The recent Trends to Watch in 2025 report highlights focal points in employer health and well-being strategies for the year to come and serves as key topics of the upcoming Annual Conference, to be held April 22-24 in Nashville. The diverse trends identified, which include tackling rising costs and holding vendors to higher standards are deeply tied to practical challenges employers face every day. These challenges exist against a complex backdrop of medical innovation, technological advancements, and policy and economic shifts.
The Business Group on Health 2025 Annual Conference, provides a forum that fosters dialogue and encourages the exchange of actionable insights on a range of trends. More specifically, the event creates the time and space to explore critical areas in depth and allows employers and their partners an opportunity to engage with thought leaders, share strategies, and much more.
Here is a preview of topics that are on the agenda:
Addressing Rising Health Care and Pharmacy Expenses
Mitigating health care costs is an escalating concern for employers, particularly as pharmacy expenses continue to rise. Employers are increasingly focused on balancing affordability with quality care, including strategies for ensuring fiduciary responsibility and exploring innovative ways to control costs without sacrificing outcomes, including alternatives to traditional health plan and PBM models. Grappling with these concerns will be crucial as employers navigate financial pressures while maintaining their commitment to comprehensive benefits.
Expanding Support for Employee Well-being
The components of employee well-being have certainly expanded in recent years, with mental health and caregiver support emerging as critical areas of focus. In 2025, there will be greater recognition that holistic well-being strategies should address physical health and mental health, as well as social connectedness factors that impact workforce productivity and engagement.
Reducing Geographic Barriers
For multinational employers, delivering globally consistent benefits across diverse regions remains a challenge. The need to address geographic disparities in access to cost-effective, high-quality care is becoming more urgent, alongside efforts to implement globally relevant well-being initiatives. As organizations strive to create consistent employee experiences across borders, understanding regional nuances while aligning with global priorities will be critical.
Transforming Health Care Delivery
Technology continues to influence the design and delivery of health care benefits. From digital tools that streamline access to care to artificial intelligence (AI) that can expedite decision-making, augmenting provider practices and ultimately improve patient experience, the potential for improvement is vast. These advancements are thrilling, but also raise questions about implementation, consistency and scalability.
Expanding Physical Health Care Needs
Physical health remains a cornerstone of employee benefits, and the focus continues to expand to include additional areas such as women’s health, cancer care, digestive health, chronic conditions and autoimmune diseases. Employers are increasingly recognizing the importance of addressing these growing needs through targeted programs and resources. By prioritizing these areas, organizations can improve outcomes for employees while fostering a healthier workforce overall.
The above themes underscore the interconnected challenges of cost management, well-being support, global consistency, technological innovation and expanding physical health care needs. By engaging with these issues thoughtfully and collaboratively, during the Business Group on Health 2025 Annual Conference, employers and their partners will continue to nimbly adapt strategies for the benefit of employees and their family members.