CVS Caremark CMO: Maintain Employer Health Care

Continuing to offer employee's health care insurance is the best way to ensure a healthy and productive workforce. That was the advice of CVS Caremark Chief Medical Officer Troyen A. Brennan, MD, MPH, in comments made to the National Business Group on Health.

Under the recently passed health care reform legislation insurance exchanges will be available for people to purchase their own insurance beginning in 2014. That presents employers with the choice of continuing to offer their own plans or to encourage staff to explore other available options. But Brennan points out that by staying in control of the plans that employees are on gives companies more stability in terms of managing their workforce. Otherwise they run the risk of lost productivity and other health-related problems should staff not keep up with their own healthcare.

Brennan, in his comments, pointed out that employers have made great strides in cutting medical costs by introducing programs to help people quit smoking, lose weight and more. That shows the kind of control companies would lose if they phased out offering insurance plans after 2014.

For more on Brennan's comments read here.