How To Best Handle Health Insurance Plan ChangesWritten by Michael Ertel
Many economists have suggested and recent economic data indicates that economy is steadily moving in right direction. A combination of several factors has no doubt had a negative impact on economy over last several years.The recent state of economy, combined with increasing cost of healthcare, has made it difficult for all size employers to continue to offer same level of employee benefits. In case of health insurance, future plan modifications may be necessary over next few years. After much consideration, these modifications may take form of increasing deductibles, out of pocket maximums, office visit copays, and prescription copays. Employees may also be required to increase their contribution amount. A vast majority of employees understand current strain facing employers. Employees are particularly aware of difficulties faced by medium and small business owners.
| | Beat Your Competition By Controlling The Cost Of Your Health InsuranceWritten by Michael Ertel
As many of us expect, New Year will bring both tremendous challenges and opportunities for all of us both personally and professionally. Employers continue to face major challenge of controlling cost of their health insurance and other employee benefit programs. Organizations that can best get a handle on cost of their employee benefit programs have an excellent opportunity to gain an advantage over their competition.What are some practical ways to control cost of your health insurance? Here are a few suggestions: 1) Investigate all of your traditional and consumer directed health plan options. Many companies are easing into consumer directed plans by offering them as part of a "dual choice" program. 2) Out of network benefits. If your PPO network has adequate access to network providers, plan designs that strongly encourage use of preferred providers save premium and claim dollars while insured still gets needed care at a discounted rate.
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