Consumer Driven Health Care

The decline in HDHPs is evidence that employee health care is at a crossroads, one that benefits advisors must navigate carefully if they hope to succeed in a fast-evolving landscape.

The program offers more benefits, but using the benefits is not always easy.

Nearly 1 in 5 young adults aged 18 to 29 report they needed to borrow to pay for health care, and similar rates are reported by adults aged 30 to 49.

More than 8 in 10 employers intend to offer employees and their dependents access to lower- or no-cost mental health support through their tele-mental health provider this year, the letter said.

Just as baseball teams once fixated on home run hitters while overlooking equally valuable players with different skill sets, many organizations focus heavily on traditional big-ticket benefits like premium health care plans while missing opportunities to create greater value through strategically allocating their benefits budget.

“These changes are part of ongoing efforts to reduce total UnitedHealthcare prior authorization volume," the company said.