Consumerism: it's the direction of the health-care industry.

• Author: Altherr, Angela
• Position: ADVICE: HEALTH CARE

EMPLOYERS ARE continually seeking to control their benefit costs. One approach has been shifting more of the decisions as well as more of the costs to employees. Health savings accounts (HSAs) were the first step towards taking a consumer-driven health-care approach. Employers have seen how HSAs are empowering consumers by giving participants new options when determining how their health-care dollars are spent. Consumer-driven health care is the wave of the future. Even Medicare is becoming more consumer-driven by providing participants with more consumer choices through Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D.

What is the next step in the consumer-driven health-care world?

Consumer-driven health care must evolve over time at a pace that mirrors an employer's ability for change. When it comes to health care, participants are not used to acting like a true "consumer." When purchasing a computer or a car, consumers comparison-shop by looking at prices and features. This is challenging to do in the health-care industry, because consumers must live with the consequences of their decisions. Health-care participants are in an environment of continual increasing out-of-pocket risk. This calls for a greater need for clear and easy-to-understand consumer information. In time, competition along with clarity about consumers' options and health-care prices will lead to lower prices. Lower prices are only one component in consumer-driven health care. As plan participants demand more information to make better decisions, quality improvements in the system will follow. Health-care consumers will be the ones to push for quality

How do you obtain this information? The Internet is the key to empowering health-care consumers to better understand their personal health, obtain accredited information to manage their health care, as well as gain access to tools to take charge of the financial responsibility as it is tied to their health care. It is essential that these tools are easy to use and...