged to take medication they don’t necessarily need. On top of the obvious problem of over-medication, this can also cause higher premiums due to unused or ineffective prescriptions.
This is why you should educate your employees on the importance of questioning prescriptions. To minimize waste, be transparent about the cost of prescription medication. Many employees will appreciate this and help you bring those costs down by not buying the medications that they don’t need.
In addition, your employees shouldn’t hesitate to question the doctor and ask if there are any other ways to combat their condition. Too many doctors use prescriptions as their go-to, so being a bit more inquisitive can spare your employees unnecessary meds.
5. Leverage Data
What percentage of your employees are smokers? How many of them exercise regularly and get seven to eight hours of sleep every night? What are they doing to counter the sedentary lifestyle most of us have succumbed to?
If you can’t answer these questions, it’s time to start gathering and analyzing some data. By doing so, you can understand your employees’ overall well-being and take corrective action.
You don’t need any expensive software or complicated techniques to mine data. A simple questionnaire can be a great starting point. Ask employees about their habits through an anonymous survey, and see how good they are at taking care of themselves.
Once you analyze the results you get, you can find the best way to increase your team’s general wellness through initiatives that’ll eliminate the most pressing issues. Lower insurance premiums will be a natural consequence.
6. Offer Health Savings Accounts
HSAs are highly popular among employees. Not only can they cut various medical expenses, but they also help employees lower their taxable income. But how do they help lower your premiums?
You can only offer HSAs through an HDHP (High-Deductible Health Insurance Plan). Due to higher annual deductibles, monthly premiums are automatically lower.
A great benefit of HSAs is that your employees’ funds will carry over from one year to the next, so they can’t lose money. The funds will even be there if they change jobs. This makes HSAs an attractive option, especially for younger workers.
7. Shop Around
If you still haven’t chosen a group health insurance plan, don’t underestimate the power of research. Be thorough and compare as many options as you can before making the final decision.
And if you already have a provider, perhaps you can renegotiate your premiums. Simply letting your insurer know that you’re exploring other options will get you some leverage that you can use to secure more favorable conditions.
If that doesn’t happen, another insurance provider might offer you a better deal to steal you from a competitor. So do your homework, know your options, and stay on the lookout for better deals.
Bring Your Premiums to the Minimum
As you can see, there’s quite a bit you can do to lower your insurance premiums. Remember that it all comes down to your employees’ wellness, so keep motivating them to take proper care of themselves. While you execute various programs, keep track of their impact to see if there’s anything else you can add.
Don’t forget to explore remote/virtual health services as a cost-effective option that’ll save both you and your employees money. The number of options is constantly rising, so there’s bound to be a solution that works for your business.
If all else fails, consider switching to another health insurance provider. Despite the ever-increasing costs, many insurers can offer you a deal that won’t burn a hole in your business’s pocket. Keep shopping around, and you’ll surely find an option that works.
