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CCH® BENEFITS — 05/19/11

Wellness, Disease Prevention Highlighted At MBGH Conference

from Spencer’s Benefits Reports: As reported in many recent surveys, health plan aponsors are focusing on participant disease prevention and wellness as a cost trend reduction strategy, and the recent Midwest Business Group on Health (MBGH) 31st annual conference, Health Benefits Mega Trends, presented examples of various employers’ efforts in that regard. In a survey conducted in September 2010 of National Business Group on Health (NBGH) member companies and select Fidelity clients, 74% of the 147 employer respondents reported that they had at least 19 health improvement programs in management of medical conditions, lifestyle, and health risk, as well as communication/education efforts.

Kraft Foods’ Strategy

Kraft Foods has developed a five-year health and welfare strategy to promote optimal health and maximum productivity in partnership with employees and their families, Kathy McAlpine, Kraft’s senior director for U.S. Benefits told the MBGH conference. The strategy, which went into effect in 2010, features full integration of health benefits and services, disability, employee assisted programs (EAP), and support programs; a high deductible health plan with a health savings account (HSA); penalties for failure to participate in health management programs, including health risk assessments; incentives for participation in preventive care, health and wellness programs, and for health outcomes; and, with its vendor, documenting the effect of the strategy on health care costs, population health, and productivity.

As a result of these efforts, in 2010 and in 2011, 99% of Kraft employees participated in health risk assessments; 81% of employees identified as needing care complied with the direction; between the first and fourth quarters of 2010 the percentage of employees participating in the disease management program rose from 3.3% to 8% (even before the disease management penalty went into effect, Ms. McAlpine noted); and generic prescription use and mail order fills rose from 66% to 70% and from 46% to 54%, respectively.

Mayo Clinic And Dossia

Medical providers, too, are implementiing strategies to improve medical care and to collect the data necessary to make care integration easier. Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic, with its satellite clinics, is working toward integration of data from all points of care for its own more than 50,000 employees nationwide, Tom Ferraro, Mayo’s senior director of Corporate/Government Accounts, told the MBGH conference. A strategy to empower patients is to put them in control of their health information and give them the tools to act on the information with a centralized, portable, individually-controlled health record data system.

Dossia, a consortium of ten large, self-insured employers including Walmart and AT&T, provides Mayo and its employees the capability needed for such a system, explained Steve Munini, Dossia COO. Portability of the information, which may be collected from varied data sources, including dental, improves care coordination among providers, Mr. Munini said. The Dossia system allows for collection of clinical information (such as lab results, prescriptions, treatments) and biometric status, daily behaviors, and information on benefit plans and finances.

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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