How are you controlling the rising costs of employee benefits while still providing your employees with comprehensive coverage?
Health benefits costs are projected to increase by 6.6% in 2024—making it more crucial than ever to gain control over healthcare costs for both your business and your employees.
By harnessing the power of data analytics, you can gain invaluable insights into the health needs of your workforce and craft targeted benefits programs that optimize cost-effectiveness without compromising the well-being of your employees.
In this blog, we will explore the potential of healthcare data in shaping employee benefits programs, offering HR leaders a roadmap to navigate the intricacies of healthcare cost management and elevate the overall health and satisfaction of your workforce.
Tapping into Your Healthcare Data
Your healthcare data contains valuable insight into your employees’ overall health and plan utilization. By understanding the specific healthcare needs and patterns of employees, you can tailor benefits programs to address these nuances, fostering a more personalized and effective approach to employee well-being.
The scope of healthcare data in employee benefits not only enhances the quality of your benefits offerings but also empowers you to make informed, data-driven decisions that positively impact both the health of your workforce and the overall success of the business.
You can use the following tactics to collect healthcare data on your employees:
Understand Claims Data
You can identify specific areas employees are spending the most money on, including certain healthcare services and prescriptions. This information can help you identify opportunities to promote preventive care services and wellness benefits.
Conduct a Health Risk Assessment
Use a health risk assessment to identify which chronic health conditions, such as diabetes or heart disease, your employees are most at risk for. By identifying which diseases your population is most at risk for, you can offer targeted wellness programs or coaching to help prevent and manage these conditions.
Utilize Biometric Screenings
A biometric screening can measure cholesterol levels, blood pressure and body mass index. Utilizing this information can help you identify areas where employees need targeted wellness interventions, such as nutrition or exercise programs.
Transforming Your Benefits Program with Data
Once you begin to recognize patterns and trends, you can use that data to transform your employee benefits experience to meet the diverse needs of today's workforce.
Utilizing your healthcare data helps you:
Create a personalized benefits experience.
By tapping into healthcare data, you can craft benefits packages that cater to the needs and preferences of your employees. This personalized approach fosters a sense of value and satisfaction among your employees.
Contain healthcare costs.
Understanding the cost drivers within your benefits programs is crucial for financial sustainability. Data analytics aids in identifying areas where costs can be optimized without compromising the quality of benefits.
Make informed benefits decisions.
Access to comprehensive healthcare data equips you with the information needed to make informed decisions. Whether it's selecting the most cost-effective vendors, designing wellness programs that resonate with employees or adapting benefits offerings to comply with evolving regulations, data-driven insights ensure strategic and well-informed choices.
Take a proactive approach to health management.
Healthcare data enables predictive analytics, allowing you to identify potential health risks and trends within your employee population. This proactive approach empowers organizations to implement targeted wellness initiatives, reducing the incidence of chronic diseases and minimizing healthcare costs.
Increase employee engagement and retention.
Utilize data to gain valuable insights into employee preferences, communication styles, and the impact of benefits on retention and recruitment efforts. Craft targeted communication strategies to ensure that your employees are aware of and actively participating in available benefits programs.
Control costs without cutting benefits.
Ascela’s experts help you use your benefits data to your advantage. Tapping into your data allows you to tailor your plan to address the unique needs of your employee population. Our team is trained to identify top cost drivers in your data and offer action-based solutions to reduce and control costs.
Contact our team today for a claims data assessment to identify ways to reduce costs and maximize your benefits package.