HealthPartners has launched JourneyWell, an expanded health and wellness business serving companies nationwide. While many companies already take advantage of our health and wellness programs, like Healthy Benefits, JourneyWell will offer non-HealthPartners health plan customers across the nation these award-winning services.

JourneyWell was developed to enable HealthPartners to better address the growing demand for health and wellness services. JourneyWell can be paired with any health plan in the nation. If you have a HealthPartners health plan, these health and wellness services are available as a part of your health plan.

We look forward to sharing more details about JourneyWell with you. Watch for more information in future issues of Beyond Benefits. If you have any questions, please visit aboutjourneywell.com.

HealthPartners fifth annual Purchaser Symposium was held at the RiverCentre in downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota on June 4, 2008.

This year’s keynote speaker, Dr. Arnold Milstein, discussed how we can work together to improve healthcare efficiency, quality and affordability, to incubate a “60 miles per gallon healthcare system.” HealthPartners President and CEO, Mary Brainerd, shared what HealthPartners is doing to deliver better value in healthcare and how you can accelerate healthcare improvement. The program concluded with a panel that discussed concrete solutions that have been implemented to improve health and control trend.

HealthPartners welcomes the opportunity to work with you. Please contact your HealthPartners sales representative or your broker to discuss initiatives we can work on together. 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.

If you offer your employees a health savings account (HSA), please take note of the 2009 annual minimum deductibles, maximum out-of-pocket expenditure limits and deduction limits. Also, please note that any employee on the plan who is age 55 or older may make an additional “catch-up” contribution of $1,000 in 2009.

As set by the Internal Revenue Service, the amounts for both 2008 and 2009 are shown below:

For more information, please visit http://www.treasury.gov/offices/public-affairs/hsa/.

HealthPartners has earned another three-year "Excellent" accreditation status, the highest level possible, from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) for its commercial managed care and PPO plans.

HealthPartners earned four stars – indicating the highest level of performance in all five areas of measurement:

• Access and Service
• Qualified Providers
• Staying Healthy
• Getting Better
• Living With Illness

To earn NCQA's seal of approval, accredited health plans must meet more than 80 rigorous standards of care and service. Standards address coordination of care, complex case management and disease management programs, interactive consumer tools and health risk assessments. NCQA is regarded as the most rigorous and thorough health plan accreditation in the industry.

Learn more about NCQA’s accreditation process.

HealthPartners recently launched a new advertising campaign designed to break the mold of healthcare advertising. HealthPartners calls the campaign, "A New Way to Look at Healthcare." The campaign includes unconventional billboard, radio, Internet, viral advertising and "spectaculars" – giant props of common health care items such as tongue depressors, swabs, syringes, pill capsules and specimen cups, placed at locations throughout the Twin Cities.

HealthPartners also commissioned two campaign mascots: Petey P. Cup and Pokey the syringe. Both mascots will appear throughout the Twin Cities over the summer. Petey P. Cup has a presence on Facebook and YouTube.

This campaign is designed to highlight HealthPartners online patient services at healthpartners.com. Online patient services enable patients to schedule an appointment, view medical records, get same-day test results, refill prescriptions, print immunization records and consult with a doctor online.

HealthPartners turned to Twin Cities advertising agency Kerker & Associates Inc. to create the campaign, which included creation of all of the spectaculars. The spectaculars are between five and ten feet high and weigh anywhere from 35 to 225 pounds. Keep an eye out around the Twin Cities for these spectaculars and the rest of the advertising campaign!

Learn more about HealthPartners online patient services and this advertising campaign.