Mark Lutes, a Member of the Firm in the Health Care and Life Sciences practice and the Chair-Elect of the firm's Board of Directors, in the Washington, DC, office, was quoted in an article titled "The Other Health-Care Revolution."
Following is an excerpt:
The basic idea of the exchange is to create an online mall, or a retail-like experience akin to Expedia or Amazon, and make insurance companies compete head-to-head for a new wave of individual customers. The state exchanges set up by "Obamacare" do the same thing. ?...
Yet some industry analysts see private exchanges as simply another way to see insurance or package employee benefits online. Many are not convinced technology will offer the cost-saving efficiencies its self-interested promoters insist it will. ?...
"With the profound changes in the insurance market, that distribution methodology is a bit of a sideshow," adds Mark Lutes. "We're so Expedia-focused that we think that the solution is somehow the presentation as opposed to the product?....That's just moving around the deck chairs on the Titanic." ?...
Many large companies, in fact, are experimenting with new kinds of coverage, spurred both by escalating costs and Obamacare's "employer mandate," which, even though delayed one year, requires all businesses with 50 or more workers to offer health insurance or incur a tax penalty. ?...
"There are some thought-leading employers that have been experimenting with it for some years," says Lutes. "But there needs to be a lot more of it, because they're the ones who are ultimately paying for their employees' care?...."
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Chair—Board of Directors / Member of the Firm
