Consumer-directed coverage promoted by policy group

Tax and regulatory changes would let firms offer their workers more choices in health benefit selection, says the Wye River Group on Healthcare.

By Amy Snow Landa, AMNews staff. Nov. 5, 2001.

Washington -- A broad-based policy group that represents employers and other health care stakeholders is encouraging companies to adopt a "consumer-directed" approach to funding their employee health benefits -- a move that has been welcomed by the AMA.

The group -- whose sponsors range from Wal-Mart to the American Hospital Assn. -- has developed a 60-page "employer's guide" that advises companies on how they can offer their workers "consumer-directed health care benefits," more commonly known as defined contribution plans.

Released Oct. 17 at a briefing on Capitol Hill, the guide also suggests actions that the federal government could take to encourage employer innovation in health care coverage. Its recommendations are similar to the AMA's proposals for encouraging a broader array of health plan choices for workers.

The group that developed the guide, the Wye River Group on Healthcare, was founded in 1999. Its members meet periodically at the Wye River Plantation on Maryland's Eastern Shore to exchange ideas and develop joint policy recommendations on various topics relating to health care reform.

In addition to Wal-Mart and AHA, current financial sponsors include the National Pharmaceutical Council, Schering-Plough, PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Mayo Foundation, and TRW Inc., a global manufacturing and services company with over 120,000 employees.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce collaborated with the group in developing its "Employer's Guide to Consumer-Directed Healthcare Benefits." [...]