Wellness, Preventive Care to Drive Employer Health Plans in 2018
Employer-sponsored health plans are expected to leverage value-based purchasing and engagement technology to enhance their wellness and preventive care offerings.
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By - Employer-sponsored health plans are expected to widely embrace value-based purchasing agreements and patient engagement technologies that improve employee wellness programs and preventive care, according to the National Business Group on Health (NBGH).
In a list released to press contacts, NBGH identified emerging healthcare issues such as employee wellness programming and the treatment of substance use disorders (SUD) as trends that will drive investment and plan offerings in 2018.
Expected developments in employer-sponsored health plans have some similarities as other payer trends expected in 2018 such as leveraging beneficiary engagement to lower healthcare costs.
“Employers continue to manage costs through plan design efforts, but they are also pursuing ways to support changes in how health care is paid for and delivered to drive more effective, efficient and affordable care,” NBGH said.
“Bundled payments with centers of excellence are becoming more prevalent and risk-based arrangements with high value networks and ACOs are on the rise in select markets.”
To ensure that these reimbursement strategies can effectively lower spending, NBGH suggested that employers will adopt new employee engagement platforms to make sure that employees can navigate affordable health options such as preventive care and improve consumer experiences and wellness programming.
“As much as we would like employees to become sophisticated consumers of healthcare, the delivery system is too complex and most employees rarely engage with enough frequency to ever become sophisticated consumers,” NBGH said.
“Employers are empowering employees and their families through concierge services, coaching and decision support to help them navigate the healthcare system, understand treatment options and identify the best places to go for care, all in an effort to improve the consumer experience. We see this as a growing trend in 2018.”
Employers are expected to do this by using technology and data to create personalized communications with relevant healthcare resources. Many payers are already focusing on improving engagement by customizing their marketing outreach and designing retail-style consumer experiences.
Employers in 2018 are expected to develop new wellness, behavioral health, and SUD benefits to address emerging patient safety risks and the link between behavioral and clinical health.
“Moreover, the connection between obesity, disability, and chronic conditions with behavioral health as co-morbidity is growing. Employers are taking measures to address stigma and access, and expand access to counseling in worksite clinics, and increasingly offering telehealth for behavioral health services,” NBGH said.
“Much like investments in training, development, and safety, employee well-being can play an important role in deploying the most competitive, productive and efficient workforce possible,” NBGH added.
Employers are also expected to combat practices that led to rising opioid abuse in the US, such as overprescribing through prescription restrictions when needed and outreach with health plan partners.
Additionally, value-based pharmaceutical purchasing is expected to become more popular because employers are looking to use agreements to limit high prescription drug spending, NBGH said.
The trends indicated by NBGH could support continued profitability in the employer health plan market throughout 2018 while improving the beneficiary experience and ensuring the delivery of effective preventive care.
