Health care costs continue to weigh on the minds of the American people and a forum in Harrisonburg helped address issues and concerns Wednesday afternoon.

The Harrisonburg-Rockingham Chamber of Commerce and Rockingham Memorial Hospital Leadership Forum sponsored a health care panel discussion at National College.

A cross-section of five panelists from the Valley spoke about current impacts and the future outlook of increasing costs within business disciplines.

Chief Development Officer of Nielsen Builders, Jim DeLucas, says panelists remained positive, offering recommendations to cut health care costs.

He adds, "Sometimes we have to look in the mirror at ourselves and what we're doing to help with health care. And that was one of the messages they gave today about wellness and taking care of ourselves to help control costs and encouraging our employees and our families to do the same."

Another suggestion offered up was the need for employers to be competitive by offering packages that will retain employees to avoid increased costs as a reaction to turnover control.