Employers who participated through our coalition will receive a copy of the Wisconsin-specific report.

Key Findings

• Affordability pressures remain concentrated in drug prices, high-cost claims and hospital prices. Employers cite drug prices (77%), high-cost claims (75%) and hospital prices (68%) as the top significant threats.
• Employers paying higher premiums expect sharper increases. Employers project an average 7.7% healthcare cost increase before plan design changes, and 33% of those providing an estimate expect increases of 9% or more. Fully insured employers were most likely to expect increases of 9% or more.
• Hospital/facility costs and prescription drugs are the largest shares of spending. Employers estimate hospital/facility costs represent 30.5% of total healthcare spend, followed by prescription drugs at 21.1% and professional fees at 19.1%.
• Data access helps employers move from intent to implementation. Employers with full claim-level access reported using nearly four more high-value purchasing strategies, on average, than employers with limited, no or uncertain access (11.9 versus 7.9). The two groups were considering similar strategies, suggesting that data access is a key factor separating concern from action.
• PBM transparency remains a major focus. Employers identify PBM reform as the most helpful policy reform tested in the survey, with 87.6% rating it very or somewhat helpful. In addition, 43% of respondents are considering a PBM change within the next one to three years.
• Hospital transparency and payment reforms are rising policy priorities. Employers rated hospital price transparency (84.6%), hospital rate regulation (82.6%) and hospital antitrust enforcement (72.2%) as very or somewhat helpful reforms.

If you have questions about the survey findings, please reach out to Janet Lucas-Taylor at jlucastaylor@bhcgwi.org.