Companies Need to Manage Employee Health – Not Just Benefits

With U.S. healthcare spending set to grow 5 percent – or more than $100 billion – each year through 2013, businesses are scrambling for ways to save money on their health benefits. To do so, they’ll have to invest proactively in their employees’ health – and not just shop around for a good insurance deal, according to a new report from the Healthcare Performance Management (HPM) Institute.

Active management of healthcare delivery and cost control has not typically been seen as an integral part of the mission for human resource (HR) departments. But changing times – and skyrocketing costs – have pushed healthcare performance management (HPM) center stage for companies that want to boost productivity, while investing benefits dollars in better health outcomes for their employees.

This shift away from traditional ways of managing employee health benefits stems from a clear and universal reality: rising healthcare costs increasingly pose a core business challenge. Indeed, U.S. healthcare spending approached $2.25 trillion in 2007 – more than 16 percent of the gross domestic product according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Employers increasingly are feeling the bite of those rising costs. A 2008 study conducted by the health policy journal Health Affairs showed that average annual premiums increased 5 percent to $4,704 for single coverage and $12,680 for family coverage. The study’s data was derived from interviews with 1,927 public and private employers.

New research echoes those trends. According to a Dec. 2010 report from RNCOS Industry Research Solutions “U.S. Healthcare Sector Forecast to 2012”, national healthcare spending is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of around 5 percent during 2010-2013.

The Last Mile: The Role of HPM in Rounding Out the Enterprise Human Resource Management Mission calls on companies to incorporate workforce health into their overall strategy for protecting and developing their human capital resources. This report also explains how HR teams are deploying healthcare performance management (HPM) technology to improve employee health and productivity.

Click here to download a complimentary copy of this Healthcare Performance Management Institute report.

Want to learn more?

Listen to our recent StrategyDriven Editorial Perspective podcast interview with George Pantos, Executive Director of the Healthcare Performance Management Institute during which we discuss how companies can keep their current health plans in light of the recently passed healthcare legislation and under what circumstances they may wish to do so.

Leadership Inspirations – The Cost of Doing Nothing

“There are costs and risks to a program of action but they are far less than the long range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”

John F. Kennedy (1917 – 1963)
35th President of the United States

Capabilities Driven Mergers & Acquisitions – Capabilities Roadmapping, part 3 of 5

What role do capabilities play in successful mergers?

Too big to fail has proven to be a flawed notion. In Capabilities Roadmapping, Booz & Company partners Gerald Adolph and Paul Leinwand continue their discussion on the role of capabilities in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and explain why pursuing a capabilities-driven M&A strategy produces more successful companies that enjoy a right to win.

Capabilities Roadmapping is the third of a series of five interviews focusing on capabilities-driven mergers and acquisitions. Other editions include:


About the Authors

Gerald Adolph is a New York-based Senior Partner with Booz & Company with a specialty in strategy and operations for technology-driven businesses. His work primarily focuses on assisting clients with growth strategy, new business development, and industry restructuring. He has led numerous assignments in corporate and portfolio strategy as well as business unit strategy. In addition, he deals with value chain and industry restructuring driven by technology changes, and how companies respond to these disruptions and opportunities. Gerald is the co-author of Merge Ahead: Mastering the Five Enduring Trends of Artful M&A with Justin Pettit. To read Gerald’s complete biography, click here.

Paul Leinwand is a Booz & Company partner based in Chicago. He works in the consumer, media, and digital practice and focuses on capabilities-driven strategy for consumer products companies. Paul is the co-author of The Essential Advantage: How to Win with a Capabilities-Driven Strategy. To read Paul’s complete biography, click here.

StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 57 – An Interview with Robert Simons, author of Seven Strategy Questions

StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 57 – An Interview with Robert Simons, author of Seven Strategy Questions explores the seven strategy questions that can help an organization’s leaders identify gaps within their strategy and its execution. By asking and effectively answering these questions, executives and managers gain the insight necessary to better align their organization’s day-to-day operations to the optimal achievement of mission goals; thereby enhancing overall bottom line results. During our discussion, Robert Simons, author of Seven Strategy Questions: A Simple Approach for Better Execution, shares with us his insights regarding:

  • the benefits of routinely asking the right strategy questions
  • the key Seven Strategy Questions and what makes them so important
  • how leaders can formally incorporate the Seven Strategy Questions into their business processes
  • actions executives should take to develop rising managers so that they instinctively ask the Seven Strategy Questions as a part of their internal thought process and the way they interact with their staffs

Additional Information

In addition to the outstanding insights Robert shares in Seven Strategy Questions and this special edition podcast are the resources accessible from his Harvard Business School Working Knowledge website.   Robert’s book, Seven Strategy Questions, can be purchased by clicking here.

Final Request…

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider rating us on iTunes by clicking here. Rating the StrategyDriven Podcast and providing your comments online improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community.

Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast!


About the Author

Robert Simons, author of Seven Strategy Questions, is the Charles M. Williams Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. For twenty-five years, he has taught accounting, management control, and strategy implementation courses in the Harvard MBA and Executive Education programs. Robert’s research has been published in the Harvard Business Review and the Strategic Management Journal, among others. To read Robert’s complete biography, click here.

Corporate Cultures – Culture Trumps Strategy

Culture is hard to quantify but its impact on business operations is unmistakable. Even the well-conceived strategy cannot withstand the onslaught of a counter focused culture. In order for a strategy to be implementable, it must be formulated to work within the confines of the corporate culture. Alternatively, the corporate culture must be changed before the strategy is implemented… typically a years long process.


Hi there! Gain access to this article with a FREE StrategyDriven Insights Library – Sample Subscription. It’s FREE Forever with No Credit Card Required.

Sign-up now for your FREE StrategyDriven Insights Library – Sample Subscription

In addition to receiving access to Corporate Cultures – Culture Trumps Strategy, you’ll help advance your career and business programs through anytime, anywhere access to:

  • A sampling of dozens of Premium how-to documents across 7 business functions and 28 associated programs
  • 2,500+ Expert Contributor management and leadership articles
  • Expert advice provided via StrategyDriven’s Advisors Corner

Best of all, it’s FREE Forever with No Credit Card Required.