|
 |
INVESTING IN HEALTHCARE
Providing incentives for employees
|
By
Brian R. Hook
Employers across the St. Louis region are starting to view healthy
employees as an asset and are investing in healthcare programs
to keep employees well, as a way to help control healthcare
costs, boost employee productivity, and retain key talent.
This new perspective on healthcare is causing a shift in benefit
structures toward programs that provide incentives to keep workers
engaged in their healthcare decisions, says Steve Walli, president
and CEO of UnitedHealthcare of the Midwest Inc., which covers
more than 900,000 people throughout Missouri and southern Illinois.
“We want to work with our customers to improve the health and
well being of their employees,” Walli says. He says UnitedHealthcare
works with each customer to design a unique program. It also
provides incentives to both employers and employees.
UnitedHealthcare will give customers a three percent premium
reduction if the employer agrees to do four things, Walli says.
The FIRST STEP is to introduce
a wellness program, which is now a standard offering in every
one of its healthcare products.
The SECOND STEP is for the
employer to offer to employees, as an option, one of its consumer-directed
plans, either health-savings accounts or health-reimbursement
accounts, which are priced more attractively than traditional
healthcare plans.
THIRD, UnitedHealthcare
wants employees to fill out a health-risk-appraisal form. Walli
describes this an early identification tool for new customers.
“When they come over to us we might not see a claim for three
months,” Walli says. “We can’t get them engaged in some of our
clinical programs until we know more about them.”
Twenty percent of the population drives about 80 percent of
healthcare costs, Walli says. But it is not the same employees
or their dependants every year that drive costs. “What we really
have to do is identify the people and intervene before it gets
into a catastrophic situation. That’s why we are encouraging
health-risk appraisals,” Walli says.
The FOURTH STEP to get the
three percent premium reduction is for the employer to meet
with UnitedHealthcare at least twice a year to track the progress
of the program.
“We sold quite a bit of new customers effective January 1st
on this new concept,” Walli says. “It speaks to the confidence
of the programs that you can reduce costs.”
When these incentive-based programs were introduced nationally,
businesses experienced a 1.8 percent to 2.5 percent savings
range in total medical costs, according to UnitedHealthcare.
Employees also experienced a $1,620 lower cost for healthcare.
To get employees involved, UnitedHealthcare offers a premium
credit to members if they agree to complete a health-risk appraisal.
Often employees get a credit in their premium of around $100,
Walli says. Employers also offer up incentives.
Warren County R-II Schools offers the UnitedHealthcare plan
to its 400 employees. For those who participate in the survey
there is a chance to win a 32-inch, liquid-crystal-display,
high-definition TV or five, $50 Nike gift certificates.
“I believe very strongly in preventive measures, and this includes
wellness. For every dollar we invest in wellness efforts I expect
to see a multiple dollar return,” says John Long, superintendent
for the school district in Warrenton, Mo. “I have noticed an
improved awareness of wellness as a concept. In addition, I
have an ever-increasing number of employees who are taking the
initiative to improve their personal wellness.”
St. Louis-based XTRA Lease LLC is also providing incentives
for its employees. Each employee of the company, which manages
a fleet of 125,000 vans, received a $100 incentive in their
paycheck as a reward for filling out a health-risk assessment.
“Companies are promoting healthier lifestyles and are asking
employees to be better healthcare consumers,” says Pamela Cherie,
director of employee benefits.
“Wellness programs have become an important factor in lowering
healthcare costs.”
|
PROVIDING
BUSINESS & CAREER OPPORTUNITIES
|
Wellness
programs are providing new business and career opportunities
in the healthcare sector. “The growth of wellness programs
has helped to fuel a new type of practice and career path
in healthcare,” says Paul Esselman, vice president Cejka
Search, a physician and healthcare executive search firm
headquartered in St. Louis.
Esselman says that corporations that invest in keeping employees
healthy are making an investment. “This has helped to create
a new type of medical practice that delivers a pro-active
form of medicine that includes helping executives with stress
reduction and lifestyle choices, as well as standard preventive
care,” he says.
One of these practices is the Clayton Sleep Institute. Dr.
Joseph Ojile, founder and managing director, is working
to get sleep screening included as a staple item in wellness
programs. Ojile says sleep screenings are a cost efficient
way to increase productivity and morale. “While sleep is
not on the radar of most companies as an area to help control
costs and boost productivity, sleep problems are usually
fairly easily addressed,” he says.
“Wellness management and disease prevention are the important
new trends in employee health. As these programs grow, the
inclusion of counter-measures, such as sleep screenings,
will be key in optimizing an employee’s health and productivity.”
|
|
Cost
Increases for Health Benefits Levels Off
|
Total
health-benefit costs rose by 6.1 percent in
2006, the same as the year before, to an average
of $7,523 per employee, according to Mercer
Health & Benefits LLC, headquartered in New
York with offices around the world, including
St. Louis.
This represents the third year employers reduced
the rate of growth in costs, which hit a 12-year
high of 14.7 percent in 2002 and slowed to 6.1
percent in 2005.
Cost shifting to employees was less of a factor
in reducing health-benefit costs in 2006 than
in past years, according to Mercer. Average
deductibles, co-pays and out-of-pocket maximums,
which rose rapidly from 2000–2005, showed only
modest growth.
Enrollment in consumer-directed account-based
health plans, the least expensive type of medical
plan available, is increasing, Mercer reports.
Employers also continued to add healthcare-management
features in 2006—in particular, health risk
assessments, now offered by 22 percent of all
employers and 53 percent of large employers.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
|
