It’s Time To Control Chronic Disease Costs As Health Care Prices Are Rapidly Increasing.

Employers in the United States will pay an average 6.5% increase for employee health insurance in 2023. Instead of complaining about inflation, let’s talk about the rising costs of chronic diseases.

 

According to a recent survey, employers in the United States should expect to spend 6.5% more on average for employee health insurance in 2023 as inflation fears come true.

Not only are health care expenses rising faster than salary growth, but they are also expected to rise much further in the coming years, though it is still unknown how much. While inflation is a major worry, there is a much more important factor driving the upward trend in health care costs that we aren’t discussing with the same urgency: chronic disease.

The CDC estimates that people with chronic diseases account for 90% of the $4.1 trillion in yearly health care costs in the country. The moment has come to take control of reducing and managing chronic disease by giving high-risk people the tools they need to stave off disorders like diabetes and hypertension.

 

The chronic disease slow burn

Employers in the United States lose $36.4 billion in productivity each year as a result of just five chronic disease risk factors, including smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, and physical inactivity (or $1,685 per employee).

However, these astronomical medical expenses don’t appear out of nowhere. Diabetes type 2 doesn’t either. Poor health is typically the result of years and years of disregard for one’s health, the act of engaging in risk factors that can be avoided (e.g., tobacco smoking), as well as a combination of factors including heredity and socioeconomic difficulties.

People who are most at risk frequently aren’t even aware of it.

Approximately 20% of people with diabetes and 80% of people with prediabetes are still unaware that they have either disease. In fact, many of us with chronic illnesses might go months or even years without experiencing any symptoms before they start to worsen (and noticeable). Milder symptoms, such as tiredness, are so prevalent that many people choose to ignore them or adapt to them. There are no signs of high cholesterol at all. The likelihood of an individual encountering a sudden adverse event or medical emergency, such as a diabetic coma or heart attack, increases if they rely solely on symptoms as a gauge of their health.

It makes sense that the majority of healthy, youthful employees with few severe signs of health problems would not feel forced to schedule regular health examinations in today’s convenience-driven culture. When an employee is “fine,” they won’t want to use one of their few vacation days to visit the doctor, and if something more urgent comes up, they won’t hesitate to cancel a normal screening.

 

A long-term plan to reduce healthcare costs

There are three approaches for corporations to reduce health care costs starting in 2023:

• Reduction of employee benefits
• Increasing deductibles, premiums, or other variable costs for employees
• Find ways to reduce the cost of employee health care by avoiding high-cost treatments like unplanned hospital stays.

The first two appear simpler, but they are simply temporary solutions. There is a limit to how much a company may raise premiums or how much a person can be asked to pay out of pocket for health care before employees begin to feel the effects in their daily life. For instance, if employees are required to spend $50 or more out of pocket for a wellness visit, many of them will decide not to go at all if they feel “fine.”

Reduced actual health expenditures is the third alternative, which is a more difficult objective and a strong call to action. It necessitates putting emphasis on lowering chronic disease.

However, organizations can enable people to make significant lifestyle changes provided the proper, long-term preventive health strategy is in place and includes the use of preventative screening technologies that are practical for individuals. In the end, this results in cheaper health care expenses and improved employee morale (research suggests unhappy workplaces can increase depression and heart disease rates).

The adoption of at-home health screening kits, which allow people to check for risk factors like increased weight/BMI, high blood pressure, and raised blood glucose in the comfort of their own homes, is one preventive measure. Organizations can increase involvement by making preventative care simple and approachable by giving access to advanced at-home health screening technologies on a quarterly or even monthly basis.

Employers and health plans have a fantastic chance to combat chronic disease in their workforce by focusing on early detection in 2023. Workers are more likely to consider themselves as stakeholders in their own health outcomes when they have easy and regular access to preventive treatment.

 

 

 

 

Source: https://www.benefitspro.com/2022/12/27/with-health-care-costs-rising-fast-its-time-to-reign-in-chronic-disease-expenses/