As healthcare reform begins to be implemented nationwide, most employers are expected to continue to remain plan sponsors instead of getting out of the business of providing health benefits to employees in lieu of a fine.
That’s according to a new report by Aon Hewitt that surveyed 1,800 U.S. employers covering about 15 million employees with a combined annual health expenditure of $120 billion. But the expense trajectory – in the last six years, expenditures on employee health has skyrocketed increasing by 40 percent to an average of $8,000 per employee is unsustainable. The report recommends that there are eight human behaviors that must be contained to bend the cost curve.
They are:
- Poor Diet
- Physical Inactivity
- Smoking
- Lack of Health Screening
- Poor Stress Management
- Poor Standard of Care
- Insufficient Sleep
- Excessive Alcohol Consumption
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
- 76 percent of employers are offering disease or condition management programs
- 48 percent of employers are implementing a company-wide health and wellness policy
- 61 percent of employers are rewarding or punishing employees to encourage them to show sustained behavior change
- 82 percent are offering resources and tools to employees to raise their awareness of health status and risk
[Photo Credit: Freedigitalphotos user renjith krishnan]