Employers Expand Key Healthcare Products

The 2007 Employee Benefit News (EBN)/Forrester Research Benefits Decisions' Impact Study of more than 900 benefits professionals examines the current and planned benefits landscape together with strategies employers are implementing to control rocketing healthcare costs. This year's survey results reveal that high-deductible plans, including flavors with or without savings and reimbursement accounts, remain a focus of employers. Additionally, employers show a growing focus on health and wellness initiatives and disease management programs. The fact that employers focus on expanding key consumer-driven products instead of simply reducing benefits to save costs should serve as a wake-up call to products and channels professionals at health plans and vendors: plans must step up consumer driven benefits and service offerings to compete as employers increasingly ask their employees to take their healthcare decisions into their own hands.