In Focus
News & Insight from Chelko Consulting
Is “Buy Local” a Realistic Strategy for Employers?
As you might guess from the title and subtitle of Dave Chase’s popular book Relocalizing Health: The Future of Health Care is Local, Open and Independent, the emphasis on “local” is a key building block for his vision of a more cost-effective health care system. While I support many of the concepts discussed in the book, I remain skeptical when it comes to the localization premise ꟷ at least as it applies to large employers with distributed operations. read more…
Willing to Do the Hard Jobs
A friend of mine is the CEO of a structural engineering company that specializes in maintenance, construction, modifications, inspections, and emergency services within the broadcast industry. Pretty mundane stuff, right? Far from it.
What I failed to mention is that the company’s niche is working on the highest communications towers in the country ― towers that rise as high as 2,000 feet in the air. read more…
Spread the Word
Chelko Enhances Communications Offering via Expanded Partnership
While the Chelko Consulting Group has always provided clients with communications services to support its health and welfare benefits consulting work, a recently expanded partnership with longtime collaborator Workforce Communication has dramatically enhanced the breadth and depth of that offering. read more…
Benefits Benchmarking: Striving for Average?
Most companies and their functional areas tend to passionately pursue best-in-class performance, but do executives send a different signal to their employee benefits teams? read more…
Another Day, Another Shell Game
If you’re a plan sponsor, you’re probably familiar with the drug Humira. That’s undoubtedly because it appears toward the top of your list of costliest drugs. Well, that might change soon. Or maybe not. It’s tough to tell. read more…
Strange Bedfellows: High-Cost Drugs and Peace of Mind
What keeps you awake at night? For a couple years now, we’ve written about the number of mega-expensive new cell and gene therapies in the development pipeline. By “mega,” we generally mean therapies costing more than a million dollars. read more…
“Independence Changes Everything!”
I recently saw this statement in big bold letters on the last page of a report issued by one of our competitors. I agree, independence can be a real game-changer. But what is “independence” in this context? read more…
Grateful for a Dream Come True!
With 20 years now under our belt, I can’t help but feel so grateful for where we are as a firm, where we’ve been, and where we’re going. read more…
Effective Transparency Tools Come at a Price
It’s not uncommon for the average healthcare consumer to be in the dark when it comes to the value of services received. We’re typically oblivious to the cost and quality of each service until the bill arrives or something goes wrong ― like when a revision to a hip replacement is necessary. And such blind faith can be a significant driver of rising healthcare costs.
Recent legislation is putting more emphasis on price transparency in hopes it will lead to increased consumerism and, in turn, more value. Many employers have followed similar logic and purchased consumer tools from their insurance provider or a third-party service. read more…
Deep Dive Redux: Benchmarks and Beyoncé
June arrived with a splash at Chelko, as we explored findings from our sixth annual Deep Dive employer survey. While we were limited to a virtual presentation for the second straight year ― a departure from our traditional all-day gathering in Columbus ― we were still able to provide a robust discussion around what is driving medical and drug spend for the 50 participating employers in markets across Ohio and beyond. read more…
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