Employer Health Group Unveils Value Benefits Guide

An NBCH news release said Value-Based Benefit Design is an emerging employer trend to develop health benefit programs that use financial incentives, such as minimizing or eliminating a patient’s out-of-pocket costs for high value services like prescription drugs and preventive care.

Additionally these programs are designed to encourage adoption of healthy lifestyles (i.e. smoking cessation, weight management) and the use of high performance doctors and hospitals with the end goal of improved health and reduced health care costs, NBCH said.

The guide stresses the importance of corporate leadership, effective communication and employee support services as part of an effective benefits package. The resource provides information on implementation steps, precautions and potential barriers, and specific examples/case studies of organizations that have successfully implemented VBBD programs including Caterpillar, Gulfstream, IBM, and Marriott, according to the news release.

“As the health care reform debate continues, it’s important that we also consider how to better align consumer incentives to motivate preventive care and healthier behaviors,” said Andrew Webber, president and CEO of NBCH, in the news release. “By removing barriers to needed, valuable services and providing positive incentives through value-based purchasing strategies such as VBBD, employers are able to optimize their benefit plans to have healthier employees with lower health care costs.”

The guide is at http://www.nbch.org/documents/VBBDPurchaserGuide.pdf .