UPDATES - November 11, 2009

Preview of Manatee County, Florida Conference Presentation

New Alternatives to Reducing Trend

Employer and Employee Accountability

Implementing Truly Integrated Value-Based Health Management

Presented by Bob Goodman and Kim Stroud

Featured Tuesday Morning, March 30, 2010

Benefit Managers, HR Directors, CFOs, COOs and CEOs must stop pointing the finger at others for the crisis in the American Health Care System but instead take charge to redesign the employer-based health benefits system to meet specific goals and outcomes.  While Congress debates an overhaul of the American health care system, employers can move directly to reduce their medical cost trends and build a healthy, productive work force to compete in the global economy through:

1. An aggressive, positive benefit plan design requiring accountability from employees for the health consequences of their lifestyles;
2. Locally operated Centers for Health and Lifestyle Management to help mid-size and small employers educate their employees about the necessity to make lifestyle behavioral changes.

The reasons for reducing employer medical benefit trends to control health care costs are:

1. Re-building a ‘fit” work force with the “willingness to change” through behavioral education, thereby improving competitiveness in the new global economy;
2. Creating opportunities for Corporate America to redirect capital to grow their businesses;
3. Providing employees the ability to redirect their income from medical expenses to purchase consumer goods and save for retirement;

To accomplish the goals of making health care affordable and holding providers accountable for quality will require a partnership between employers and their employees and dependents; in addition, individuals will have to take complete responsibility for their behavioral and lifestyle choices.  It’s time for employers to become proactive in molding the American health system in their communities by:

• Restructuring the delivery system to replace impersonal bureaucracy with a user-friendly approach;
• Replacing current complex multi-plan designs with user-friendly models for both patients and providers;
• Replacing the current paternalistic plan design model with an upfront accountable “Qualifying Event” plan design.

An Alternative Approach:  Manatee County, in 2000, launched a new approach to health management by building the Center for Health and Lifestyle Management. In 2005 they told their employees and their family members that the County's NEW medical plan - "YourChoice" - would hold each individual accountable for behavioral and lifestyle choices.

New Integrated Approach to Health adn Lifestyle Management resulted in:

• An unexpected overwhelmingly positive response from its employees and their families to the new “YourChoice” Plan design and its on-site Health and Lifestyle Management Team.
• Its contracted vendors’ employees immediately starting to think and work “outside the box,”  developing custom programs for the Center for Health and Lifestyle Management. They discovered an integral missing component to the program -- the need to integrate behavioral health into all programs including benefits, case management, prevention and wellness.
• In 2007, EAP and Behavioral Health, now known as LAMP (Lifestyle Assistance Management Program) was contracted for on-site management, and fully integrated with all health and lifestyle programs. The staff includes a social worker, addiction specialist, case manager and part-time psychiatrist

In Summary:  Corporate America's best CHOICE is not to wait for whatever, if any, action Washington will take to restructure the American health care system, but to:  

• Move from a benefit “sick care” to a “health care” plan design, not based upon shifting cost from the employer to the employee but rather requiring all plan participants to make accountable evidence-based health and lifestyle choices;
•  Ensure that user-friendly, locally operated, multi-employer, community-based Centers for Health and Lifestyle Management be put in place to assist individuals to make their health and lifestyle changes.

 With these two initiatives, the employer-based healthcare system will be able to start the process of reversing the health care cost trend that is slowly eroding the American lifestyle and the ability to compete in the new world economy. The investment is made possible only by demonstrating the “willingness to change”, and merging human capital with venture capital. The greatest threat our economy faces is the crippling impact that obesity is starting to have -- and will have -- on Corporate America’s ability to compete globally. 

And, oh yes, Manatee County is accomplishing its goal of getting administrative expense below the national average by reducing customer service and claims operating expenses, and using the cost savings to operate an aggressive health management program.

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IHPM's10th Annual International Health & Productivity Conference

Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress, Orlando, Florida

March 29-31, 2010

Managing, Marketing, Measuring

the Value of Health & Productivity

The Institute for Health and Productivity Management is pleased to announce its 10th Annual International Health & Productivity Conference, an event that draws attendees from around the world as the Institute continually expands its global reach.

Activities will get underway on Monday morning, March 29th.....

Pre-Conference Academy on Value-Based Health,  chaired by Steve Priddy, Director of IHPM’s Value-Based Health (VBH) initiative. The Academy will open with an Executive Summary of the Status of Value-Based Health by Randy Abbott, Practice Leader at Watson Wyatt Worldwide, for large employers and by Jack Bastable, Practice Leader at CBIZ, for small employers.  Next will be sessions on value-based benefit design for three critical chronic diseases that account for a huge share of employers’ total workplace burden of illness – Depression, Diabetes,  and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).  The Academy will conclude with a presentation of an award-winning integrated value-based health management strategy by a public employer – Manatee County, Florida.

The Conference itself opens that afternoon of the 29th with the annual presentation of IHPM’s President’s Award, followed by a preview of the next two days’ packed program.  Sessions for the rest of the opening day will focus on:

1. HPM  as a Global Business Strategy, with recognized international leaders – Cathy Baase, MD, Global Director of Health for Dow Chemical and Tami Graham, Global Benefits Design Director for Intel.
2. 10th Annual Corporate Health and Productivity Management Awards (sponsored by Novartis) and presented by Joe Leutzinger, PhD, President of IHPM’s Academy
3. Measurement: Digging Deeper and Expanding Wider to Make the Case for HPM, with Debra Lerner, PhD, Senior Scientist from Tufts Medical Center, Brent Pawlecki, MD, Corporate Medical Director for Pitney Bowes, and Joe Leutzinger, PhD, Principal of Health Improvement Solutions
• measuring the impact of caregiving on workplace productivity
• measuring the health of a corporate culture
4. Rewards and Punishments – Employer Panel Discussion of Incentive and Cost-Sharing Strategies led by Randy Abbott of Watson Wyatt
5. Consumer Marketing Strategies to Increase Employee Engagement in Health and Wellness Programs, featuring principals from Abeo Partners with backgrounds in consumer marketing for global giants – Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola

Tuesday Morning, March 30th, will feature sessions on:

1. Technologies to Bring Greater Value to Health Management, such as Dossia, Healthy World,  and DeskActive
2. The Meaning of “Value” – Multistakeholder (Employer and Health Plan) Panel Discussion led by Steve Priddy from IHPM’s VBH
3. 3rd Annual Value-Based Health Awards presented by Steve Priddy and Jack Bastable of VBH
4. Manatee County, Florida – Implementing Truly Integrated Value-Based Health Management, presented by Bob Goodman and Kim Stroud
5. Does Prevention Save Money for Employers? – a cool-headed debate on a very “hot” issue!  Chaired by Sean Sullivan, JD, President of IHPM.

Tuesday Afternoon, March 30th, featured sessions:

1. Launch of IHPM's Workplace Center for Respiratory Health
• COPD:  The Next Epidemic for Employers
• Economic Burden of COPD on Employers; William Bunn, MD, VP for Health, Safety & Productivity, Navistar International
• Smoking Cessation - Doorway to Respiratory Health - Ken Glover, Director of Health & Wellness & Ergonomics, CSX
2. Workplace Center for Behavioral Health, co-chaired by Richard C. Bedrosian, PhD, Director of Behavioral Health, HealthMedia and Ed Jones, PhD, Executive Vice President, ValueOptions (program tba)
3. Workplace Center for Metabolic Health
• Washington State's Healthy Worksite Initiative, Scott Pritchard, Director of Integrated Employee Health & Productivity
• Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD): Breakdown of Metabolic Health

Tuesday Evening, March 30th, featured session:

Tuesday evening features the Annual Public Policy Dinner (sponsored by Pfizer) with opening remarks from Pfizer Senior Vice President Rich Bagger followed by the return of a health policy “star” from the 2008 Annual Conference, Grace-Marie Turner, President of the Galen Institute, who will speak on Health Reform: Looking Back and Ahead.

Wednesday, March 31st, the conference will conclude with these sessions:

1. The “Two Pens:” Engaging Physicians with Employers,  a panel discussion chaired by Ray Fabius, MD, Principal with AB3 Health
2. Designing, Implementing and Evaluating Employer-Based Health Intervention Programs, presented by Grant Skrepnek, PhD, from the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy
3. Health and Productivity in Asia:  Significant new findings from IHPM's first-of-its kind comprehensive health and productivity assessment with the Hong Kong Hospital Authority
4. Health Coaching – New Path to Better Health - Victor Strecher, PhD, Founder & Chief Vision Officer, HealthMedia
5. Lifestyle Behavior Change and “Behavioral Health”
6. Legal Threats to Health and Productivity Management

Please email bonnie.jean@ihpm.org for more information or to register. Online registration will be available next week.

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