Productivity losses related to personal and family health problems cost U.S. employers $1,685 per employee per year and $225.8 billion annually, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So what is creating these problems with health care claims and insurance, which ultimately lead to poor health and lower productivity?
“It is the delivery system, administration and billing,” says Danone Simpson, founder and CEO at Montage Insurance Solutions. “I have no doubt about this, as our firm battles away at claims that take hours, weeks, months and sometimes years to sort through.”
Smart Business spoke with Simpson about what she sees as the problems with health care, how carriers are coping and what employers can do about it.
What is the problem with health care today?
From wait times for approvals to multiple bills being sent to carriers, carriers are denying needed PET scans, MRIs and other tests so doctors can determine care — partially because of what they deem as ‘abuse’ from doctors who overtreat or analyze treatment. Approvals can sometimes take two months when patients need major surgery to remove cancer.
The real issue with health care is not only who is paying what premiums, fines or co-payments, it’s more about the overall cost of health care and billing complications. Doctors desperate to earn more may overbill, even though they know the contracted amount they agreed to. However, that may be a different amount with each carrier, which makes the administrator’s job a nightmare.
How will private exchanges and mandated health care impact the system?
It’s likely that health care insurance exchanges won’t necessarily lead to better health care pricing. In addition, private health insurance carriers will be forced to offer coverage on the exchanges and compete with themselves.
Surveys prove that employers are angry about being forced to pay for coverage, even if they already cover 100 percent. They expect employees to ask for more coverage of dependents, and some employers who stretch to pay a portion of dependent coverage are feeling backed into a corner. It’s not required to cover dependents, but most plans today do.
What are carriers doing to help with costs?
With expensive fines that can account for more than the actual premium amounts, carriers are helping form Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) to hold doctors and hospitals responsible. These organizations use incentives to cause providers to work together when treating a patient across care settings such as doctors’ offices, hospitals and long-term care facilities, according to HealthCare.gov. For example, the Medicare Shared Savings Program rewards ACOs that slow health care cost increases while meeting performance standards on quality of care and putting patients first. Patient and provider participation in an ACO is purely voluntary.
What can employers do to lower health insurance costs?
Offering a wellness program is one way to truly impact the heart of the problem of the country’s health care costs. An unhealthy work force is a major issue for businesses large and small. For example, 20 million Americans — 7 percent of the population — have diabetes and 30 percent of this population remains undiagnosed, according to Katz. Moreover, a recent Newsweek article states that two-thirds of adults and one-third of children and adolescents are overweight or obese.
The law might require an employer to buy an insurance policy for employees, but it causes anger and rebellion on the part of many employers. The more proactive approach is to dive down into the parts of the reform that assist in either lowering premium costs or aiding in the retention and well being of your employees.
There are a number of tax credits available to help you with this proactive approach, if they are available to companies of your size.
- The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act includes a variety of provisions aimed at encouraging wellness and disease prevention. As shrm.org reports, effective Jan. 1, the ‘law will permit rewards or penalties such as premium discounts of up to 30 percent of the cost or coverage. Existing wellness regulations permit incentives of up to 20 percent of the total premium, provided that the program meets certain conditions. The law increases the amount of the potential reward/penalty to 30 percent of the premium.’ There is also the possibility of an even higher amount after national studies are performed.
- Another option is the Small Employer Health Insurance Tax Credit. The U.S. GAO states, ‘Fewer small employers claimed the Small Employer Health Insurance tax credit in tax year 2010 than were estimated to be eligible.’ Calculators are available on the National Federation of Independent Business, www.nfib.com and many other websites.
Employers also can ask their carriers about the Medical Loss Ratio reimbursement, which was just issued for the first time.
Take care to avoid fines and earn tax credits on wellness incentives. Many employers are starting to offer a carrot approach to motivate employees, and then a stick with some sort of penalty for not participating to truly see employees take advantage of a wellness-based plan.
Danone Simpson is the founder and CEO at Montage Insurance Solutions. Reach her at (818) 676-0044 or [email protected].
Insights Business Insurance brought to you by Montage Insurance Solutions
