![]() ![]() Telehealth continues to gain ground as a means of managing medical costs, moving up from number three in last year’s survey to number two this year. Insurers ranked contracted networks of providers (70%) as the top cost management method. Telehealth continues to gain traction in health delivery and in cost management.Employers have an opportunity to work with their consultants and brokers to bridge these coverage gaps and help deliver more equitable health outcomes across different employee groups. These exclusions range from fertility treatments and gender reaffirming surgery to midwives and HIV/AIDS treatments. Coverage gaps may hamper DEI initiativesĮxclusions persist for conditions in areas related to DEI, a key priority and board-level issue in many organizations.Insurers ranked mental and behavioral health disorders as the fourth leading condition by both incidence of claims and cost. Mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression continue to take a toll on employees. This finding likely reflects the ongoing impact of poor ergonomics in employees’ home working environment combined with reduced levels of physical activity during the pandemic.Ĭancer, which is predicted to be the fifth leading condition in terms of incidence of claims in 2022, moves up to the second spot in 2023, which is not surprising and is reflective of the impact of Covid on delayed access to diagnosis and care. Respondents once again ranked musculoskeletal disorders as the top condition by incidence of claims. The incidence of musculoskeletal disorders remains high.To raise insurers’ awareness of this issue, the complete report includes a special section on DEI and healthcare coverage gaps in areas related to DEI. The pandemic highlighted the health disparities among different employee groups, prompting employers to place a greater emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in their healthcare benefit strategy. Over three-quarters of health insurers (78%) anticipate higher or significantly higher medical trend over the next three years. Eighty-four percent of insurers in Europe expect higher or significantly higher medical trend during this time period, as do 73% of insurers in Asia Pacific, 69% of insurers in Latin America and 60% of insurers in the Middle East and Africa. Medical costs are expected to continue to accelerate beyond 2023. Medical costs are expected to continue to accelerate ![]() †Global and Latin America numbers exclude Venezuela **Net of general inflation (inflation rates from IMF World Economic Outlook, Apr 22) Global Medical Trends, Global and by Region employers in particular are not necessarily seeing this impact yet and remain concerned on cost and volatility - despite the fact that inflation overall may be abating for the coming year.įigure 1. The one region where a decrease in trend is expected is in North America, projected to drop from 9.4% in 2022 to 6.5% in 2023. In Latin America, the medical trend is projected to climb from 18.2% to 18.9%, in Asia Pacific from 6.9% to 10.2%, and in the Middle East and Africa from 10.5% to 11.5%.Įven Europe, which has traditionally seen much lower levels in the past, is not excluded from the record levels of trend - in 2023, the cost increase is expected to jump significantly from 5.6% to 8.6%. The 2023 Global Medical Trends Survey reveals that after rising from 8.2% in 2021 to a higher than anticipated 8.8% in 2022, the healthcare benefit cost trend for 2023 is projected to remain at a stubbornly high global average of 10%.Ĭosts are expected to continue rising in most regions (Figure 1). Rampant inflation and increased healthcare utilization coming out of the pandemic are contributing to the highest projected increase in global medical costs in nearly 15 years. medical trend data are drawn from other WTW research. Regional and global trend rates have been weighted using GDP per capita. A total of 257 leading health insurers representing 55 countries participated in our 2023 survey. WTW conducts the Global Medical Trends Survey every year between July and September. ![]()
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