A Holiday Gift to Your Employees That Won’t Bankrupt You
As companies are getting close to the end of their open enrollment period, they are thinking at least about two things:
- 2020 has been unbelievably tough on WellAI employees. How do we boost their morale? How do we make them happy?
- 2020 has been tough for my company financially. How do we make our employees happy without breaking a buck? Is there still a way to squeeze savings out of health costs?
These two points come across all the time as we are talking to CEOs, CFOs and benefit advisors. So, it came as no surprise that precisely these two points are on top of the list of 600 employers recently surveyed by Marsh & McLennan Agency and nicely summarized for a BenefitsPRO article by Todd Bennett.
“The pandemic has created new urgency for employers to create a culture of well-being. In doing so, organizations can keep employees centered on the mission, while maintaining productivity and team morale.” This thought expands on my first bullet point. Understandably, during such a challenging year well-being and happiness of employees are on top of employers’ wish list.
“Our survey found that 83% – an extraordinarily high figure – are focused on managing or reducing health care expenses. It was the top concern relating specifically to the health and welfare programs offered to employees.” While the stock market hits record highs seemingly every day, the economy has a long way to catch up. A historically high number of small- and mid-size businesses are on the brink of bankruptcy.
The payers don’t care about businesses. It’s quite clear. My Aetna premium has just jumped 6.3% for the exactly the same offering. No warning. No explanation. While Aetna seems to be on the high end of cost increases, with the average increase in insurance premiums of 4.1%, this is still far above inflation expectations of 1.7% suggested by the current 5-year breakeven rate. Is this what a healthcare dictatorship looks like? This has got to stop. However, this payer oligopoly will only change when employers start saying No to these outrageous actions by the payers. My guess is that despite the economic pressure, the management of most companies is too entrenched with the big insurers by now. The management keeps violating its judiciary duty. It’s time for the shareholders and for the boards to start firing the managers!
Outside of these clear corporate governance problems in the healthcare industry, employers can show exactly how they make their employees happier and healthier by implementing changes in their group benefits. This is exactly what they say they want to do according to their answers to the Marsh & McLennan’s survey. Employers: please do your job!
There are two ways for employers to fight the healthcare dictatorship – the right way and the easy way.
The Right Way to Fix Healthcare.
The right way to fix healthcare from an employer standpoint is to realize that supporting big payers is unsustainable for your business long term. Drop the big insurers. Go self-funded. Utilize Direct Primary Care and value-based healthcare.
The Easy Way to Fix Healthcare.
The easy way to fix healthcare from an employer standpoint is to look into efficient technology solutions that would boost your employees’ morale and may save you money along the way.
We have to say they are both the right way, of course. It’s just that dropping Aetna or Cigna takes guts that 99% of heads of HR would never do, no matter how much that ‘status quo’ decision could be to the detriment of the company, its employees and its shareholders. It’s a sad reality of the healthcare system. The system is broken.
One such easy way to fix healthcare is WellAI’s Digital Health Assistant. As we explained in our recent blog “How ‘Health Alexa’ saves you $$$ on group health & makes happier employees!”, WellAI is not just a cool new health app that helps you and your family 24/7 and boosts morale of your employees, it saves you on health costs.
This brings us back full circle to the results of Marsh & McLennan survey and the BenefitsPro article. “Many [employers] are executing a strategy to both enhance their employee benefits offerings while seeking to keep a lid on costs… Employers recognize the need to respond to the changing needs of their colleagues during the pandemic, while remaining competitive in the marketplace.” We believe such efficient, affordable and at the same time ground breaking technology like WellAI answers these pressing employer needs.
Going back to the results of the analysis of employer health cost savings conducted by the WellAI research team, all in all, depending on employees’ demographics of a particular company, number of people with chronic diseases, participation rate, and the type of insurance plan, among many other factors, the WellAI Health Cost Savings Calculator predicts 34% to 45% savings in an employer health costs, on average. These savings are sourced from 5 factors:
- WellAI’s chronic disease management program
- WellAI’s elaborate symptom checker and diagnostics (akin to Amazon’s Alexa, but specifically for health)
- WellAI’s data-driven Telehealth 2.0
- Reduction in absenteeism costs
- Reduction in presenteeism
As a reminder, the basic version of WellAI app is now available for free on your smartphone. Please use the following links to schedule a 1-on-1 demo:
- If you are an employer and would like a cool benefit that makes your employees healthier and happier, and saves 34% to 45% on your healthcare costs, please schedule a virtual meeting here.
- If you are a potential investor who would like to be part of a unique once-in-a-lifetime investment opportunity that will forever revolutionize healthcare, please schedule a virtual meeting here.
- If you are a potential customer, a patient or you are just curious about any of the WellAI high tech products – a voice-guided Digital Health Assistant, data-driven Telehealth 2.0, or the scientific chronic disease management program – please schedule a virtual meeting here.
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Note: Terms ‘Health Alexa’ and ‘Alexa for health’ have been used for illustrative purposes only.