How your company can offset the rising cost of employee benefits

At a time when the desire and expectation for employee benefits coverage are on the rise, it’s important for employers to find creative ways to make their employee benefits plansmore cost effective. Companies that may have, at one time, paid 100% of an employee’s benefits plan are now finding innovative ways for employees to “earn” a percentage of their benefits premium.

One of the most significant ways for employers to transfer a portion of an employee’s cost for health benefits elsewhere is by increasing the differential pay an employee is responsible for. Healthcare reform implemented during the Obama administration allowed employers to ask employees to perform health-related tasks to earn up to 30% of their premiums, thereby giving employers the opportunity to offset 30% of their expense.

Shared Costs

Many employers have committed to providing continued employee benefits coverage, as long as their employees have some “skin in the game,” so to speak. That is, if an employer is going to foot the bill for an employee’s company-provided health premiums, they can require him/her to perform one or a series of tasks to get a portion of their entire health-premium covered.

 

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