The springboard for this sixth volume in the Industry and Health Care series was a conference sponsored by the Center for Industry and Health Care of Boston University on June 9 and 10, 1978. That conference had a gradual genesis. Over a year ago we spent some time with Kevin Stokeld of Deere and Company and heard his views on self-insurance and self-administration as one device for a corporation to achieve better management control of its health benefit. More recent discussions with representatives of American Telephone and Telegraph Company and other corporations made it increasingly clear to us that management's need for data to monitor the use of employee health benefits was emerging as a critical policy issue. Subsequent meetings with executives at John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company in Boston and Mobil Oil Corporation in New York, among others, convinced us that simple answers would be elusive or inadequate and that there was a need for an objective and careful look at the evolving relationships between employee health benefits, claims administration, health services utilization, and corpo rate health care cost containment programs. Since self-funding and particularly self-administration represent a fun damental change in the traditional insurance relationship, the conference was convened to explore the advantages and disadvantages of self-insurance for employee health benefits, with some attention to claims production but with special emphasis on the originating question of data for effective management of an employee health benefit.

The springboard for this sixth volume in the Industry and Health Care series was a conference sponsored by the Center for Industry and Health Care of Boston University on June 9 and 10, 1978. That conference had a gradual genesis. Over a year ago we spent some time with Kevin Stokeld of Deere and Company and heard his views on self-insurance and self-administration as one device for a corporation to achieve better management control of its health benefit. More recent discussions with representatives of American Telephone and Telegraph Company and other corporations made it increasingly clear to us that management's need for data to monitor the use of employee health benefits was emerging as a critical policy issue. Subsequent meetings with executives at John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company in Boston and Mobil Oil Corporation in New York, among others, convinced us that simple answers would be elusive or inadequate and that there was a need for an objective and careful look at the evolving relationships between employee health benefits, claims administration, health services utilization, and corpo rate health care cost containment programs. Since self-funding and particularly self-administration represent a fun damental change in the traditional insurance relationship, the conference was convened to explore the advantages and disadvantages of self-insurance for employee health benefits, with some attention to claims production but with special emphasis on the originating question of data for effective management of an employee health benefit.

Many Americans believe that people who lack health insurance somehow get the care they really need. Care Without Coverage examines the real consequences for adults who lack health insurance. The study presents findings in the areas of prevention and screening, cancer, chronic illness, hospital-based care, and general health status. The committee looked at the consequences of being uninsured for people suffering from cancer, diabetes, HIV infection and AIDS, heart and kidney disease, mental illness, traumatic injuries, and heart attacks. It focused on the roughly 30 million-one in seven-working-age Americans without health insurance. This group does not include the population over 65 that is covered by Medicare or the nearly 10 million children who are uninsured in this country. The main findings of the report are that working-age Americans without health insurance are more likely to receive too little medical care and receive it too late; be sicker and die sooner; and receive poorer care when they are in the hospital, even for acute situations like a motor vehicle crash.

How to Beat the High Cost of Health Care shows business owners how to save up to 50% on health care costs without cutting benefits. It can work for firms from one employee to 1,000. Learn why costs are going up, and why it's important to have a unique strategy tailored to your own company. Discussion why the "Total Benefits" strategy is better than a health savings account. A step-by-step illustration of the "Total Benefits" strategy provides instructions on how to not let soaring health care costs threaten your organization's financial security. Detailed tax code resources provide invaluable reference for those implementing the "Total Benefits" strategy. If you think it costs too much to stay healthy--you're right--it does cost too much! The good news is that it doesn't have to--if you have a better strategy. Take a look, and see how it can work for you!

Cracking Health Costs reveals the best ways for companies and small businesses to fight back, right now, against rising health care costs. This book proposes multiple, practical steps that you can take to control costs and increase the effectiveness of the health benefit. The book is all about rolling back health care costs to save companies and employees money. Working hand-in-hand with their employees, businesses need to ensure that, whenever feasible, employees with the most expensive diagnoses get optimal treatment at hospitals not practicing “volume-driven” medicine for higher profits. Less than 10% of employees incur 80% of costs. About 20% of patients have been completely misdiagnosed, while many others are simply the victims of surgeons who are either practicing bad medicine or overtreating for profit. For example, some companies, such as Walmart and Lowe’s, are turning to the “Centers of Excellence” approach author Tom Emerick helped to pioneer while running benefits for Walmart. By determining which hospitals are adopting the highest standards of care, benefits managers can reduce the number of unnecessary high-cost surgeries and improve employees’ overall health. The solution-based approach offered by the book is unique, because it can be implemented by businesses today.