Archived Content

Driving Innovation In the Health Care Marketplace:

A CEO Report

Eastman Chemical Company

At Eastman, we are committed to delivering consistent, superior value for all our stakeholders through sustainable solutions that satisfy the needs of a changing world. Faced with rising health care costs and undesirable health risks for a growing employee base, Eastman sought a sustainable solution to drive better health and lower costs. 

Eastman’s approach to health care reinforces behaviors that promote healthy choices and informed health care decisions. The company’s winning formula is simple: wellness plus prevention plus consumerism equals a healthier Eastman. Eastman uses plan designs, consumer tools, services, programs and communications to motivate and enable employees and their families to proactively manage their health and use of health care services. 

Wellness promotes living better, longer — through active living, healthy eating and chronic-condition management. The award-winning wellness program features free onsite fitness centers and healthy food options at some locations and financial incentives for health improvements. The voluntary health risk assessment enables employees and spouses to learn their health statuses and ways to reduce and manage health risks. Aggregated data representing eight continuous years of assessments for more than 5,000 employees helps Eastman target risks while providing opportunities across the health continuum. 

Prevention promotes keeping health concerns from becoming more serious via recommended screenings and treatment adherence. Eastman encourages employee and spouse involvement through value-based plan designs, partnerships with key providers who promote prevention, and access to onsite and telephonic health coaches. Mobile screening opportunities are available at larger sites. 

Consumerism promotes making informed health care decisions through plan design and consumer tools. Eastman introduced the consumer driven health care plan in 2009, and in 2015, all employees will be able to choose from two such plans. Under this kind of plan, employees have more insight into health care costs, which motivates them to make better-informed decisions about health care purchases. The plan also includes a tax-advantaged health savings account: company and pretax employee contributions help cover future health care expenses. A transparency tool empowers employees to discover health care quality and cost. The tool also sends notifications about savings opportunities, such as lower priced medicines or medical services. Eastman continues to explore more ways to enable and empower employees to make well-informed health care choices. 

Eastman’s focus on wellness, prevention and consumerism is paying off. Health is improving and costs are being controlled. The company and employees benefit from this sustainable solution and a healthier Eastman. 

Companies

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BRT companies provide health coverage to more than 40 million Americans. We help American workers and their families remain healthy, receive quality treatment when necessary and achieve better health outcomes. The private-sector innovations in the insurance marketplace that enable us to provide these services to our employees and their families serve as models for public programs — but additional reforms are necessary.

This report highlights the innovations we have made and the public policy changes we believe would drive value by promoting health and improving outcomes.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/brt.org/archive/0_healthcare/BRT-Health-Care.pdf

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