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HERO Think Tank e-newsletter
First Quarter - 2008
The HERO Think Tank is a nation wide group of employer and provider members who have taken the lead to create employee health management policy, strategy, leadership, and infrastructure. The HERO Think Tank mission is to move EHM forward as a widely accepted and accurately measured strategy to enhance the health of employees and their dependents and thereby, moderate health care costs increases, improve work performance, and maximize well-being. _______________________________________________________________________ It is recommended this e-newsletter be printed and reviewed at your leisure. ________________________________________________________________________
A Note from Bill Whitmer, CEO – HERO Over the past several years, there has been considerable discussion about the increase in employee health management (EHM) interest, acceptance, and sophistication. Some are bold enough to call it the beginning of a paradigm change. Regardless, as the up-turn continues, the requirement for defining EHM benchmarks and the determination of best practice and related activities is not an option, but a requirement. For this reason, I am pleased to note that this issue of the HERO Think Tank e-newsletter is devoted to EHM benchmarking, best practice, quality, and program certification. The information about EHM program quality and certification is provided by Patrick Leary, Director of External Affairs at the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). NCQA is widely recognized as a premier organization in the establishment of health care quality and certification. About 18 months ago, the HERO Think Tank began conversations with NCQA about their interest in EHM. We are pleased to share information from NCQA about their plans to become active in the world of EHM. The EHM benchmarking and best practice information centers on the new HERO Employee Health Management Best Practice Scorecard Version 2 (Scorecard V2). The use, acceptance, and feedback from the initial Scorecard was such that within one year, we have released a second version that is available on the HERO website in a PDF format and an online format where you can input information about your EHM program. The Scorecard V2 is a significant advancement over the initial version. ___________________________________________________________________ On the Horizon By: Patrick Leary – Director, External Relations - NCQA The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) is a private, not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. Since its founding, NCQA has been a central figure in elevating the issue of health care quality to the top of the national agenda and driving improvement system-wide. The NCQA seal is a widely recognized symbol of quality. To earn the seal, organizations must pass a rigorous, comprehensive review and annually report on their performance. For consumers and employers, the NCQA seal is a reliable indicator of high-quality care and service. Although NCQA is best known for its accreditation of health plans and development of industry-standard health care quality measures, the organization is also a leading evaluator of physicians and physician practices, recognizing more than 9,000 physicians for delivering top-notch care in the areas of diabetes, cardiovascular and back pain care, as well as having key practice systems in place. NCQA also certifies managed behavioral healthcare organizations and disease management organizations. As NCQA has significant expertise in developing meaningful, fair evaluation programs by building consensus among a diverse group of stakeholders, it makes sense to apply that expertise to the area of health promotion programs. A broad array of organizations offer a health promotion function: while some organizations are standalone vendors, others are health plans or disease management vendors. NCQA’s program will include a set of standards and measures applicable to these organizations.
NCQA will also phase in performance measures that would generally evaluate process. Among the measures being currently considered:
The idea is to provide purchasers with an idea of how well health promotion vendors manage or maintain modifiable risk factors over a period of time and to facilitate comparisons of health promotion vendors on select dimensions of health promotion. What Would the Program Look Like? - NCQA’s Health Promotion product suite would offer two tracks: a voluntary Distinction program for organizations that have already earned NCQA Accreditation and Certification for health promotion vendors not eligible for other NCQA Accreditation. Distinction - In recent years, NCQA created several voluntary content areas for which accredited health plans can earn Distinction, such as its Quality Plus initiative. Distinction in health promotion would comprise a set of voluntary requirements for accredited health plans, MBHOs and disease management organizations. To earn Distinction, organizations would meet a broad set of standards and report on a set of performance measures. Certification - Not all vendors would be eligible for
Distinction; for instance, some vendors only develop and administer HAs;
others focus on coaching. NCQA will develop up to three certification areas
comprised of a subset of the standards and measures that align with the
functions commonly offered by vendors. Standalone health promotion vendors
would be eligible for Certification. What’s Next? - NCQA has convened an advisory committee and a measurement advisory panel. Both are comprised of leading experts in health promotion from across the health care system and include representatives from vendors, purchasers, researchers, consumers and plans. The groups are tasked with considering product concepts and contributing to the development of standards and measures. This coming spring, the standards and measures will be field tested and made available for public comment. Mark your calendars and check www.ncqa.org for details. Public comment is an invaluable portion of the development cycle and is your opportunity to weigh in on the development of this program before its launch. The final measures for the new Health Promotion program will be launched in January 2009. We at NCQA will be certain to keep you apprised of details as the development of this exciting new program progresses. For more information, contact Patrick Leary at (202) 955-5130. __________________________________________________________________ Employee Health Management Benchmarking and Best Practice Background - In 2006, the HERO Think Tank created the HERO Employee Health Management Best Practice Scorecard (Scorecard). The Scorecard is a self-administered instrument that helps employers, providers and other stakeholders learn about EHM benchmarking and best practice; and determine if a program has achieved best practice status. The Scorecard does not address program certification. During the first year of availability, nearly 3,000 hard copies of the Scorecard were requested and distributed, which suggests a high level of interest in benchmarking and best practice. All the work, from concept, to development, to activation of the Scorecard was accomplished by Think Tank members. After about one year of significant use and feed-back, it was determined that there had been sufficient critique and recommendations to create a second version. The HERO Employee Health Management Best Practice Scorecard – Version Two (Scorecard V2) - In identifying benchmarks and defining best practice, EHM is divided into critical core components, which are: Corporate Culture & Leadership Commitment, Strategic Planning, Communication/ Marketing/ Promotion, Program Components, Benefit Design, Incentives, Program Coordination, Data Management & Evaluation and Program Outcomes. Doing EHM benchmarking and best practice evaluation at the critical core component level makes the task more accurate and manageable. The Scorecard V2 currently has several applications. It is anticipated that additional applications will be developed over time.
As a not-for-profit organization, the Think Tank has made the Scorecard V2 public domain, and placed it on the HERO website. Go to www.the-hero.org and click on the Scorecard link. The Scorecard V2 is provided in two formats. One is the PDF option, which can be downloaded and printed, with the determination of benchmarks and the establishment of best practice done manually. There is also the online format which is intended for broader research and evaluation purposes. In order to fully test the industry’s experience with the Scorecard V2, it is essential to collect data on the EHM practices implemented across a large number of diverse corporations. The online format allows the user to input their data directly into a database. No identifiers are requested or required. Access to the Online Scorecard V2 does not require a user name or password, but the site is highly secure. Upon accessing the online link, there are two options. The first provides access to Scorecard V2, preceded by important background information; the other directly accesses the Scorecard V2 Database. In either case, you can submit your benchmark information based on three parameters: Not Included, Partially Included, or Fully Included. In return for sharing your program information, after a critical number of organizations have submitted program data, you may request an aggregate benchmarking and best practices report by contacting Katie McClenny – kmcclenny@the-hero.org at the HERO office. An EHM Interactive, Normative Database – The Think Tank is moving forward with the creation of an EHM interactive, normative database. The normative database will allow employers, providers and other stakeholders to complete the online Scorecard, and then compare their EHM program with other demographically similar EHM programs. The first step in this process is to get hundreds of Scorecard V2 evaluations into the online database. Your participation in this effort is an important first step for the creation of the EHM interactive, normative database. If you would like to communicate with the HERO Think Tank about the Scorecard V2, please do so by calling Bill Whitmer at (205) 969-2680, or emailing: info@the-hero.org with “Scorecard V2” in the subject box. On behalf of the Think Tank, thank you for your interest and involvement. ____________________________________________________________________ Things You May Like To Know The Business Roundtable Provides Wellness Program Information – The Business Roundtable (BRT) is a national association of about 160 CEO’s from mostly FORTUNE 200 corporations. The member companies comprise about one-third of the total value of the U.S. stock market. Collectively, these employers have in excess of 10 million employees. Recently, the BRT released a useful and intriguing document entitled “Doing Well Through Wellness: 2006-07 Survey of Wellness Programs at Business Roundtable Companies”. This report provides information for about 70 BRT member employee health management (EHM) programs. Some of these companies are Abbott Laboratories, The Boeing Company, Dow Chemical Company, Eastman Chemical Company, and Prudential Financial. Of these programs, over half have been operational for at least 5 years and about 40% have existed for ten years. The report, which is over 50 pages in length, is available at no cost, and featured on the BRT website home page. Go to www.BRT.org to obtain your copy. The Cost of Health Care Around the World – The Commonwealth Fund, which is a private foundation that centers on “creating high-performance health systems” (www.commonwealth.org), has provided information on the per capita cost of health care in a number of developed countries: New Zealand - $2,083, Britain - $2,546, Australia - $2,876, Germany - $3,005, Canada - $3,165, and the United States - $6,102. How can it be that in the United States health care cost is 50% to 70% more than these other countries? Is it because the other countries have socialized medicine and the government pays the bills? Is it because the American health care system is that much better? Is it because the American lifestyle is much worse? Is it because the U.S. is not as good in sharing health care medical information? Is it because of over-use in the U.S.? The questions go on and on. The important issue is that conservative estimates indicate the per capita cost in the U.S. for health care in 2016 will be about $12,000. This provides an extraordinary opportunity for EHM to step forward and become the method of choice to reduce modifiable health risks, and there-by, moderate health care cost increases. Growth of Severe Obesity Passes Moderate Obesity – A study conducted by the Rand Corporation and published in the journal Public Health indicates severe obesity is increasing significantly faster than moderate obesity. The study identifies a severely obese person as having a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or more. A severely obese male weighs about 300 pounds and a severely obese female weighs about 250 pounds. The study reports that from 2000 to 2005, the number of Americans with a BMI of 30 or more increased 24%, while the number with a BMI of 40 or more increased by 50%. The average health care cost for a middle aged person with a BMI of 40 is double the cost of a similar age person with a normal BMI (18.5-24.9) Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com/healthnews.phd?newsid=67554 ________________________________________________________________________ “A person who has health has a thousand wishes, a person who doesn’t, has but one.” Anonymous ________________________________________________________________________ If others in your organization would like to be added to the HERO Think Tank e-newsletter mailing list, send an email to: info@the-hero.org and type “Think Tank e-newsletter” in the subject box.
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