While all health plans face the possibility of higher claims, properly managing your employee’s risk pool and population health can help mitigate claims risk and reduce costs in your plan. Population health management identifies, evaluates, and manages the risks facing an organization and its plan participants. While employers cannot prevent every claim before it occurs, they can better identify and mitigate those risks. An estimated 75% of healthcare costs arise from chronic conditions that are preventable through such measures as proper diet, exercise, medication, and therapy. Identifying those risks allows providers to guide employees towards healthier lives. Employers benefit from lower healthcare costs, reduced absenteeism, and more precise wellness program planning. https://youtu.be/avDBO75XSZg Steps in Constructing a Comprehensive Population Health Management Strategy Often employers may take steps to uncover and proactively identify current and potential health risk (step 1), but then they don’t take the necessary next steps to better manage…

Large renewal rate increases frustrate employers and plan sponsors each year. They might experience significant, double-digit rate hikes one year; a smaller uptick the second; and another large increase the third year. Owners, CFOs, and HR executives would prefer stable, predictable trends so they can better budget for future costs.Too often, companies send out requests for proposals, cross our fingers, and hope for the best. However, that approach seldom works. To paraphrase a quote often mistakenly attributed to Albert Einstein, one shouldn’t do the same thing over and over and expect different results. The answer is for employers to become more proactive and take strategic measures to change the pattern.Here are four steps company leaders can take to address the underlying issues driving high renewals rate and create a more stable renewal environment.Proper UnderwritingIn the current environment, traditional underwriting practices and inefficient funding mechanisms lead carriers to overact to large…

The hectic benefits renewal season is finally winding down for many employers, with open enrollment meetings and all the logistical challenges and decisions behind us for 2021.  We’re ready to relax and move on to new challenges during the new year. But wait a second: maybe we shouldn’t put renewal season out of our minds quite yet. Listen below as our Vice President of Consulting, John Romaska, and Executive Account Manager, Shemelia McClain, discuss why employers should take the time to reflect after their benefit renewal season and considerations they should take when doing so. https://youtu.be/ZDgnWvJwQbQ Spending a little time now to recap the lessons of 2021 will save you more time and effort in 2022 and deliver better results. Read our recent blog, "How to Reset and Reflect After Benefits Renewal Season" for questions you should ask yourself and considerations as you move into 2022. Join us on February 8th as the…

Starting January 19th, 2022, Americans will be able to order a test online at COVIDTests.gov. To ensure broad access, the program will limit the number of tests sent to each residential address to four tests. Tests will usually ship within 7-12 days of ordering. To help distribute the message to your employees, Innovative has created the below poster that links directly to the government site. Download Here

The hectic benefits renewal season is finally winding down for many employers, with open enrollment meetings and all the logistical challenges and decisions behind us for 2021.  We’re ready to relax, enjoy the holiday season, and move on to new challenges during the new year. But wait a second: maybe we shouldn’t put renewal season out of our minds quite yet. Even though you may be ready to put fourth quarter in the rearview mirror, this is actually the best time to reflect on your recent efforts while those successes, unexpected challenges, and avoidable obstacles are still fresh in your mind. Six to nine months from now, it will be more difficult to recall the details of how well your experiences tracked with your expectations. Spending a little time now to recap the lessons of 2021 will save you more time and effort in 2022 and deliver better results. Here are…

Client Industry: Technology Number of Employees: 240 Service Provided: Statistical risk analysis and probability projections. Challenges Our client had considered transitioning from fully insured to self-funding for several years. Although we projected the change would bring considerable savings, they remained concerned by the risk that the model might not perform as expected. The company favored the predictable costs of a fully insured plan over the potential highs and lows of variable costs accompanying a self-insured plan. Our client regularly buys companies, holds them for several years, and then sells them. They were particularly concerned about protecting themselves from trailing claims liabilities after each sale closed. Their fully insured plan carried hidden revenue streams, added costs, and waste that can be removed through self-funding. Solutions We used Innovative’s proprietary tools to create a feasibility study showing the projected costs and benefits of moving from a fully-insured to a self-funded model. Even…

Challenges A construction company with 100 employees was facing a 29 percent renewal increase for its employee benefits package. The additional cost, which was over $440,000, was much more than the company could absorb. Passing the costs on to the employees through less coverage and higher deductibles seemed like the only alternative. However, in a tight labor market, the chances are higher that employees will leave for other opportunities instead of shouldering the increased costs. To make it worse, the company’s broker waited nearly 45 days before renewals to notify them of the increase. The company should have received projections many months earlier, which would have avoided a scramble to find alternatives. However, the company was with a name-brand national carrier and worked with a large international broker, so the team trusted that they got the best pricing. Solutions A member of management, who had a previous trusted relationship with…

4 Ways Digital Open Enrollment Guides Improve Employee Engagement Every year open enrollment season allows employees to start, stop, or change their existing health insurance plans. Often, however, open enrollment can be a source of confusion, leaving employees with a lack of understanding and underutilizing their plan. Digital open enrollment guides can be the most effective solution for educating and connecting with employees about their healthcare benefits. So how can digital open enrollment guides improve employee engagement? Apart from giving employees convenient access to benefit information, digital open enrollment guides also help your staff better understand their benefits, promote healthier habits, provide direct contact with advocates, and allows leadership to utilize direct analytics for increased employee interaction. Here are four ways digital open enrollment guides can improve employee engagement: 1.     Digital open enrollment guides can help employees better understand their benefits. A digital open enrollment platform allows for embedded videos,…