Nine large North Texas employers have formed a partnership to help each other get a grip on rising health care costs. The employers are Archon Group, Brinker International , the cities of McKinneyand Mesquite, Energy Future Holdings , the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Haggar Clothing, Interstate Batteries and Triumph Aero- structures. The group is announcing today a three-year effort called the Texas Health Strategy Project to help the partners create better health benefit packages for their workforces. They'll do this by collecting more detailed employee health data, reorganizing how they manage benefits and purchasing only the most needed health options to keep workers healthy and out of doctor offices. Their work also is intended to address the requirements of the health care overhaul law, which requires employers to cover preventive services, said Andrew Webber, president and chief executive of the National Business Coalition on Health.
