Pitney Bowes: Employer Health Strategy

Michael E. Porter; Jennifer F Baron

Case | HBS Case Collection | January 2009 (Revised February 2009)

Pitney Bowes: Employer Health Strategy

by Michael E. Porter and Jennifer F Baron

Abstract

Pitney Bowes, a Fortune 500 mail and document management firm, offered its first health plans in the years following World War II. Over the ensuing decades, Pitney Bowes adapted its approach to employee health amid rising health care costs, shifting employer attitudes towards health benefits and a rapidly changing policy environment. By 2008, the firm was widely regarded as an innovator in employee health, having dedicated substantial time and resources to its health benefits under the leadership of then CEO Michael Critelli and Corporate Medical Director Jack Mahoney. The case provides an overview of the history of employee health benefits in the U.S. and at Pitney Bowes. The range of health plans Pitney Bowes offered to employees in 2008, as well as the firm's contracting policies with commercial insurers and self-insured plan administrators, are examined in detail. Pitney Bowes health and wellness programs are also described, enabling an analysis of the firm's overall employee health strategy in 2008 and a discussion of where Pitney Bowes should focus its attention moving forward.

Keywords: Cost; Insurance; Policy; Health Care and Treatment; Compensation and Benefits; Employees; Corporate Strategy;

Format: Print

30 pages

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Citation:

Porter, Michael E., and Jennifer F Baron. "Pitney Bowes: Employer Health Strategy." Harvard Business School Case 709-458, January 2009. (Revised February 2009.)

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Pitney Bowes: Employer Health Strategy

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