Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide has adopted Towers Watson’s private exchange, OneExchange, to deliver health care benefits to 26,500 full-time active employees and their families beginning April 1, Towers Watson said Monday.
Jeff Cava, executive vice president and chief human resource officer of Starwood, said the move to the private exchange was the next logical step for the company as they explored many options in benefits offerings for its employees.
“Starting in 2009, we moved to account-based health plans supported by health savings accounts, and invested in programs to improve our associates’ health and reward those who take healthy actions,” Cava said. “Moving to a private exchange model for delivering health benefits is a natural next step in our health care strategy.”
It’s the latest growth for the private exchange, which is owned and operated by Towers Watson.
Last month, Time Inc. announced they selected Towers Watson’s OneExchange to deliver medical, prescription drug, dental and vision benefits to its full-time active employees. The number of employees covered by the exchange was not disclosed.
OneExchange supports all workforce populations, including full- and part-time active employees, and pre-Medicare and Medicare-eligible retirees. It has more than 1,100 employers and 800,000 customers, representing every industry, according to the consulting firm.
Private exchanges continue their rise in the health care industry. According to the Private Exchange Evaluation Collaborative, a nonprofit coalition of business groups, nearly half of employers have implemented or plan to consider using a private exchange for full-time, active employees before 2018.
“As health care costs continue to rise, forward-looking employers are taking advantage of new market-driven solutions for managing costs and staying competitive in their industries while delivering quality health benefits that can improve the health and wellness of their workforce,” said Jim Foreman, managing director of Exchange Solutions for Towers Watson.
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