Brown & Brown announced the key results from its inaugural Brown & Brown Employer Health and Benefits Strategy Survey, 2025. Based on responses from more than 760 employers with at least 200 U.S.-based employees across a broad spectrum of industries and geographies, the survey provides insights into the current and future strategies employers are implementing and considering for their employee health and benefits plans.
To get a sense of employer mindset, the survey first asked employers to select their top five strategic priorities related to health benefit programs. ‘Attracting and retaining a competitive workforce’ was the most highly ranked at 65%. This was followed closely by controlling both employee and organizational health benefit costs (62% and 60%, respectively).
“The findings from our inaugural survey further exemplify the balancing act many employers face,” said Chana Bieker, senior vice president and national account leader for benefits at Brown & Brown. “Offering competitive health benefit programs that meet the needs of an increasingly diverse workforce while at the same time managing ever-increasing costs requires a holistic and multi-year strategic view of benefits that goes well beyond traditional cost shifting to employees.”
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To address the top priority of attracting and retaining top talent, many employers indicated they were using or investigating programs to address the much-publicized mental health issues facing today’s workforce. Employers are implementing, or are considering for 2026, Centers of Excellence to enhance mental health support (41%), improving provider quality (41%) and increasing provider access (44%). Other areas of focus and investment to strengthen the attractiveness of benefit offerings include expanding fertility coverage, offering paid parental leave and strengthening disability coverage.
Along with these investments, employers identified equally important strategic opportunities to control costs over the next three years. The most popular method was to perform a medical and/or pharmacy RFP (81%). Additional cost-saving initiatives identified by a large majority of respondents include evaluating medical stop-loss captives (76%), utilizing various audits and assessment tools (75%), adding or enhancing transparency tools (71%) and introducing virtual primary care (70%).
Given the increasing share of prescription drug benefit costs in overall employer health care spend, the survey asked employers about GLP-1s coverage and their use for weight loss by plan members. While 70% of employers surveyed say they cover GLP-1s for weight-loss, 78% of this cohort currently have control measures in place, ranging from standard formulary restrictions to site-of-care stipulations. For 2026, 85% of these employers are considering additional GLP-1 weight-loss restrictions, such as required step therapy and lifestyle management programs.
Source: BusinessWire
