OCHCP launches VBB program to improve employees’ health

This week the non-profit Oregon Coalition of Health Care Purchasers (OCHCP) launched a new program to assist employers in coordinating and aligning their health benefits to improve health. Initial participating OCHCP employer members include Blount International Inc., CityCounty Insurance Services, Cities of Corvallis and Eugene, Clackamas and Multnomah Counties, The Collins Companies, Evraz Inc, Lane Transit District, Legacy Health, Oregon Health & Sciences University, Portland General Electric Company, SAIF Corporation, and UMTA Trust.

Part of a national effort known regionally as the Oregon Health Strategy Project, the initiative will help employers to improve the health of their employees and their families through value-based benefits (VBB). VBB is an approach used by employers to ensure their workforce has access to high quality, evidence-based and cost-effective health care by reducing barriers (such as waived co-pays) to essential services and incentivizing (decreased premiums) them to achieve optimal health.

The project uses a data model to help employers identify programs that offer high value, promote employee wellness and prevention, manage long-term health care costs and improve the health of employees and their families through benefit design strategies and health improvement programs.

"Our members have been leaders of value-based benefits within the State, the Oregon Health Strategy Project will provide tools and consulting support at no cost to participating employers to enable them to maximize the value of their benefit dollars," said Barbara Prowe, executive director of OCHCP. "Through this project employers will be able to integrate and better understand the health data on their covered populations, which is critical for successful benefit design and employee communications."

The initiative is part of the national American Health Strategy Project, launched by the National Business Coalition on Health (NBCH) in cooperation with Pfizer Inc. The project will provide both hands-on technical and financial support to assist OCHCP and their employer members in developing a complementary array of employee health offerings and incentives that better align health promotion and prevention strategies with medical and pharmaceutical plans, and other benefits such as disability, and workers' compensation.

"Employers fund almost 60 percent of health care in the United States, often without understanding how to fully measure the value of their health investments," said Andrew Webber, president and CEO, NBCH. "As health care costs continue to rise, more employers are recognizing the value of tailoring benefits to the health risks within their employee populations. Employers often lack the tools and models needed to collect and interpret data across a broad range of activities to make better and more informed health benefit decisions for their workforce and we hope to help overcome those barriers with this project."