June of 2018 Edition

As we review our recent Captive Forum and place the finishing touches on July 1 business, the importance of controlling the ever increasing cost of health care is front and center. Nearly three hundred employers gathered in Cleveland to find out how they could better manage their health care spend. The Captive Forum’s PBM panel of three industry experts was a highlight as it offered attendees straightforward options to stop the rapid rise of pharmacy costs. The employer panel also opened some eyes when the presenting employers’ real world experience offered clear insight into their seven figure health care savings. An atmosphere of energy, excitement and hope was experienced by those attending.

Employers are eager to learn how to control their health care spend for several reasons. The obvious being most, if not all, have budget and profit targets that are too frequently undermined by a double-digit health benefit spend increase. In addition, more and more, leadership is recognizing that raises lose their value when employees’ health care obligations increase three times faster. You do not need to be an accountant to understand a three percent (3%) wage increase may not cover a ten percent (10%) increase in the employees’ health care cost sharing obligation. Even when employers provide a raise each year, employees are not imagining that they have less money. If the employer’s budget or profit objectives are not enough to motivate leadership to make a change in how they buy health care, then certainly the best interest of their current and future employees should be. If not, these leaders may in the not too distant future, find themselves without employees.