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5500 Preparer's Manual for 2012 Plan Years
The premier resource in the field of Form 5500 preparation, 5500 Preparer's Manual will help you handle the required annual Form 5500 filings for both pension benefits and welfare benefit plans.
from Spencer’s Benefits Reports: Five Chicago-area employers have signed on to a diabetes management program coordinated by the Midwest Business Group on Health (MBGH). The MBGH announced the employer involvement as part of a new pilot program in the Diabetes Ten City Challenge developed jointly by the American Pharmacists Association and drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline.
More than 30 employer groups nationwide are participating in the Diabetes Ten City Challenge. In the Chicago-area program, entitled Taking Control of Your Health, administrative costs are funded with grants from drugmakers Novo Nordisck and Novartis, allied with the Illinois Pharmacists Association. All three drugmakers providing funding for the project produce drugs for diabetes control, but, according to participating organizations, will have no influence on study results.
This program replicates the design of the city of Asheville (N.C.) Project, in which plan participants with diabetes regularly meet with specially-trained pharmacists who counsel the patients on managing their health conditions. Program participants who fulfill the pharmacist-meeting requirements receive free diabetes medications and supplies. The Asheville Project saved $4 for each $1 spent and reduced diabetic sick-leave use from 12.6 days prior to implementation to six days in the project’s sixth year. The Asheville initiative lowered total average annual health care costs per patient to $2,000 and saved more than $6 million in health care costs. Furthermore, in the eight years of the program, no diabetes patient has entered dialysis. Asheville has expanded the program to asthma and high blood pressure.
As of April 2007, Chicago-area companies participating in the Taking Control of Your Health diabetes management program are the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, Jones Lang LaSalle (a real estate money management firm), the City of Naperville, Hospira (a maker of specialty drugs and drug delivery systems such as IV sets), and Pactiv Corporation (maker of Hefty storage, garbage bags, and other consumer products). Other cities participating in the Diabetes 10 City Challenge are Charleston, S.C., Colorado Springs, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, and Tampa.
Lake Forest, Ill.-based Pactiv has 8,000 employees nationwide with 80% of employees enrolled in the company’s plans, explained Judy Hearn, manager of health and welfare benefits. In 2007, Pactiv reduced its number of health care plan options to six, including a high-deductible health plan and a “Build Your Own PPO” option. But nearly half (49%) of employees are enrolled in HMOs. Although cardiovascular disease is the most costly health condition for Pactiv, 166 employees in Illinois have diabetes, Ms. Hearn said. The company initially is implementing the Taking Control of Your Health program only for PPO participants in Illinois. Pactiv implemented a disease management plan in 2005 and waives deductibles or copayments for health care plan participants using preventive drugs, Ms. Hearn continued. To implement the Taking Control of Your Health program, the company will send out an enrollment packet targeted to PPO participants with diabetes.
Employer sponsors will promote the program and enroll patients, although confidentiality concerns might lead employers to outsource the enrollment to the MBGH. Sponsors also will pay the pharmacist counseling fees and the cost of waived copayments. The organizations must be able to provide, either directly or through a pharmacy benefit management firm, reduced or waived copayment prescription cards. In addition, they must pay pharmacists for their counseling and screening services and must provide the program’s research unit access to data on total health care costs from the past two years. Ultimately, the physician remains responsible for the patient’s overall care.
“It’s not just about participants getting free drugs,” explained Larry Boress, MBGH president and chief executive officer, in an interview with Spencer’s Benefits Reports. “Participants have to work to help themselves and thus gain some hope, some skill, and incentives to make their treatment program work for them.”
The Taking Control of Your Health program for diabetes is available to all interested qualified Chicago-area employers. In the future, the program might be expanded to other medical conditions such as asthma, cardiovascular conditions, and depression, Mr. Boress said. To learn more about the program, contact Mr. Boress at lboress@mbgh.org, Jessica Westhoff at jwesthoff@mbgh.org, or call (312) 372-9090.
For more information on this and related topics, consult the CCH Pension Plan Guide, CCH Employee Benefits Management, and Spencer's Benefits Reports.
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