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Help for Utah Employers on Controlling Health Care Costs

The Salt Lake Chamber is trying to help Utah businesses rein in their healthcare costs.  They released their online guide Thursday called an Employer’s Tool Box.

Rich McKeown is chair of the Salt Lake Chamber’s Health Reform task force.   He told KUER the Employer’s Tool Box helps businesses exercise some degree of control over healthcare costs. 

“CEO’s and employers across the state of Utah and literally across the nation are tearing their hair out at the escalating costs of healthcare,” said McKeown, “We’ve tried to put this together in a way that would allow them to say maybe there are some options we’ve haven’t considered that would allow us to control somewhat better these costs.”

The online toolboxprovides information on employee self-care and preventative health programs, insurance purchasing options including Utah’s health exchange, now called Avenue H, and consumer solutions like health savings accounts.  McKeown says the website is a work in progress which will be updated as federal Affordable Care Act regulations are rolled out.

Andrea Smardon is new at KUER, but she has worked in public broadcasting for more than a decade. Most recently, she worked as a reporter and news announcer for WGBH radio. While in Boston, she produced stories for Morning Edition, Marketplace Money, and The World. Her print work was published in The Boston Globe and Boston.com. Prior to that, she worked at Seattleââ
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