Companies Seek Fast Return on Benefits Tweaks Amid Economy Fears

Employers, wary of a potential jump in medical inflation, hope to rein in costs in the short term while keeping employee expenses down as they roll out their health coverage plans for the 2023 open enrollment season.

“Employers didn’t necessarily have a significant amount of pressure around health-care costs” in 2022, Sally Welborn, executive director of advisory services for the Employer Health Innovation Roundtable, said in an interview. Instead, “The pressure’s going to happen in 2023 for 2024.”

Interest in controlling expenses without shifting more costs to employees is heightened “because we are in an inflationary period” and ...