Be Proactive to Innovate and Save
Be Proactive to Innovate and Save
Being proactive is essential in business and life. Don’t be reactive to help your clients and advisors by the time costs have already risen and contracts are signed. Not planning ahead is what will cost you and your business in the long run. Take action to help your clients, evaluate all options, and understand what it may mean to your bottom line.
This month we’ve discussed how reference-based pricing helps save by tying costs of care to medicare rates, saving clients upwards of 30% or more vs traditional plans. In reviewing the data, we’ve seen how some providers can charge over 15x the medicare rate, making “discounts” that traditional PPOs offer meaningless when applied to high base rates. By aligning cost of care to pre negotiated medicare rates, you end up with lower costs overall than those negotiated by typical insurers. We’ve discussed J-codes and how they help you save potentially hundreds of thousands on infusions, one of the fastest growing costs in medicine. We’ve also touched on how steering to high quality leads to lower cost by minimizing complications.
It’s time to ditch the status quo. The costs are too high and the quality of care is too low. There are other options out there. Help your client stop the insanity of endless price increases. Being proactive for your care and evaluating quality of healthcare options means using data and available resources to know the providers in your area and how well they administer care.
We went over resources like Leapfrog Health Quality Grades [1], and Healthcare Bluebook [2] to gain insight across a wide variety of data sources. It’s essential for advisors to go over drug options and care to help improve on quality. Additionally there are sites like Guroo by the Health Care Cost Institute [3] that help you see a true cost of care by specific medical issues or treatments in your area. That helps you see not just the providers in your area and overall quality scores, but to find results by care regiment.
The options available for employers and HR professionals are myriad and changing. But there are innovative ways to increase quality of care, outcomes, and reduce costs. Even well known options like reference-based pricing is only utilized by 2% of employers today [4]. That leaves significant value on the table for advisors to help their clients.
But one thing is essential – you can’t be reactive. Education is key.
By planning ahead, advisors can help businesses save by innovating plans, organizing the best options for their clients, and ending up with benefits packages that are the right fit for their clients. In a competitive environment for talent and labor, having proper benefits is even more essential to differentiate and win. And being able to save on rising healthcare costs, will allow businesses to offer better wages and allocate resources to priority business initiatives to remain advantageous in their industry.
We’ve seen how GM spends more on healthcare than they do on steel, and that is a recipe for disaster in a globally competitive environment. US companies and businesses need to remain competitive by innovating and taking charge of their health and benefit outcomes. The options are there, and it’s vital for advisors to take charge.
[1] Leapfrog, Hospital Safety Grade. Home. (n.d.). https://www.hospitalsafetygrade.org/. July 2021.
[2] Hospital Quality Awards: An Objective Comparison. Healthcare Bluebook. (n.d.). https://www.healthcarebluebook.com/explore-quantros-quality-awards/. July 2021.
[3] Get insight into health care costs in your area | Guroo. (n.d.). https://www.guroo.com/. July 2021.
[4] Lockton. (2019, April 17). Lockton releases results of national benefits survey. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lockton-releases-results-of-national-benefits-survey-300833936.html. July 2021
