A Comparative Look at Health Care Cost Containment Strategies ©April 2011, 12 pages

Depending on whose estimates you choose to accept, health care costs have risen anywhere from 3 or 4 percent to upwards of 10 to 12 percent. The expectation is that the percentage increases will continue to range between the high single digits and mid-teens in the short-term (over the next 3 to 5 years).

With health care reform now passed, but the threat of repeal and a long, drawn-out fight on the horizon, financial executives find themselves stuck in the middle. So how can companies contain their health care costs while the powers that be duke it out in Washington? The first thing financial executives should do is not wait to see who wins and start, if they have not already, putting strategies in place to contain and hopefully reduce their overall health care costs. It’s probably not a panacea, but it’s a start and we have to start somewhere.

Financial executives should consider the following key areas in their efforts to contain or reduce their health care costs:
 
• Wellness Programs & Preventive Measures
• Alternative Plans and Plan Options
• Increasing employee co-pays, deductibles and/ or share of health care benefit costs
• Other Strategies
• Advanced Funding
• Dropping Coverage and Paying the Penalty
• What Should Financial Executives Be Doing Now