Private Sector Cost Containment Initiatives

Abstract

There have been some dramatic changes in the attitude of business toward the health care industry in recent years. First, the concern about health benefit policies and escalating health care costs has been moving steadily up the corporate hierarchy. It is not at all unusual now to visit corporations to talk about health care and to be met by the chairman or the chief executive officer who exhibits a remarkable sophistication about the health care issues facing his company and community. Second, many companies have established special committees to study their particular health care situations. These committees are developing increased knowledge of, and skepticism about, many proposed approaches to cost containment. They particularly want to know whether proposed approaches will really work, and they want long-term results. Third, companies are increasingly willing to intervene directly in the health care system. Instead of passively shuffling to an insurer and then do doctors and hospitals, companies increasingly acknowledge that they are buying health care for their employees and not health insurance protection.