MORE PREVENTIVE CARE OFFERED THROUGH HEALTH CARE REFORM

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed into law earlier this year, is beginning to bring about changes to the nation’s health care system. In July, a summit between the U.S. Departments of Labor, the Treasury, and Health and Human Services came together to issue new Preventive Regulations, in accordance with the President’s health care reform bill.

The new regulations require non-grandfathered health care plans to provide complete coverage of many preventive services for newborns, children, and adults, regardless of whether deductible costs are met. These regulations will apply for the first plan year on or after September 23, 2010.

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The government has put these regulations in place in order to increase patients’ access to numerous services, such as diabetes and cholesterol tests, prostate and other cancer screenings, child/adult vaccinations, pre-natal services, and routine checkups for children and infants. In the past, many patients were required to cover deductible costs or share the cost of these services, but now preventive care will be covered on a full first-dollar basis. The new regulations only apply to in-network providers.

The Department of Health and Humans Services, or HHS, hopes that the increased access to high-quality preventive care will lead to earlier detection of disease and improve Americans’ overall health, essentially lowering health care costs. In the United States, seven out of every 10 deaths are caused by chronic diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. HHS estimates that 75% of the country’s health care dollars are spent on fighting diseases and illnesses that can be prevented. Additionally, the HHS states that Americans receive preventive services about half as much as they need to.

Here are a few health care services that will be covered under the new regulations:

Preventive Care. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force selected a variety of services to be covered, including screenings for colon and breast cancer, screenings for high blood pressure and cholesterol, checkups during pregnancy, help for smokers trying to quit, and other high-priority preventive care services.

Vaccinations. Routine vaccinations selected by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for children and adults are fully covered by the new regulations. These vaccines include Hepatitis A and B, MMR, Meningococcal, Tetanus, flu shots, and others.

Care for Children. All new plans will now cover the preventive services recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics in their “Bright Futures” guidelines. Services include access to pediatricians until the age of 21, regular wellness checkups, hearing and vision screenings, developmental assessments, vaccines, and care that addresses childhood obesity.

Women’s Care. Health screenings for anemia and other risk factors in pregnant women are covered, along with screenings for breast cancer and osteoporosis in older women, as well as other preventive measures. An independent council of doctors and medical experts is currently working on new preventive care guidelines for women.

Prescription contraceptives are not currently listed as a covered preventive service, but officials from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America hope that contraceptives will begin to receive first-dollar coverage within the next year or two.

Information on all of the covered services can be found on the www.healthcare.gov website.

EMPLOYEES PLACE GREAT VALUE ON BENEFITS AND JOB SECURITY

According to a recent report from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), employees consider benefits and job security as the two most important factors that contribute to their overall job satisfaction. This marks the fourth time in as many years that these two factors topped the SHRM’s annual Employee Job Satisfaction survey.

The survey also polled HR professionals on their thoughts about job satisfaction, and found similar results. HR professionals agreed with the employee population on the value of job security, positioning it as their second most important factor. An astonishing 72% of the HR population polled selected the employee-supervisor relationship as the most important factor effecting job satisfaction, ranking No. 1 in the survey for the seventh time in the past eight years. In comparison, only 48% of employees polled selected “relationship with supervisors” as an important factor, ranking it seventh on the list.

The 2010 survey was made up of 25 elements spread across four categories, and included factors regarding wages, benefits, work environment, and advancement opportunities, among others. To ensure the validity of the survey’s results, the SHRM polled a wide sample of over 600 employees and 589 HR professionals, all from the United States.

This year’s survey had other interesting results. Employee compensation fell to its lowest rank ever this year, coming in at fifth on the employees’ poll. Last year, compensation fell out of the top five rankings for HR professionals, and this year it was listed as the ninth largest contributor to job satisfaction.

Besides job security, employees and HR professionals appear to agree that having opportunities to utilize skills/abilities while at work contributes to overall satisfaction. It is the third consecutive year this factor has ranked in the top five in both surveys, with employees placing more emphasis on this choice in 2010 than in previous years.

SHRM included a new choice in this year’s survey that received a lot of attention from both sides of the table. For the first time in the survey’s history, participants could select “organization’s financial stability” as a key contributor to job satisfaction, receiving enough selections to rank fourth on both surveys.

As for employee benefits, a secondary survey revealed that health care coverage was the most important benefit, followed closely by paid time off. Despite the amount of significance employees place on benefits, only 38% of employees polled felt “very satisfied” with their current medical benefits. Conversely, the majority of employees were very satisfied by the amount of paid time off they received.

Some employers are concerned about how health care reform could affect the benefits they offer, which could also affect job satisfaction. On the brighter side, this year’s employee survey showed that “the work itself” was selected enough to tie for fourth, pointing out that satisfaction does not only come in the form of paychecks and paid vacations.

EMPLOYERS: COMMUNICATE THE BENEFITS OF GENERIC MEDICATIONS

As employees learn more about the availability of generic medications, they begin to make more cost efficient choices in the doctor’s office. Seems like a simple enough concept, and now there is more evidence to prove it.

A recent report from CVS Caremark has found a strong correlation between the amount of education employees receive regarding the use of generic medications and the reduction of the employers’ overall health care costs.

The 2010 Insights Report found that CVS Caremark was able to improve their GDR, or generic dispensing rate, by more than 3% in 2009 to 68.2% by educating customers on the money-saving advantages of generic medications. This increase also came during a time when few noteworthy generic alternatives were introduced.

Proactively, employers have designed their plans to maximize the availability of generic medications, while creating outreach programs in the workplace and with plan physicians. According to CVS Caremark, these tactics have been able to increase GDR dramatically, up to 90% in some drug classes.

Outreach programs and other tactics, like preferred drug lists, have been working for some time now. A Harris Poll study from October 2006 to December 2008, found that the amount of adults who would select generic alternatives to brand name medications jumped from 68% to 81%. Since more generic medications are hitting the market, this percentage is likely to increase.

In recent years, the patents ran out on brand name medications that have sold nearly $71 billion combined, and within the next five years, patents are expected to lapse on brand name drugs that sell more than $100 billion each year, all together.

The CVS Caremark research team predicts that this new wave of generic therapeutics could result in doctors writing about 80% of their prescriptions for generic alternatives as early as 2012.

The announcement of new generic drugs is music to employers’ ears, as they continue to look for ways to steer employees toward more cost efficient health care methods. As workers begin to understand how their use of generic medications is safe and financially responsible, the cost of benefits can be reduced, saving everyone money.