LevonP
02-17-2009, 05:13 PM
The cost of health insurance continues to rise, forcing local businesses to adapt.
Dan Carmody, owner and president of Lafayette Materials Management Company, Inc., runs a company that assists businesses such as legal teams, government organizations and medical companies in filing and storing their documents. His company is fairly small, which he said makes it difficult to provide a group rate for health insurance.
“We have 10 to 12 employees, so I’m not really able to get a good group rate. All it takes is for a few people in the group to have health problems, and it raises the cost for the entire company,” Carmody said.
Rather than provide health insurance at a group rate, Carmody said his employees find their own plan. He then reimburses them for a portion of the cost.
“We’ve found that having individual policies for each employee works best. We will pay a percentage of their insurance cost, but they are responsible to come up with their own policy. It saves us time and energy because we do not have a human resources person,” Carmody said.
Fairfield Contractors, Inc., is a local general contractor that specializes in site development and design and building construction. Paul Kirkpatrick, the company’s president, said he has struggled to find an effective way to keep health insurance affordable.
“I haven’t found anything effective. It’s been going up an average of 11 percent each year,“ Kirkpatrick said.
Kirkpatrick said his company shops around for health insurance every year and assumes part of the risk in order to keep insurance premiums down.
“We’ve left our deductibles the same for our employees and started self-funding about 70 percent of the plan deductibles as a company. Sometimes it has been effective but not always,” Kirkpatrick said.
Mark Kitchen, director of benefits and compensation for Marsh Supermarkets, LLC, a supermarket chain with a local branch, said his company’s top challenge in providing health benefits to its employees is containing costs for the company and its participants.
“Maximizing the plan value while keeping it affordable has become very challenging,” Kitchen said.
He explained that the lifestyles of Marsh employees greatly affect the plan cost.
“Smoking, obesity, non-compliant diabetics and sedentary habits all drive costs to a point of becoming obtrusive,” Kitchen said.
Kitchen said Marsh has taken steps to keep the rising cost of employees’ health insurance under control.
“We have helped mitigate the cost trends by moving to a high-deductible health plan, which encourages our participants to become more engaged in how they shop for health care. Creating more transparency in provider costs and quality of care also assists the participant in making a good decision on where to seek care,” Kitchen said.
Dan Carmody, owner and president of Lafayette Materials Management Company, Inc., runs a company that assists businesses such as legal teams, government organizations and medical companies in filing and storing their documents. His company is fairly small, which he said makes it difficult to provide a group rate for health insurance.
“We have 10 to 12 employees, so I’m not really able to get a good group rate. All it takes is for a few people in the group to have health problems, and it raises the cost for the entire company,” Carmody said.
Rather than provide health insurance at a group rate, Carmody said his employees find their own plan. He then reimburses them for a portion of the cost.
“We’ve found that having individual policies for each employee works best. We will pay a percentage of their insurance cost, but they are responsible to come up with their own policy. It saves us time and energy because we do not have a human resources person,” Carmody said.
Fairfield Contractors, Inc., is a local general contractor that specializes in site development and design and building construction. Paul Kirkpatrick, the company’s president, said he has struggled to find an effective way to keep health insurance affordable.
“I haven’t found anything effective. It’s been going up an average of 11 percent each year,“ Kirkpatrick said.
Kirkpatrick said his company shops around for health insurance every year and assumes part of the risk in order to keep insurance premiums down.
“We’ve left our deductibles the same for our employees and started self-funding about 70 percent of the plan deductibles as a company. Sometimes it has been effective but not always,” Kirkpatrick said.
Mark Kitchen, director of benefits and compensation for Marsh Supermarkets, LLC, a supermarket chain with a local branch, said his company’s top challenge in providing health benefits to its employees is containing costs for the company and its participants.
“Maximizing the plan value while keeping it affordable has become very challenging,” Kitchen said.
He explained that the lifestyles of Marsh employees greatly affect the plan cost.
“Smoking, obesity, non-compliant diabetics and sedentary habits all drive costs to a point of becoming obtrusive,” Kitchen said.
Kitchen said Marsh has taken steps to keep the rising cost of employees’ health insurance under control.
“We have helped mitigate the cost trends by moving to a high-deductible health plan, which encourages our participants to become more engaged in how they shop for health care. Creating more transparency in provider costs and quality of care also assists the participant in making a good decision on where to seek care,” Kitchen said.