OTA Dispatch Issue 4 2017

20 Oregon Trucking Associations, Inc. Oregon Truck Dispatch HEALTH High Health Insurance Renewal? Discover Two Innovative Ways to Divert Some of the Costs By Christa Wendland, OTA Communications Consultant Healthiest You It’s a telemedicine program you can add to your current benefits package to help offset costs associated with ER and urgent care visits. The current trends in healthcare are forcing companies to absorb overwhelming premium increases, year after year. Americans are creatures of habit, and a serious change in behavior is necessary to slow or stop this trend. OTA Members now have a unique opportunity to access a revolutionary “Telemedicine” program called Healthiest You . Telemedicine uses two-way, real-time interactive communication between the patient and the off-site physician or practitioner. Audio and video equipment and other technologies allow convenient and secure communication, as well as the transmission of medical, imaging and other health data from one site to another. This is one option to shift consumers away from expensive and inefficient healthcare end points like Urgent Care and the ER. This program gives member employees and their families 24/7 access to board certified physicians in the US, in all 50 states, at no cost ($0.00 Copay) except monthly cost per employee! Did You Know? 70 percent of all ER & Urgent Care visits could be handled over the phone. Healthiest You utilization redirects claims away from the company health plan, allowing for greater long-term cost control. In addition, this centralizes healthcare options and allows employees and their families efficient and effective access to care while saving money. Contributor: Dan Petrillo, LaPorte Insurance If you are interested in learning more about either program, contact: Christine Logue, christine@ortrucking.org , 503.513.0005. Total Workforce Health Management It’s a self-insured product, typically for companies with 40+ employees, that looks at total worker data to make meaningful differences in utilization and claims costs. Work and health are indelibly linked. The health of the U.S. population directly impacts profitability, brand and image, sustainability, employee retention and workforce productivity. A single workforce is comprised of individuals who can be identified based on their degrees of health risk. Medical and insurance benefit costs are disproportionately higher among at- risk employees in comparison to their lower-risk colleagues. Benefits and worker’s compensation (safety/loss control) serve the workforce as mutually exclusive departments within a company. They do not work together and they both maintain independent views of risk. This compartmentalized approach to managing overall health spending prevents companies and cultures from seeing exactly what impacts the health of the overall workforce. Did You Know? According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 75 percent of each treatment dollar is spent on chronic conditions. The CDC reports that 80 percent of cases of either heart disease or Type II diabetes, and 40 percent of cancer cases could be prevented if Americans stopped smoking, improved their diet and got regular exercise. At the core of Total Workforce Health Management ™, another new option for OTA members, is managing health benefits and safety programs from a single viewpoint strategy. By bringing both risk viewpoints together into a single strategy, data can be shared, risk factors can be identified/engaged and cost containment elements implemented to increase workforce performance and productivity while drastically reducing health costs. The intent is to help employees be better healthcare consumers and effectively intervene to reduce absence, control costs, improve outcomes and support prosperity for all. Contributor: Norm Hightower, Voluntary Insurance Professionals, Inc. PROVATA’S HEALTHY TRUCKER CHALLENGE— DON’T FORGET THAT THE NEXT CHALLENGE BEGINS JANUARY 1! See page 24 for details.