Execs Form Think Tank to Tackle Health Costs

Keith Lemer, president of software maker WellNet Healthcare, told me last fall that most CEOs have far better understanding of ordering paper than they do health coverage for their employees.

"If they want to control (health care costs), they have to take control," Lemer said then. If more C-level execs took charge of their health care plans, they'd have a better understanding of surging costs.

Today, Lemer and several corporate execs, including Cantor Insurance Group CEO Stuart Hersch and IBM Software Group chief Paul Chang, are advising a newly formed think tank called the Healthcare Performance Management Institute, which aims to tackle health care costs using technology and better management practices.

"President Obama has issued a call for solutions to America's most pressing health care problems, particularly the staggering burden of ever-increasing costs," says George Pantos, the institute's executive director. "We're responding to that call with rigorous analytical work that demonstrates how business and government leaders can use technology to ensure that the health care system delivers better patient outcomes at lower cost."

Echoing Lemer's statement (almost verbatim) Todd Thompson, chief technology officer at Lockheed Martin and a member of the institute's advisory board, says today, "Executives are more aware of how much they spend on office supplies than they are of how employees are using their health care benefits."

It sounds like more people are listening to Lemer.