Consultants say it's a win-win situation for employers and employees.
Creating Smarter Consumers Searching for health-care information is the second most popular reason individuals use the Internet. That's good news for employers willing to invest in ways to get information to employees. For example, Internet-based tools are being developed that allow individuals to create a scorecard of various plans and providers including the specifics of plan design, existing quality data, models of the employees' net claims cost and how plans cover certain diseases that makes it easier to research and choose plans. Some of these changes are already underway. Driving these changes are high costs and growing consumer dissatisfaction with managed care.