Health Cost Containment Makes for Strange Bedfellows

HCA is joining with Coca-Cola, Verizon, American Express, and other major companies in diverse industries in a new initiative aimed at stemming skyrocketing healthcare costs. The 20 member companies of the Health Transformation Alliance will pool data on the population health of their workers as a first step toward making “smarter and better decisions” when it comes to employee health plans, according to Tevi Troy, president of the American Health Policy Institute (which came up with the idea to begin with). Health benefit costs and prescription drug spending—areas in which “current rates of growth are unsustainable,” Troy says—will be key priorities for the Alliance, which represents approximately 4 million people. He maintains that improving employee health is also a key objective.