Viewpoints from Craig Hasday
COVID-19 surely did one thing – it caused dramatic suppression of medical claim costs and for at least two years, medical “trend” disappeared. In 2023, we got a taste of trend bounceback. Inflation, new technologies, and new medications created a triple whammy, which may even have been triggered by the deferral of care during the pandemic. My advice is to strap in – a firestorm is coming.
No doubt there has been growing concern about the emergence of significant, potential large claim liability driving up healthcare costs for all sizes of employers.
According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), healthcare spending in the United States is projected to reach $6.2 trillion by 2028, up from $3.6 trillion in 2018. This trend has been driven by a variety of factors, including the cost of new medical technologies, an aging population, and an increase in chronic diseases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer are responsible for 7 out of 10 deaths in the United States. These diseases require ongoing medical treatment and can be very expensive to manage.
Large claim potential liability is the risk that an individual or group of individuals will require costly medical treatment or services that exceed the limits of their insurance coverage, in turn driving up healthcare premiums or claim costs for the entire company. These expenses could manifest as a serious illness or injury, the need for long-term care, or the use of expensive prescription drugs. This risk is especially heightened by a new class of miraculous, curative cell and gene drugs that can add up to millions of dollars per episode of care.
So, what can employers do to address the issue of large claim potential liability?
On Thursday, June 15 at 2:00 p.m. ET, EPIC will be hosting a webinar that examines high-cost claim trends and sheds light on strategies that employers of all sizes can use to fight back. If you haven’t been concerned about healthcare costs in the past few years you should now refocus, and this webinar will arm you. I urge you to sign up today.
REGISTER FOR THE BENEFITS CURVE JUNE 15 WEBINAR
