Clarian Won’t Dock Workers Who Fail to Meet Health Standards
By Daniel Lee, The Indianapolis Star
Nov. 1–Clarian Health apparently has decided the punitive approach may not be the best way to motivate employees to shape up.
Starting in 2009, Clarian Health will provide financial incentives if employees meet health requirements, instead of penalties if they don’t.
The Indianapolis hospital system has abruptly ended a plan — which Clarian had touted on national TV just months before — to dock workers up to $30 out of their paychecks every two weeks if they did not control certain risk factors such as body-mass index, high cholesterol and high blood sugar.
The plan, set to take effect in 2009, featured mandatory health-risk assessments for all employees enrolling for health insurance.
Now the program, which still starts in 2009, is purely voluntary. And workers who do participate in the “wellness tract” will be paid bonuses of up to $30 per pay period if they don’t use tobacco and meet certain measurements for body-mass index, LDL “bad” cholesterol, blood glucose and blood pressure.
“We listened to feedback from our employees about what they wanted and responded with an incentive-based program that gives all Clarian employees, at their option, the tools and information needed to live healthy lives,” Clarian Chief Executive Daniel Evans said.
Nine of the 15 largest employers in Central Indiana offer such cash incentives or reduced health premiums ranging from $50 to $1,200 annually, according to an informal Indianapolis Star survey in the spring. All but two provide screenings or risk assessments. Seven have fitness centers, and 10 offer exercise, smoking or weight-loss classes.
Sheriee Ladd, Clarian’s vice president of human resources, said focus groups and staff meetings revealed that many workers were so focused on the potential increases to their insurance premiums that they could not focus on the wellness initiatives and behavior changes that Clarian was trying to encourage.
Clarian operates Methodist Hospital, Indiana University Hospital and Riley Hospital for Children and is one of the region’s largest employers, with nearly 12,000 employees.
“We don’t believe that we caved,” Ladd said. “We believe that in some ways our leadership might have been a little bit ahead of its time. In our population, some were ready to receive it, some were not.”
While most of the plan would not have gone into effect until 2009, Clarian workers would have faced changes starting next year.
Under the old plan, for instance, tobacco users would have been charged an extra $5 per pay period.
Now, starting in 2008, Clarian workers can earn bonuses of $5 per pay period for taking the health-risk assessment and another $5 per pay period if they don’t use any tobacco products.
Some workers were glad to see the mandatory charges disappear.
“Why should I have to pay because I smoke?” asked Larry Jones, a Clarian employee. “Smokers have rights, too.”
Clarian said the changes were not prompted by legal or privacy issues. Ladd said workers who did not meet the minimum requirements in the health measurements could have avoided the charges if they had a notice from their physician saying they were under care for that particular condition.
“We had vetted this plan,” Ladd added. “It wasn’t a legal issue.”
Clarian, as with many other employers, is trying to figure out ways to slow the fast-rising cost of providing health care for workers. The hospital has said its premiums increased 15.7 percent in 2007 and 12.9 percent in 2006, both well above the rate of inflation.
Employers in Indiana can face especially high health-care costs because the state ranks among the highest in the nation in rates of smoking and obesity, which are linked to many deadly and expensive health problems.
Clarian’s plan to charge workers extra for failing to meet certain health guidelines made national news after it was announced this summer.
On NBC News’ “Today” in August, host Matt Lauer asked Clarian’s Evans why the hospital system was imposing the financial penalties on workers deemed to be unhealthy.
“Our health-care costs were going up, and our employees were not taking full advantage of the programs we had in place,” Evans replied.
Clarian said it provides workers with free smoking-cessation and wellness programs.
Joe Guzman, CEO of Indianapolis insurance broker Benefit Strategies, said it is vital that employers communicate with their workers to inform them and motivate them about wellness programs and other initiatives to improve their health and control costs.
“You’ve got to get the employees engaged,” he said.
DETAILS OF PLAN
Here are the measures for the voluntary program and the amount of bonus per two-week pay period:
–Non-tobacco user: $5.
–Blood pressure of 140 over 90 or less: $5.
–LDL “bad” cholesterol: 130 or below: $5.
–Blood glucose of 120 or less: $5.
–Body-mass index 29.9 or below (30 or above is considered obese): $5.
–Completing health-risk assessment: $5.
Source: Clarian Health
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