Your guide to open enrollment

Health care costs have continued to rise, but employers are enhancing benefits for 2023.

- By Rivan Stinson

Inflation has made everything from gas to eggs more expensive, and health care is no exception: Costs rose 8.2% in 2021, the biggest jump since 2018, according to the Business Group on Health. Besides being affected by overall inflation, health care prices were pressured by a surge in claims from consumers who scheduled appointments and procedures they had put off during the pandemic. Those factors continued to drive up costs in 2022. For the 2023 health insurance plans that workers will choose during the upcoming open-enrollment period, premiums are set go up some more, rising up to 8%, according to the Segal Group, a human resources and benefits consultant.

A lot of large employers are providing better access to therapy and other well-being benefits in response to concerns about the effects of the pandemic on employees' mental health. Many employers also plan to offer a suite of virtual care services in 2023, ranging from lifestyle coaching to diabetes management. More than 90% of large employers plan to offer tele– mental health services, and 77% plan to provide those services at little or no cost to employees.

Employers are also looking for ways to drive down costs of cancer treatment, which is one of the top three factors pushing health care costs higher. Half of employers plan to add providers that are recognized for providing top-quality cancer care, and 11% plan to cover multi-cancer early-detection blood tests in 2023, according to the BGH survey.

Most of the costs of expanded benefits will be borne by the boss. Employees of large companies will be responsible for 22%, on average, of their total health care premium costs in 2023, unchanged from 2022 and 2021, according to a survey by human resource firm Mercer.