In a small business of 25-30 employees where we cover the premium on the employees health care, but each year it is rising, we have had to raise the deductible twice and we do not want to do that again. Any other insurance options? can you implement practices to keep your premium lower. Such as not hiring smokers, gym memberships for employees.
My wife's company's health care costs are jumping a lot because of the sheer number of people abusing short and long term disability. I wish I knew of any other options... I think healthcare is rising everywhere. Sorry. Have you considered moving to a group HSA type of insurance as the first step?
You can do it:
"A Health Savings Account (HSA) is a way for insurance plan members to prudently prepare for future healthcare expenditures in a tax-advantaged way. HSAs promise to change the way both companies and employees protect themselves from the growing costs of healthcare. It's essentially a tax-free "nest egg" that an employee can contribute to while he or she is covered by a high-deductible insurance policy. It's typical for someone to deposit an amount equal to their (high) deductible into this account every year. Many people aren't aware that Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) can actually help you save for retirement kind of act like a form of "backup 401(k)". Before retirement, you're required to use the money in an HSA for medical expenses only otherwise, you pay a penalty. But after retirement, you're allowed to withdraw HSA money for any purpose you want, without penalty. Since you contribute to an HSA with pre-tax dollars and the money inside the HSAs compounds tax-free it makes for a great retirement savings vehicle. HSAs are regulated under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and are essentially regarded by the government as a retirement plan. The tradeoff is that in order for them to open an HSA, your employees have to hold a high-deductible insurance plan. If you do select a group insurance plan that is HSA-compatible, it means you will be able to provide your employees with viable health coverage and an HSA that they will then be able to keep and grow even after they have left your company, not unlike a 401(k) account."
http://www.vimo.com/faq_page/hsa-group-i...
I think a lot of employees would appreciate that kind of plan and the costs are lower because they don't pay for every little office visit.
You might also want to consider (I don't know your employees make-up, where you all live, etc.) things such as:
providing flu shots at work or at least picking up the tab for them
membership at the Y or a gym--or reimburse up to $x for such a membership
checking out what kind of speakers you can have come to speak to your employees--may have someone who can present on good health tips: nutrition, preventive care, etc.
you could also, as the deductible will increase with an HSA start up a little account which ALL employees would be eligible to draw from IF they have high expenses (but haven't hit the magic deductible number)--you'd have to put some imagination in this to review bills, the problem(s) causing the expenses, etc. Not that you'd be covering all their expenses, but for a lot of people, even $500 could make a huge difference
if you offer any kind of food at work (even vending machines) make sure HEALTHY choices are available to them. If you don't have any food at work, consider setting something up where folks CAN buy JUST healthy snacks: fresh fruit, containers of OJ, small bags of nuts--that sort of thing.
consider hiring a nurse to come in a couple of times a year and do some basic checks for folks--BP (a frequently silent killer), cholesterol check, blood sugar, look at moles, etc. Maybe she could answer some questions one-on-one. Could do this in conjunction with flu shots if you do them, for one example.
consider paying a nutritionist to come in and present on whatever your peoples' health issues might be (got people ripe for heart disease? cancer? diabetes? there are nutritional tips that can help them)
make sure employees are aware of any low-cost medical care they can use--are there health clinics where students train that will have reduced fees? Got a Wal-mart, CVS, etc. that has those walk-in clinics where they treat a LOT of stuff for under $100 (maybe even under $50). How about a dental clinic for reduced dental care costs (bad teeth tends to equal bad health). There are also deals where some grocery stores even have lab work for the public--from mammograms to hearing tests to a WIDE assortment of blood work (Chempanel, hemoglobin A1c, PSAs, etc.) and they do it for really reasonable rates. Maybe pick a day when you could get such a group to come over in the a.m. (some tests you're fasting) and have people get the bloodwork they want up to $x value and the company picks up the tab for that much. If they want more, those rates are reasonable and they can do that. Will also alert folks if they should get in to see a doctor.
There are ways to prevent your employees from going bankrupt with medical expenses AND some relatively inexpensive things you can invest in to improve their health.
Good luck!
BTW, you might be interested in a proposal for the US to offer another kind of health insurance to EVERYONE who is interested (no coercion). There are lots of other good ideas in the book, but the PDF (free to view and print out) gives you some good info.
http://www.booklocker.com/books/3068.htm...
Frankly, if all of the author's suggestions were taken seriously and made (that health care chapter is huge and comprehensive), people would not be freaking out over health care costs. Why not offer a multiple-plan package and base your contributions on a "core" plan (usually a lower-cost plan) and let your employees make a choice as to either enroll in that plan or to "buy-up" to a richer benefit and pay the difference?
By offering this type of benefits package, you are able to keep your contributions in check since you know up front exactly what your budget is going to be and you give the employees options to increase their benefit at their cost.
You may want to also make changes to your contribution amounts. You did not mention the percentage contribution or if you also contribute to dependents but most of my group clients pay about 80 - 90% of the employee only rate of the core plan and the employees pay the difference.
It is the nature of the beast. If you don't have a benefits broker to help you, I suggest getting one. It is at no cost to you as brokers are paid a commission from the carrier and the premiums are exactly the same whether you use one or not.
I would also steer away from an HSA plan for your entire employee base. While the premiums are quite low, your employees will be required to pay 100% of the deductible before benefits are paid. We do sell HSA's to our clients, but mainly for the principals in the company who have the cash flow. You truly can't escape it. What you could do is look at lower coinsurance plans. In other words, if you have an 80% plan, look for a plan that only covers 70% after the deductible. If your plan covers maternity, or accidents, look at dropping that benefit to save money. You could introduce a small prescription deductible before the prescription benefits start. Maybe your insurance company will let you move to a smaller doctor network. They allow that here in Utah, and it does lower your premium significantly, and the coverage is still the same, you just have access to less doctors. I do like the idea of an HSA but you may have to increase your deductible to do that. You can find out more about those by going to http://www.utahhsa.net. I hope that gives you some good ideas!
Jared Balis
http://www.utahinsurance.org
http://www.myinsurancequotes.net |
