Outlook

Health care solutions and benefits management for employers and HR teams. Providing direction on health care consumerism and population health and wellness.

Who Gets Covered?

The International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans' study Health Care Benefits: Eligibility, Coverage and Exclusions contains 22 sample health care policies and summary plan descriptions.

“Employers need to regularly look at the benefits they offer to make sure they’re reasonable yet current and competitive,” says Julie Stich, senior information/ research specialist at the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans. The Foundation’s study should help. 
     Health Care Benefits: Eligibility, Coverage and Exclusions contains 22 sample health care policies and summary plan descriptions, and reflects responses from 400 U.S. corporate benefit managers, professional service providers, public employers and multi-employer plans.

     Almost all (99.7%) of surveyed respondents (corporations, public employers and professional service firms) offer health care benefits to full-time employees and 49.9% cover part-time employees.

     Nearly all of the responding organizations, 99%, cover adopted and biological children, while 74% cover stepchildren and 42% cover foster children (Figure 4).

     A large majority of health care benefits, 92%, cover opposite-sex spouses, while 37.5% cover same-sex unmarried domestic partners, 30% cover opposite-sex, unmarried domestic partners, and 28.8% cover same-sex spouses (Figure 5).



Physician Compensation Levels Continue to Increase
The 2007 Physician Executive Compensation Survey identifies the trends and factors that drive change in physician executive compensation.

Why Some Companies Pay More for Health Benefits
The 2007 SHPS Health Practices Study just might save some employers serious money.

Information, Communication Pose Biggest Problems
A recent study revealed statistics marking the current trend of confusion that surrounds consumer-directed health (CDHC) plans.

WellPoint NextRX: Leading Healthy Change by Delivering the Total Benefit Solution


PBM Stakeholders Will Work to Leverage Investment in Prescription Drugs in 2008


Health Savings Accounts (HSAs): Win-Win for Employers and Employees


Freeing the Patients Can Save Our Health Care System
In 2011, when the first of the baby boomers become eligible for Medicare, the severity of the problem will begin to soar.

Health Literacy is Critical to Managing Health
Employers and business coalitions alike continue to play a vital role this year in bringing the right resources to help employee education so that they are able to make the best choices for themselves.

All Eyes On the Consumer


Making CDHC Plans Work
Adding supplemental health benefits and using first-dollar payment in your plan design may do the trick.

Shaping a Market that Works for Consumers
A key policy question that may be answered after the 2008 election cycle may well be what role the federal government, state governments and the private sector should have in developing standards.

Employers Lead the Way in 2008
Leadership that historically has come from the private sector will continue in coming years as dwindling health care dollars inspire proactive approaches to moderating the cost-trend line.

Go For the Gold
Reward employees for healthy behaviors and reap the benefits.

Wellness, Engagement, and the Future in 2008


Personal Health Records Empower Consumers
Personal health records make tracking medical information easier for consumers.

Transforming Our Nation’s Health Care System


Expanding Opportunities in the Consumer-Directed Health Care Market
Providing more benefits and access for previously uninsured.

Straight Talk About the U.S. Health Care System


Expatriates 2008


Personal Health Records Helping to Improve the Quality of Care


Companies See Health Education on the Bottom Line in 2008
A.D.A.M.’s Benergy™ product combines our health and wellness center with benefits communications, Web-based enrollment and HR communications into a single portal for employees to use whenever they wish.

Transforming Health Care
The health care consumer revolution has two major imperatives, both equally important. The first is economic: help control rising health care costs. The second is performance related namely, the need to help improve the quality of care.

Directed Health Care In 2007: Creating Transparency In An Opaque Market


Current Outlook 2007 Edition
A Look at the Year Ahead in Consumer-Directed Health Care. Read all about it in our current Outlook 2007 edition.

Solutions Outlook
Annual Outlook from the Industry's Top Experts
Look for 2010 Solutions Outlook in early March! Members of CDHC Solutions and EmployersWeb.com receive complimentary copies-- register as a free member!

Inside Outlook 2008: The Future of CDHC
By Regina Herzlinger, Ph.D. Harvard Business School Outlook 2008 CDHC Solutions magazine Volume 4 issue 1