New Health Care Communications Strategies Needed for Effective Cost Control
In order to control rising health care costs, more employers have begun passing along cost hikes to employees, and are attempting to persuade employees to make smarter health care spending decisions. However, employees are beginning to resist calls for more cost-shifting, and already feel that they are effective health care consumers. This “disconnect” between employers and employees, as reported in a survey by human resources consultant Towers Perrin, indicates that if efforts to make employees true “partners” in cost control are to succeed, employers may need to make changes in their health care communications strategies.
The research, which included a survey of more than 1,000 employees and a companion survey of executives and managers at 120 U.S. companies, found that only about a quarter (28%) of employees thought that it would be appropriate for employers to ask them to absorb more health care cost increases. Nevertheless, in a similar survey conducted last year, almost half (46%) said that they would understand the need for the additional cost-shifting.
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Higher Prescription Copays Cut Utilization Raising Questions About Consequences to Patients’ Health
Prescription drug cost increases continue to grow at a double-digit rate. In 2003, employers reported a 16% increase in the cost of their prescription drug plans, according to Mercer Human Resource Consulting. According to a report by the Kaiser Family Foundation, between 1992 and 2002, prescription drugs’ share of the national health care bill doubled from 5.8% to 10.5%. The Employee Benefit Research Institute predicts that the rate of growth in prescription drug spending will slow, but will continue to outpace overall growth in health care spending.
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Employers Reject Plan Overhauls, Increase Cost-Sharing to Battle Rising Health Care Costs
Though they have faced three consecutive years of double-digit health insurance premium hikes, most employers have opted for modest plan changes rather than dramatic overhauls, according to a study by the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC).
The HSC is a research organization funded principally by the Robert Wood Foundation. The study results are based on HSC visits to 12 metropolitan communities, where researchers interviewed benefit managers, health plan consultants, and insurance brokers about changes to health benefit plans.
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Older Workers Not Wiser When It Comes to Retirement Planning and Saving
Common sense tells us that, when it comes to planning and saving for retirement, people who are older would have made more progress than those who are younger. And, according to the 14th annual Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS)*, it is true that workers who are closer to retirement have done more to secure their financial future than have younger workers. However, a large percentage of workers age 45-54 and those age 55 and older have yet to do any retirement planning or saving.
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