Control Your Company’s Healthcare Costs – Take Them “Captive”
A recent online article by Michael Schroeder recommends what I’ve been advising my clients for years: employers can control an expense that is rising by double digits through self-funded ”captive” employee health insurance.
You’d be smart to do it. The average cost of insuring a family is rising past $25,000 annually, so the days when you could rubber stamp a plan and forget about it are over.
After all, when you make a major purchase for your business, you examine the cost, the suitability of the purchase, and an estimate of future expenses related to the purchase. You should follow a similar strategy for purchasing employee benefits.
Resolve to change. Choose to control the ever-increasing cost of health insurance. For many employers, self-funding with a Captive Insurance Program may offer the opportunity to do just that.
Employee benefits are one of the biggest costs of operating your business, so why not take a long-term strategic approach to control costs? Otherwise, your business will continue to be held hostage to a system that costs you more every year. The self-funded Captive Program is an alternative that many middle market businesses will find to be a long-term health insurance solution.
The article by Michael Schroeder advocated these important steps:
- Make sure your funding strategy chosen includes ultimate costs based on what you actually spend. A variable cost spend will allow a return on your company’s investment in cost-saving strategies.
- Have a deep dive into the benefit plan document taken by a qualified attorney with ERISA experience and a health care clinician, to assure the most efficient coverage for medical expenses. While plan documents can exceed 100 pages in length and contain mind-numbing prose, you can be greatly rewarded for engaging professionals to assure the claim coverage is done with your company’s interest at the forefront.
- You should make it clear in your communications with your employees that their health matters to you and its funding is a top priority. Encouraging activities from nutrition to exercise should be interpreted as clear evidence that your employees’ well-being is good for your business. A culture of health and wellness is really an essential and efficient economic choice.
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