I released a video a few weeks ago titled, ‘The Benefits Dilemma’. Making the video was fun and covers something I’m very passionate about.

The dilemma is this:

How do we build the very best benefit packages that optimize efforts at recruiting & keeping employees without breaking the bank?! And, do this in an environment of escalating costs, particularly pharmaceutical costs?!

And, here’s the backdrop (most of which is outside of our control):

-The Indiana labor market has tightened up! No question.  Unemployment rate has been between 2-4%.

-10,000 people per day become Medicare-eligible. We now have four generations in the workforce with very, very different views of the world – Not to mention their benefit needs….

-And, just last year in 2017 alone, the Top 15 Medications by Spend across our country totaled nearly $58 billion dollars, nearly $28 billion of which were Specialty Drugs.

My fellow employee benefits strategists and I at Apex Benefits have made some observations:

-1. Going it alone is not a good strategy. WHY? You can’t keep up with everything…things change so quickly in our business, you may be obsolete and not even know it. I was with a company recently who was spending $4,000,000 and didn’t know how to judge the performance of that $4 million. They had no key performance indicators. 

-2 Employee Benefits deserve more time than most people give it. WHY? It’s one of top 5 line items on your P&L and, yet often, there is no annual review where we look at where we’ve been and where we’re going. We think that’s wrong – A disservice.

So what can you do…?

Here are our three recommendations of things to look at: So that you can have the most pristine plan WITHOUT spending more money.

1. Complete a comprehensive benchmarking study of all your plans…specifically looking at plan designs, funding strategy, and your risk pool:

How does your plan compare to your competition? Benchmark data against other Indiana employers. You’ve got to understand how you stack up to peer companies, size location HERE Indiana.

You need to know the perception that your candidates have of what you have to offer. Like it or not, your candidates form opinions quickly. 

2. Get a baseline of the health of your people:

It’s a way for you to understand and predict where costs will arise in the future.

If you don’t have this you will be taking a shotgun approach-Wasting your time and resources on engagement that misses the mark. Standard education is just that standard. Needed, but standard. Rather than only general messaging, we think it’s better to engineer engagement campaigns for those that need it the most and help them understand why it’s important to get back on care path & where they can get help. Beyond doing the right thing, the added benefit is that if you do this correctly you will prevent catastrophic claims before they increase your costs. 

3. Review the nuts & bolts of your pharmacy benefits contract:

We have concluded there are over 30 ways traditional pharmacy benefit managers drive profit from you (most often without you even realizing it).

The reason this is important to you is that you’ve been conditioned to think about rebates. It’s much deeper than just rebates – It’s the contractual language that either is or isn’t in your contract. A contract review will help you understand this. You likely are sitting on 20-30% savings and not even know it. And realize these savings without an impact to your plan members. Hidden money that could be used elsewhere within your organization.

Are you tired of the seesaw effect? Let’s connect and reserve enough time to make an impact in 2019.