Strategies for Minimizing Company Health Care Costs

Strategy One

Maximize the benefits you have today.

Promote the added-value benefits of your current insurance plan. Programs like the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) can help employees find assistance for dealing with personal issues, as well as identify health issues early on.

Educate your employees about free informational resources to help them find answers and keep them healthy.

Strategy Two

Motivate your employees to focus on preventive care and wellness.

70% of health care expenses are attributable to preventative risks and unhealthy choices, so by targeting preventable health costs now and working to develop a wellness plan, you can help employees prevent illness and unnecessary costs in the future. Wellness programs offer motivation, education and emotional support to stay healthy.

Help develop a wellness strategy in five steps:

1. Gather and analyze information

2. Define your goals and objectives

3. Design your strategy

4. Develop an implementation plan

5. Evaluate outcomes and refine your strategy over time

Money Saving Tips

Helpful advice to reduce benefit expenses.

1. Health Savings Account (HSA) or Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA), help engage your employees in better managing their health and health care costs. An HSA offers tax advantages, carry-over and you can use the money from an HSA to pay for certain expenses. An HRA gives you the advantage of planning for the future, flexibility and savings.

• When annualized, typically costs 1-2% less than a regular PPO.

2. Integrate your medical and dental plans.

• You can yield cost reductions due to early intervention: 9% diabetes, 16% coronary artery disease and 11% cerebrovascular disease.

3. Risk mitigation solutions.

• Stop loss insurance for large claims or split-funded options.

4. Consumer directed health plans have advantages for you, as the plan sponsor. They offer more control over health care spending. They usually have a lower premium and a higher deductible. They may be coupled with a health fund or other health savings account.

• CDHPs encourage employees to make informed decisions and spend wisely-which can lead to lower costs for you.

• You lower company expenses through the cost-sharing of a high-deductible health plan.

• Plus you can enjoy FICA and FUTA tax savings on salary reductions that occur when employees contribute to CDHPs.

With CDHPs, it pays for employees to be careful consumers.

5. Tailor your benefits to fit your employees. Think about which programs will have more value to your employees and your bottom line.

• Choose high-deductible health plans and offer employees a HSA or FSA, to help them manage costs.

• Switch some paid benefits to voluntary options.

• Offer limited benefits plans.

How to Save on Prescription Drugs

• Take a “tiered” approach. With tiers, employees will generally pay a lower copayment if they use generic – and a higher copayment for a brand-name drug.

• Waive the copay. Look for a program that eliminates the copay for a certain period of time, say six months, if the employee switches to certain generic alternatives.

• A mail-order option and a specialty pharmacy are key ways to save on medications.



Get them involved in managing their health, wellness, and the care they seek


Marvin Wilkerson is the President of TCB Insurance Group, LLC which can be found at www.tcbinsurance.net. He has been in the insurance business over 10 years with extensive experience in voluntary, work-site insurance and group health insurance.

Labels: Health care cost

A Doctor's Advice to Control Health Care Cost

A Doctor’s Advice to Control Health Care Cost

While reading through a trade publication I came across a nice article written by a doctor with thoughts about saving money for individuals and businesses on the cost of health insurance. It was not only about saving money but also saving you from the all-too-common stress associated with money problems brought on by health care.

Here are five things everyone can do to ward off unnecessary health expenses as much as humanly possible:

OMENS---Five Simple Steps

Observe preventative measures

Manage your prescriptions

Educate yourself

Negotiate doctor’s fees

Scrutinize medical bills

Observe Preventive Measures: Simply stated, take care of your body and mind. Eat a healthy diet, take daily nutritional supplements, choose the stairs instead of the elevator and stay away from junk foods, alcohol and smoking.

My personal thoughts: It goes without saying we need to take better care of ourselves. Who doesn’t understand we need more fruits, veggies and exercise in our life? That isn’t what I see as the issue. We all know that. But what I have observed is sometimes we get out of balance with doing and not doing what we should and shouldn’t. Time goes by and we’ve put on 25 pounds. So STOP, start a routine that disciplines your habits, at least until you give back the 25 pounds. Its being conscience of your health. Every statistic in America is forecasting a 15% decrease in health care costs for individuals and employers who have a conscious wellness program or fitness strategy.

Manage Your Prescriptions: Prescription medication can be very costly. Ask for generic equivalent. Don’t hesitate to ask your doctor if they can find a substitute from your insurance plan’s preferred drug list.

My personal thoughts: We can become aware of the costs regardless of who’s paying the bill. Just because insurance is paying doesn’t mean the cost doesn’t get passed down somewhere. If its employer sponsored health insurance eventually they’ll pay for it through premiums which will eventually be passed on to you! A while back my wife needed a migraine medicine that was costing $370 a month. I found a source through much investigation with a little travel where it only cost $120. Care about what things cost regardless of who pays for it. That’s a habit that will help you at some point.

Educate Yourself: The Internet is a storehouse of knowledge. Becoming health conscious is just a Google away. Learn about conditions or illnesses before running to the doctor’s office every time you have the sniffles. Take some information you learned if you do go, ask questions and get acceptable answers.

My experience: My mother was a nurse so I grew up with an understanding of medical issues. I learned to know my aches and pains and how to treat them. My feeling about going to doctors is out of last resort. I want to try and understand if I can heal my self with an over the counter drug. I go speak with a pharmacist about medications. Reducing one or two doctor visits a year because your able to heal yourself is a big deal.

Negotiate Doctor’s Fees: Never assume the first price is set in stone. Call your insurance company and ask for the rates they pay their doctors for the specific procedure you need. Let your doctor know of a lower rate and NEGOTIATE! If the doctor won’t change his fee find another doctor. Same strategy applies when seeing an out-of-network doctor.

My experience: Doctors rarely know how much costs are for tests or lab work. I find they can dish out tests and so forth like its lunch. I advise discussing cost with your doctor so they understand where you’re coming from. Also I just had a knee scoped. It cost $2,700 for the surgeon which my insurance company reduced to $1,700. In talking to him about costs afterwards we began discussing health care and its costs. I challenged him on the idea that people should negotiate the costs and asked if he would have done the surgery for $1,200. He without hesitation said...”of course”. Enough said.

Scrutinize Your Medical Bills: Don’t presuppose that hospital and medical office accounting departments always pay close attention to the bills they send. Be sure to double-check everything you receive; if there are any discrepancies, contact the hospital or medical office to clear up the bill.

My experience: I have experience of overcharges and double charges. EOB statements are one of the most confusing things in life. Don’t hesitate to get clarity on charges. Call your insurance company and question charges, they’ll be glad to help. The invoices for simple procedures can be inundating. I attended a presentation with a company that takes care of claims for large corporations. Their data showed discrepancies with charges from hospitals and doctors at over 50% of the time. That’s ridiculous.

If you follow these “OMENS” carefully, you will be five steps closer to being in control of your health care costs and to leading a healthier and happier life. And I might add with a little more money.

Marvin Wilkerson is the President of TCB Insurance Group, LLC which can be found at http://www.tcbinsurance.net/. He has been in the insurance business over 10 years with extensive experience in voluntary, work-site insurance and group health insurance.