Health Insurance

5 principles for employee health plans that cut costs and improve outcomes

Read Time

7 Minutes

Written by

Team Curative

Featured Insights by

Marissa Bloomer

Published

Mar 31, 2026

U.S. health care spending hit $4.9 trillion in 2023. That number keeps on climbing. You’ve probably noticed it on your end.

If you’re running HR, this spend shows up as ballooning premiums, and you don’t even have healthier employees to show for it.

Traditional health care models are getting more and more expensive, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re meeting their members’ needs more than before.

In fact, the disconnect between rising costs and stagnant outcomes reveals a huge gap where providing coverage is no longer enough — employees need support to navigate coverage and care access if you want to see real engagement, lower costs, and higher satisfaction.

Marissa Bloomer, RN, BSN, CMCN, the Vice President of Population Health of Curative, has 25 years of healthcare experience — and she’s seen how traditional healthcare models fail their members.

She’s pulled from her nursing background and her insurance industry leadership to create a framework for employers looking to transform their healthcare, offering employees a personalized experience that keeps them healthier and controls costs.

Rethinking what health insurance really means

It's easy to mistake health coverage for true access to care. But what good is having a plan if your employees can't understand how to use it or navigate the costs effectively? This outdated approach ignores what health insurance should actually be: a personalized tool that genuinely supports each employee's health journey.

The result is a massive disconnect that leaves everyone frustrated.

When benefits leaders prioritize plan efficiency over health literacy and personalized engagement, they accidentally design systems that confuse employees about costs, inflate expenses through poor utilization, and block access to preventive care that could keep people healthier.

This broken cycle perpetuates itself: employees avoid care because they don't understand their coverage or can't predict what they'll pay. When people can't confidently engage with preventive care due to cost confusion and complexity, they're more likely to develop expensive chronic conditions, require emergency interventions, and drive up costs for everyone.

These systems, originally designed to manage expenses, end up creating the most expensive outcomes — because they fail to treat each employee as a whole person with individual health needs and financial concerns.

Simply offering health care services isn't enough. Real health support means removing barriers through clear communication about costs, providing personalized guidance that helps each employee understand their options, and creating pathways that feel human and approachable — enabling people to confidently start and sustain their individual health journey.

Putting an employee health partnership model in place

Curative’s approach, Bloomer says, makes sure employees are supported and informed at every step of their health journey. And that’s what makes a health care plan work for them and their employers.

It starts with people-centered care navigation. Curative offers a personalized experience that’s designed to make health care less confusing and more effective. Employees first have a Baseline Visit where they meet with a Curative Clinician and express concerns, building their history; then, they’re put in touch with a Care Navigator who can help out with any health concerns and care coordination.

"They'll teach them how to get prior authorizations if they need, or get them connected to specialized programs,” Bloomer says. They can even help employees get medical devices at home.

It’s not giving people an information overload: it’s helping them understand their health and how to utilize their benefits to improve their everyday lives.

Personal health is ongoing, which is where personalized health journey management comes in.

"Our Care Navigators are taught and skilled during their training to identify members who may have lower overall health literacy,” Bloomer says, which means they haven’t been given the resources they need to make more informed decisions about their own health.

Lower health literacy is extremely common — only 1 in 10 people are “proficient,” according to the Center for Health Care Strategies.

But not a lot of health plans offer a moment of check-in to see where the employee’s knowledge is.

Plus, Curative Care Navigators can serve more than one purpose: some have clinical training for more complex health needs, and front-line Care Navigators help members find their way — whether that’s navigating visits or finding creative solutions.

Curative’s personalized care can operate on a larger scale, too.

"If we identify a group that has low tech literacy, we do a program: We call it our hybrid on-site experience,” Bloomer says. That program is an adaptation to the Baseline Visit (usually done solo and virtually by individuals) that incorporates in-person needs. “We have a technician that will go out to this group's employer site and actually set members up with the Baseline Visit."

It’s all part of outcome-driven relationship building. When Curative makes health care simpler, more effective, and more supportive, your employees are much more likely to engage in preventive care. Plus, Bloomer says, “When your employee understands why a screening is important, or how to get it, or what those results mean, they're often more empowered to actually take that action."

Personalized employee health support (like Curative’s Care Navigator program) is dedicated and ongoing. With fewer barriers to care, you’ll see more engagement and lower overall costs.

“When your employee understands why a screening is important, or how to get it, or what those results mean, they're more often empowered to actually take that action."

5 key principles for a person-first health plan

Here’s what Bloomer keeps in mind when she’s looking at health care.

1. Data-driven decision-making: Meet employees where they are

Different people face different barriers to care. It could be language or access or simply feeling overwhelmed — and bridging that gap matters. With comprehensive data collection, your health care partner can look into employee health trends and create strategies to reach people with different circumstances, barriers, needs, and preferences. That way, they’re not trying to fit into standard benefit processes and systems: They’re getting the attention that will really help them.

2. Transform support from reactive to proactive and predictive

Data analysis isn’t about reacting to a crisis. It’s a critical tool that helps a health insurance partner anticipate what members' needs are. By shifting focus from crisis response to prevention — and giving benefits staff the ability to get ahead of employee health needs — you can help employees before their roadblocks become ER visits or expensive claims.

3. Scalable innovation and personalization

Your health insurance partner should be able to grow alongside your company, efficiently serving all of your employees.

The best benefit systems can bring you personalized experiences even as you grow through a combination of technology, data insights, and human expertise, making sure that each employee has their needs met efficiently.

4. Human-centric experience

Remember your workforce’s needs and what gets in the way of their care: You should build your offerings around that. Problem-solving and care coordination is the name of the game — not just handing out a booklet. And your health insurance partner should help with that.

Your plan should help measure how successful your benefits program is based on improved health outcomes, cost savings, and employee satisfaction, not solely through enrollment rates or plan utilization.

5. Integrated health care ecosystems

Health insurance isn’t a silo (or at least, it shouldn't be). There should be partnerships and integrations in place to get employees full access across the entire spectrum of health care. That way, you can offer seamless, coordinated employee health support that addresses all of their health needs, not just insurance. With integrated care management (active navigation aid), proactive health engagement (a Baseline Visit that sets up a health schedule), and comprehensive support services (24/7 telehealth, prescription delivery, and more) you’re making a holistic employee health investment that goes beyond what happens at the doctor’s office. For example, programs for weight loss, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and more help members in their everyday lives.

If you want to offer effective health care benefits, you need to move beyond basic coverage and make personalized, supportive experiences that meet employees where they are so they can navigate their health journey confidently. If you prioritize human-centric health plans that combine technology with that personalized support, you’ll see better health outcomes, lower costs, and higher employee satisfaction — and a competitive hiring advantage, too.