The Employer-Led Health Care Revolution

To tame its soaring health care costs, intel tried many popular approaches: "consumer-driven health care" offerings such as high-deductible/low-premium plans, on-site clinics and employee wellness programs. But by 2009 intel realized that those programs alone would not enable the company to solve the problem, because they didn't affect its root cause: the steadily rising cost of the care employees and their families were receiving. Intel projected that its health care expenditures would hit a whopping $1 billion by 2012. So the company decided to try a novel approach. As a large purchaser of health services and with expertise in quality improvement and supplier management, intel was uniquely positioned to drive transformation in its local health care market. The company decided that it would manage the quality and cost of its health care suppliers with the same rigor it applied to its equipment suppliers by monitoring quality and cost. It spearheaded a collaborative effort in Portland, Oregon, that included two health systems, a plan administrator, and a major government employer. So far the Portland collaborative has reduced treatment costs for certain medical conditions by 24% to 49%, improved patient satisfaction, and eliminated over 10,000 hours worth of waste in the two health systems' business processes.