Employee healthcare benefits represent one of the largest components of a company’s cost structure after salaries and wages, and are growing at an unsustainable rate. Secular trends continue to drive these costs higher, including rapidly changing workforce demographics, the growing prevalence of complex and chronic diseases, continued provider consolidation, and sustained increases in drug prices. To mitigate rising costs, improve employee satisfaction, and maintain affordability and competitiveness, companies of all sizes continue to migrate to self funded plans. In doing so, employers are electing to assume the administrative control and financial risk of their healthcare benefit programs versus paying soaring premiums to large insurance firms to provide fully underwritten plans. Today, more than 65% of U.S. employees are enrolled in self funded plans, equating to 160+ million individuals.