New Study Reveals Silent Killer of Employee Disposable Income
Risk International Benefits Advisors suggests non-traditional approaches to help employers control health plan costs
FAIRLAWN, Ohio, Dec. 13, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Risk International Benefits Advisors, an independent benefits management company, has analyzed 10 years of wages and health plan costs to document the true erosion of employee wages. In its report, "Health Plan Costs Devastate Middle America's Disposable Income", Risk International highlights how employees are losing ground financially, despite wage increases, as the result of continuously increasing health plan costs.
"Disposable income is the most telling sign of wage health for employees," said Eric Krieg, president of Risk International Benefits Advisors. "Unfortunately, while base wages have risen minimally for most Americans over the past decade, employers have had to shift a larger percentage of the financial burden of escalating health plan costs to employees during that same time frame. The end result is that employees may actually be taking home less today than they were 10 years ago or, at best, may be seeing meager net increases that aren't even keeping up with inflation."
In the impact study, Risk International refers to health plan costs as the silent killers of employees' disposable income. Despite the fact that the US healthcare system is the most expensive in the world, third-party comparative analyses consistently show the US underperforms, ranking 37th in the World Health Organization's annual rankings of healthcare systems around the globe.
"As this report clearly demonstrates, employers need to rethink the way they are approaching and negotiating their benefits plans," said Krieg. "Rather than simply accepting increases and sharing the additional costs with their employees, companies need to find alternative ways to reduce the overall financial burden without sacrificing the quality of the services being provided. We know this is possible, but it requires a different mindset."
Beyond documenting the critical need for change, the new Risk International report provides a five-step plan for success for corporate leaders. The plan recommends a non-traditional approach, such as focusing on new benefits procurement methods and evaluating vendor relationships and associated arrangements – specifically scrutinizing and uncovering hidden costs and conflicts of interest. This approach has been put to the test by Fortune 1000 and middle market employers which have realized savings in the range of 10-60 percent. In many cases, the reduction in health care spend has been in the millions of dollars.
For the full impact study, visit http://riskinternational.com/disposable-income-report/.
SOURCE Risk International Benefits Advisors
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