Our current tight labor market makes it extremely difficult to find qualified employees. In addition, the pandemic has created a significant disruption in the way most companies are doing business. The candidates you are recruiting consider corporate culture, the ability to work remotely, and benefits much more carefully than before.
At the same time, health care costs for both employers and employees continue to skyrocket. The Kaiser Foundation reports that employee health care premiums have risen 47%, deductibles have risen 68% in the past decade, and wages have increased only 31% during the same time frame.
The emergence of PPO plans in the 1990s promised broad access at the lowest rates possible. PPOs have failed to deliver on both cost and quality, and the model has resulted in unprecedented increases in health care costs.
In response to higher premiums, many companies have increased the employee deductible. Consider this example:
You are ready to make an offer to a perfect candidate, married with two young children, and explain the available benefits package that includes a $6,000 deductible and a $12,000 out-of-pocket annual limit.
That same candidate declines your offer and chooses a different employer, despite the two positions being similar in all other ways. Why? Because his new employer has developed an innovative way to provide health insurance benefits with a significantly lower deductible improving each employee’s financial health.
Benefits have become a critical part of how employees evaluate positions within your company. Employers in every industry are looking for ways to move away from traditional PPO plans and develop a benefits package that reduces and stabilizes their health care spending. This allows them to use that savings to lower employee deductibles and provide access to a better quality of care. Current and future employees will evaluate and ultimately stay with and/or select an employer that offers superb health care at prices they can afford. This, in turn, helps you with both recruitment and retention – two critical factors in a competitive labor market.
If you are ready to consider alternatives to your current health care plan so that you can reduce spending and increase benefits for your employees, we can help. Let’s work together to enable you to recruit and retain your most important asset – your employees.
Drop an email to info@mynextgenhealth.com, or complete our contact form. We look forward to hearing about your specific health care benefits needs.