Health care costs and cybercrime are top of the list of concerns for businesses in a new survey. Insurer Travelers carried out this survey of more than a thousand businesses of all sizes, the second year it's created a Businesses Risk Index.
The rising trend this year is a concern about cyber risks, especially hacking, viruses and other malicious events. But that doesn't necessarily mean the concern reflects personal experience. "Businesses' perceptions of risk do tend to ebb and flow a bit with the events that make the news," said Michael Klein, co-president of business insurance at Travelers.
But he said it is an area that insurers are increasingly responding to with new kinds of coverage and risk assessment tools.
Top of the list of concerns for the second year is medical cost inflation. 60 percent of businesses said they’re more worried about the price of healthcare than any other risk.
"Recent estimates continue to show that medical cost inflation outpaces core inflation by a significant amount; I think the latest numbers are in the 6 plus percent range," said Klein. "And therefore it's a significant cost to business and a significant risk to their bottom lines."
Despite the changes in the marketplace under the Affordable Care Act, a third of businesses said that medical cost inflation is among the risks they’re least prepared to manage.
