New York, NY – On April 10, a breakfast seminar on multi-employer healthcare plans will be held at the American Labor Museum in Haledon, NJ. Actuaries Milliman, accountants Novak Francella and attorneys O’Brien, Belland & Bushinsky will share what leading multi-employer healthcare plans are doing to control costs, reduce risk, and better serve their members. Speakers will include Suzanne Taranto, EA, MAAA, Millman, Patrick C. Stines, CPA, Novak Francella, and Kevin D. Jarvis, Esq., O’Brien Belland & Businsky, LLC.
Key topics will include the following –
Latest healthcare cost management innovations:
- Strategies for medical benefits
- Strategies for pharmacy benefits
- Trend risk protection for both self-funded and fully insured plans
- Care management considerations
- Carve-in vs. outsource
- Telemedicine
- Wellness
- Legislative update
Accounting and legal changes related to the current administration:
- Unions increased need for diligence regarding fair representation
- JANUS and other potential right-to-work challenges
- DOL CAP audit readiness
- Tax law changes and the impact on employer-provided parking
“The most successfully run multi-employer health care plans are those that that are meeting the cost challenge by navigating through the complex array of choices available, to select plan design and operational techniques that work for them. By being aware of the needs and habits of their population, plans can leverage this information into reduced costs and improved patient outcomes,” says Suzanne Taranto, principal and consulting actuary at Milliman.
Here are some further tips to know:
- Multi-employer healthcare benefit plan costs continue to rise due to a number of factors, including the increased prevalence of high-cost specialty drugs and more specific coding in an inpatient setting, which increases hospital costs. These cost increases challenge the plan’s trustees ability to provide these benefits to their members
- Some multi-employer healthcare plans are doing a better job than others in controlling cost increases while continuing to deliver quality services to their plan members by managing high-cost patients, excluding high-cost providers that do not improve quality, and negotiating aggressive prescription drug discounts and rebates
- Among the most successful multi-employer health care plans are the ones that have learned to utilize an inventory of tools, many of them new and innovative.
- Keeping current on best practices – adding care management programs, performing market checks and claims/eligibility audits regularly, being proactive about what prescription drugs are covered or preferred – can make a big difference in plan costs
- Self- insured plan costs can get out of control unless an accurate and clear assessment of network quality, network discounts and delivery strategies has been performed
- To control prescription drug costs, the use of purchasing coalitions can help
- Negotiating third party administration contracts with the right language and levels of protection, such as the right to audit, limits to premium increases and multiple year rates are critical.
Click here to RSVP.
