It’s a familiar story: the evil villain ties up the heroine and puts her in the path of an oncoming train. Then, just in the nick of time, the hero rides in to rescue her and defeat the villain.
In many ways, this is exactly what happens when you go through your annual health insurance renewal. The locomotive of another huge rate increase is bearing down on you. And the evil villain, the dastardly insurance company, has you all tied up, and there’s nothing you can do to stop the catastrophe that’s about to happen. And to make matters worse, your champion, your broker, has no solution to help.
It doesn’t have to be this way!
I hate to put it bluntly, but the Insurance company could care less about you. You are simply a small stream of revenue to help them meet their shareholders demands and meet Wall Street expectations. If it was otherwise, then why are you getting double-digit increases while they continue to report record profits? And in the midst of a pandemic? There is something definitely wrong with this picture!
We all know the games providers, facilities, and insurance companies play with discounts. It’s a total joke and unfortunately, brokers continue to do a great disservice to their clients by mindlessly repeating the insurance company line.
We just finished doing the analysis for a 1200 employee company. The first three pages of the renewal proposal highlighted the incredible network discounts provided – 57%. Buried in the renewal proposal was a very important figure. The insurance company was projecting a 10% increase in healthcare costs. If their discounts were so doggone good, why would the increase be so high? How could they have the audacity to say they were controlling costs? And the insurance company was still walking away with high profit margins. Additionally, the broker was making commission based on the higher rate, so they had no reason to fight for anything better.
If this is the only strategy this insurance company has to help employers control costs, then shame on them!
They are the cause of the problem, and therefore, will never be a part of the solution. If you’re sick and tired of getting hoodwinked every year during open enrollment, give us a call. We promise to show you how to tell the insurance company where to “stick it,” by helping you take control and aggressively manage your costs so you can keep your hard-earned revenue to grow your business and improve your bottom line.