Employers who for the most part pay the bill of healthcare should be the target of physicians thoughts about insurance companies’ inappropriate actions and coverage.  Employers are clearly getting tired of paying double digit increases for the cost of medical care for their employees.

A Wall Street Journal article discusses the new alliance that is being put together to reign in health care employer premiums.  The article mentions the alliance but does not mention the exact tactics or strategy that the alliance is going to take.  It does mention this is not the first the group to tackle the high costs of healthcare and many are skeptical that this alliance will have any meaningful effect on the premiums.

Twenty major companies—including American Express, Macy’s Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc.—are banding together to use their collective data and market power in a bid to hold down the cost of providing workers with health-care benefits.

“Employers are not seeking a better private exchange; they are seeking an affordable system dedicated to promoting and sustaining health,” concluded Mr. Allen and Kevin Cox, the chief human resources officer at American Express, in a “call to action” they circulated among potential alliance members.

Mr. Cox said the idea emerged from a meeting during “a dark and stormy weekend” on the eastern shore of Maryland. Several executives gathered there for a discussion agreed they “don’t really understand the supply chain, nobody is going to solve this for us, and no single company can really make a sustainable difference in the health-care supply chain.”

“I think we’re targeting the whole supply chain” now, Mr. Cox said.

Still this is a message to the insurance companies that the employers are going to start demanding more transparency in the process.

Source: Companies Form New Alliance to Target Health-Care Costs – WSJ