Rising annual health plan costs may have your company scrambling to maintain high-quality employee benefits, especially in today’s turbulent environment.

Even with rising health care costs, employers have maintained the status quo when it comes to paying a percentage of a covered employee’s premium. In 2018, 2019 and 2020, employers paid about 71% of the annual premium for an employee with a family plan and about 83% for an employee with an individual plan, according to our 2021 Employee Benefits Benchmark Report (the report). In 2020, that cost employers about $15,754 per employee with family coverage and about $6,227 per employee with single coverage.

Yet, health care costs – typically the largest employee-related expense for companies in the U.S. – are becoming increasingly unaffordable for many employers. Thankfully, there are some cost-management strategies employers can leverage.

Are you curious as to what your competition is doing in other benefits areas, such as prescription drug management, wellbeing programs, voluntary benefits and much more? Find out here.

One strategy is adopting consumer-directed health plans such as high deductible health plans (HDHPs), coupled with health savings accounts (HSAs), which studies have shown motivate employees to make healthy decisions that ultimately reduce their health plan spend. In turn, these HDHPs save employers money. According to the report, on average, an employer pays $5,829 for single coverage and $15,506 for family coverage. When offered an HDHP, either with an HSA or a Health Reimbursement Account (HRA), about 24% of employees participate, the report also found.

An area of cost-savings opportunity lies in wellbeing benefits. While many of these strategies are proven to have a positive effect on health care plan costs, many are left untapped. Employers would be wise to consider more of these benefits moving forward, not only for the potential cost savings but also to stay competitive for top talent as employees are increasingly coming to expect holistic wellbeing benefits.