In 2018, companies will face two significant challenges. First, health care costs will continue to skyrocket. Rising costs have already forced employers to look for alternate ways to offer health solutions that keep costs low — including offering only high-deductible plans and shifting more of the financial burden to employees.

Second, the idea of a health benefit is changing. Employees want benefits that extend beyond insurance, and it's been well documented that millennials place more importance on the benefits offered by a company than other factors such as salary or stock options. As health care costs continue to rise and the definition of a health benefit expands, smart employers are getting ahead of the curve by adopting the following three practices. 

1. Becoming providers

Employers have already become payers; this year, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that on average, employers are paying 70 percent of health insurance for single coverage. Additionally, the cost of a health incident, such as a cancer diagnosis or high-risk pregnancy, can cost a company millions of dollars. Because of this, companies are choosing not to send their employees into the system at all, and instead, becoming providers themselves.