Gathering feedback from your employees about their health insurance can guide your decisions. Each year, ask them about their satisfaction with the plan you offer. Employees may prioritize different aspects, such as:

• Choice of plan
  Do employees prefer enrolling in a plan selected by their employer or would they prefer to choose their own plan and be reimbursed by the business?
• Covered services
  Are employees looking for specific benefits like telehealth appointments or certain prescriptions? Are they using their insurance effectively?
• Access to providers
  Do employees have access to the doctors and specialists they want to see?
• Premiums and deductibles
  Are employees happy with the current costs? Would they prefer a plan with lower premiums and higher deductibles, or vice versa?
• Plan quality
  Do employees want a plan accredited by an independent agency?
• Insurance company reputation
  Are employees satisfied with the current insurer? Do they trust the company or prefer one with a strong reputation?

Download our employee survey

Along with gathering feedback from your employees, it is a good idea to understand how enrollment in insurance has changed over time.

Get a baseline for uptake and enrollment:

• Current enrollment
  Determine how many employees are enrolled in your business's health insurance. Are certain employee types more or less likely to enroll?
• Changes over time
  Assess how enrollment has evolved since you began offering insurance. Fluctuations in participation may indicate how well your plan is meeting employee needs.
• Unique circumstances
  Consider factors that could impact enrollment, such as seasonal employment variations. Knowing the average number of people enrolled per month can help smooth out these variations.

Analyzing data can provide valuable insights into your employees' insurance usage, helping you understand their enrollment and utilization patterns. Whether you have a fully insured or self-funded plan, collaborate with your health insurance provider or third-party administrator to determine the data you can access.

• Gain a deeper understanding of your employees' health and workplace dynamics
  Key areas to examine include workplace injuries, sick leave usage and participation in wellness programs. Identifying trends can illuminate how employee behavior relates to insurance provision. For instance, if there's an increase in sick leave usage, consider conducting a pulse survey to explore the reasons, such as childcare issues, rising illness or injury rates, or seasonal factors like flu or allergies.
• Dig into your health care costs
  Have your monthly costs for health insurance increased or decreased over the years? During that same period, have your employees' monthly costs for health care increased or decreased? If you are offering a level funded or self-funded plan, what are the trends of utilization and costs for claims, if any?

Take a baseline for costs and utilization and track over time

• Per member per month costs
  What is the total average monthly cost of insurance to the business for each person enrolled? This should include the cost of insurance in the form of the employer's monthly contribution, administrative fees, stop loss premiums (if applicable), taxes, etc.
• Employee costs
  What is the average monthly cost of insurance per employee? How does this cost compare to their compensation?
• Inflation
  Health care inflation tends to lag general inflation. Paying attention to inflation can be a good predictor of whether your business's premium costs are likely to go up in the future.
• Claims (for level funded or self-funded plans)
  What is the average monthly cost of claims per enrollee? Are there outliers? Analyze this data for any trends, risks or opportunities for interventions that might address rising costs such as wellness programs, chronic disease management programs, utilization review or management, or telehealth.

Establish a plan to analyze data on a regular basis

• Assessing costs along with enrollment can help determine whether the health insurance options you have or are considering are of good value for your business.
• If you have seen employees opt out or disenroll over time, consider conducting a survey to learn more about why employees are not choosing to enroll in the health insurance your business offers.
• Identifying trends in costs or claims can reveal what your employees value or need in health insurance. For instance, increased spending on urgent care might indicate a lack of primary care providers, prompting you to consider expanding your network, offering telehealth, or adjusting cost-sharing to encourage preventive care. Recognizing trends in high-cost or low-quality settings can also help in developing targeted cost containment strategies.

Explore trends

Conduct a claims audit, utilization review or enrollment verification. Some examples include:

• Health outcomes
  Compare employees with biometric screenings revealing health problems to those without.
• Cost drivers
  Assess top cost drivers (e.g., cancer care, maternity care) for variation by employee type or provider. Consider tactics like encouraging early cancer screenings or incentivizing family-building employees to choose providers with lower unnecessary c-section rates.
• Emergency department utilization
  Analyze high ED utilization versus urgent care and the conditions presented. Unnecessary ED visits may indicate insufficient access to care or a lack of awareness of alternatives like urgent care.

Remember, there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to lowering health care costs, but data can help to point you in the right direction for potential changes and affirm whether the health insurance your business is offering is the right fit. Based on the data and information you glean from your employee engagement and data analysis, you will be prepared to explore various strategies for managing health insurance costs.