Why Benefits Look Nothing Like They Did

Healthcare costs are no longer just a benefits problem. When the bill gets large enough, it lands on the CEO's desk, and that shift has fundamentally changed what benefits leaders need to know how to do.

Most employers have already exhausted cost-shifting as a lever. The next move requires a different kind of discipline: evaluating, implementing, and measuring solutions in a market crowded with vendors making promises they often cannot keep. Eric Grossman, a 34-year Mercer veteran, traces what that discipline actually looks like.

The explosion of high-deductible health plans reshaped employee behavior in ways that took years to fully play out, and the lessons from that experiment are still being absorbed. Putting a program out there and doing nothing to drive adoption usually leads to nothing. Employers need to decide whether they are going to require participation, encourage it with real financial incentives, or accept that a passive approach will produce passive results.

The solution landscape breaks into three tiers: brand-new, relatively new, and mature. The right bar for skepticism looks different at each stage. A brand-new solution has no track record yet, so the move is to become a design partner and secure preferred pricing. A relatively new one calls for credible early results, meaning clinical metrics and engagement, not just financials. A mature one comes down to whether it still delivers enough value to justify the investment. For benefits leaders weighing what to add, keep, or cut, the discipline is to review the vendor set at least every other year, because overlap is almost always there and consolidation rarely hurts members.

When a carrier resists integrating a new solution, recognize that large employers have more leverage than they typically use. Using it requires the same discipline that got the program approved in the first place.

Catch the full episode to hear Eric Grossman reflecting on two decades of transformation in the employee benefits landscape. From the rise of HDHPs to the explosion of point solutions, Eric traces how employer strategies have evolved—and shares his perspective on where the next chapter of benefits innovation is heading.