Employers Considering Adopting Strategies to Improve How They Pay for Healthcare Services in The Future

According to a survey from Aon Hewitt 53 percent said that moving toward provider payment models that promote cost effective, high quality health care results will be a part of their future health care strategy, and one in five identified it as one of their three highest priorities.
Thirty-one percent of employers said they decrease or increase health care vendor compensation based on specific performance targets, and another 44 percent are considering doing so in the next three-to-five years. Additionally, while just 14 percent of employers currently use integrated delivery models, including patient-centered medical homes, to improve primary care effectiveness, another 61 percent plan to do so in the next few years.
While just 8 percent of companies today limit plan reimbursements to a set dollar amount for certain medical services where wide cost variation exists, almost two-thirds (62 percent) are considering adopting this type of reference-based pricing model in the future. Fifty-nine percent of employers plan to steer participants-through plan design or lower cost-to high-quality hospitals or physicians for specific procedures or conditions. Thirty-eight percent of companies plan to participate in cooperative purchasing efforts with other employers or groups (coalition-based pricing). Twenty-one percent do so today.
Source: Aon Hewitt