A comprehensive incentive approach to employee health care cost containment

Article Abstract:

Consumer and provider incentives have been advocated as a method of creating more competition in health services, reducing cost inflation, and providing more options for consumers. This article discusses the rationale for such incentives, the various types of incentives, strategies for implementations, and a case study of one successful implementation effort. Each employer needs to develop and use both company-specific and area-specific data as a prerequisite to the development of incentives which are tailored to the unique circumstances of that employer. Some incentives can be implemented by the employer alone, while others are best implemented through coalitions of insurance companies. A comprehensive approach should prove more successful in containing costs than previous piecemeal efforts. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Economic aspects, Occupational health services, Employee benefits

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The legacy of the $7 aspirin

Article Abstract:

The accounting practice of cost shifting in the hospital industry has been a significant contributor to the rapid increase in health care costs. Statistics from the Department of Health and Human Services indicate that US medical costs reached $558.7 billion in 1988. Cost shifting spreads around, and in some cases hides, the charges for certain items. To stay within the guidelines of reasonable and customary charges for such things as room rates, operating rooms, and intensive care units, hospitals have been breaking those charges into smaller units that can be regularly multiplied across the entire patient population under the category of ancillary charges. The price of an innocuous item such as aspirin can include a portion of hospital costs for such things as labor, supplies, and shared and shifted costs.

Prices and rates, Statistics, Hospitals, United States. Department of Health and Human Services, Hospital rates, Cost shifting (Medical care)

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Empowerment: a matter of degree

Article Abstract:

Employee empowerment refers to the extension of traditional job roles to include additional responsibility for employees in terms of decision-making. This added authority requires firms to give employees information vital to optimal corporate performance and to reward them accordingly. Employees with such added powers must strive to produce results that would promote corporate goals and meet industry standards.

Research, Innovations, Human resource management, Labor relations, Participatory management

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