Dive Brief:
- In the world of employee benefits and health insurance, 2015 has been a "wild ride," according to an article at the Philadelphia Business Journal. The article looks at several benefits scenarios from the past year, including the rise and apparent stumble of so-called "freemium" start-ups that popped up in 2015.
- According to the article, cloud-based benefits platforms handling HR processes such as benefits do so by cutting out brokers, which can be problematic because small businesses lose the collaborative advantages that come with working with a broker.
- Consumer-driven healthcare also continued to grow in 2015, as employees take even more responsibility over health spending.
Dive Insight:
Apart from the hiccups of "free” or low cost HR cloud solutions, there’s a price you pay for not working with a strategic broker who understands your business and your employees’ needs, the article says, noting that those solutions can seem "cold and impersonal" for employees.
Another issue that boosted stress for HR leaders and business owners concerned government compliance, especially as several parts of the Affordable Healthcare Act were implemented. With those changes came compliance standards, with the result being an increase in complex, time-consuming and often confusing administrative work.
Employers may not yet love private exchanges, but they are checking out the concepts and encouraging employees to be more involved through the use of options such as health spending accounts. The article calls education the "killer app" for healthcare.
Looking back on 2015, the article says it's been a year of "adjustment and even disruption," but it's likely that 2016 will bring more of the same.
