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Last updated: 22 February 2008
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Read health & benefits articles of specific interest to Benefits Professionals. 2008 Health & benefits articles
Consumerism and Wellness: Rising Tide, Falling Cost Benefits Quarterly, Second Quarter 2008
Annual employer-sponsored health plan cost increases have been slowing incrementally due to slowing health care utilization - a phenomenon very likely tied to the proliferation of health management activities, wellness programs and other consumerism strategies. This article describes the sharp rise in recent years of consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) and explains what developments must happen for genuine consumer-directed health care to realize its full potential. These developments include gathering transparent health care information, increasing consumer demand for that information and creating truly intuitive data solutions that allow consumers to easily access information in order to make better health care decisions. 2007 Health & benefits articles
Consumerism in Health Care: A Reality Check Workforce Management, August 2007
The rise of consumerist strategies in providing employee health care is a genuine trend, but is your organization’s consumer-directed health plan a genuine effort on the part of all stakeholders? It’s time to get real about fulfilling the promise of consumerism.
Benefits & Compensation International, July/August 2007
A report on Multinational Pooling and Captives by Mercer's consultant, Jeremy Hill.
Health Affairs, July 10, 2007
A provider organization attempts to do what purchasers, including Medicare, all exhort: improve care delivery while reducing costs.
Employee Benefit News, June 1, 2007
In the private and public arenas, there is a growing, powerful will to achieve transparency in health care pricing and quality. Heeding last summer's directive from President Bush, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt launched last year a "four cornerstones" initiative to increase pricing transparency, improve quality transparency, encourage health information technology standards and create positive incentives for health care quality and efficiency. Although the initiative is supported by many of the nation's large employers, when it comes to delivering transparency to their employees, employers say that doctors and hospitals are moving too slowly to suit them.
European benefit solutions – are we nearly there? PMI News, April 2007
Multinational companies have long been seeking to reduce the cost and administration of their pensions and other risk benefits through pan-European arrangements. Recent EU Directives pave the way for such arrangements, and a range of options are now open to companies, including asset pooling, risk pooling, full pan-European pension funds and outsourcing. Mercer's Jeremy Hill and Tim Burggraaf explore each of these approaches. A version of this article was published in PMI News in April 2007. Personal Responsibility in Health Benefits: Looking Backward, Looking Forward Benefits Quarterly, Second Quarter 2007
Consumerism and care management continue to make inroads as costcontainment strategies for employers, as well as for employees who have endured the steady rise in benefit cost-shifting. The latest statistics and trends point the way to a new era of personal responsibility in health benefits. In this article, Mercer's Alexander Domaszewicz describes these health care consumerism trends.
Foundations of Health Care Consumerism Kiplinger Business Resource Center, March 2007
In the world of today's health care, the term "consumerism" is being used in many contexts and with many meanings. However, the term can best be defined as "a model of shared responsibility for health and cost management among all stakeholders." The stakeholders who share this responsibility are a) the health care provider; b) the employee; c) the employer; and d) the health plan. The following describes the primary responsibilities that must be assumed by each stakeholder group to achieve a successful model of consumerism.
Will the Surgical World Become Flat? Health Affairs, January, 2007
Americans' seeking cheaper surgical procedures abroad will provide only modest relief from our spreading affordability problems.
2006 Health & benefits articles
Experts share their CDH predictions for 2007; expect continued growth, enhanced consumerism Consumer Driven Healthcare, December 2006
CDH seems to have moved from the mad rush of the infatuation stage into the more measured growth of a marriage.
America's New Refugees - Seeking Affordable Surgery Offshore New England Journal of Medicine, October 19, 2006
The mainstream media have begun to highlight the plight of some new refugees: seriously ill Americans who receive treatment at advanced private hospitals in low-income countries. These patients are not "medical tourists" seeking low-cost aesthetic enhancement. They are middle-income Americans evading impoverishment by expensive, medically necessary operations, as health care services are increasingly included in international economic trade.
Rewards For Healthy Lifestyles Wellness Councils of America (WELCOA), October 9, 2006
By sponsoring healthy lifestyle contests and campaigns, employers can encourage healthy behavior among employees, according to this report from Mercer's Steven Noeldner. Dr. Noeldner discusses Mercer Health & Benefits' model for effective behavior change which includes three phases: awareness-commitment, skill building, and maintenance.
American Journal of Health Promotion, July/August 2006
In this article, Mercer's Seth Serxner, Kristin Baker, and Daniel Gold provide guidelines for evaluating the economic return from health management programs. They review the current literature on ROI and cost savings and provide recommendations for applying the guidelines to major categories of health management programs.
Best Practices for an Integrated Population Health Management (PHM) Program American Journal of Health Promotion, May/June 2006
An integrated population health management program covers the full continuum of care, shares data among all programs, and provides a coordinated experience to the user. Communication and change management strategy are essential to the success of an integrated PHM program. Mercer's Seth Serxner, Steven Noeldner, and Daniel Gold also describe how PHM impacts benefit design and business strategy.
Consumerism's Sea Change: How It Will Affect Your Company in the Coming Years Benefits Quarterly, Second Quarter 2006
Over the next five years, most employers plan to focus on consumerism and care management strategies, according Mercer's Sander Domaszewicz. He identifies 10 ways consumerism will affect employers over the next decade. For example, consumer-driven health will help employers improve attraction and retention, simplify benefits administration by consolidating multiple benefit programs, and create better educated consumers.
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