Improving employee health while reducing employer health care costs are the dual objectives of supermarket chain Kroger, which has about 130,000 people employees and dependents enrolled in one of its three medical plans.
Underpinning that philosophy is a desire to make the companys employees better health care consumers, says Theresa Monti, vice president of total rewards.
Underlying our objectives of improving health and reducing costs is that whole piece around consumerism and really putting our associates and their family members in the drivers seat of how they control health care costs and how they access quality health care when they do have to enter the health care system, she says.
Its one the main reasons Kroger decided to hire Best Doctors in 2010. It just seemed to be a really good fit for us in terms of starting down the path of those two objectives especially on the improving health side and the quality of health care, says Monti.
Probably best-known as a second opinion service, Best Doctors also offers a find-a-doctor service and an ask-the-expert service.
When an individual gets faced with a health care decision should I get this diagnostic test? Should I have this treatment? they're looking for information. It's very important for them to trust the validity, the reliability of that information to be able to act upon it, says Dr. David Harrison, U.S. medical director with Best Doctors.
At Kroger, 230 people used Best Doctors second-opinion service an in-depth review of a treatment or diagnosis decision in 2012, while 1,400 plan members made a phone call to Best Doctors. Considering Krogers has 58,000 employees enrolled in the company-sponsored health care plans, the numbers arent huge but Monti says among those employees who used Best Doctors in 2012, the service had a 94% satisfaction rate. Year-to-date Q3 statistics for 2013, meanwhile, reveal a 97% satisfaction rate.
When you see [a service with] that high of a satisfaction rate, obviously something is hitting home with people and making it a value to our associates, she says.
Kroger pays Best Doctors on a per employee per month basis so that all of our employees can access it as often and as frequently as they need to.
And, as with any employee benefit, usage depends on communication. Youre not always going to remember that service at the time you need it, so we do a lot of communication with Best Doctors to remind our associates that that resource is available, says Monti. Id love to see the numbers get a lot higher than what they are, but it really depends on word of mouth and communication.
