About Patients Rising & Health Plan Hero

Health Plan Hero is a certification program for employer health plans

developed by Patients Rising

Patients Rising is a patient education, support, and advocacy platform that provides in-depth healthcare information, along with access to a network of public and nonprofit programs and resources. 

Our expertly curated healthcare information is offered via learning modules that include traditional content, infographics, videos, ebooks, discussion forums, and podcasts.

Through this program, Patients Rising wants to identify and celebrate employers who are doing the right thing—expanding access to care while lowering costs for patients—without losing their own shirt in the process. 

Our goal is to increase the competitiveness among companies that adopt these innovative health plan designs so that they become the gold standard across the industry.

Health Plan Hero is a certification program for employer health plans

DEVELOPED BY PATIENTS RISING

Patients Rising is a patient education, support, and advocacy platform that provides in-depth healthcare information, along with access to a network of public and nonprofit programs and resources. 

Our expertly curated healthcare information is offered via learning modules that include traditional content, infographics, videos, ebooks, discussion forums, and podcasts.

Through this program, Patients Rising wants to identify and celebrate employers who are doing the right thing—expanding access to care while lowering costs for patients—without losing their own shirt in the process.  

Our Goal Is To Increase The Competitiveness Among Companies That Adopt These Innovative Health Plan Designs So That They Become The Gold Standard Across The Industry. ​

Why Should My Employer Be a Health Plan Hero?

For decades, if you had health insurance on the job, you had affordable health care. Employers paid all, or almost all, the premium costs while deductibles were a few hundred dollars. Prescription drugs were covered at little cost to patients. How things have changed!

  • The average premium for health coverage in 2020 was $7,470 for single coverage and $21,342 for the entire family through employer-sponsored insurance.
  • Family premiums have seen an average 22% increase between 2015-2020.
  • The average deductible for single-covered workers was $1,644 in 2020 – a 25% increase since 2015.

The system is unsustainable.

It’s bankrupting patients, especially the most vulnerable, in need of expensive care.

It is increasingly unaffordable for employers too. As employers face double-digit rate hikes year over year, they’re increasingly shifting costs to their employees and simultaneously foregoing wage increases, new hires, and investments in their core mission and growth. Unsustainable health care costs are stifling economic growth and robbing the middle class of the American Dream. 

Unaddressed, more employers will choose not to offer health benefits or will advocate for a government solution that might not serve the needs of patients with chronic or life-threatening conditions.