Posted August 19th, 2026

If your company was hit with a painful health insurance renewal last year, you may want to prepare yourself now.

2027 is not looking like the year healthcare costs suddenly settle down.

As employers begin preparing for annual open enrollment and reviewing their 2027 employee benefits strategy, early projections point to another challenging year for health insurance premiums.

KFF’s latest analysis of the small-group health insurance market found a median proposed premium increase of 14% for 2027, with 59% of small-group insurers proposing increases between 10% and 20%. Aon is projecting employer healthcare costs to rise approximately 9.5% in 2027 before employers take cost-mitigation measures, while PwC projects a 9% commercial group medical cost trend, the highest in nearly two decades.

For business owners, HR leaders and CFOs, the question is no longer simply:

“How much will our renewal increase?”

A better question may be:

“What can we do before open enrollment to reduce the amount of healthcare spending flowing through our major medical plan in the first place?”

Why Are Employer Health Insurance Costs Rising Again?

Healthcare inflation is being driven by more than one issue.

Insurance filings and industry research point to rising hospital and physician costs, increased healthcare utilization, specialty medications, growing GLP-1 utilization, behavioral health services and increasingly expensive treatments.

Aon reports another important shift. Historically, healthcare price increases were responsible for the majority of medical trend. Today, utilization and the mix of services being used account for approximately 60% of healthcare trend increases.

That distinction matters.

Employers cannot control what hospitals charge. But they may have more influence over where employees receive routine care, how they access primary care, how prescriptions are obtained, and whether employees wait until a minor health issue becomes an expensive claim.

That is why preventive healthcare, virtual primary care, telehealth, pharmacy alternatives and employee wellness programs deserve a serious look during 2027 benefits planning.

Preventive Healthcare Is Becoming a Benefits Strategy, Not Just a Wellness Perk

For years, workplace wellness programs often meant step challenges, newsletters and discounted gym memberships.

That conversation is changing.

Employers are increasingly looking at preventive care and primary care access as healthcare cost-management strategies.

Business Group on Health research has shown employers expanding virtual primary care, onsite and near-site primary care and other approaches designed to make routine healthcare easier to access. Employers are also placing greater emphasis on screenings, immunizations and cancer prevention as they look for ways to address expensive conditions earlier.

The concept is relatively simple.

When employees can easily access a primary care provider, obtain necessary medications and address health concerns early, there may be fewer reasons to rely on higher-cost settings for routine healthcare.

And state regulators are beginning to pay attention to some of the newer wellness reimbursement models entering the employer market.

South Carolina Just Created New Rules for Wellness Reimbursement Programs

South Carolina recently enacted Act No. 215, effective May 19, 2026, creating a new regulatory framework specifically for certain wellness reimbursement programs.

An important clarification: the law does not require South Carolina employers to offer a wellness program.

Instead, it regulates certain programs operating under Sections 105 and 125 of the Internal Revenue Code. Among other requirements, program administrators must meet licensing requirements, make specified disclosures, comply with applicable federal requirements, avoid deceptive marketing and inform employers that federal tax guidance in this area continues to evolve. The law specifically recommends that employers consult independent tax or legal counsel regarding federal tax treatment.

Why should employers outside South Carolina care?

Because it demonstrates something important about this rapidly growing benefits category:

Not every wellness program is structured the same way, and employers should perform due diligence before implementing one.

Ask questions. Review the plan documents. Involve your broker, tax advisor, legal counsel and HR team when appropriate.

Innovative does not have to mean risky. It does mean doing your homework.

Could Routine Healthcare Be Kept From Becoming a Major Medical Claim?

This is where the conversation becomes especially interesting for employers facing another large renewal increase.

WolfpackHR works with benefit partners offering preventive healthcare solutions designed to complement an employer’s existing health insurance rather than replace it.

One available preventative wellness model can provide eligible employees with access to services such as unlimited virtual primary and urgent care with no copay, access to more than 1,000 commonly used prescription medications at $0, and healthcare access that extends to eligible household members without an additional employee premium. Program materials also include mental health and other preventive-care resources.

The program is designed to sit alongside qualifying group health coverage, not replace major medical insurance.

Consider what that can mean for a self-funded or cost-conscious employer.

If an employee needs care for a routine condition and uses a separate virtual primary or urgent care resource instead of submitting that eligible visit through the employer’s major medical plan, that particular encounter may never become a medical claim against the primary plan.

The same concept can apply to qualifying prescriptions obtained through a separate prescription benefit or discount program.

The employee saves because there may be no copay or out-of-pocket charge, while the employer may reduce avoidable routine claims flowing through the major medical plan.

That does not eliminate healthcare inflation, and no legitimate benefits strategy should promise that it will.

But if your organization is searching for ways to offset rising healthcare costs, reducing unnecessary claims is certainly worth exploring.

Learn More About the Preventive Wellness Program 

Telehealth May Become Even More Important for Rural Employers

Healthcare access is also becoming a workforce issue, particularly in rural America.

The 2025 federal reconciliation law made significant changes to Medicaid financing. KFF estimates the law could reduce federal Medicaid spending in rural areas by approximately $137 billion over 10 years. Congress also created a $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program intended to help states strengthen rural healthcare delivery.

The American Hospital Association has warned that Medicaid reductions could place additional financial pressure on already vulnerable rural providers.

That does not mean every rural clinic or hospital is going to close. It does mean employers should be thinking proactively about what happens when employees live 30, 60 or 90 minutes from convenient medical care.

Virtual primary care and telehealth cannot replace an emergency room, specialist, surgery or every in-person medical need.

But for everyday healthcare, medication questions, routine illnesses and many primary-care needs, virtual access can help fill an increasingly important gap.

For employers with remote employees, field workers or teams across rural communities, healthcare access itself may become a competitive employee benefit.

Your Open Enrollment Strategy Should Extend Beyond Health Insurance

There is another piece of the employee benefits conversation that businesses sometimes overlook.

Healthcare is not the only thing distracting employees at work.

Employees may be dealing with debt, budgeting challenges, identity theft, estate-planning questions, landlord disputes, family legal issues, credit concerns and other everyday problems that do not disappear when the workday begins.

Recent SHRM research found financial stress is closely connected with employee engagement, retention and organizational performance, while PwC’s 2026 financial wellness research found significant productivity effects associated with financial stress, particularly among younger workers.

That is why open enrollment is also a good time to evaluate supplemental employee benefits such as financial wellness resources, financial planning support, legal services and identity theft protection.

A relatively inexpensive supplemental benefit that helps an employee solve a problem before it becomes a crisis may provide significantly more perceived value than another benefit employees barely understand or use.

Before You Finalize 2027 Open Enrollment, Ask These Questions

• Is our current health plan paying claims that could reasonably be handled through a lower-cost primary care, telehealth or prescription solution?
• What percentage of our healthcare spending is coming from pharmacy costs, routine visits and preventable utilization?
• Are employees delaying care because of deductibles, copays or lack of convenient providers?
• Do rural or remote employees have realistic access to primary and urgent care?
• Are there supplemental benefits we could add without significantly increasing employer costs?
• Have we reviewed every new wellness or reimbursement program for compliance, structure, vendor credibility and actual employee value?

Open enrollment should not simply be the annual exercise of accepting a renewal, adjusting payroll deductions and handing employees another benefits booklet.

It is an opportunity to rethink the entire employee benefits strategy.

Before You Renew, Find Out Where You Stand

If you are a business owner, HR leader, benefits professional or executive preparing for 2027 open enrollment, WolfpackHR would love to hear what you are experiencing.

Take our two-minute Employee Health Benefits Surveyand receive a $10 Starbucks gift card for sharing your feedback.

Take the 2-Minute Health Benefits Survey 

Want to explore preventive wellness programs, telehealth, prescription savings or supplemental employee benefits for your organization?

You can connect directly with the program provider:

Explore the Preventive Wellness Program 

Or schedule a conversation with WolfpackHR to look at your current benefits strategy, the challenges your employees are facing and potential opportunities to expand benefits while controlling costs.

Schedule a Benefits Strategy Conversation With WolfpackHR 

Because with healthcare costs continuing to rise, the goal should not simply be to pay more strategically.

It should be to ask whether there are expenses your employees and your health plan need to be paying at all.