Maestro Health, a leading, tech-enabled third party health and benefits administrator, released its latest survey which uncovered human resources decision-makers’ top priorities for their benefits plans going into the new year, including cost management, new services and offerings, and employee engagement. The findings are based on a survey of 600 U.S.-based HR professionals who are directly involved in managing their company’s health insurance plan.

According to Maestro Health’s findings, 94% percent of HR decision-makers said they expect their organizations’ employer medical costs to increase in 2022. And of this group, 62% expect costs to rise by more than 20%, attributed to the decline in annual physicals and increase in pharmaceutical costs and number of unvaccinated employees, among other factors. In addition, 72% of respondents said their organization is considering switching its healthcare insurer or plan administrator in 2022 — signaling a level of dissatisfaction and disengagement across the industry.

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“It’s not surprising that a majority of HR professionals are looking to change insurers or plan administrators in the new year,” said Brandon Wood, CEO of Maestro Health. “The demand for flexibility has significantly increased, and with companies’ priorities shifting in 2022 as a result of the pandemic, HR-decision makers will be focusing on new cost-saving tactics that provide the best quality of care for their employees.”

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Additional key findings include:

  • Top healthcare priorities for 2022: Next year, HR decision-makers want to: expand telehealth offerings (59%), expand mental health services (56%), and increase health plan member enrollment (53%).
  • Cost-saving strategies: To manage costs, the top tactics in 2022 for HR decision-makers are: penalties for employees who do not receive proactive COVID-19 care (52%), alternative reimbursement strategies (52%), pharmacy benefit management for specialty, mail and retail pharmacies (51%), and care access solutions (45%).
  • Unused services: 32% of HR-decision makers said that at least 11-20% of the services their organization pays for as part of its healthcare plan go unused.
  • Current engagement tactics: 92% of HR-decision makers said they use personalized engagement materials or communications based on their organizations’ plan member populations, such as email (46%), text messages (44%) and phone calls (40%).
  • Desire to switch insurers or plans: 72% of respondents said their organization is considering switching its healthcare insurer or plan administrator in 2022 and 73% are looking to consider it due to a need for more healthcare plan flexibility.

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