Insights from the Becker’s Healthcare webinar: “How HR Leaders Are Protecting Benefits Without Breaking the Bank”
Healthcare costs keep climbing. Budgets don’t. And your workforce expects more personalized, accessible support than ever.
That tension was front and center during a recent webinar with Becker’s Healthcare, where a panel of HR and clinical leaders unpacked the biggest question facing employers today:
How can employers evolve benefits design to control costs without sacrificing care quality or employee trust?
Amy Linsin, Executive Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer at Prisma Health, Michael Sloan, VP of Human Resources / CHRO at CommonSpirit Health, Michael Wukitsch, Chief People Officer at Lee Health, and Dr. Jeff Jacques, Chief Medical Officer at Personify Health, shared their front-line experience managing that challenge—and how to use strategies to gain a competitive edge.
From proactive care to smarter use of data, the panelists discussed what’s working, and where employers still need stronger strategies to manage cost, support diverse needs, and deliver sustainable impact.
What’s working?
Here are three strategies that forward-thinking employers are getting right.
1. Shifting from reactive care to proactive support
Leaders are prioritizing early detection and prevention and seeing results. Prisma Health reduced ER visits by 19% through direct primary care clinics. Lee Health is using AI to catch cardiovascular risk early. These strategies don’t just lower spend, they improve outcomes.
And they’re not alone. Across industries, employers are rethinking their approach to health benefits, moving away from passive offerings and toward more proactive, personalized support. But early detection is just one piece of a much bigger transformation happening in employer health strategy.
If you’re wondering where the market is headed next, these five emerging trends offer a glimpse into how leading organizations are staying ahead and what your team may want to prioritize next. It’s a strong example of how smarter benefits design rooted in prevention and not just treatment, can lower costs and raise outcomes.
2. Keeping employees in-network (and happy about it)
Some organizations are hitting 98%+ in-network utilization. Not with mandates, but with trust.
How? By making the network local, accessible, and familiar. Employees go where they feel taken care of, and when in-network care means less hassle and lower premiums, the numbers follow.
This isn’t about limiting options to control spend. It’s about designing a system people actually want to use where consistent, reliable experiences make in-network care the obvious choice.
Incentives help, sure — but it’s trust, clarity, and seamless experiences that truly drive results.
3. Letting data do more than report
Dashboards are great. But smart leaders are going further.
They’re using data to shape benefit design, not just to react after the fact. That includes tracking chronic condition management, combining biometric and wearable data, and collaborating with clinical teams to build personalized experiences.
One health system tracks 27 chronic conditions to understand how employees engage and where gaps exist. Another has built internal dashboards that combine clinical and HR insights to guide the next phase of their strategy.
The message is clear: the more you connect the dots, the more you can design benefits that actually work. When data guides benefits design, programs become more targeted, more effective, and more personalized.
Want to see what that looks like in action? Our Care Navigation Toolkit shares how organizations are using navigation, advocacy, and care management support to make smarter use of data and deliver more connected, human-centered care.
What still needs fixing?
And here’s where legacy thinking is still holding benefit strategies back and why it’s costing more than you think.
1. Rising GLP-1 costs — without a strategy to match
Everyone’s talking about GLP-1s. Everyone wants access. But too many organizations are approving coverage with zero structure — no coaching, no clinical guardrails, no sustainability plan. That’s not a benefit. That’s a liability.
Without support, these drugs become high-cost, low-impact line items. Usage climbs. Outcomes stall. And budgets take the hit.
Why is it a challenge? Because these conversations are tough. They require alignment across pharmacy, HR, and clinical leadership, plus the will to push back on blanket demand. But the leaders on our panel aren’t backing down. They’re tying access to behavioral programs, building in pharmacist check-ins, and rethinking eligibility criteria to keep spend in check and drive real health change.
The takeaway? Don’t just cover GLP-1s. Design around them. Structure matters, or the script will write your budget for you.
2. One-size-fits-all benefits don’t work anymore
Outdated plan designs still assume all employees want and need the same things. But today’s workforce is multigenerational, tech-diverse, and highly personalized in how they access care.
The problem? When benefits don’t match employee preferences or needs, people tune out. Engagement drops. Navigation gets harder. And the value of even the best programs gets lost in the noise.
Some employees want 24/7 telehealth, AI-powered coaching, and wearable syncs. Others prefer phone support and in-person visits. What they all want is clarity, choice, and a benefits experience that meets them where they are.
The fix? Design with intention. Leading organizations are building hybrid benefits ecosystems: blending tech and human touch, tailoring communications by population, and guiding people to what fits them, not the average.
It’s about offering flexibility without chaos and clarity by design.
3. Balancing cost savings with employee needs
We’ve all seen it — support gets pulled back, benefits get thinner, and suddenly the numbers look better…for about a quarter. Then absenteeism creeps up. Morale dips. People disengage from their health and from their employer.
Why is this so common? Because cost is easy to measure. Care is harder. But what’s measurable isn’t always what matters most.
The good news: it doesn’t have to be a tradeoff. It’s possible to design programs that deliver both meaningful support and measurable ROI. But it takes intention, cross-functional collaboration, and a long-term mindset.
Want to see what that looks like in action? Our More Savings, More Places report shows how employers are making it work, from in-network strategies to flexible benefits that actually reflect how people live and work today. It’s a shift that drives ROI without sacrificing the personalized support employees expect.
The bottom line
So how do employers control rising healthcare costs without sacrificing care quality or employee trust?
The organizations seeing real results aren’t doing more — they’re rethinking how benefits work.
They’re shifting from reactive care to proactive support.
They’re building trust through smart, in-network design that employees actually want to use.
And they’re using data to drive decisions, not just monitor outcomes — making every program more targeted, more effective, and more human.
This isn’t about incremental change. It’s about bold redesign that aligns care, cost, and employee trust.
If you’re ready to take that step, let’s talk about how Personify Health can help you build a strategy that will lead to healthier employees at lower costs, without the guesswork.
Meet the author
Bersabe Bermudez is the Marketing Specialist at Personify Health, crafting strategic content and campaigns that engage, inform, and drive growth. A graduate of Florida International University, Bersabe is passionate about enhancing the healthcare experience and providing clarity to help people find support while delivering insights that drive measurable impact.