The consulting firm Aon Hewitt recently released a report based on its 2015 survey of 1,000 employers. Titled The Future of Health, it is an important report for employers because of the employer feedback it consolidates into overall behaviors and the recommendations it makes based on those behaviors in the context of today’s health care environment.

Sub-titled “Calling all Employers: Be Agents of Change.”

One of those recommendations is that the time is right for employers to create a new future that repositions health not just as a “benefit,” but one of the core reasons employees work for you. This means recognizing that health is local, personal, and tied to your business success. Making incremental tweaks to improve cost management and employee health isn’t enough to bring about this change. Employers have the opportunity to change course within their own organizations, and together, have meaningful impact on the health care ecosystem.

Further, by considering health more broadly and leveraging technology, employers can increase the value of their programs for their workforce and organization. As the value equation begins to shift, more time and energy can go into focusing on total rewards and the creation of a better employee experience. This shift represents a win for all stakeholders!

Unfortunately in 2015 the majority of employers decided to wait and see rather than make significant changes. Indeed, we encounter too many companies that seem to think that the recent slowdown in cost increases will continue, other employers will take the lead, or someone else will solve their problem. To that we would respond with the old saw, “Hope is not a business strategy.”

We don’t agree with all of the Aon recommendations. In particular, we’re not big fans of high-deductible health plans. Nevertheless, in addition to providing a summary of trends that employers can act on, the report makes other recommendations that are so spot on they almost make us giddy. Here are three of those we liked best:

• 
Create Disruptive (or Transformative) Changes In Your Health Care Benefits. We know clearly that not all health services are of equal value. Yet most health plans cover them as if they were. In doing so, employers discount high-value health interventions and incentivizing use of the least effective services.
• Move from Volume to Value-Based Payment Models. What you need to buy is more health, not more health care. Yet what you’re currently incentivizing is more and more. We’re particularly enthusiastic about bundled payments that offer both a fixed price for a procedure at the front end and a warrantee at the back end.
• Elevate Health as a Business Priority. For most employers, health care is either the third or even second largest expense after salary. Add to that the cost of lost productivity from poorly managed chronic diseases, and it seems obvious that health care costs require C-Suite attention.

The big takeaway from this report is that together, employers can have a meaningful impact on the health care ecosystem. To which we say, “Amen.”