Big Companies Trying to Ease Health Care Costs

The portion of employers offering high-deductible health plans next year — 84 percent — is essentially unchanged from 2016, according to the NBGH report. So is the percentage of companies offering high-deductible plans — 35 percent — as the only choice for workers and families.

• a moderate increase compared with historical trends that nevertheless far outpaces growth in the economy
• new kinds of spending are driving health cost increases
• approaches include shifting drug coverage to large pharmacy benefit firms, which can deploy better buying power against the manufacturers

“Employers are changing tactics to address the trend, slowing the shift to worker cost sharing and instead offering video or telephone links to doctors, scrutinizing specialty-drug costs and steering patients to hospitals with records of lower costs and better results.”

Original Source: http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/personal-finance/2016/08/14/health-care-costs-large-employers/88729636/