BENEFITS DIGEST

Marsh's national survey of more than 1,800 employers projects health benefit costs rising 8.2% in 2027, the sharpest annual jump since 2003, and 11% for employers who take no action. Some 59% plan cost-reduction moves such as raising deductibles, and GLP-1 coverage alone accounts for about a percentage point of the increase.

With employer health costs expected to jump 11.1% in 2027 by WTW's count, finance chiefs are moving into territory HR used to own. WTW's Tim Stawicki says employers are mostly avoiding drastic benefit cuts and instead scrutinizing vendors, hunting fraud and waste, steering employees to lower-cost providers, and looking at spousal surcharges and waiting periods. Big employers have largely locked their 2027 strategies; midmarket companies are deciding now.

New projections released this week put next year's employer health benefit cost increase at the highest level in more than two decades, adding pressure on plan sponsors heading into 2027 renewals and budget season.

MetLife's president of U.S. business makes the case that improving employees' benefits literacy leads to smarter choices for their health and financial wellness, an argument for personalized decision support as employers look for ways to get more from every premium dollar.

An opinion piece argues that benefit advisers, who spend most of their time on medical trend, pharmacy costs, and renewals, should treat leave strategy as core advisory work rather than a topic to hand off, given how much absence management now shapes the employer benefits conversation.

Groom situates the new tri-agency FAQ relief against the litigation wave that produced it: by the firm's count, the HIPAA wellness program rules have drawn more than 80 putative class actions claiming that premium surcharges for tobacco use violate ERISA. The relief addresses the midyear reward-timing and notice-disclosure questions; the broader surcharge fights, including the pending Sixth Circuit appeal in the Progressive case, remain in the courts.

Employers are nearing double-digit health cost increases, but many won't be able to take drastic cost-cutting measures until 2028 at the earliest, the Business Group on Health's president and CEO told HR Dive.

Employers are expecting a median 9.2% increase in medical spending next year, according to a new survey. But they’ve underestimated actual cost growth for the past three years, so even that figure may be too optimistic.

Accelerating dispute volumes and sky-high award amounts are inflating how much independent dispute resolution is costing the U.S., according to new Georgetown research. Patients could pay the price with higher premiums.

The employer advocacy group warned that litigation challenging wellness program incentives could discourage employers from offering health-related premium discounts.

A new risk analysis released by leading insurance broker Aon this week projected that employer health costs in the U.S. will rise by roughly 10 percent in 2027.

A federal court in Tennessee denied Cracker Barrel's motion to dismiss in its entirety in a putative class action challenging the tobacco-user premium surcharge in its self-insured health plan, on claims that the plan failed to offer a compliant reasonable alternative standard and failed to give adequate notice of it, both required under the wellness-program nondiscrimination rules. Three days earlier, a Maryland federal judge reached a similar result in a class action over Marriott's $15-per-week tobacco surcharge, letting through a claim that plan communications named a smoking-cessation program without explaining how to enroll or whether enrolling would avoid the fee. Two courts in three days is the pattern worth watching: sponsors running a tobacco surcharge should treat “we offered an alternative” as necessary but not sufficient: notice design, placement, and reimbursement mechanics are now live issues in both cases. (The broader split runs both ways: earlier dismissals went the other way in Williams v. Target and Spencer v. Campbell Soup, so treat this as an emerging, unsettled pattern, not a rule.)

Medical and pharmacy trends remain high at 7.7% overall. Learn what's driving healthcare costs and what employers should expect moving forward.

Groom surveys the tobacco-surcharge docket after the trio of July decisions favoring employers, including the Target and Campbell Soup dismissals covered here this week, and asks whether the 75-case wave has crested or is merely regrouping.

the second consecutive year of double-digit projected trend, and the number that will anchor this fall's renewal conversations.

Bricker Graydon on the health-premium recovery question every employer eventually faces: what happens to premiums the employer advanced during FMLA leave when the employee never comes back.

Groom unpacks Notice 2026-28, the first guidance on the now-permanent section 45S paid-leave credit since the OBBBA amendments, including how to calculate the credit when an employer funds PFML through insurance premiums rather than paying wages directly. The notice led the Digest on August 6; this is the first full firm analysis.

Segal examines what the early end of the Medicare Part D Demonstration program means for premiums and retiree health plans.

Segal's survey report reveals that health plan cost trends for employer-sponsored benefits are approaching their highest levels in 15 years.

Revenue Procedure 2026-26 provides the 2027 indexing adjustments for the ACA premium tax credit applicable percentage table and sets the required contribution percentage at 10.22 percent, up from 9.96 percent for 2026. That figure drives the employer affordability safe harbors, so sponsors should have it in hand before setting 2027 employee contributions.

ACA Marketplace insurers are proposing a median premium increase of 14% for 2027— indicating a likely second consecutive year of double-digit increases, according to a new analysis of preliminary rate filings in 16 states and DC.

More people get health coverage through their job than from any other source. The deduction workers see in each paycheck for their share of the premium is only a fraction of the total cost.

The expiration of the ACA’s enhanced premium tax credits at the start of 2026, combined with rising insurer premiums, put a spotlight on health care affordability that extends beyond Marketplace enrollees.