What's the difference between investing in employee health versus just paying for health care? Like an other investment, investing in health care uses your resources where they will be the most effective in improving employee health. Enlightened business leaders recognize that a healthy, skilled workforce that requires fewer sick days and works at peak productivity on a daily basis is key to meeting the challenge of the ever changing global marketplace.

To have a positive impact on both health and economic status, an employee health management strategy needs collaboration between employers and health plans.By seeking high-value approaches to health care challenges a business is more able to address cost concerns in a way that is both sustainable and competitive in today's market.

Use these resources below to better understand value-based benefits and start the conversation with your health plan provider or broker today.

• Value-Based Design in Action: How Five Public Sector Employers are Managing Costs and Improving Health Using Value-Based Design. Center for Health Value Innovation, 2009
  Several case studies of value-based design in application.

• Focus Group Research: Employee Readiness to Adopt Value-Based Benefits. Midwest Business Group on Health, 2008
  The Midwest Business Group on Health (MBGH), with financial support from GlaxoSmithKline surveyed employers across the United States to gauge employers’ readiness to adopt value-based benefit designs.

• Why Invest? Recommendations for Improving Your Prevention Investment, Partnership for Prevention, 2008
  A report offering an overview of the results of a national survey determining employer coverage for clinical preventive services, and comparing the results to key findings to analysis of services recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). The report also includes examples from organizations investing in preventive services for their employees and recommendations to employers for increasing the coverage and use of preventive services.