High-Performance Health Plans That Cut Costs and Improve Care

North Star Benefits

Navigating to Excellent Benefits. Reducing Costs. Improving Care.

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  • Save 30–50%
  • Better Quality Care
  • Happier, Healthier Employees

The Benefits Cost Crisis We Help Employers Fix

Employers often face a terrible dilemma, cut benefits or raise costs to employees, or both. For more than 20 years healthcare costs have been rising sharply! Where does it end? Here is an interactive chart showing the real numbers:

Employer Health Care Costs, Wages, and Inflation
Employer-sponsored health insurance

Health care premiums have risen far faster than wages and inflation.

Tap a year on the chart to see exact values.
Coverage
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Although healthcare is often the 2nd largest expense after payroll, it usually receives little scrutiny. Where is all that money going?

Most employers accept premium increases as unavoidable, even when the numbers raise serious questions. When the 4 biggest carriers made $11 billion in profit in a single quarter, it became harder to ignore how much money flows through the system before care is ever delivered.

For employers, the issue is not just rising premiums. It is whether their health plan is being actively reviewed, challenged, and managed like the major business expense it is.

Employee Benefits Meeting
Lower Healthcare Costs

Employees suffer from poor health outcomes and severe financial stress. They need more than an insurance card.

They need a healthcare system that helps them get the right care, at the right time, without unnecessary risk or financial harm. Yet studies and reports continue to raise serious concerns about medical mistakes, unnecessary procedures, and misdiagnosis. Johns Hopkins researchers reported that preventable medical mistakes are the 3rd leading cause of death in the United States.

  1. Heart Disease
  2. Cancer
  3. Medical Error

Research has also found that 60% or more of spine surgeries may be unnecessary, while cancer misdiagnosis has been reported at rates as high as 28% of new cancer diagnoses. For employees, poor healthcare decisions can mean pain, debt, missed work, and life-changing consequences.

40% of insured people did not access care because of cost, showing that having coverage does not always mean employees can afford to use it.

When deductibles, copays, and surprise bills feel too risky, people delay care, skip treatment, or wait until small problems become more serious.

The scale of the financial and medical devastation that health care has wrought on America is something most people can’t imagine. Financially, health care’s hyperinflation has driven more than two decades of wage stagnation and decline. Today, 60% of the workforce makes $20/hour or less, while health insurance premiums for a family of four are over $20,000 per year. With over half of the workforce having a deductible greater than $1,000, most Americans are a bad stubbed toe away from financial ruin. And these are the people who have insurance!

— Dave Chase, Relocalizing Health: The Future of Health Care is Local, Open and Independent (Health Rosetta Publications, 2020)
Employee Benefits Meeting

We can do no great things; only small things with great love.

— Mother Teresa

The healthcare delivery system in the United States is broken and in need of reform. It is the goal of North Star Benefits, Health Rosetta, and many others to rebuild a broken system into one that is caring, accessible, fairly priced, and delivers excellent care.

Healthcare has already been fixed. Join us to replicate the fixes.

— Dave Chase, founder of Health Rosetta

5 star benefits plans do not have to have a 5 star price. We build customized Health Rosetta benefits plans specific to your needs. We do not just plan for 1 year at a time but create a 3 to 5 year plan that is reviewed and updated at regular intervals. Our plans perform at a higher level by reducing and eliminating waste and unnecessary overhead. We also seek out the best in medical care which helps dramatically lower costs. Health Rosetta plans have already been developed and tested and proven. Here are just a few examples.

Health Rosetta Success Stories

City of Milwaukee

Held health care costs flat for five straight years after switching 6,500 employees to a self-insured plan, cutting spending from $139M to about $102M. Onsite clinics and value-based provider tiers funded raises and prevented layoffs.

Copper State Bolt & Nut

Cut health care spending 40% in two years — from over $500 to under $300 per employee monthly — saving $1.3M a year. A required second-opinion benefit even spared one employee from unnecessary surgery.

ETEX Telephone Co-Op

Slashed pharmacy costs 50% and saved $5,743 per employee yearly by switching to a transparent PBM and local direct primary care. Employees now pay $0 for imaging, primary care, even insulin.

Textum

This 31-employee textile maker cut first-year health costs 32% by self-funding with direct provider contracts and reference-based pricing. Pre-negotiated rates ended surprise bills and steered staff to the best providers.

Pacific Steel & Recycling

Reduced health plan costs by $3.6 million through reference-based pricing and 5,000+ direct contracts. Knee replacements dropped from $50,000 to around $20,000, at zero cost to employee-owners.

Rosen Hotels & Resorts

Saved roughly $315 million on health care since 1971, spending 50% less per person than average. Onsite care and proactive management keep opioid prescriptions at one-sixth the national rate.

Pittsburgh Schools

Pays $4,661 per member for teacher benefits versus $8,815 in Philadelphia, $199M less a year. Tiered benefits steering members to top hospitals cut hospital spending nearly 37%.

Keystone Technologies

Facing a 55% premium hike, this Missouri firm instead cut spending 25%, dropping per-employee costs from $12,000 to $9,441. An unbundled self-funded plan now covers 100% of costs.

Enovation Controls

Saves about $4,000 per covered life yearly using a transparent open network for surgeries and imaging. Employees pay zero out-of-pocket; savings near $2 million a year, reinvested into R&D.

Gasparilla Inn & Club

Cut spending 34%, $1.8 million over three years, while eliminating deductibles entirely, from $2,500 to $0. One family saves up to $10,000 a year on free imaging and primary care.

Langdale Industries

Held per-employee cost growth to 1.31% a year over a decade versus 8.83% nationally, saving $29,000 per employee. Smart use of quality data steered staff to high-value providers.

Bennett School District

Cut health care spending 33%, $1.4 million over six years, after a 21% rate hike. Unbundling the plan dropped family deductibles from $4,000 to $0. Teachers got area-only raises.

Great Lakes Auto Network

Cut health spending 38% in year one and earned a $138,000 refund, enough to double its workforce and expand from three dealerships to six. Family coverage dropped to $980.

Employee Benefits Meeting

The healthcare system in the United States is fraught with peril. The system prone to error and opaque.

When patients are seeking care there is little or no information on healthcare providers. Such an asymmetry of information leads to healthcare consumers making some of the most important decisions, life and death decisions, in the dark. When buying a used car it is a good practice to have a mechanic inspect the car before making a decision. Consumer reports educate buyers before they get a washer and dryer or other appliance. Why not for healthcare where some of the most important decisions in people’s lives are made?

Employees need more than an insurance card. They need guidance to understand options, compare quality, avoid unnecessary procedures, and choose care based on value instead of guesswork. With clear information before making medical decisions, they can get the right care, avoid costly mistakes, and move forward with confidence.

At North Star Benefits, we work for you and you alone.

We do not accept compensation agreements that create a conflict of interest. We fully disclose our fees and compensation and are fully transparent with our clients. This aligns our interests with our clients.

By aligning incentives among Plan Sponsors, Providers/Vendors, and covered employees, we create true win-win-win scenarios. North Star Benefits clients receive a compensation disclosure statement upon our first meeting.

To request our compensation disclosure form and agreement, contact info@NorthStarBen.com.

  • Employees are healthier and happier.
  • Stress is reduced knowing that they can access excellent medical care.
  • Recruiting and retention improve.
  • Value goes up while costs go down.
Lower Healthcare Costs

Schedule Your Free Plan Review

If you’re a CEO, CFO, owner, HR director, superintendent, business manager, or city administrator who suspects your current plan is leaking money and underserving your people, we’ll show you what’s actually going on under the hood.

A free plan review is exactly that: free. No insurance pitch. No pressure. We’ll walk through your current plan, contracts, and claims data, and tell you honestly what’s working, what isn’t, and what’s possible if you redesigned around a high-performance framework.

Schedule a Free Plan Review