Health insurer ties pay to members' health

Source: LAT

The nation's largest health insurer said Tuesday that it would tie some compensation of its employees to the well-being of patients.

WellPoint Inc., which has 34 million insured members nationwide, including 8 million in its Blue Cross of California unit, said its employees would receive larger bonuses if health plan members increased their use of preventive practices such as immunizations, cancer screenings and diabetes-management tools. If successful, the plan could reduce healthcare costs and possibly increase WellPoint's profit in the long run.

Health insurers and the federal government have been pushing for ways to tie the compensation of doctors and hospitals to how well patients fare. WellPoint is believed to be the first health plan to apply that standard to its employees.
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But some consumer advocates and physician groups are skeptical. They contend that WellPoint's program could be used to identify the sickest patients so that their premiums could be raised or their coverage canceled. They cite a finding by state regulators that Blue Cross of California illegally dumped individual policyholders after they incurred hefty medical bills. WellPoint, which the regulators fined $1 million, has denied the allegations.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-healthpay4apr04,0,3273401.story?coll=la-home-headlines

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Wow. An insurance company was fined a whole million dollars? Hope the defense team didn't choke on their own guffaws over that one. Stoopit sick people with bills!

Whatever happened to that old saw about the threat of fines being used as a deterrent to bad corporate behavior?

I think the increased use of "preventive practices" is a great idea.
Especially for most cancers, early detection is a life-saver (and saves on the bills!).

But the bonuses bother me - shouldn't healthy patients be the everyday goal, not a bonus-worthy step?

And, of course, in companies that are most interested in the bottom line, and not at all in their everyday goal as HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS, the potential for abuse, ie: identify and cut loose the sickest patients, is very real.

Hard to say where I come down on this one... If I had any reason to believe that WellPoint was being truly altruistic, I'd be all for this. Unfortunately, that belief is a bit hard to come by...

with the word "diabetes" on it. The premium rose to stratospheric levels and within 2 years we had to give it up. Health insurance should not cost 3 times your mortgage payment. This is a trap to identify policy holders with chronic conditions.

about "DelaWell" and I'm not feeling comfortable with it. Info for it is at http://ben.omb.delaware.gov/delawell/