Benefits researchers may be seeing evidence that trying to improve the quality of health care can help hold down health benefits bills in the real world.
Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Washington, and the National Business Group on Health, have published data supporting the idea that quality pays in a report based on their annual employer benefits survey.
When researchers polled 585 large and midsize employers, they found a wide gap in success at holding down health care costs.
The companies in the top 25% managed to hold cost increases to an average of just 3% per year over the past 2 years.
The companies in the bottom 25% suffered from average annual increases of 11.5% per year.