Despite a challenging economic environment, U.S. companies continue to view health care benefits as a vital part of their workplace "deal" with employees and are enlisting their active participation in efforts to improve workforce health and control program costs, according to a survey of close to 500 HR and benefit executives conducted by professional services firm Towers Perrin. This evolving employer-employee relationship of shared responsibility on health care underscores companies' ongoing efforts to rein in costs, but also highlights new approaches they are pursuing to change the system and the underlying drivers of spiraling health care costs.

"Employers recognize that we can't keep doing the same things and expect different results," said Dave Guilmette, Managing Director of the Towers Perrin Health and Welfare practice. "So we're beginning to see leading companies taking steps to change the system from the inside out, focusing on new benefit designs, incentives for employees and providers, new technologies and new ways to measure and deliver the value of workforce health."

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