Employers, many of whom have had to lay off employees inthe age of social distancing, are going to be very motivated tochange. They are going to scrutinize every cost, and they're goingto do their research on alternatives.

This autumn is shaping up to be one of the most momentousopen enrollment/annual renewal cycles that anybenefits professional has ever seen.

Already, the post-COVID-19 predictions are shaking up themarketplace. One widely publicized report by Covered Californiapredicts insurance premiums could increase by up to 40 percent next year. Those numbers soundterrifying for businesses already grappling with what could be anextended macroeconomic slowdown.

In truth, I believe those predictions are likely to beoverblown. As I write this in early April, we don't know how thepath of the disease will progress or whether the many stepsgovernments are taking to "flatten the curve" will work incontrolling its spread.

Related: 5 ways benefits consultants can become morevaluable during trying times

At the same time, we are seeing signs that overall health care spending might not risethat much this year. This belief is evidenced by the fact thatpatient inflows at many hospitals outside of the virus hotspotshave slowed due to people fearing entering environments where thedisease may be present. Similarly, primary care and familyphysicians from Little Rock to Los Angeles are being forced to cutstaff, skip payrolls and plead for loans as patients skip visits indroves and most elective procedures are canceled. This couldactually have a positive impact on health outcomes; after all, manyelective procedures are high-dollar but low-value, rendering themuseless or harmful anyway.

Another thing to keep in mind is that not every organizationwill be equally hit by these events. Organizations with a younger,healthier workforce that didn't hesitate to social distance willlikely have fewer coronavirus claims than organizations with anolder workforce that either chose to keep their brick-and-mortaroffice open or were considered essential.

In the end, it's plausible that net claims could actually godown in all this, not up. We've known for a long time that at least30 percent of high-cost procedures are inappropriate. Almost all ofthose aren't happening now and likely won't happen for a fullquarter. In fact, some will never happen.

Regardless, this is the uncertain situation into which benefitsadvisors are stepping. More than ever before, they will be calledon for answers and need to deliver tough truths. It won't beeasy.

Business owners have been dealing with exploding healthinsurance costs for years, but nothing has prepared them to dealwith the price increases they're hearing about right now.Employers, many of whom have had to lay off employees in the age ofsocial distancing, are going to be very motivated to change.They're going to have significantly less financial flexibility.They are going to scrutinize every cost, and they're going to dotheir research on alternatives. They're going to ask their brokerwhy they're paying so much for health benefits their employeesaren't even that happy with. They're going to want to know if theirbroker is making a commission or bonus by keeping them on thatplan, and also why that money isn't staying in their ownpockets.

Some benefits professionals are going to have to makesignificant changes if they want to be successful. First, they'llhave to be transparent by disclosing commissions. Second, they'llhave to exercise extreme diligence in designing coverage thatincentivizes beneficiaries to choose high-quality, lower-costproviders. That's where the real savings are. It's also wherehealth care structure comes into this conversation.

Fee-for-service is a concept that has refused to die. In it,physicians got paid for each individual thing they did, and if theydidn't have patients repeatedly coming in, they couldn't makemoney. That's not how health care is supposed to work. There's nowell-functioning health care system in the world not built on afoundation of value-based primary care. And a large part of thereason why the pandemic had such a negative impact on the UnitedStates is because its health care system isn't organized in thisway; patients skipped valuable, less intensive and less expensivecare settings that could have helped them recover from home andslow the spread.

Thirteen Italian clinicians said it best in the NEJM CatalystInnovations in Care Delivery, writing: "Hospitals might be the mainCOVID-19 carriers, as they are rapidly populated by infectedpatients, facilitating transmission to uninfected patients …Pandemic solutions are required for the entire population, not onlyfor hospitals." [emphasis in original]

Soon, our health care system will change. Clinicians are bravelyputting their lives on the line during the COVID-19 crisis.Meanwhile, in aggregate, clinicians only received $0.27 of everydollar ostensibly spent on health care. Sadly, in many cases, theexecutives benefitting from the other $0.73 are failing to keepclinicians safe, and they are taking note. They will push forreform. After some much-needed rest, they will emerge from battlewith a determination for change and a deep unwillingness to returnto the status quo ante; and the people they save, employees andemployers alike, will undoubtedly support them.

This is all the more reason for benefits advisors to demonstratevalue now. By seeking out the physicians who have broken away fromfee-for-service so they can to do the lifesaving, rewarding workthey signed up for—many in direct primary care models—benefitsadvisors will be aligning themselves with what will be anoverarching goal for the year ahead: Creating a higher-qualitysystem that supports health care heroes and doesn't bankruptbusinesses.

Some advisors have already done this. Starting with value-basedprimary care and including but not limited to transparent opennetworks and transparent pharmacy benefits, they've helped theirclients use their health care savings to weather our most recentstorm.

One company I know about was unfortunately forced to furloughemployees because of stay-at-home orders, but in an unprecedented,admirable way was able to use previously squandered health caredollars to continue to pay for those individuals' medicalexpenses.

That right there is what every advisor should strive toward:freeing up so much money in their client's health care budget theyenable them to positively change—if not altogether save—lives. Itmay have taken a crisis to help them realize it, but benefitsprofessionals have that power. They have the tools at theirdisposal. Health care has already been fixed. Advisors must simplyreplicate those fixes.

Dave Chase is co-founder of Health Rosetta,which aims to accelerate the adoption of simple, practical,nonpartisan fixes to the U.S. health care system, and author of"The CEO's Guide to Restoring the American Dream."

Read more: 

• A lesson from COVID-19: Time to take control ofyour health care strategy
• America will dramatically change the way itprovides health care by 2030
• How to build relevance of your practice beyondbenefits