Summary
The Boston Globe and Washington Post both recently reported on ways in which employers these days are cut health insurance costs by getting employees more involved in their own care. In some cases, companies are switching to plans that require more out-of-pocket money for services and, therefore, make employees better health care shoppers. And other new health plans actually pay employees for healthy behavior that, in theory at least, keeps them out of the hospital.
Original source:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=20299
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Two newspapers recently examined efforts by employers and health plans to control health care costs by offering incentives to workers and members.
The Boston Globe on Thursday examined consumer-directed health plans, "the next new thing employers and insurers are pushing" to help reduce health care costs.
Such health plans are intended to increase members' involvement in health care decisions by increasing their awareness of the cost of health care services and offering incentives for controlling health care costs along with higher out-of-pocket expenses than other health plans.
About one million of the 160 million U.S. residents with employer-based health coverage currently are members of consumer-directed health plans, and a Kaiser Family Foundation survey conducted last year found that half of all employers with 5,000 or more workers said they likely would introduce such health plans as an option for health care coverage in the next two years.
PacifiCare pays about $15 every two weeks to workers who report healthy eating habits and exercise in an online diary and offers rewards for participation in classes to stop smoking or to manage chronic diseases.
Soon, those that don't do this may have to pay more or risk a penalty."
However, some workers rights groups have said these programs violate workers' privacy rights.
Mark Rothstein, director of the Institute for Bioethics, Health Policy and Law at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, said penalties would be "a tax that some of the lower-paid workers perhaps can't afford" (Eunjung Cha, Washington Post, 2/20).
About the author: Mike Adams is a consumer health advocate and award-winning journalist with a mission to teach personal and planetary health to the public He has authored more than 1,800 articles and dozens of reports, guides and interviews on natural health topics, and he has published numerous courses on preparedness and survival, including financial preparedness, emergency food supplies, urban survival and tactical self-defense. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In 2010, Adams co-founded NaturalNews.com, a natural health video sharing site that has now grown in popularity. He also launched an online retailer of environmentally-friendly products (BetterLifeGoods.com) and uses a portion of its profits to help fund non-profit endeavors. He's also a veteran of the software technology industry, having founded a personalized mass email software product used to deliver email newsletters to subscribers. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and practices nature photography, Capoeira, martial arts and organic gardening. He's also author of numerous health books published by Truth Publishing and is the creator of several consumer-oriented grassroots campaigns, including the Spam. Don't Buy It! campaign, and the free downloadable Honest Food Guide. He also created the free reference sites HerbReference.com and HealingFoodReference.com. Adams believes in free speech, free access to nutritional supplements and the ending of corporate control over medicines, genes and seeds. Known on the 'net as 'the Health Ranger,' Adams shares his ethics, mission statements and personal health statistics at www.HealthRanger.org
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Tuesday, March 08, 2005
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