May Headlines

Increase productivity with low back pain management
Medicare Secondary Payer reporting update
Update on the COBRA subsidy member notices
Pill-splitting cuts costs by $5.5 million
Good dental health leads to better overall health
HealthPartners 2009 Purchaser Symposium a success

Increase productivity with low back pain management

Low back pain is the most common cause of job-related disability and a leading contributor to missed work, according to the National Institute of Health. In fact, at least $50 billion is spent each year on low back pain.* With HealthPartners new Low Back Pain program, you can benefit from increased productivity and decreased costs. In fact, our Low Back Pain program results in a calculated 7.1 reduced days away from work. That’s real savings for you and better health for your employees!

The new program empowers your employees to self-manage their chronic low back pain in order to minimize interference with work and daily activities. This program provides lasting results through:

• A systematic approach – The Low Back Pain program incorporates a proven methodology to engage members, provide tailored support and improve health outcomes.
• Personalized support – Depending on their needs, individuals may receive personalized phone coaching from a registered nurse. This one-on-one interaction ensures individuals receive the support they need to manage their low back pain.
• Proven strategies – The Low Back Pain program includes proactive outreach, a unique stratification process, phone coaching and shared decision making.
• Integrated resources for whole-person support – The program is fully integrated with all of HealthPartners internal resources including behavioral health, wellness programs, case management and disease management.

As a result of these components, the new Low Back Pain program leads to improved functional status, self-management, pain management, shared decision making and coordination of care.

HealthPartners Low Back Pain program is available as a buy-up for both fully insured and self-insured groups. For more information, please contact your HealthPartners sales executive or your broker.

*National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, February 2009

Medicare Secondary Payer reporting update

The time has come to begin submitting data to HealthPartners for Medicare Secondary Payer Reporting! All groups must submit some key information by June 30, 2009, including group size and Tax Identification Number for groups implemented before January 1, 2009.

For groups implemented before January 1, 2009:
HealthPartners will be contacting you via phone, e-mail or letter to obtain your group size and Tax Identification Number before June 30, 2009. This will be used to properly identify you within the CMS system. No other information is needed until Open Enrollment; however, you can begin submitting key employee information sooner if you choose (see details below).

For groups implemented January 1, 2009 or later:
HealthPartners will be contacting you via phone, e-mail or letter to obtain your group size and Tax Identification Number. In addition, you must submit the following information to HealthPartners by June 30, 2009:

• Social Security or Health Insurance Claim Number of all employees, adult dependents and other Medicare-eligible dependents
• Status of all employees (active, retired, COBRA), including effective date of that status
• Disability status of all employees and dependents, including effective and term dates of disability status (if known)

Manual enrollment groups should submit missing information in one of the following ways. Detailed submission information is available at healthpartners.com/employer.

1. Update paper enrollment forms and fax or mail to HealthPartners Membership Accounting between June 1 and June 30, 2009. If there is not a designated area on the paper form to add employee status and/or disability indicator, please write it in an open area on the form. Please provide data as follows and circle the correct option:

Active Status: Active or Retired or COBRA
Disabled: Y or N

2. Send a password protected file via e-mail to your Membership Accounting contact. Please note that all files should be password protected and the password should be communicated in a separate e-mail. There should not be any reference to SSNs in the subject or body of the e-mail.
3. Update your records using the online enrollment tool on the employer portal.
4. Submit a file through EDI to HealthPartners secure server.

If you use electronic enrollment, please follow the same process you have in the past. We will begin reaching out those who use our electronic enrollment system in the coming weeks to assist with any concerns.

Finally, you can request reports of your membership to determine which employees and adult dependents are missing Social Security Numbers and other pertinent information. To obtain a report, please send a request to your Membership Accounting contact or HealthPartners sales representative. Please note that the report will include all membership and will have to be sorted to identify adult dependents only. These reports will be distributed to all employers this fall.

If you have questions, please contact your Membership Accounting contact, HealthPartners sales executive or your broker.

Update on the COBRA subsidy member notices

This month the State of Minnesota passed the look-back period for continuation coverage for individuals who were employed with Minnesota-based employers with fewer than 20 employees. The look-back period, also called the special election period, allows individuals who were involuntarily terminated between September 1, 2008 and February 16, 2009, and previously declined or dropped continuation coverage, an opportunity to re-elect coverage.

For groups with fewer than 20 employees, HealthPartners is required by the Department of Labor to send a continuation notice to certain members with a qualifying event from September 1, 2008, to December 31, 2009. In order to comply with this requirement, we have sent and will continue to send a continuation notice that includes an attestation to all members with terminated coverage from September 1, 2008, to December 31, 2009. Recipients are instructed to return applicable information to you or your COBRA administrator, which you will need to provide to your HealthPartners billing representative.

Please visit www.dol.gov/COBRA or healthpartners.com/employer for additional information about the subsidy.

Pill-splitting cuts costs by $5.5 million

In the last two years, HealthPartners pill-splitting program reduced costs by $5.5 million. Members saved $1.7 million in out-of-pocket costs and the program cut an additional $3.8 million in health plan costs in 2007 and 2008.

Medications in this program, called HealthPartners Half-Tablet Advantage, have about the same cost regardless of the strength. For example, a pill with 40mg of medication costs about the same as a pill with 80mg. The member saves when they fill the higher-strength version of the medication and split the pill into their prescribed dose. By doing this, the member pays one copay or coinsurance for a 30-day fill that lasts for 60 days. That’s like paying half price! In addition to the member’s savings, employer and health plan costs decrease by 37 percent.

The greatest savings in HealthPartners Half-Tablet Advantage Program are from the brand name drugs Lipitor® (for cholesterol) and Lexapro® (for depression). Nearly 6,000 HealthPartners members on Lipitor or Lexapro participated in the Half-Tablet Advantage Program in 2008. An estimated 25,000 additional members taking these medications could participate in the program. HealthPartners will be sending a targeted mailing to these members alerting them about the program and the potential savings early this summer.

Signing up is easy - it doesn't even require a new prescription! If the member requests pill-splitting, the pharmacy can update the dosage, the directions and the days supply. As a result, the claim will be processed to reflect the program savings.

For additional information about the Half-Tablet Advantage Program, please visit healthpartners.com/pharmacy.

Good dental health leads to better overall health

You may have heard about growing evidence that suggests a link between poor oral health and specific medical problems. And while you may be aware of this connection, it might leave you wondering how you can improve the dental health of your employees.

Here are some ideas for you:

• If you don’t already offer dental benefits to your employees, work with your sales executive or broker to identify a HealthPartners dental plan that works for you. All HealthPartners dental plans provide enhanced coverage on periodontal services for members who are diabetic or pregnant.
• Educate women through wellness and health incentive programs about the importance of oral healthcare during pregnancy, risks of dental disease and the transmissibility of the disease to infants and toddlers.
• If you already offer a dental plan, encourage employees to use dental benefits and seek routine preventive care for themselves and all members of their family. Remove financial obstacles for your employees by eliminating cost-sharing on preventive care. 
• Consider enhancing coverage for dependent children.  Research shows that kids who have good oral health as they move into their teenage years tend to maintain it for their life. In fact, most dental work that adults need today can be attributed to their oral health during childhood.  Most dentists recommend a child’s first dental visit be around their first birthday.
• Support community water fluoridation efforts aimed at assuring optimum fluoride levels in the drinking water. The Centers for Disease Control and prevention reports that for every $1 invested in fluoridation, $38 in dental treatment costs is saved.

So help your employees take care of their teeth – and their overall health. Talk to your HealthPartners sales executive or your broker about HealthPartners dental plans today.

HealthPartners 2009 Purchaser Symposium a success

Nearly 500 people attended the sixth annual HealthPartners Purchaser Symposium, focused on achieving affordability in healthcare. This year's event was held on April 28, 2009 at the RiverCentre in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

This year’s keynote speaker, Terry Fitzgerald, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, discussed the current state of the economy and what it means for healthcare. HealthPartners President and CEO, Mary Brainerd, shared what HealthPartners is doing to address the affordability of healthcare. The program concluded with a panel of employers that included representatives from 3M, Anchor Bank, Hennepin County and SMDC Health System. The panelists shared the action their organizations have taken to control healthcare costs and shared some additional strategies they plan to implement.

We welcome the opportunity to work with you to develop solutions that work for you. Please contact your HealthPartners sales executive or your broker to discuss ways we can work with your organization. If you weren’t able to attend this year’s event or if you would like to access the materials from the event, please visit healthpartners.com/symposium.