Local employers wondering about their annual investment in health benefit plans have received some guidance from the 2021 M3 Trends Report, which says that M3 clients in the south-central Wisconsin market experienced an overall rate increase of 4.2% percent in 2021.
The report, an annual publication that examines health benefit plans and identifies trends in the Wisconsin marketplace, also says the average per employee cost in this region is $13,925, which represents an increase from $13,215 in the previous year.
The south-central Wisconsin market is largely defined by HMO providers that continue to experience territorial growth, and the report notes that these are tightly managed carrier networks that “make fully insured health plans highly desirable and self-funding less common than in other markets.”
Overall, with all of the regions that M3 serves taken into consideration, health plan premiums grew at a rate of 5.1% in 2021. According to the report, this continues a three-year trend in rates of change being lower than historical norms and is probably the result of decisions made by employers prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and lower than normal claims during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report also notes that employers should be cautious because the pandemic has caused some instability in the market with health insurance carrier rebates and deferred preventative medical care.
