Three Ways The Food & Beverage Industry Can Combat Rising Health Insurance Renewals During This Open-Enrollment Season

Don’t judge a broker based on their brokerage.

Not all brokers are created equal. The work and capability of a broker does not typically have anything to do with their brokerage; it’s about how they run their individual practice. Regardless of the name behind them, be sure to continually evaluate the work they are doing on your behalf.

Choose the right broker for your needs. Different brokers have different strategies, different relationships, and different capabilities within the industry. They might have expertise to squeeze pharmacy dollars out of a plan or a specialty in self-funded or captive insurance. No broker does everything well, and choosing the right broker(s) for your specific needs will help you get better quotes.

Employ a pragmatic, transparent approach to evaluating your insurance spend. If you have low renewal rates, don’t be complacent. Find out why. A client with 220 people on their plan thought they were in a great position because their carrier had given them only 1%–2% renewals for the past three years. 

When ERA requested the actual data around the healthcare plan, the carrier balked. After piecing the full picture together from disparate sources, ERA found the client was paying $3 million a year in premiums, but on average, they only had $2.2 million in claims. The carrier was making more than three-quarters of a million dollars a year in profit. It’s no wonder they were offering such low renewals!

F&B manufacturers have enough challenges to deal with without having to absorb soaring insurance costs. Contrary to popular belief, there are things you can do right now to combat your rising renewal rates. With a strategic methodology to uncover as many creative, valid, compelling solutions as exist in the market, you can move the needle on reducing your insurance spend for 2024.