Workers play an important role, too. They can choose to either see a doctor selected by their employer, or, if they prefer a higher-priced provider, pay the difference in costs.

It's still a fledgling effort, but it is gaining traction and more companies are expected at the ramparts.

Aon Hewitt recently put out a survey, collecting the responses of nearly 800 large and midsize businesses and found that 53 percent are moving in this direction, demanding that the care they pay for actually leads to a healthier workforce.

"Just as employers are requiring their employees to take more control of their health, they also are seeking to hold providers more accountable," Jim Winkler, chief innovation officer for health at Aon Hewitt, in a news release. "They are beginning to work directly with health plans to embrace more aggressive techniques to reduce unnecessary expenses and create more efficiency in the way they purchase health care."  

To which I think we all say, hallelujah!

OK, but hold on. Although it all sounds totally reasonable and rational, progress hasn't exactly been easy for CPR.

According to its numbers, only 10.9 percent of commercial health care payments today are tied to value rather than volume. The organization has set a goal to increase that figure to 20 percent by 2020.

That seems rather modest to me.

To accelerate this true reform, we need Congress to act.

As Suzanne F. Delbanco, the group's executive director, recently testified, greater price transparency is needed to help employers and everyone else to make more informed choice about health care services.

The federal government can help by allowing Medicare to share more of the kind of information on hospital charges released earlier this month by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Aon Hewitt, by the way, isn't simply a bystander in this fight; It, too, has joined CPR, for two reasons:

"One, this is a leading-edge group, and the leadership is very capable — these are people that we know can get things done. If any group is going to stand a fighting chance to produce real results, these guys will be the ones," Mike Taylor, the firm's senior vice president of health and benefits practice, told us.

"The second reason is that many of these companies are our clients. We want to add our weight behind this whole initiative. We need payment reform and value-based purchasing, and Aon wants to be part of the process that leads to these results."

If you're the CEO or CFO of large employer, I hope you'll consider joining this battle, too, because the more pressure that can be applied, the sooner we'll stop the bleeding.