Dealerships face the crucial challenge of balancing compelling employee benefits with sustainable healthcare cost management. Effectively attracting and retaining talent means looking ahead and adapting to an evolving landscape. To help you prepare for 2026, here are seven critical trends defining 2026 benefits strategies: 1. Accelerating Cost Increases: The rampant reemergence of healthcare trends continues to outpace inflation, with medical costs rising 8%, pharmacy 10%, dental 5% and vision 4%. These steep increases are putting unprecedented pressure on benefits budgets and causing dealerships to explore alternative strategies. 2. Innovative Plan Structures: Forward-thinking dealerships are exploring alternatives to traditional plans, including Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRAs), Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), variable copay designs and captive insurance arrangements to better control costs while maintaining competitive benefits. 3. Compliance Concerns: Compliance challenges for employee benefits programs continue to stress HR departments. Evolving state absence laws and fiduciary liability continue to be challenging areas. 4. Stop Loss Markets: Stop loss costs are exploding, led by cancer, and high-cost drugs and procedures. Employers are seeing a significant increase in large claims, particularly for cancer treatments, with costs ranging from $250,000 to $750,000. While cell and gene therapies remain on the horizon, uptake is slower than initially anticipated. These therapies promise significant advancements but also come with high costs, which will impact stop loss insurance. 5. Weight Loss Medication Impact: The increasing demand for GLP-1 medications is transforming both healthcare utilization patterns and costs. With growing employee demand and an average annual cost of $12,000 to $15,000 per patient, dealerships must develop thoughtful coverage strategies that balance access with cost containment. 6. Specialty Medication Pipeline: The specialty medication landscape continues to evolve with breakthrough treatments entering the market. While these medications offer hope for previously untreatable conditions, their six-figure price tags are creating significant financial challenges for self-funded plans. 7. Mental Health Access and Equity: Expanding mental health services remains a top priority, with employers focusing on eliminating barriers to care and ensuring equitable access across diverse employee populations. Virtual care options and specialized EAP programs are becoming standard components of comprehensive benefits packages. As you plan your 2026 benefits strategy and budget, partnering with an experienced broker who is well-versed in the unique dealership industry is indispensable. If you would like more information or a benefit strategy and cost review, EPIC will provide details to NCDA San Diego members at no cost. EPIC ranks among the top 15 retail insurance brokers in the United States and is the largest insurer of auto dealers in the state. Alison McCallum has been in the employee benefits industry for over 20 years and personally works with more than 80 California dealerships. She is a principal with EPIC Insurance Brokers and Consultants. EPIC offers unique dealership expertise and services available to NCDA San Diego dealer members at no cost. If you have questions or would like further information, please feel free to contact her at alison.mccallum@epicbrokers.com or (949) 417-9136. ASK ALISON Healthcare Trends Impacting Your 2026 Benefits Strategy By Alison McCallum, Principal, EPIC Insurance Brokers and Consultants 24 SAN DIEGO DEALER
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