Companies Search for More Effective Ways to Manage Health Care Costs

Change is in the air, as companies face continued health care insurance cost increases, uncertainty about some provisions of health care reform and an economy that is slow to recover, according to results of the 2014 Towers Watson/National Business Group on Health (NBGH) Employer survey on Purchasing Value in Health Care.

To find more effective ways to manage health care cost increases, most survey respondents are recalibrating their health care benefit strategy.

Click through the slideshow to learn the some of the strategies and tactics leading companies are implementing.

Only 4% of respondents do NOT plan to change their company's healthcare strategy for 2015 and beyond.

Meanwhile, a full three-quarters of respondents already have or are in the process of developing a new strategy.

Leading the list of focus areas, as it did last year, is building a supportive workforce culture, which includes the physical environment, leadership support and education, and information to support more informed health care decisions.

A close second focus area is developing and expanding healthy lifestyle programs and activities; more than twice as many employers as last year are doing so.

Twenty-nine percent of respondent companies say they are adopting or expanding the use of financial incentives to encourage health acitvities, use of higher-quality providers and other behavior changes.

Finally, about one in three employers (up significantly from one in five last year) are making changes to avoid the upcoming excise tax in 2018.

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How Employers Effectively Manage Health Care Cost and Quality [SLIDESHOW]