11/ 30/ 2007
by Lena Basha
Don't wait for Congress to lower your health-care costs for you. Take matters into your own hands with these ideas that you can implement today.
1. Start a wellness program at work. Promoting a healthy lifestyle among your employees benefits your business on several different levels, says Brian Passon, director of Marlborough, Conn.-based Corporate Fitness & Health, which specializes in creating wellness programs for small businesses. "Healthier employees are generally more productive, less sick and have fewer medical claims," which can lead to lower premiums over time, Passon says. But he warns about making reduced health-care costs the goal of a wellness program: "The No. 1 goal of a wellness program should be to improve the health of employees. If it's not, the tone tends to be more negative, and employees won't view the program favorably."
2. Educate your employees. Making sure your employees understand how to use their health plan is more important than you might think, says Tom Doney, president of Appleton, Wis.-based Cypress Benefits Administrators. "When someone doesn't use a preferred provider, you've got uncontrolled utilization, which means you've lost control over what providers can charge and what the insurance company has to pay," he says. "Ultimately, it's going to show up next year in increased premiums."
Doney suggests meeting with your employees to help them understand their health plan and sending out information on a regular basis to help keep it at the forefront of their minds. Doney also suggests teaching your employees to be better health-care consumers.
"Show them what you're spending on premiums and what they're spending out of pocket," Doney says. Going over what questions to ask your doctor or pharmacist and reviewing the top five preventable diseases are good places to start.
3. Explore your options. Small-business owners have few choices when selecting coverage for their employees compared to large businesses, but there are some options. Traditional health-care plans, health reimbursement arrangements, health savings accounts and mini-medical plans are all viable options. You just need to take the time to assess which one is best for your business. "If you invest the time, you will find something that works for you," Doney says.
NFIB.com
Find out more on small-business health-care options and if they’d work for your business in the "HR" section of www.NFIB.com/toolsandtips.
