Cracking Health Costs

Cracking Health Costs reveals the best ways for companiesand small businesses to fight back, right now, against risinghealth care costs. This book proposes multiple, practical stepsthat you can take to control costs and increase the effectivenessof the health benefit. The book is all about rolling back health care costs to savecompanies and employees money. Working hand-in-hand with theiremployees, businesses need to ensure that, whenever feasible,employees with the most expensive diagnoses get optimal treatmentat hospitals not practicing "volume-driven" medicinefor higher profits. Less than 10% of employees incur 80% of costs.About 20% of patients have been completely misdiagnosed, while manyothers are simply the victims of surgeons who are either practicingbad medicine or overtreating for profit. For example, some companies, such as Walmart and Lowe's,are turning to the "Centers of Excellence" approachauthor Tom Emerick helped to pioneer while running benefits forWalmart. By determining which hospitals are adopting the higheststandards of care, benefits managers can reduce the number ofunnecessary high-cost surgeries and improve employees'overall health. The solution-based approach offered by the book isunique, because it can be implemented by businesses today.