Safeway's Burd Urges New Industry Health Care Directions

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Steve Burd, Safeway‘s chairman, president and chief executive officer, urged food industry leaders yesterday to follow his company‘s lead in embracing market-based health care solutions as a means of cutting costs and helping to solve a national health care crisis. Burd told the Food Marketing Institute‘s Midwinter Executive Conference here that Safeway has significantly reduced health care costs at a time when such expenses are skyrocketing throughout U.S. industry. It has accomplished this through activities including health reimbursement accounts, full payment for preventative treatments, increasing emphasis on generic drugs, and granting lower premiums to employees who exhibit positive personal health practices, he said. Burd appealed to executives to “introduce consumerism and market-based solutions to your health plans” and to “forge new partnerships and coalitions to help create the new model for health care.” -- David Orgel