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Category Archives: Health Care
The doctor is in-An onsite solution: Employee health clinics
It was about seven years ago that a client of Matt McQuide’s approached the vice president at Benefit Controls with a serious, if not uncommon, problem. The 1,000-employee textile firm was experiencing unsustainable rate increases of at least 9%-11% a year. “They looked at us and said, ‘If this continues we won’t have a business,’” McQuide recalls.
That’s when McQuide decided to research installing an onsite health care clinic at the firm. He knew it would cost the employer around $200,000 a year. What he didn’t know is whether the experiment would pay off. “They looked at me and said, ‘Is it going to work?’ and I said, ‘I don’t know if it’s going to work. But I think it’s the only shot we have of something working,’ says McQuide. “So we put it in and they have just been unbelievable ever since. Claims lower, employees happy.”
In fact, just one year later the employer reported that employees would routinely tell him the clinic was the best benefit they received outside of their major medical plan. It’s the same story for the 38% of McQuide’s clients who now have their own employee clinics, and the 34% of colleague Rick Gantt’s who do as well.
“That’s how I got into it; what else do we do? Then I saw with my own eyes that it was working not only just on the health plan side for costs, but people were making changes,” says McQuide. “Then we really started evangelizing it and going around and saying, ‘Hey, this is the thing you need to do.’”
McQuide and Gantt, both vice presidents, now make incorporating employee clinics into an employer’s health care arsenal their primary focus at Benefit Controls, a national brokerage with offices in North Carolina, South Carolina, Kansas and Utah. Gantt works out of the Greenville, S.C. office and McQuide is based in Charlotte, N.C.
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Medical tourism takes a domestic twist
With a shift in emphasis and practice from foreign to domestic travel, patients are happier and insurers still get substantial savings. By Elayne R. Demby May 1, 2011 Last September, Carter Express, a logistic, freight and transport firm based in … Continue reading
Milliman: Health Costs Rise 7.3%
The cost of health care for a typical family of four has increased 7.3% this year, to $19,393.
Milliman Inc., Seattle, has published that figure in its 2011 Milliman Medical Index report, which is based on the analysis of the cost of a typical preferred provider organization plan.
The rate of increase is down from 7.8% in 2010, but employees’ share of total costs has increased to about 40%, from about 37% in 2005, Milliman says.
This year, increases in the cost of hospital care accounted for a disproportionate share of the overall increase. The cost of inpatient hospital care increased 8.6%, and the cost of outpatient care increased 10%.
Milliman also looked at costs in 14 major markets.
In 6 of the 14 markets, typical health coverage costs for a family of four already exceed $20,000, Milliman says.
Phoenix had the cheapest coverage; there, the annual cost of a plan for four is about $17,300.
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Data shows uptick in HSA, HRA account balances
By Bruce Shutan May 1, 2011 A sluggish economy hasn’t slowed the nation’s health care consumerism movement, according to a recent analysis by the Employee Benefit Research Institute. Health savings accounts and health reimbursement arrangements covered about 21 million working … Continue reading
Posted in Employee Benefits Communication, Health Care
Tagged CDHPs, FSAs, HRAs, HSAs
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Health of U.S. workforce declining
By Andrea Davis April 14, 2011 It’s no surprise that unhealthy employees cost employers big bucks. But a new workforce wellness index shows that the unhealthy behaviors of the U.S. workforce cost employers an average of $670 per employee annually. … Continue reading
