Healthcare plans

Last September, Carter Express, a logistic, freight and transport firm based in Anderson, Ind., accomplished something that every self-insured employer wants to do. It saved 23% on an employee's surgery for prostate cancer. Plus, not only did the company spend nearly $12,000 less, but the employee was happy with his surgical experience.

Built-up demand for health savings accounts helped to account for a solid 2010 for J.P. Morgan’s HSA business, according to David Josephs, managing director with the company.

Have HR and benefit professionals who work for midsize employers lost their hunger for cafeteria plans in austere times? It seems that the answer depends on semantics and plan design nuances.

Helping employers get more bang for their health care buck is the focus of a new online tool from the Center for Health Value Innovation.

The Leapfrog Group, an employer coalition advocating increased health care quality and safety, joined many other organizations in applauding the Obama administration's new $1 billion Partnership for Patients safety program.

Employers nationwide - big and small, retail and high-tech - are watching and waiting keenly to see whether the public state exchanges created under health care reform will succeed when they open for business in 2014. Small employers and those with low-paid or part-time employees are especially interested in finding out whether funneling their employees into, or finding coverage for them through, an exchange would be beneficial.

Having spent about 30 years in health care benefits consulting, health plan management and health services delivery, I've witnessed many products, services, strategies and platforms introduced to the employer market, climb to the top of the solutions menu and eventually fade away as more effective alternatives emerge. One very popular solution today is the onsite health clinic.

Some employers are investing more time and resources to find out whether workers are tobacco-free and in the process are rewarding those who pass muster with lower health premiums or financial rewards.

It’s no surprise that unhealthy employees cost employers big bucks. But a new workforce wellness index shows that the unhealthy behaviors of the U.S. workforce cost employers an average of $670 per employee annually.

A new statewide survey by the Georgia Association of Physician Assistants is stirring debate about the extent to which insurance protocols serve as harmful barriers to patient care or necessary cost controls.

A program including regular follow-ups with nurses and focused attempts to cut back on TV, fast food, and sodas appears to keep some overweight and obese kids from gaining more weight, according to a new study.

A large online survey of medical practices, with nearly 4,600 responses, finds no consensus that electronic health records systems increase physician productivity.

Most health systems adopting an accountable care organization model will lose money during the first three years, according to a report posted on the New England Journal of Medicine Web site.

U.S. health insurers offering private Medicare Advantage plans will see an average net 0.4 percent increase in federal reimbursements next year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said on Monday.

Republicans in the U.S. House accused the AARP of gaining financially from President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul, which the influential elderly advocacy group supported.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a proposed rule March 31 that establishes the Medicare Shared Savings Program authorized in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

While health care costs are inevitably going to rise in the future, a 65-year-old couple retiring in 2011 will likely spend $230,000 on health care throughout their retirement, Fidelity estimates.

Last month, I made the case that health risk assessments are a poor tool for measuring the health of a population or a single individual, and the data they produce are not necessary for the design of good wellness programs. ("No more master key: Health risk assessments unnecessary for wellness plan design," EBN March)

Browsing the Web could soon beat out baseball as the American pastime. Many of your employees use the Internet to research their health care options, their new diagnoses or their new diet. The problem is, there are thousands, if not millions, of health care websites.

Workplace clinics give literal meaning to the phrase "Taking care of our employees." However, savvy-thinking employers are taking strategic steps to determine what's in and what's out when it comes to health services rendered onsite.