Health-care options: Hylant Group of Indianapolis offers plans to counter costs.

• Author: Held, Shari
• Position: Profile

IN RECENT YEARS employee benefits have been a major headache for businesses. Costs for medical and prescription drug benefit plans continue to experience double-digit increases. Still, there are some approaches, old and new, that can potentially provide much needed cost relief in the future.

Hylant Group of Indianapolis has been a forerunner in promoting and providing alternative solutions and customized approaches in the employee benefits area. A subsidiary of Toledo-based The Hylant Group, the independent agency and brokerage has offices in Carmel and Bloomington. The Hylant Group is the 26th-largest independent agent/broker in the nation. It also has an independent agency in Fort Wayne.

Health-care benefits landscape. The health care landscape is rocky, and factors specific to Indiana make it even rockier. Although health-care costs haven't risen as steeply this past year as in the past few years--2003 saw increases of 10.1 percent--they are still increasing faster than the rate of inflation and average wage increases.

"We spend the lion's share of our time trying to deal with that issue," says Keith Phelps, vice president of employee benefits for Hylant Group of Indianapolis in Carmel.

A number of factors are contributing to higher costs: advances in medical technology, an aging Baby Boomer population, consumer demand for name-brand pharmaceuticals, fewer insurance carriers and cost shifts from un-reimbursed Medicare and Medicaid expenses. Cost savings initially derived from managed-care techniques have been tapped and incorporated into the mainstream.

In addition, Hoosiers are high-risk candidates. Indiana ranks high among the states in numbers of smokers, fast-food restaurants per capita and obese adults. Consequently, Indiana has insurance rates that reflect this.

Traditional approaches companies have taken to reduce costs, such as shifting a portion of the increases to employees or "price shopping" for benefits, have already been implemented or are no longer yielding substantial savings.

Hylant Group of Indianapolis offers a variety of alternative approaches for businesses.

"I think in a more proactive, forward-looking view of the world, companies are going to have to take a look at what is driving costs," Phelps says. "That is primarily claims. Employers and employees are starting to embrace the fact that they need to take a look at the health status within their group of insured employees and dependents. We see wellness/risk...