Mark Lutes, a Member of the Firm in the Health Care and Life Sciences practice, in the Washington, DC, office, contributed commentary to a column titled "The CEO Perspective: Local Business Leaders Share Their Thoughts on Healthcare Reform."
Following is the full commentary from Mark on how businesses are preparing for changes that could impact employee benefits offerings:
The View:
In truth, every business owner is in the health care business, because they have decision-making to do in regard to the employee welfare benefit plan, and that is very much at issue these days in a number of aspects. And that will continue to be an issue for employers. What we have grown to understand over the last couple of years is that there are some opportunities available to control some of that spending, if employers are able to tackle the cost of certain chronic care illnesses that present care patterns.The problem that employers face, though, is that the efficacy of traditional disease management is in question. More often than not, they feel they are not getting a good value out of that. So there needs to be new models; there needs to be innovation for chronic care management.
The Advice:
Employers don't push their benefits consultants as hard as they should be in this environment. Think outside the box with your consultants, and ask others to come in and give you other opinions. It takes effort and commitment of time to accomplish your benefit goals.
People
Chair—Board of Directors / Member of the Firm