To tame its soaring health care costs, Intel tried many popular
approaches: “consumer-driven health care” offerings such as
high-deductible/low-premium plans, on-site clinics, and employee
wellness programs. But by 2009 Intel realized that those programs alone
would not enable the company to solve the problem, because they didn’t
affect its root cause: the steadily rising cost of the care employees
and their families were receiving. Intel projected that its health care
expenditures would hit a whopping $1 billion by 2012. So the company
decided to try a novel approach. As a large purchaser of health services
and with expertise in quality improvement and supplier management,
Intel was uniquely positioned to drive transformation in its local
health care market. The company decided that it would manage the quality
and cost of its health care suppliers with the same rigor it applied to
its equipment suppliers by monitoring quality and cost. It spearheaded a
collaborative effort in Portland, Oregon, that included two health
systems, a plan administrator, and a major government employer. So far
the Portland collaborative has reduced treatment costs for certain
medical conditions by 24% to 49%, improved patient satisfaction, and
eliminated over 10,000 hours’ worth of waste in the two health systems’
business processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]