7 Ways to Cut Benefit Costs Without Cutting Coverage

Although this article is from 2007, these strategies are still something to at least think about!! MBGH still hears a lot about:

Covering preventive services at 100%
Mandating mail order
Moving from the carrot to the stick (or as a speaker referred to it lately, as a "frozen carrot")
Auditing enrolled dependents

Click here to read the Workforce.com article. You will need to register to see the article,but it is free!!

Handy Tool to Assess Your Dental Benefit Offerings

Check out this article which gives you an easy way to assess the quality of your dental benefits. Key aspects include:

Offering the right preventive services
Giving employees access to dental risk assessments
Maximizing flexible spending accounts
Communicating effectively with your employees

Click here for the article from Workforce.com. You will need to register, but it is free!!

More Cost-Effective Dental Benefits Now Available

Tailoring dental benefits to the needs of your employees, including medical conditions they may have such as diabetes, can help you save dollars down the road. Click here to read the Workforce.com article. You may need to register, but it is free!!

MBGH Launches: Tobacco Cessation Benefits Tools & Solutions

MBGH launches its first Tools & Solutions center focusing on tobacco cessation benefits. Building off of our successful February 25, 2010 meeting, Smoking Cessation: The Purchaser Perspective, MBGH has created a web page dedicated to key information employers need to manage the cost & quality of their tobacco cessation benefits.Click here to access the web page.

Included on this web page are:

• Presentations from the February 25, 2010 meeting
• Purchaser's Guide: Summary Plan Description Language for tobacco use treatment
• Partnership for Prevention Business Outreach Package on Tobacco Cessation
• Employer Case Studies
• Sample Policies
• Publications

This site will evolve over time with new tools & solutions added as they are identified. Once our new website is launched, this information, as well as other information on other key benefit issues, will be available for our members/affiliates and supporters at the Patron level and above.

MBGH is committed to providing our members with current tools & solutions to manage the cost & quality of their health benefits in an ever-changing environment.

 

Pharmacist-based Program Proves Effective for Diabetics in Polk County, FL

An employer-based clinical pharmacist counseling program for type 2 diabetes patients in Polk County, FL led to a 9% improvement in A1C levels, a 30% decrease in hospitalizations, and a 24% decrease in ER visits. These results of this 2005 study are reported in the February 15, 2010, American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy.

The pharmacist provided six 30-minute counseling sessions and copays were waived for disease-related medications, supplies, and non-prescription products. Participants were asked to sign an agreement to comply with program rules and processes. A total of 564 enrolled in the program and 477 were still active in the program at the end of 12 months.


Click here to read the article.

Price Increases Drive Spikes in Massachusetts Health Care Costs & Premiums

Massachusetts' recent spikes in health care cost (and increases in premiums) have been caused primarly (75%) by price increases from hospitals and physicians and only 25% have been caused by utilization increases.

The preliminary report from the Massachusetts' Attorney General, also finds that provider payments do not correlate to quality of care or to the actual cost of providing the service. Instead, payments are closely related to provider size and market dominance.

The report also found that in some instances some providers were paid twice as much for the same service as other providers.

Click here to read the article.

Cut Cost by Reducing Hospital-Acquired Conditions: Sepsis & Pneumonia

Study results reported by Extending the Cure in The Archives of Internal Medicine indicate that patients that develop sepsis (a systemic response to infection) after surgey end up staying an extra 11 days in the hospital at an average cost of an additional $33,000. In addition, 20% of these patients die of the infection.

The study also found that patients that develop pneumonia after surgery, often due to a dirty ventialtor tube, stay in the hospital an extra 14 days and cost an additional $46,000. 11% of these patients die of the pneumonia.

According to Ramanan Laxminarayan, Ph.D., principal investigator, "In many cases, these conditions could have been avoided with better infection control in hospitals.” 

This study presents one more piece of evidence that improving the quality & safety in hospitals not only saves lives, but saves dollars as well.

Click here to read the article.

Improve Worksite Wellness Programs with Social Networking

In this AHIP Bridgecast, hear Rajiv Kumar of Shape Up the Nation address how social networking can improve the effectiveness of your worksite wellness programs. He explains that social networks essentially harness connections that people already have in order to help change behavior and improve  health. Evidence shows that health behaviors spread from person to person within their social networks of family, colleagues, neighbors. Understanding how to use these natural networks as part of your wellness strategy is the subject of this podcast.

Click here to hear the podcast.

MBGH 2010 Health & Productivity Forum Panel Featured in Business Insurance

MBGH highlighed our work with the Healthy Memphis Common Table at the recent Integrated Benefits Institute/National Busienss Coalition on Health 2010 Health & Productivity Forum in San Antonio, TX. Other panelists included Savannah Business Group on Health and Mid-America Coalition on Health Care (Kansas City).

Click here to read the Business Insurance article.

President Obama Releases 11-page Outline of Health Reform Proposal

President Obama has released his health reform proposal outline.

Click here to read a Modern Healthcare article.

Clickk here to see the outline.

Power Pauses Can Increase Your Employee's Productivity & Effectiveness

Ever heard of a "Power Pause"? These 10-15 minute "time outs" during your employee's work day can increase their productivity & effectiveness. Power Pauses give employees time to reflect over what they have accomplished so far that day and to plan the rest of the day. At the end of the day, take a pause to plan for the next day.

Even better, combine a Power Pause with a physical activity, such as walking, biking, or jogging. This alone time, combined with physical activity, can really rejuvenate the spirit as well as body!!

Try it yourself and considser sharing this concept with your employees in your next employee newsletter!!

Click here to read the CA article on Power Pauses.

Be Alert on Monday, February 22: Obama to Release Compromise Health Bill

President Obama to release compromise health bill in advance on health summit to be held next week. Plans are to attach the compromise bill to a budget bill, which should avert a Republican fillibuster. But Congressional Democrats have not yet seen the compromise bill and have not signed on yet. Republicans are cautioning Democrats not to "finalize" their bill until after the summit.

The Plan will be posted on the internet Monday morning, so check it out early.

Click here to read the article.

HHS & Insurance Company Exchange Heats Up

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the release of a new report "Insurance Companies Prosper: Families Suffer" and blasts insurance companies for significantly raising premiums, using MI (56%), ME (23%), CA (39%), and CT (24%) as examples. But insurance companies are striking back claiming that the plan "villification" should stop and that the premium increases should be put into perspective, especially as it relates to healthcare cost increases.

Click here to read an article from HealthLeaders Media.

Click here for a copy of the report.

MBGH Leading Employer Contributions to Improving Health in Memphis

MBGH supports the Commercial Appeal's call for employers, churches, civic organizations, and government to get involved in improving health in Memphis..each group should work within their sphere of influence & responsibility to contribute to the overall improvement in our community's health...MBGH is taking leadership in working with employers by sharing solutions and providing employers tools includng health benefit design, worksite health-related programs, and building an overall culture of health to improve the health and productivity of their employees and to use their health benefit dollars efficiently.

Click here to read the editorial.

Health Plan Performance Improving Slightly for Diabetes, But More Work Needed

The National Business Coalition on Health's just released 2009 Health Plan Diabetes Performance report shows that there is only slight improvement in outreach and outcomes for diabetics in the surveyed plans. Approximately 81% of the diabetics had at least one A1C test, but approximately 43% of them had uncontrolled blood sugar levels.

These challenging outcomes exist even while large numbers of plans and their customers are using:

• Disease management
• Personal health assessments
• Gaps in care reminders for physicians
• NCQA's physician recognition program which identifies physicians with quality outcomes for their diabetic patients. 

Dennis White, Senior VP for Value-Based Purchasing at NBCH states, "Now the challenge is getting consumers engaged, using the tools, but also better coordination with employers for things like plan design and cultural reinforcement, and doctors to track and act on gaps in care.”

So, what are you doing in your plan design to help your outcomes improve?

This annual report is based upon results for the 70 health planscovering approximately 96 million Americans that particated in NBCH's 2009 eValue8 program. In Tennessee, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee and CIGNA Healthcare of TN provided information through Memphis Business Group on Health.

Click here to read the Business Insurance article on the report.

Click here to access a copy of the report.

Reduce Total Cost & Improve Diabetes Medication Adherence through Value-Based Plan Design

A CVS-Caremark study released in the American Journal of Pharmacy Benefits shows that eliminating or reducing co-pays for diabetes medication can improve medication adherence. The study compared 20,000 participants in a value-based benefit design to over 190,000 participants in a standard 3-tier co-pay benefit design.

A separate study released by the New England Healthcare Institute shows that not taking medications properly leads to higher costs, more hospitalizations, and poorer health, adding about $290 billion annually to the nation's health care spending.

Click here to read about the study findings.

Check Out How Shelby County Ranks

Check out how Shelby County ranks in the County Health Rankings just released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation & the University of Wisconsin. Click here to get to a snapshot of Shelby County's results.

Our biggest opportunities are in improving health behaviors (especially obesity, binge drinking, chlamydia rate, and teen pregnancy rate) and our physical environment (including air pollution, access to healthy foods, and liquor store density).

Shelby County's socieo-economic status also significantly affects our rankings. Our low high school graduation rates, high rates of children in poverty, high percentage of single-parent households, and high violent crime rate all impact our score.

We scored ok on clinical care with moderate improvement opportunities in most measures.

The rankings consider:
Mortality
Morbidity
Health behaviors
Clinical care
Social & economic factors
Physical environment.

Bredesen's Budget Includes No Extra Funds for The Med

Looks like a "business as usual" proposal from The Med is a non-starter. Where is the creative plan that paints a different vision?

Click here to read more details.