While facing the ongoing and worsening challenge of reining in health care costs, it's critical your clients understand the influence they have in transforming health care, controlling plan options and improving affordability. But the success and sustainability of these efforts rely heavily on partnerships created within the system: productive engagements with providers, health systems, health plans and even other employers that share this vision. Here's an overview of what you can do.

The allure of alliances

Since traditional health insurers bring in billions each year, there's little incentive for many of them to lower premiums for employers or negotiate the best rates for value-based providers. This is why it's incumbent upon employers, who hold the purse strings, to demand more. And that starts with engaging new types of collaborations for shared solutions, like working more closely with providers and their health plans.