Pharmaceutical pricing and fees have become the health care industry’s best kept secret. The cost of prescription drugs are increasing at an unsustainable rate, and to make matters worse the revenue sources aren’t transparent to the patient or employer. 

• Prescription drug spending in 2016 accounted for 10% of the nation's total health care costs.
• Prices for common medications are as much as 117% higher in the United States than in other nations.

Over the past few years, we've all witnessed the unchecked rise of health care costs in America. 

Some employers have been sitting back hoping things will get better. Others have been desperately trying everything to regain control. 

But one thing is clear: we aren't winning.

THE SYSTEM KEEPS WINNING

Every incentive in the health care system has been built to work against you: the employer.

Insurance companies make more when the cost of claims goes up.

Hospitals are buying primary care centers and referring patients to treatment options with higher profit margins.

Pharmacy Benefit Managers get paid more when drug costs increase.

Insurance Brokers have delivered ideas and tactics. But they often fail to deliver their clients a multi-year strategy that can move the needle. 

• eliminating tax breaks
• creating a new tax credit for employers offering paid family and medical leave
• repealing the individual mandate under the Affordable Care Act (ACA)

That being said, the impact on the fringe benefit programs is less drastic that what was contained in earlier drafts of proposed tax bills that were being considered.

It’s easy to criticize from the sideline. And employee benefits provides a lot of fodder for complaints directed at HR folks.

Why do peanut gallery comments hurt so much? 

Peanut-gallery-style commentary isn’t just unpleasant to receive, but it’s also unhelpful.

As stated above, the peanut gallery is defined as people who focus on insignificant details. And this is what makes it so frustrating.

Only 50% of employees understand their employee benefits¹. And with the price of healthcare services varying by up to 1,000%² depending on when and where you receive your care, poor communication is costing employers big bucks.

SHRM recently released their 2017 Employee Benefits Survey that examines the prevalence of benefits over the past five years. It tracks trends and helps employers understand the benefits landscape while also providing insight into what other companies are doing with their benefits program. We've pulled out the top statistics employers should pay attention to.

Recruiting and hiring top talent is one of the biggest challenges that companies face. And yet we simply aren't good at it.

We aren't good at recognizing when a high performer is sitting right in front of us. And we aren't good at weeding out candidates that sound good but ultimately underperform. 

When people quit your organization, it can feel like one giant step backwards after many small steps forward. So why are so many people leaving? It could be because they never should've been hired in the first place.