Employer Healthcare Strategies

There are a bunch of researchers out there who study how regular people associate price of health care with quality of health care. As it turns out, most people think that today's health care is expensive and not very good.

While that may sound like bad news to you and me, it's actually good news for those trying to innovate new sources of low-cost care.

The thinking is that if people generally associate high quality care with high prices, they won't take advantage of low-cost care options, even if they are of a very high quality.

Everyone knows that doctors get paid plenty of money... Right? Some physicians don't agree.

Some doctors are struggling to make ends meet, and are forced to see as many patients per day as possible.

This doesn't benefit physician or patient, and the case for better pay for doctors has has even more strong points.

Kicking and screaming, the healthcare industry is being forced to evolve. Many have anticipated an Uber-style renovation of familiar healthcare models, in the pursuit of customer-first care.

Take insurer Oscar, for example. The experience of finding a doctor and selecting health insurance options with Oscar has been compared to the ease of calling an Uber.

The healthcare industry is very diverse, so broad recommendations must also be very general. But in every case, industry thinkers call on the next generation of healthcare providers to be customer-centric.

There are numerous new technologies geared toward employee health and wellness. And even though the full extent of benefits is not known, this isn't keeping companies from taking the plunge with this employee health investment!

These tech innovations come in four main categories: Wearables, Gamification, Social Media, and Mobile. Mobile is the biggest so far, with employers using novel apps to integrate with mobile devices, either the personal property of the employee or bought for employee use.

Researchers from Harvard and the University of Toronto are predicting an Uber-style disruption within the healthcare industry.

Internal regulations make such a transformation more challenging for healthcare than it was for the taxi industry, but the authors point to medical entrepreneurship like 23andMe as models for the future.

Changes in American political and social cultures have been tough for the healthcare insurance industry.

The passage of the ACA marked a change in public opinion: denying insurance coverage on the basis of pre-existing conditions, or charging the sick more money, were now unacceptable.

The insurance industry wanted to be on the right side of history, but the internal transitions needed to achieve near-universal coverage have been demanding.

As employer healthcare coverage transforms, and as some major hospitals start offering independent health plans, the traditional insurance industry has an identity crisis on its hands.

As healthcare costs rise, many consumers are looking to urgent care centers for financial relief.

A fast-growing sector, many hospitals, insurance companies, and even retail drugstores are investigating how the addition of urgent care centers could bring in extra profits from a demographic in search of savings.

In Forbes' "The Future Health Ecosystem Today," important developing factors within the healthcare industry are projected into the future roles they will likely one day occupy. Today, 60% of working people get their healthcare through a private, self-insured company.

It's old news that workplace healthcare costs have been rising, but this report suggests that at least some of this is due to inefficiency and spending misappropriation. The study asserts that 88% of healthcare costs address only 20% of employee health outcomes.

The study calls for a reallignment of corporate health spending norms, which may drive present costs down by 30-50%.

There is no contemporary issue more politically charged than health care. In the 6 years since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, a lot of stuff has happened!

Many uninsured people gained access to health care, costs soared for many, and media outlets from all sides poured out all kinds of reports (not all of them very good representations of reality).

Today, many of the most difficult adjustments have already been made, and industry leaders and economists hope that the health care system will begin to settle into relative stability. But what do the numbers indicate?