As health care cost increases have generally outstripped inflation by four to 14 percentage points during the last two decades, businesses everywhere scrambled to contain the increased economic burden. For years companies have tried to repair "broken" tactics. In today's economic conditions that approach does as much good as a pile of sandbags in a Category 5 hurricane. But a growing number of organizations are learning that a new view of health care can open the door to change. Instead of focusing on monetary options, a company can actively embrace its part in a health care ecosystem, working closely with partners to improve workforce health, control expenses and boost the bottom line through productivity improvements.

Going electronic

Many companies think of health care as something they buy. Ironically that focus is like a doctor who treats a patient's symptoms but not the underlying disease. Businesses should not be so hands-off. They are the institutions with closest employee contact and Health care organizations rely on such close employee contact. They can benefit most from increased employee productivity, reduced sick days and control of long-term health problems.

Health care improvement starts with improved communications. Any business today understands that paper-based information is incredibly inefficient compared to electronic versions. Any CEO would be embarrassed to admit utter dependence on dead trees.

Unfortunately, paper is the norm in health care. Old or mislaid records undermine care quality and moving physical media from one provider to another is a wasteful chore. Smart companies are pushing their health care partners to adopt appropriate existing IT solutions.

For instance, IBM has provided electronic health records (EHR) access to 150,000 U.S. employees who can then use them in their own health care management. EHRs enable patients to provide fast, accurate information to doctors, thereby improving treatment and health maintenance. Healthier employees use fewer sick days and are therefore more productive.

Although records remain private, ecosystem partners such as doctors, hospitals, labs and mail-order prescription companies provide IBM with aggregated data the company can use both in planning future wellness needs and in demonstrating workforce health improvements to negotiate better insurance rates.