The Employer Health Plan Cost-Control Playbook
A practical framework for understanding plan spend, retained risk, contracts, pharmacy arrangements, targeted carve-outs, and year-round monitoring.
Browse by topic
Start with the decision in front of you.
The hub is organized around the questions employers actually face, from funding and plan design to catastrophic risk and regulatory change.
Plan Strategy
Risk and Stop-Loss
Specific vs. Aggregate Stop-Loss Insurance
Understand what each form of stop-loss coverage protects, how attachment points differ, and how the two layers work together.
Market and Policy Briefs
Direct Primary Care and HSAs: What Changed in 2026
A plain-English guide to the 2026 federal rule change affecting qualifying direct primary care arrangements and HSA eligibility.
Employer Perspectives
When Healthcare Spending Becomes a Local Economic Issue
How employer health-plan decisions can affect wages, public budgets, employee access, and the flow of healthcare dollars through a community.
Core guides and tools
Start with the fundamentals.
These established guides explain the funding structures, protections, and decisions employers evaluate most often.
01
Self-Funded Health Plans
How claims funding, stop-loss, administration, and plan control work together.
02Level-Funded Health Plans
Understand fixed monthly funding, claims risk, surplus terms, and renewal considerations.
03Stop-Loss Insurance
Review attachment points, contract terms, lasers, renewals, and claims oversight.
04Captive Health Insurance
Compare shared-risk captives with fully insured and standalone self-funded plans.
05Employer Benefits FAQ
Plain answers on cost containment, compliance, advocacy, funding, and plan strategy.
06Plan Finder
Answer seven questions to explore which health-plan structures may deserve a closer look.