BENTONVILLE - A health insurance plan implemented last year for Benton County employees is receiving attention beyond Northwest Arkansas.
The county received a best practices award from the Arkansas Society for Human Resource Management in June, was mentioned in a Los Angeles Times article in April and will be featured at an Arizona health incentives conference in March.
And this week, the county's wellness-based insurance program will be featured on the CBS Evening News.
"We knew that there would be some attention," said Thomas Dunlap, benefits administrator for the county. "We didn't think it would be national."
In June of last year, the county began a program through Ohiobased Benicomp, which works in conjunction with the county's selfinsured health program to reward employees for healthy lifestylechoices.
Under the plan, employees are given an annual health screening to assess blood pressure, glucose level, cholesterol, body mass index and tobacco use.
If the results fall within a specific range, employees qualify for wellness credits to be used to reimburse their deductibles. Every employee starts out with a $2,000 deductible, but depending on how many health goals are met, an employee's deductible could be as low as $500.
On the self-insured plan, costs incurred by the county are determined by how healthy the employees are. Healthier employees generally make fewer trips to the doctor, take fewer medications and are in the hospital less. By keeping costs low, employees can also expect lower premiums.
"I think the best thing about getting everyone screened is people are finding out what's wrong with them," Dunlap said.
In 2005, Benton County spent $2.9 million on medical and prescription claims for its employees, up from $1.6 million in 2003 and $1.8 million in 2004.
In 2006, the cost was $2.3 million, but by the end of September of this year, costs had fallen to $1.35 million.
"We've seen pretty excellent numbers as far as reduction in overall claims costs," Dunlap said.
The top three aggregate diagnoses of county employees in 2005 were heart disease, obesity and smoking, Dunlap said, and all are conditions that can be controlled through a healthy lifestyle.
Even though drug claims went up among county workers, the disease prevention those drugs provide help lower long-term costs, officials said.
A CBS News production team visited the County Administration Building late in September to interview participants in the plan, particularly employees who have lost large amounts of weight or otherwise made themselves healthier. Also interviewed was Human Resources Manager Barbara Ludwig.
Dunlap said the segment - of which approximately 3 minutes will include Benton County - is expected to air Monday, but breaking news could postpone the three-part health-insurance story.
"If you tune in on Monday, you might see the first segment. I don't know if that will include us," Dunlap said.
Dunlap and Ludwig weren't exactly pleased with the attention the county's health program received in an April story in the Los Angeles Times. The story focused mostly on overweight Benton County employees and pointed out that critics believe such plans work off the unfair assumption that obese or otherwise unhealthy people can easily turn their situations around.
"We had to do something, and what we have done protects the low premiums we had and the co-pay benefits of $20," Dunlap says in response to criticism of the plan. "We found a way to protect it, basically."
Arkansas, Pages 8 on 10/29/2007