Business and Industry Have Embraced the Patient-centered Medical Home
Double-digit increases in insurance premiums drive a growing percentage of employers—especially small business owners—to shift health care costs to their employees, to limit options or to stop providing health insurance altogether.
A survey by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation reveals that more than one in three small business owners may cut portions of health insurance benefits for their employees due to these rising costs.
Employers recognize that health benefits are essential to retain and attract good employees and are looking for solutions to help them stay competitive and profitable in the business marketplace while also providing health benefits to employees. |
Employers Know the Medical Home Offers Better Care at Lower Costs
Major employers have joined the Patient-centered Primary Care Collaborative, working side by side with physician associations, insurers, pharmaceutical companies and health care foundations to establish the medical home concept. Companies like Caterpillar, IBM, FedEx, General Mills, Microsoft, General Motors, GE and Xerox are just a few of the corporations that have pledged support for the medical home.
As Andrew Webber of the National Business Coalition on Health says, employers spend $600 billion a year buying health insurance for their employees and their families. “That is a huge operating cost that is out of control.... We think we need to re-orient the system towards upfront care, prevention, health promotion, disease management, care coordination, and that’s what the medical home is all about.”
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