April 2019
The global average medical trend rate - or the forecast change in health plans’ per capita claims costs - is now the lowest registered since 2013, according to the major employee benefit consultancies that have so far reported this year.
According to the reports, this is due to the success of employer cost containment measures, coupled with lower rates of projected inflation worldwide as well as tighter medical goods and services procurement initiatives.
The cost to provide medical and healthcare plans to staff continues to outpace inflation in most major economies but has dropped this year to an average 7.8%.
To continue counteracting healthcare costs whilst also extending more preventative healthcare solutions to more people (more on which below), experts challenge employers to consider the opportunity of improving employee engagement with health benefits using modern digital communications platforms and tools.
Health for all
Employers have a pivotal role to play in helping meet World Health Organisation (WHO) goals to ensure access to essential, quality health services for all, regardless of geographical location or financial standing.
Traditionally, issues around cost, access - and to a certain extent relevance - have ensured that employer funded healthcare for all employees wasn’t possible. However, digital solutions have changed this, allowing for low cost, scalable and personalised health and wellbeing that drives self-care.
Such support is much needed: at least half of the world’s people is currently unable to obtain essential health services, according to WHO figures. With direct access to large sections of society, employers are well placed to help.
And at a time when the world’s population is getting older and healthcare needs more complex - due to declining capacity and the likelihood of having multiple chronic disease - a concerted effort by country leaders, healthcare providers, plus public and private organisations, to break down barriers to access, could be invaluable at all levels: individual; corporate; country; and global.
Global healthcare trends
- Worldwide obesity has nearly tripled since 1975, according to the latest WHO figures. In 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults, 18 years or older, were overweight. Of these, over 650 million were obese.
- The WHO also reports we’re all moving less, increasing the risk of all-cause mortality. Globally, 23% of men and 32% of women adults aged 18+ years are insufficiently physically active.
- The Willis Towers Watson 2019 Global Medical Trends Survey revealed the top three conditions that cause the highest incidence and cost of claims, namely circulatory (54%), musculoskeletal (49%) and cancer (42%).
- In Europe, around half of workers consider stress to be common in their workplace, and it contributes to about half of all lost working days, according to a European opinion poll conducted by EU-OSHA. The most common causes cited are job reorganisation or job insecurity, working long hours or excessive workload, and harassment or violence at work.
Impact on multinational employers
Eric Butler, Director of Global Health & Wellbeing at Generali Employee Benefits, said in a webinar last year entitled Corporate Wellness in Difficult Places: “Non-communicable diseases – those things that are connected with lifestyle issues – weren’t the kind of things that our grandparents were worried about. But NCDs are now responsible for around 70% of all deaths globally. 38% of those deaths are people aged 30 – 69 years old. 80% of those ‘premature’ deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries.
“Multinational corporations are now getting involved.”
That majority of those companies are implementing wellness programmes with a view to better engaging employees, according to a poll amongst the webinar’s HR attendees: 65% responding to this effect, followed by productivity and altruistic reasons. Bottom of the list was ‘reducing claims / premiums’ at only 9%.
Eric comments: “It’s good that most HR leaders are focused on achieving the first three [engagement, productivity, altruism] but in order to get CFO approval, they also need to get to grips with the fourth [reducing costs].”
High tech + low touch + low cost
The technology is out there to help make this happen: technology that is no longer just the preserve of companies and markets with deep pockets. There are now solutions available that are low cost, fully automated – and therefore low touch – and therefore much more accessible to a mass audience.
They work by engaging people on a day-to-day basis to be much more self-aware and therefore more able to take control of their own health and wellbeing needs.
These kinds of solutions are set to bring manifold benefits: to employers in terms of improving engagement, managing absence, reducing costs; to employees in terms of relevance to their individual physical and mental wellbeing needs; and also to society at large in terms of helping to tackle some of the biggest global healthcare issues of our time.
Using data to target needs
In order to identify local and global population needs, employers must combine the healthcare analytics they get from their own business – from wellbeing Pulse surveys and absence data to medical reporting and claims statistics - with evidence from local country and healthcare system sources.
Global networks providers can also help provide the framework needed to help companies get to grips with health and wellness trends by:
- Overcoming a sectoral approach.
- Providing systematic solutions to complex challenges.
- Identifying and collecting data. This includes detailed medical reporting to help companies identify and mitigate health cost drivers and improve wellness.
- Providing central, global oversight and local insight to deliver corrective actions.
- Tailoring relevant solutions to drive employee engagement.
- Improving communications and engagement at both a local and a global level.