As individual markets fail, employers should expect more enrollees in 2018

It’s a familiar story we’ve seen before: Insurance carriers losses worsen, premiums rise sharply, and the healthy/young people so desperately needed to balance the risk will opt for a skinny plan or go uninsured altogether—thus the problem continues. The moral of this story is that employers need to prepare. They hold a disproportionate percentage of the risk – and must use all tools available to manage this risk. Here are a few key areas on which to focus your energy in the coming year:

• Pressure test budgets
• Look at your Rx management strategy
• Review current contributions/employee costs to make sure your plan can sustain the additional risk.

Last but definitely not least in today’s climate, consider the supply side of care. With more than 90% of hospital beds and physicians currently participating in national networks, employers are beginning to ask: “Is this a network, or a 3^rd party retail financing mechanism?” High performance, smaller networks and other innovative products offer employers more tools to mitigate risk. These will become even more important in the year ahead.