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26 February 2010

Stretching Your Healthcare Dollar in Florida

Employers country is facing important decisions about their health benefits program.

Should they continue to finance their employees' health benefits at the same contribution level as in the past? Should they keep the same level of benefits as before? What can be done to minimize costs and maximize benefits?

These are difficult issues. Rising health care costs and an uncertain economy requires an employer to consider various options when making health care decisions. These include:

1. Eliminate all health benefits

2. Reduce or eliminate other perks to maintain the current level of health benefits

3. Modification of the existing health benefits program by increasing employee co-payments or cost sharing

4. Shopping for the most affordable coverage available from different companies to find solutions to mitigate the impact of rising insurance premiums can be difficult. But there is an additional consideration that is often overlooked. As with any supplier selection process, a business owner must consider the value gained from choosing a health benefits plan.

Often, many look only at price, but ignore the investment perspective, those involved in buying a health benefits plan. An employer may ask: "What do I get for my money?"

A health plan must do more than just paying the bills. It should provide an opportunity to improve and maintain health. Health benefits plans that promote health fairs, wellness and disease management programs provide opportunities to achieve better health. Improved health can be translated into reduced health care costs and affordable premiums.

Some health benefits companies are adding rebate programs that focus on healthy lifestyles, including diet and nutrition counseling, and discounts at local fitness centers. Disease management programs focus attention and resources on terms that the patient self care efforts are significant. There are specific intervention programs for diabetes, asthma, wound care and congestive heart failure (CHF).

If you thought health care do not have enough acronyms, here's one more. Some companies have begun offering complementary alternative medicine (CAM). CAM focuses on alternative forms of healthcare treatment, such as massage, acupuncture and homeopathy.

CAM is one of the fastest growing areas of employee health benefits. There are estimates that as many as 36 percent of adults use some form of CAM.

These additional benefits are not just bells and whistles. The introduction of these programs often increases employee satisfaction. And greater satisfaction is a byproduct of the programs' purposes.

The purpose of these programs is to focus on improving health outcomes. They seek to create a better return on investment of premium dollars and create a shift in the traditional paradigm of insurance just to pay bills.

When an employer chooses a health benefits company with programs that emphasize the total health expenditure, it makes an investment in its employees' well being and future. Therefore, when choosing a carrier, be sure to find one that allows you to stretch your healthcare dollars by offering fitness and CAM programs that help the mind, body and pocketbook.

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