White Plains, February 25, 2026 – Marsh McLennan Agency (MMA), a business of Marsh and a leading provider of business insurance, employee health and benefits, retirement and wealth, and private client insurance solutions across the US and Canada, today announced the launch of Network Navigator, a proprietary healthcare pricing tool that incorporates the latest data transparency regulations, enabling employers to make more informed decisions about their healthcare costs and offerings.
Employers are facing record-high healthcare expenses. Mercer's 2025 National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans found the average total cost of health insurance per employee rose 6.0% to $17,496 in 2025, with a projected 6.7% increase expected for 2026, marking the highest jump in 15 years. This indicates a demand for tools to identify more affordable care options that meet the needs of their workforce. According to MMA’s 2026 Employee Health and Benefits Trends Report, a key strategy for employers to do so follows the rollout of new price transparency mandates across networks, providers and insurers.
Network choice is a key lever that can impact healthcare spend because it determines which providers, facilities, and negotiated rates employees use. However, current network evaluation tools only rely on market-wide, self-reported data, which leaves employers to make decisions based on incomplete or potentially misleading information, in addition to providing inadequate comparisons between providers within the same network.
Network Navigator is a healthcare decision-support tool that converts new price‑transparency data, mandated by the Transparency in Coverage regulations, into actuarially‑certified, provider‑level insights. This enables a true cost comparison and benchmark of network performance by location, provider, service type, or specialty, allowing employers to optimize healthcare plan decisions and help their employees better navigate the healthcare system.
“In the complex world of healthcare pricing, providing clarity is incredibly valuable,” said Kate Moher, President of National Employee Health & Benefits at Marsh McLennan Agency. “With detailed provider-specific data from Network Navigator, employers can be confident that they are guiding employees to the care that is not only right for them and their desired outcomes, but that is also cost-effective, high-quality, and in-network.”
