Tyco continuously reviews benefits to ensure that our employees have options when using health benefits, along with resources to help them choose the plans that best meet their needs. A robust wellness incentive program underscores our commitment to promoting a culture of healthy lifestyles for Tyco employees and their families.

For 2014, we introduced significant changes, with three newly designed medical plans. All contain elements of consumerism to help control costs in anticipation of the 2018 excise tax under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. With the redesign, actuarial estimates anticipate that we’ll delay impact of the excise tax until 2026, giving us additional time to educate and affect behavior change among Tyco employees.

To reinforce the link between wellness and shared accountability, we encourage employees to complete a health risk assessment. If employees opt not to take it, they receive one medical plan option, rather than three. For 2014, this boosted the assessment completion rate to 93 percent from the previous year’s 48 percent.

To ensure reach to Tyco’s geographically dispersed population, as well as connectivity for our mobile workforce, we developed an enhanced communications campaign for annual enrollment. This included DVDs with leadership messaging and plan details along with access to a microsite describing health care reform and its impact. We also gave employees the options of receiving text message alerts and accessing benefits information through a mobile wallet card application.

Tyco provides employees with valuable tools and resources to assist with enrollment decisions and get the most out of benefits throughout the year. This includes an interactive modeling tool, the Benefits Advisor, which guides employees to the plan that best suits their individual situations; a cost lookup tool that allows employees to search and compare cost and quality of medical providers and treatment; telemedicine services providing on-demand access to board- certified physicians who can prescribe medication for minor health concerns; and online support communities that assist employees in managing various health concerns.

Tyco continues to enhance our wellness incentive program, Healthy Rewards, increasing the cash amounts and activities available to earn rewards in 2014. Activities include lifestyle coaching sessions, preventive care, fitness challenges and online education courses. For the employee, incentives help offset out-of-pocket medical plan expenses and encourage engagement in healthy lifestyles. For Tyco, they strengthen our employee partnership by encouraging actions that improve the health of our employees and help control future medical costs.