The New York Times article on the spiraling costs of health care reform emphasizes the traditional responses to ever increasing health care costs—more employee cost sharing, more high deductible plans and more health savings accounts. Same old, same old is not good enough for employers faced with paying ever increasing health plan costs stemming from health reform—there’s a better way. Just like Boeing is doing, as referenced by The New York Times article, “What to Expect in Next Year’s Health Benefits Offerings,” employers across the country must take control of their own exploding medical benefit costs rather than just passing higher costs on to employees. The truth is that Band-Aid approaches do next to nothing to lower health plan costs. There’s a better way: employer controlled health costs. This starts with an innovative business model that allows employers to utilize their own health plan claims data in order proactively to measure and manage their health plan performance. Increased investments in health performance management technology and expanded incentives for health behavior are better ways than the same old, same old.
-George Pantos, HPM Institute Executive Director
