This is getting interesting to see the types of companies now that are running the insurance exchanges. Last week we had the IBM announcement 
for retirees and I had a steady stream for a few days of many of them reading my blog post as I listed some of the other businesses the corporation had besides the exchange they bought late last year and many are nervous as it’s being run by in investor relations firm and their number priorities are to shareholders, so why would they not be nervous, as that kind of indicates right there that their group as far as priorities is not number one. I like to go dig around and look and get educated as much as I can today on what I read as the subsidiaries and the businesses they are in are breathtaking…take a look and I can’t help but think some kind of conflict of interest will be on the horizon one day.
IBM To Move Retired Employees to a Private Health Exchange At the End of the Year, Run by A Public Investor Relations Firm
AON are consultants and when looking through
the pages it kind of reminds me of Bain and McKinsey to tell the truth when you look at the partner “sales pitch” and a glut of software, analytics, blah, blah, blah..they will even sell you kidnap and ransom insurance which tells me they must have some pretty high exposure clients there who are worried about that (grin).
Maybe like McKinsey they comfort CEOs too for several million too? I looked briefly at a news page which looks like a big hype of out of context information on “salary increases to reach highest levels since 2008” Could I ask for who? Maybe these are more of the 1% folks and I’m getting it confused with the rest of us at 99%? (Hint, watch the first video in my footer as it will tell you how to be careful of numbers and reports as such, video from NYU professor Charlie Siefe)
I see the typical buzz words “thought leadership”, 
“the team”, “we are united” and so on. The consultant pages anymore with all of this are really getting pretty cookie cutter out there as if I keep reading the same stuff I would have to assume others area as well.
Ok Walgreens folks, this is what you are getting similar to the IBM folks, the company is also in the actuary business and it’s publicly traded so you know what number one focus will be here. Mitt Romney who ran for president remember worked at Bain, yes one of these consulting firms. Rolling Stone has a long story on Romney and what he did at Bain.
The President can’t get enough of these “consultants”either and the White House hired one a couple days ago who worked at Bain, you can read about that here 
with Jeff Zients as head of the National Economic Council and don’t choke too hard on the” stellar credentials” description (grin). Like I said all of this is just so cookie cutter anymore.
As companies do their own modeling and come up with their own solutions with all resources available today I wonder how long the big consultants will maintain their businesses before some shrinkage appears.
So the exchange portion of their business by comparison is just a “little tiny brick in the wall” if you will for now until the data selling really takes off as they will ask you to take surveys, do some simple data mining and off they go when they can query enough to have yet one more product to sell. Sears and Darden Restaurants are already under the Aon Exchange system.
Walgreens to Invest in Alliance Boots Drug Chain in Europe With Option to Buy in Full in 3 Years
Walgreens has been on the move quite a bit and are shifting a lot of of entities right and left as they buy other pharmacy chains too and make about $1 billion a year selling your data too. BD
While much of America focuses its attention on the impending rollout of President Barack Obama's signature health care law, another change is quietly afoot that promises to transform the way employers provide health insurance to workers.
Large companies are increasingly adopting a new strategy to cap the amount they'll pay each year for workers' coverage, while at the same time offering employees more options for their health insurance.
The new approach is pitched as a way to give workers more control over their health care, but it also is intended to save companies money by reducing their exposure to fast-rising health care costs. In essence, the shift is akin to the change made over previous decades from traditional pension plans to employee-controlled retirement plans that include a 401(k).
On Wednesday, Walgreen Co. plans to announce that starting next year, it will move more than 180,000 of its workers and their families onto an online insurance exchange where they'll be given a set amount of money and asked to choose their medical coverage and insurer.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-0918-walgreens-20130918,0,4210338.story
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