Nation's Largest Health Insurer Ties Employee Bonuses to Health of Its Members

this is interesting...

WellPoint Ties Bonuses to Member Health
Tuesday April 3, 8:02 am ET
By Tom Murphy, Associated Press Writer
Nation's Largest Health Insurer Ties Employee Bonuses to Health of Its Members

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- WellPoint Inc. employees will have a personal stake in the health of the company's customers, thanks to a new plan that ties a portion of their annual bonuses to it.
The nation's largest health insurer unveiled a plan Tuesday to link 5 percent of every annual bonus to a new measurement called the Member Health Index.

The index will monitor 20 different clinical areas to determine whether patient care is improving.

It aims to take measurements from broad categories like patient safety or care management and tell whether care has improved for most patients, but especially those dealing with chronic conditions like diabetes, asthma or high blood pressure, said Dr. Sam Nussbaum, WellPoint's executive vice president and chief medical officer.

If the index reaches an improvement goal set by the company, WellPoint's roughly 42,000 employees will see the result in their bonus check. The new measurement affects every employee from the executive suite on down, Nussbaum said.

"It's basically all or nothing for our company this year," he said. "We're either going to achieve it or we're not going to achieve it."

Linking employee bonuses to care improvements will "get everyone energized about improving health care in our company," he added.

Consultant Bob Boyer said he knows of no other insurer that links employee bonuses to the health of its customers.

The program shows WellPoint is making "a concerted effort to show that they've got some skin in the game, when it comes to their members' health," said Boyer, market business leader for the Indianapolis office of Mercer Health and Benefits.

"That might be the next evolution in measuring member health," he said. "I think it's an innovative approach."

WellPoint Inc.: http://www.wellpoint.com

Link

Tue. Apr 3, 10:58am

the road to hell is paved with good intentions....

Thursday, April 5, 2007, 4:34 PM

the nation's largest health insurer

I thought it was United not Wellpoint. does not matter. If a patient is overweight, they are more likely to get better if they don't even have health insurance! Imagine that you suddenly have to pay for blood pressure meds yourself? you'd drop weight quickly!

Wednesday, September 19, 2007, 3:50 PM

A doctor once told me the worst thing that ever happened to healthcare in this country was health insurance. Takes the personal responsibility completely out of the picture. Eat Big Macs all day..get angioplasty and go right back to your old ways. Someone else will pay for it. Folks on Peertrainer may understand prevention but not alot of other Americans.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007, 5:13 PM

is health insurance making america fat?

that is very interesting- I heard the exact same thing from a doctor as well. And this doctor specialized in nutrition and weight loss.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007, 5:48 PM

health insurance making americans fat? I don't think so. We all have a responsibility to ourselves. We make ourselves fat. Come on people lets stop laying blame on others.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007, 6:45 PM

Re 5:13 & 5:38 --- Those doctors' remarks painfully illustrate how badly our primary care practitioners understand obesity. No wonder it's classified as an epidemic these days.

On the brighter side of the whole insurance issue, some carriers reimburse for gym membership on the basis that it constitutes preventative care. Example: whatever Oxford plan my former employer had gave me a sheet for the gym staff to sign, and if I went 50 times in 6 months, I got a check for $100. Not a perfect solution, but definitely a sign of improvement.

Thursday, September 20, 2007, 1:18 AM

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