Alternative health plan designs catching on among employers
Employers are looking for new ways to reduce costs, and improve access and quality.
Look for employers to adopt alternatives to the traditional health plan offering over the next three years, a study by Willis Towers Watson suggests. The research firm surveyed 397 employers in August and September, and found almost three-quarters of employers plan to adopt a new health care delivery model over that time span.
“The cracks in our health care system are much more visible than they were just a few years ago,” according to Julie Stone, managing director of Health and Benefits at Willis Towers Watson. “No longer satisfied with traditional strategies, an increasing number of employers are searching for ways to better manage quality of health care with emerging and more cost-effective delivery options.”
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Telehealth and virtual visits are obviously among employers’ cost control strategies, with three-quarters saying these approaches will reduce costs. Employers are also considering advanced communication tools; 17% say they will adopt AI-based chatbots over the next three years.
Reducing the cost of care is a clear goal, but improving access to quality care is also important, the study found. Over a third of respondents offer different delivery systems for their different offices, depending on local employees’ needs. The study found that market-by-market approach is expected to jump to 56% of employers over the next three years.
For example, making sure employees in rural areas have access to affordable, quality care is among employers’ top concerns.
“With a shortage of medical providers in remote locations, providing employees in rural areas with adequate access to comprehensive and high-quality health care services has become a greater challenge for employers,” Drew Hodgson, national practice leader of Health Care Delivery at Willis Towers Watson, said in a statement. “Yet employers have retained a focus on improving health care delivery, keeping their eye on affordability and highly localized solutions.”
Here are some of the alternative models that employers are pondering to improve quality:
- There’s a strong appetite for adopting centers of excellence, the study found, as 92% of employers believe they are an effective way to improve the quality of care that their employees can access through COEs. Over half are already using this model.
- 82% of employers believe focusing on specific clinical conditions will improve the quality of care for their workers.
- Three-quarters say high-performance/narrow networks are an effective quality control strategy.
- Accountable care organizations are also of interest, with 71% of employers saying they believe this is an effective way to improve quality.
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