Rising health care costs are squeezing workers’ wages, hindering business competitiveness and straining government budgets. The agencies that purchase health benefits for state and local employees are often the largest employer purchaser in their states, giving them relatively greater influence to tackle the sources of rising health care costs.
A new report from Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms presents first-ever findings from a comprehensive survey of 47 state employee health plan (SEHP) administrators and in-depth interviews with 11 of them. The report and its adjoining appendices present information on the structure and governance of each state’s SEHP agency, the generosity of each state’s SEHP plans, and cost containment initiatives each has undertaken in the last three years. Additionally, the report delves into the insights from SEHP administrators about the successes and challenges they experienced in the implementation of cost containment strategies like value-based insurance design, centers of excellence programs, direct negotiation with providers, pegging provider reimbursements to a reference price like the Medicare rate, and improving oversight over vendors. To learn more about the report’s findings:
This report was made possible thanks to the generous support of Arnold Ventures. Additional publications by CHIR researchers can be found here. CHIR is composed of a team of nationally recognized experts on private health insurance. For more on our work, please see our website, blog, and follow us on Twitter.