Alex (00:08) And welcome. Welcome to the next episode of Future Proof PT. Dana, hello.
Dana (00:14) Hello,
Alex (00:14) And we are trying this new format because I I think sometimes a an hour spent with a good friend having a good conversation is all you need to get your day started. So
Today I think we should discuss the KFF survey that is out, that is an annual survey that forecasts the total cost of healthcare for employers. and so this one has been out for about a week and there's a lot of interesting information in it that I think we need to discuss and potentially drive this information down to our audience and to the musculoskeletal community because this is gonna be important.
Dana (00:51) Agree. Agree. Wanna I get asked all the time, what should I pay
Alex (00:55) Mm-hmm.
Dana (00:55) attention to? What should I read? Sign up for KFF. they do a terrific job, nonpartisan. you know, it's one of the top five probably to just keep your eye on and stay abreast of what's happening. So yeah, want you wanna dive into it a little bit?
Alex (01:08) Yeah I
I let us do it. So in essence it it's a survey that describes employers' market and how much are the premiums gonna grow and forecasted to grow next year. And so if you look into the inflation, which is just the total rise of the cost of living, living in the United States, and how does the cost of healthcare relate in relationship to the cost of living? and so mm needless to say, healthcare is gonna become more expensive next year, and it's gonna become
Dana (01:33) Shocker.
Alex (01:34) I know, right? what are the odds considering what the good job we're doing with our superior outcomes and superior health systems?
and I think this country has a this weird system of employers being self-insured but still have third party system that provides so maybe it will be a good second to spend exactly how this works in terms of self-insured employers still
providing healthcare benefits to their employees, but how does this process work?
Dana (01:58) So large employers tend to choose this self-insured route. And if every anybody's not familiar with what that self-insured means, it means that you as an organization, your HR department, your benefits groups are are choosing an insurance carrier to for their network and have have them administer the plan, but you yourself are the insuring body. So in instead of
farming off the actual risk of the spend to an insurance company, you're owning the risk yourself. It also gives them an incentive as an employer to come up with novel ways to to try to manage their employees' health and offer them medical supplemental medical.
all kinds of additional benefits. And, you know, we're they're still right now trying to figure out what works, what doesn't.
we know from polling, we we know that the concern of Americans right now is just healthcare affordability and they're looking for what's convenient, how do I get good access, how do I get an answer to my question and a solution to my problem to my pain right now. People don't want