Rising healthcare expenses continue to burden employers. And we expect average increases to range from 6% this year to 7.5% next. But employers that act to ensure they’re getting the most value from their vendor partners will likely see lower costs than those that don’t.
Many employers are focused on reducing expenses and taking a risk management approach toward healthcare spending. One way to manage the risk of rising health care costs is to perform detailed claims audits of the benefit administrators for all your healthcare plans. This includes medical, dental, vision, and behavioral health plans and flexible spending accounts.
To better manage your self-insured employer benefit plans, we recommend considering the following:
Employers can't assume that their healthcare plan administration is running as it should. They have a fiduciary responsibility toward plan participants to ensure appropriate controls are in place. And with the cost of healthcare increasing, employers — as plan sponsors — are accountable for protecting plan assets. We recommend that employers ensure they are getting the most value from their healthcare spend by healthcare audits of their vendor partners.
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