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PAKG Benefits

For Employers

Cost Management

Keeping costs in check without pushing all of it onto employees.

In plain English

Health plan cost management is the work of lowering or slowing the growth of what an employer and its employees pay for health benefits, without making coverage worse than it needs to be.

Where savings come from

It rarely comes from one change. Usually it's a combination of funding, plan design, pharmacy and cleaner billing, and the right combination depends on your group.

Shopping carriers every year is the least interesting lever. It can help, but it's often a short-term fix that leaves the reasons for the increase untouched.

Seeing what drives cost

You can't manage what you can't see. On fully insured plans, most employers get very little claims data. Level-funded and self-funded plans give you monthly reporting that shows whether costs come from a few large claims, from pharmacy or from how people use care.

With that information, the conversation changes from accepting an increase to deciding what to do about it.

What we weigh

Funding structure
Moving from fully insured to level-funded or self-funded can change the cost picture more than any carrier swap.
Plan design and contributions
Deductibles, copays and the employer share decide who pays what.
Pharmacy
Drug spend often grows fastest, and it's where formulary and PBM choices matter.
Billing accuracy
Paying for people who left is money you can get back.
“PAKG was able to take our age-based small group plan to a level-funded plan that resulted in a massive cost savings to both our company and every single enrolled employee.”
Jessica G., Director of Operations

Not pushing it all onto employees

The easy way to lower an employer's cost is to raise employees' deductibles and contributions. Sometimes some of that is necessary. But if coverage becomes unaffordable, people skip care, and that tends to cost more later.

We look for changes that save money for both sides first. One client moved from an age-based small-group plan to level funding and saw savings for the company and every enrolled employee.

Keeping it up

Cost management is ongoing. We review reports during the year, audit bills and plan the next renewal months ahead, so there's time to act on what we find.

Let’s talk about your benefits.

Tell us what you have now and what's bothering you about it. We'll take it from there.