Consumer-Driven Health Care: A “Fork in the Road” for Employers

March 17, 2004 Written by Thomas J. Kuhlman, Principal and Health Care Strategy Issue Leader, this article discusses how the next generation of health care is now here and it has significant implications for the key players in the current health care marketplace. Employers, in particular, are feeling the change, and some are exploring new approaches to employee health benefit delivery. Over the past 30 years or so, most large employers have played a "paternalistic" role with employees and their health coverage, shouldering full responsibility for evaluating and selecting health plans, negotiating favorable rates, communicating the various plan options and . . .