Health Insurance

Breaking the vicious cycle: Why trust is the missing piece in your health benefits strategy

Read Time

5 Minutes

Written by

Team Curative

Featured Insights by

Beth Henry, CMO

Published

Sep 11, 2025

When traditional cost-shifting drives up expenses for employees, they lose trust in their health plan. Which means they don't use it. And when they don't use it, their health gets worse — and your costs go up.

The real question isn't just whether your health plan is working — it's whether your employees believe in it and trust it. Are they really using the plan to stay healthy and more productive at work? Is it really a benefit for them?

Ask yourself: What good is a benefit that doesn't attract or retain talent?

"The average American has less than $3,000 in their bank account," Curative CMO Beth Henry said. "If you have to pay first anytime you need to go see a doctor, you likely are making significant trade-offs in your life."

Henry's seen how this plays out. Employees put off care. They use employer-provided insurance for very serious or "catastrophic" events only. And employers see costs tick up regardless — perpetuating this destructive cycle.

Here's her step-by-step approach for auditing your benefits strategy to see whether your plan is building the long-term value and trust that retain talent, or if it’s creating the sort of problems that make employees question their future with your company.

business woman thinking, planning and reading solution

Investigating and adjusting your current benefits to rebuild trust

Chances are, it's time for you to take a good, hard look at your current health plan. The usual way of doing things (high deductibles, out-of-pocket costs) isn't quite cutting it.

Traditional plans look good at first because they have a cost reduction when deductibles are raised (typically 12% first-year savings) — that makes employers excited. But it's a temporary benefit that hides long-term problems as underlying costs continue rising and employee health worsens due to deferred care.

How do you see if your healthcare plan is eroding trust, and how do you change course? Henry suggests:

Step 1: Audit your cost-shifting strategy

First, a few questions from Henry: "Have you really seen your costs contained? Have you seen your current carrier bend the medical cost curve in a way that is impacting you, and therefore your employees? How much cost-shifting have you had to do?"

Really think about your answers. Write down your historical deductible increases, and compare those with actual cost trends over 3-5 years. Also, take note of your employee utilization patterns and any care deferral indicators.

Step 2: Assess employees' engagement

"Do you really think that your employees are getting value and that they're improving their health under this plan?" Henry asked. But more importantly: Do they feel like they are?

Measure the staff participation rates in preventive care and medication adherence, and look at employee satisfaction scores. You can take that info and compare it to industry standards (most traditional plans see single-digit engagement and low satisfaction.

Step 3: Evaluate business impact (beyond direct costs)

There's more to choosing the right healthcare plan than the obvious premium dollars and cents. Hidden costs for traditional plans might be the fiscal impact of employee turnover, absenteeism, and productivity loss related to health issues.

"If your employee population is healthier, they are more productive and more present at work," Henry said. "That alone results in significant bottom-line impact for employers." That's your hidden benefit. Another positive would be if your benefits package serves as a competitive advantage for talent acquisition and retention.

Step 4: Identify when trust is breaking down

Keep an eye on employee complaints, prior authorization denials, and network access issues to head off trending problems. You can also measure employees' NPS scores (their "willingness to recommend to a friend" ranking) for health benefits. Henry said industry benchmarks show traditional insurers are in negative territory; Curative, on the other hand, achieves 70+ NPS.

"When HR benefit managers have confidence that employees are going to be happier and more satisfied with their benefit plan, that makes their lives easier," Henry said.

Higher ROI: What a better benefits strategy looks like

You've followed the steps and come to a conclusion: Either your current plan is working and employees truly trust and use it to improve their health, or you've found out that the cost-shifting approach creates more problems than it solves.

The nontraditional approach asks: What if we contain costs through employee engagement with healthcare, instead of shifting the cost burden onto employees?

Curative's approach focuses on rebuilding trust with members to drive their proactive health management. When you start employing cost control through engagement, you're eliminating financial barriers to care and offering workers personalized onboarding and health management programs.

Here's how to move forward:

Get internal buy-in: Show your audit findings to the upper brass, and spotlight the hidden costs you've uncovered. The conversation needs to shift from "What's our premium?" to "What's the total cost of our employee healthcare?" Include turnover costs, productivity losses, and employee satisfaction metrics in your presentation. Remember: retention and productivity are parts of the puzzle.

Don’t settle for more of the same: Traditional isn't the end-all, be-all. There’s room for new players to try something new. Test Curative's engagement-based model before your benefits renew next year. These plans eliminate cost barriers and provide proactive health management support.

Prepare for initial skepticism to give way for soon-to-be supporters: People may say, "This sounds too good to be true!" Let them see what happens, and show them the data for lower financial barriers. It makes perfect business sense; it's just a newer approach. Those previous skeptics will be calling you a hero in no time.

Your health plan should be an investment that pays dividends through healthier, more productive employees — not a cost center that creates problems for everyone. If employees don't truly trust or believe in their benefits, it might be time to rethink what "good benefits" actually means.