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Great-West Healthcare Launches Innovative Plan to Address Rising Health Coverage Costs
Product demonstrates innovation in providing solutions for consumer-driven health care
DENVER, CO, March 23, 2004—Great-West HealthcareSM, which recently launched a first-to-market consumer-driven tiered benefits plan called Great-West Healthcare Consumer AdvantageSM , said that more than 150 companies with 40,000 eligible members have signed up for the cost-savings plan in its first two months. The national employee benefits company, which specializes in self-funded health plans, developed the plan to provide employers with more affordable choices aimed at reducing health care costs and more fully engaging employees in health care decisions.
"The early success of the plan confirms that employers are looking for new options to address rising costs," said Cindy Donohoe, vice president of marketing and product development at Great-West Healthcare. According to Donohoe, the plan can save employers up to 15 percent on their premium compared to traditional PPO plans.
"We’ve had companies with as few as 50 employees and as many as 1,500 employees choose the plan, and 45 percent are choosing to use the plan as a full replacement product." Donohoe added, "Plans that resonate in the marketplace combine effective medical management with creative benefit designs, and ensure that members have the right information at the right time to make wise health care decisions. Great-West Healthcare Consumer Advantage is successfully meeting this need."
The new PPO-type plan distinguishes between preventive care services, catastrophic services and routine or scheduled services. With preventive services, such as annual physical exams or immunizations, the members are covered at 100 percent after their co-payment. With catastrophic or medically complex conditions, members are offered assistance through an award-winning disease management program, and they are covered at a high level of coinsurance.
With scheduled and routine services, where the employee has a variety of treatment options and can plan ahead for scheduled treatment and decide on the appropriate facility, they are covered at a lower coinsurance level. "The premise with routine services," explained Donohoe, "is that the employee has the time to be more engaged and the tools to make more informed decisions."
The Great-West Healthcare Consumer Advantage plan represents an evolution in consumer-driven health care solutions and is a much more balanced approach versus earlier consumer-driven plan designs. "Health plan designs that support different coverage levels for different services and engage the member where it makes the most sense are proving to be popular with employers, as well as brokers and consultants," said Donohoe.
Employer customers have also commented on the positive aspects of the new program. "I like that the plan turns employees from users to consumers," said Johnny Slagle, controller at Huntington House, a furniture manufacturer with more than 100 employees. "It lets them look at how they are spending their medical dollars."
Brokers also appreciate the unique approach to cost savings and member engagement. "Great-West Healthcare Consumer Advantage is a better concept than a pure consumer-driven health care plan from other carriers in that it tends to target the right things," said Bob Livingston, vice president at Greene-Hazel, an employee benefits brokerage firm. "It forces the employee to understand where and how they are spending their health care dollars."
Since engaging members means giving them the right information to proactively consume health care services, Great-West Healthcare is offering a number of shared decision-making tools. A Web-based hospital comparison feature, drug comparisons, and an interactive wellness site are just a few of the support tools that members can access along with the new product offering.
The introduction of the Great-West Healthcare Consumer Advantage plan, which was made available in January of 2004, demonstrates Great-West Healthcare’s commitment to offering creative, practical solutions that address today’s critical health care cost issues.
Great-West Healthcare, a division of Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company, is a national employee benefits provider with expertise in self-funding and health care management solutions. Nationally, the health care network includes more than 5,300 hospitals and 515,000 providers and provides health care coverage to approximately 1.9 million people. Visit http://www.greatwesthealthcare.com for more information.
Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company, headquartered in metro-Denver, serves its customers through a full range of health care plans, life and disability insurance, annuities, and retirement savings products and services. It is an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Great-West Lifeco Inc. and a member of the Power Financial Corporation group of companies.
Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company is not licensed to do business in New York. Products are sold in New York by its subsidiary First Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company, Albany, N.Y.
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