Archived Content

Driving Innovation In the Health Care Marketplace:

A CEO Report

WellPoint, Inc.

At WellPoint, improving the health of our associates and their family members is an extension of the work we do every day to improve the health of the 67 million Americans we serve. We are pleased to be recognized as one of the leading employers for healthy lifestyles by the National Business Group on Health, as a Fit Friendly Worksite by the American Heart Association, and as a recipient of the CEOs Against Cancer Gold Standard designation by the American Cancer Society.

Here are a few of the innovative tools we are using to improve the health of our employees and members:

  • Consumer-directed health plans (CDHP) and health reimbursement/savings accounts (HRAs/HSAs). Our employees who use CDHP and HRA/HSAs have better participation in screening, disease management and wellness activities than average, and they had lower health care costs in 2013 than in 2011.
  • Innovative telehealth solutions. We offer a secure means of reaching board-certified, credentialed primary care doctors on demand — at home, in the office or on the go.
  • Personalized health care guidance. We analyze medical and pharmacy information to identify gaps in care (e.g., flagging medication compliance issues).
  • Transparency tools. We provide both Estimate Your Cost and Find a Doctor to empower our employees to make smarter decisions about their health care choices.
  • Wellness programs. We offer a generous wellness credit program that enables employees and their spouses to earn up to $600 in wellness credits based on health outcomes (e.g., being tobacco-free, having a body mass index [BMI] under 30). We are seeing significant behavior change and remarkable results including improvements in blood pressure (29 percent of participants in 2011–12 with high blood pressure lowered it to less than 140/90), BMI (14 percent of participants in 2011–12 with BMIs of 30 or higher lowered their BMs or lost 5 percent of their weight), obesity and diabetes (the obesity rate of the cohort group dropped one percentage point each year from 2011 to 2013 and their risk of diabetes has dropped from 7 to 3 percent).
  • Sophisticated data analytics. We were the first company in any industry to partner with IBM Watson technology. Using IBM Watson, we help physicians analyze millions of pages of data in seconds to help make better choices in care.

We are making a real difference for our employees, their families and America’s health by using the latest technology, innovative partnerships with health care providers and consumer incentives to encourage healthier behavior.

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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