HEALTH INSURANCE: Company to Help Consumers Shop for Best Health Plan
In the coming weeks, Dave Sanders, founder of Oregon-based Salu, will launch an online health services company designed to assist consumers in selecting health care benefits, rather than picking from plans offered by their employers. My Health Bank will link employees with brokers, insurers and other industry professionals and help them pick benefits. "We're moving control of those dollars from a third-party administrator to the employees themselves," Sanders said, adding, "They're wiser stewards of their own health care. Consumers with dollars and information can purchase the best for themselves." The new company stems from a growing trend in which employers give workers money to pay for their own health care rather than offer a company plan. A "chief driver" behind the move is "legislation (and legal rulings), that threaten to make companies more liable if they have a direct role in determining their employees' health coverage" (Brenneman, Business Journal of Portland, 4/3).
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