As healthcare costs continue to rise, so do the number of catastrophic claims by self-insured employers. At least that’s the conclusion of one major stop-loss insurance company, namely Sun Life Financial U.S.
Stop-loss insurance protects self-insured employers in the case of catastrophic medical claims.
According to Sun Life, the 1,979 self-funded employers it counted as customers at the end of 2015 made 25 percent more claims of $1 million in the previous three years than they did in a similar report that came out a year ago. The 10 most common conditions for stop-loss payments accounted for more than half of all such claims, said the company, a Canadian with U.S. headquarters in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
“By highlighting the conditions that create catastrophic claims and providing insights into trends influencing high costs, we can help employers anticipate what they’ll see when self-funding and raise awareness about the importance of cost-containment resources and stop-loss insurance,” Brad Nieland, vice president for stop-loss insurance at Sun Life Financial U.S., said in a statement.
The timing of this report is good. On Wednesday, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will release its annual report on national health expenditures.
Images: Sun Life Financial U.S., Flickr user 401 (K) 2012
