Latest value-based health innovations news

More Employers Link Health Risk Appraisals To Open Enrollment
Employee Benefit News :: February 26, 2008 :: Article - 1 page
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"53% of companies report they included or will include by 2009 an HRA in their benefit enrollment process, while 36% use open enrollment to encourage employees to sign up for disease management programs or will do so by 2009, reports Watson Wyatt." ....only 27% [of employers] have incorporated [their benefits enrollment information] with their health care provider's system, which often stores robust information on disease management and healthy lifestyles...."

Malpractice Insurer Offers Physicians A Discount
Portland Business Journal :: Portland, Oregon :: February 21, 2008 :: Article - 1 page
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Northwest Physicians Insurance Co., one of Oregon's largest medical liability carriers, is offering discounts to doctors that use computerized personal health records and e-mail to communicate with patients. Depending upon medical specialty, the discounts range from $375 to $2,250 annually. That's potentially greater than the cost of the secure e-mail or personal health record system, which cost approximately $1 per doctor per day....

On-Site Clinic Healthy For Bottom Line
Lawrence Journal World & News :: Lawrence, Kansas :: February 17, 2008 :: Article - 1 page
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Now entering its fifth year at Amarr [Garage Doors] in Lawrence, the program ranks among the most popular benefits for employees, and most economical and high-payoff programs for the company, said Kirsten Krug, who works in the Lawrence plant and oversees human resources for North Carolina-based Amarr....

Lower Co-Pays Make Patients Less Likely To Skip Meds
Wall Street Journal - Health Blog :: January 8, 2008 :: Blog post - 1 page
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“My mother said, ‘I can’t believe you had to spend all this money to find out if you make people spend more for something, they’ll buy less of it.’ ” That’s what Mark Fendrick, a professor of medicine and health policy at the University of Michigan, told us today when we got him on the phone to discuss his study published in the current issue of Health Affairs.... ...The study was funded by GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer, and was conducted in part by ActiveHealth, an Aetna subsidiary that designs the kind of plans Fendrick is talking about. Fendrick consults to ActiveHealth and receives research funding from lots of drug companies.

More Health Plans Strategically Manage Diabetes
Employee Benefit News :: December 20, 2007 :: -
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Evidence is growing that effective management of diabetes can reduce complications and health care costs, while boosting employee productivity, reports the National Business Coalition on Health, which recently released a study on health plans and diabetes performance....There are promising initiatives underway that could help employers better manage diabetes, NBCH says, including value-based benefit design plans – which identify incentives to increase compliance while maintaining cost sharing – and interoperable health information technology and quality and price transparency.



Link to the eValue8 study: "Health Plan Diabetes Care Performance"

Wellness Programs Seen as Way To Stop The Bleeding In Health Care Costs
San Diego Business Journal :: San Diego, California :: March 26, 2007 :: Article - 1 page
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Area employers sickened by rising health care costs may find relief in a growing number of wellness programs for employees. Del Mar Heights broker Intercare Insurance Solutions reports that the average price of group health plans has increased 73 percent in the past five years, a quarter of which was preventable, said Dr. Terry Fouts, senior vice president for Great-West Healthcare.... ....John Kahle, chief wellness officer for Intercare, said, “the mindset change from health care as an expense to health care as an investment” is coming. Fouts was in town last week at Intercare’s invitation to speak to 90 employers, representing 40,000 workers. The audience also heard from David Hom, vice president of strategic initiatives for Pitney Bowes Inc., a document management service company in Connecticut.

Partners In Quality: Gulfstream, Memorial Initiative Adding Up To Lower Costs, Improved Health Care
Savannah Morning News :: Savannah, Georgia :: December 9, 2007 :: Article - 1 page
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Nearly five years ago, Bob Holben made what was, for him, a startling discovery. The director of compensation and benefits for Gulfstream Aerospace had been doing research on new ways to help contain the spiraling costs of health care for Gulfstream's more than 5,000 area employees when he came across several national studies that suggested as much as 30 percent of all health care costs in the country could be traced back to poor- quality decisions....Together, Memorial and Gulfstream formed Partners in Quality, a program designed to improve the quality of health care provided to employees in the Savannah area, reduce health care costs, and share the resulting cost savings with the physicians who use best practice protocols.

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Dr. Michael Taylor, Caterpillar

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Innovator Interview:
Mike Critelli, Executive Chairman
Pitney Bowes

Healthcare Week In Review's Carl Mercurio interviews Pitney Bowes Chairman Mike Critelli on the importance of health and wellness programs (thanks to WRG's Corporate Research Group)