If you’re a benefits leader, a huge part of your role is to manage healthcare costs at your organization. This is an extraordinarily complex task given how confusing our healthcare system is. That’s why we're starting this video series — so that we can help you identify areas that might be busting your budget.

A concept that’s crucial to understanding what makes healthcare so expensive is cost variation. While most people know that healthcare costs vary depending on who your insurer is, many don’t realize that costs vary within network, too. This can be influenced by everything from what city you live in to the facility you choose.

Our data shows that the cost of ACL surgery in Chicago within a single network can vary from $6,000 to $17,000 — within a single insurance network. Cost variantion can make it difficult for your employees to find high-value, cost-effective care, and it's the cause of a lot of unnecessary overspend on healthcare.

If this is a topic you'd like to read more about, download our new guide on healthcare costs below. It was written for benefits professionals and offers tons of interesting insights on healthcare costs that we've pulled from our database.