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Health Reform – What does it mean for business?

It seems like all we hear about on the news is the continuing controversy over the bill passed by Congress last week.  But, what do employers think of it, and how will it affect their actions over the next year or so?  Well a couple of surveys, one done by Hewitt Associates and the other done by Towers Watson in association with the National Business Group on Health, demonstrated that employers believe that the change in the law will increase costs to employers, which will push them to continue to change their benefits strategies. 

Those changes include a continued emphasis on offering high-deductible, consumer-directed  health plans and focusing even greater attention on the lifestyle decisions of their employees:  smoking, healthy eating, exercising, controlling blood sugar and cholesterol, etc.   According to a spokesperson for Hewitt Associates, nearly 70% of health care costs are attributable to the decisions individuals make, and the difference in cost between a well-controlled, diabetic employee and one who isn’t can be as much as 10 times higher.  Perdue Farms has found that through the use of its on-site clinics, it has been able to reach control rates for diabetics of 68%, which is double the national average (combine these two facts, and imagine the savings for Perdue and the improvement in health for those employees).

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