Humana Rolls Out Health Plan With Cost Cap

June 3, 2004 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Humana Inc is rolling out a consumer-engagement health plan program designed to offer eligible employers a cap on second-year rate increases.

SmartAssurance will offer eligible companies a rate hike ceiling of 9.9% in the second-year, to provide cost containment and predictability for employers and a better health plan experience for employees. This is significant, Humana says since the “industry is experiencing double-digit health cost inflation.”

To be eligible for the second-year rate cap, employers have to agree to use tools such as Humana’s PlanWizard, an online plan-selection enabler; PlanProfessor, a year-round employee education tool; and e-enrollment at the beginning of each plan year.

The SmartAssurance product is being offered as an enhancement to Humana’s Smart family of consumer-engagement health plans.   Humana said the newest enhancement is based results of its SmartSuite product showing that by engaging consumers, employers can appreciably reduce employer health costs on a sustainable basis.

The SmartSuite program is sold as a single-source solution and is not available to employers who want to offer benefits from multiple health plans. While SmartSuite is available to employers with 100 or more employees, a SmartAssurance participant must have at least 500 employees to be eligible for the program.

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