To evaluate wellness benefits for 2027, look past enrollment numbers and plan design. Check utilization that repeats month over month, cost offset evidence, and whether the benefit actually reaches your whole workforce. Health benefit costs are projected to rise 8.2% in 2027, the highest increase since 2003, according to Marsh. Every line in the budget, including wellness, needs to show it belongs there.
Related: How Wellness Programs Foster Employee Loyalty and Reduce Turnover
Why you need to evaluate wellness benefits for 2027 now
The backdrop to this year's renewal season is the steepest cost trend employers have seen in over two decades. Marsh's survey of more than 1,800 employers found that health benefit cost per employee is expected to rise 8.2% in 2027, even after planned cost-cutting measures. Without any action, employers estimated the increase would hit 11%.
Other industry projections paint a similarly challenging picture. Aon projects a 9.5% increase in employer healthcare costs in 2027, which would bring average annual costs above $19,000 per employee. Meanwhile, PwC forecasts a 9% increase in commercial medical costs, the highest projection in 17 years.
Five forces are driving this: AI-enabled billing tools that help providers capture more revenue, hospital consolidation and rising reimbursement rates, increased pharmacy spending driven by GLP-1s and specialty drugs, growing behavioral health utilization, and rising costs associated with out-of-network care. PwC notes that left unchecked, healthcare spending will grow to $9 trillion annually by 2035.
While the projections vary based on methodology and what costs they measure, they point to the same concern: employers are facing another year of significant healthcare cost increases. This is the environment your 2027 wellness benefit evaluation needs to account for.
Related: What is a good utilization rate for wellness benefits?
What changes when you evaluate wellness benefits for 2027
In past renewal cycles, a wellness benefit could coast on participation numbers alone. That bar has moved. Mercer's 2027 planning research found that 77% of employers now rank measuring performance to ensure health programs provide real value as a top strategic priority, second only to managing high-cost claims.
There is also a financial wellness dimension. Six in ten patients have skipped or delayed care because of cost, and delayed care tends to resurface later as a more expensive claim. A wellness benefit that helps employees build healthy habits before a costly diagnosis is doing real work against that pattern, but only if you can show it.
59% of employers plan cost-cutting changes to benefits in 2027, and about two-thirds of large employers expect to raise employees' share of premium costs next year. When employees are absorbing more of the cost, a wellness benefit that is easy to use and genuinely valued carries more weight in your total rewards story, not less.
5 Questions to ask when you evaluate wellness benefits for 2027
1. Are employees actually using the benefit consistently, not just signing up?
Anyone can report a registration number. What matters is whether people are coming back month over month. A benefit with high sign-up and low return usage is not going to move the needle on cost or culture.
2. Does the benefit reach your whole workforce?
A wellness benefit that assumes desktop access and a 9-to-5 schedule will structurally underperform for shift-based, remote, or multi-location teams. If your workforce isn't sitting at a desk all day, check whether the benefit was actually built for that reality.
3. Can your vendor show cost offset or ROI data?
Research from FitOn Health and Havarti Risk found that employers with lifestyle-focused preventive care programs see a 3.6x ROI and $359 in healthcare and productivity savings per engaged employee per year. Ask your vendor for their version of that number, not a generic industry citation.
4. Does it address more than one dimension of health.
Physical activity, nutrition, and mental well-being are connected, and a benefit that only covers one leaves gaps that show up elsewhere in your claims data.
5. Is it one experience or several disconnected point solutions.
Separate vendors for fitness, nutrition, and mental health are harder to communicate, harder to administer, and harder to measure. An all-in-one health and wellness benefit gives you one utilization number to track instead of three or four partial ones.
If you're heading into renewal, a formal audit before you sign anything is worth the hour it takes. The goal is to walk into the renewal conversation with data, not a gut feeling.
How FitOn Health helps you evaluate wellness benefits for 2027
FitOn Health is built as a premium, all-in-one health and wellness benefit, so the evaluation is simpler by design. Premium workouts, nutrition and health courses, and the largest variety of in-person experiences all live in one platform, which means one utilization number and one renewal conversation instead of several.
When cost pressure is this high, the benefits that survive the budget conversation are the ones that can prove they get used and get results. Experience the difference for your people, and give them a reason to get moving that actually sticks.
Ready to see how your current wellness benefit stacks up? Talk to FitOn Health about your 2027 renewal.
Frequently asked questions
What does it mean to evaluate wellness benefits for 2027?
Evaluating wellness benefits means reviewing utilization, employee engagement, workforce reach and measurable outcomes to determine whether your current offerings are delivering value. With healthcare costs projected to rise significantly in 2027, employers need a clear understanding of which benefits employees use and where there may be opportunities to improve.
How much will health benefits cost in 2027?
Healthcare costs are projected to increase significantly in 2027. Marsh projects an 8.2% increase in employer health benefit costs, even after planned cost-saving measures. PwC projects a 9% increase in commercial medical costs, while Aon forecasts a 9.5% rise in employer healthcare costs.
What is a good wellness benefit utilization rate?
There is no universal benchmark for wellness benefit utilization. The right measure depends on your workforce, benefit offering and goals. Beyond initial enrollment, look at monthly active users, repeat engagement and participation across different employee populations to understand whether your benefit is delivering ongoing value.
Should we cut our wellness benefit if healthcare costs are rising?
Not necessarily. Rising healthcare costs make it especially important to understand which benefits employees use and value. Rather than automatically cutting wellness benefits, evaluate utilization, engagement and measurable outcomes to determine whether your current offerings are worth maintaining, improving or replacing.
When should we start evaluating wellness benefits for 2027?
Start before your renewal deadline. Reviewing utilization, engagement, costs and employee reach early gives you time to identify opportunities, address gaps and make informed decisions about your benefits strategy before finalizing your 2027 budget.
