Content area
Full text
Escalating health care costs continue to be a focal point for Richard Blomquist, the founder and former president and chief executive officer of Associates for Health Care Inc., a preferred provider organization in Brookfield.
Blomquist left that position in March, saying he was frustrated with the company's inability to have an impact on controlling costs in the Milwaukee area. In July 2001, he sold AHC to BCE Emergis, Montreal, for $30 million.
Now operating his own consulting practice, Blomquist Benefits Consulting Inc. in Milwaukee, the 54-year-old is working with insurance brokers and other consultants to introduce a health plan design to employers that he believes will force employees to become better consumers of health care.
"The key to controlling health care costs is unleashing the tremendous power of consumers," Blomquist said.
AHC was founded in 1984 and grew into one of the state's largest preferred provider organizations, employing 100 and covering 500,000 people. By 2001, AHC had established contracts with 117 hospitals and 19,855 physicians.
...