SELF-INSURING CALLED 'MOST COST EFFECTIVE WAY' TO CUT HEALTH COSTS.
By Bob Graham
Posted: May 5, 2011
The nation’s homepage for insurance industry news
The “most cost-effective way” for employers to rein in soaring health care costs is to self-insure, according to a research organization focused on using business technology and management principles to control health care costs.
George Pantos
In a white paper, the Healthcare Performance Management Institute suggests that the exemptions from state insurance mandates and premium taxes granted to self-insured health plans enables self-insured companies to develop more customized plans and devote more resources to their employees.
Opting to self-insure could allow employers to “regain control over their health benefits,” George Pantos, executive director of the HPM Institute and a former under secretary of the U.S. Commerce Department, said in a statement.
The white paper suggests that self-insuring allows employers to control cost by enabling them to:
- Obtain more specific information about their actual healthcare expenditures.
- Control costs because they pay for routine expenses such as doctor visits, procedures and prescription drugs through a self-insured plan, obtaining lower-cost catastrophic or “stop-loss” policies to cover major medical events.
- Enable better “human capital management” by recognizing in advance what types of health events are emerging in their covered population in time to help employees avoid a catastrophic event.
The Bethesda, Md.-based group describes itself as a research and education organization dedicated to promoting the use of business technology and management principles that deliver better and more cost-effective health care benefits for employers who cover their employees.
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