2009. 8-18
Joint Health Care Committee
2:00 – 4:00 pm via video
Anchorage: Admin 204
Fairbanks: Butrovich 212b
Juneau: Egan 116
Present
Union: John O. Riley, (UNAC); Tim Hinterberger (UNAC Alternate); J. Sowell, (6070, phone);
Colin Clausson, (6070); Tim Powers, (UAFT, phone); Jennifer Madsen (6070 Alternate)
Management: Beth Behner, Yvonne Boyce, Wendy Tisland (Alternate), Heather Swanson, Lisa
Sporleder (Alternate), Yvonne Boyce, Gwenna Richardson (Alternate, phone)
Staff: Mike Humphrey, Director of Benefits; Erika Van Flein, Benefits Administrator
Staff: Cyndee West, UNAC Contractor Manager; Jane Reilly, UNAC
Guests: Kristen Russell, Fall River Consulting Group LLC
Absent
Union: Jacob Joseph, (UNAC); Jane Weber (UAFT Alternate); Rick McDonald, (UAFT);
Management: Stuart Roberts
John Riley convened the meeting at 2:10 pm
Roll call was completed with the introduction of Gwenna Richardson who will be the new
alternate member from Staff Alliance. For the immediate future, and the sake of consistency,
Heather Swanson will continue to be the voting representative and Lisa Sporleder will continue
as an alternate.
The agenda was amended to include discussion of the meeting date for the review of the FY09 final
health care cost and accounting data.
The minutes from the July 7 meeting were approved.
Presentation
FALL RIVER CONSULTING GROUP
Kristen Russell, President of Fall River Consulting Group, introduced herself and gave a brief
history of her background and experience. She stressed the need for a long term, proactive
strategy to control health care costs through plan design that incorporates cost effective programs
such as wellness, disease management (DM), and prescription programs as well as employee
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engagement through education and reward incentives. In order to achieve this, Fall Rivers has a
six step “Trend Buster” plan that includes 1) design of a long term strategy 2) engagement of
employees in “their” health plan 3) improved utilization of preventative programs (wellness/DM)
to target the least healthy members 4) an education program to teach members to be better
healthcare consumers 5) analysis of current (and potentially ongoing) claims data to identify both
cost drivers and ineffective benefit programs (including evaluation of the ROI on current benefit
designs such as wellness, DM and prescription programs), and 6) continuing communication
through various media to the members as well as ongoing updates to the JHCC on latest benefit
design options and compliance data.
Beth Behner asked for a clarification on how to implement a program to incentivize the least
healthy members to participate in wellness initiatives. This is accomplished by tailoring the
incentive requirements to the health status of the member.
Based on data provided to her, Ms. Russell estimated a current medical trend of 11.38%, and
gave a brief demonstration of statistical analysis applied to claims data, disease management data
and pharmaceutical utilization. This report expressed concerns and options in all three areas.
Her final discussion involved how she could evaluate and provide recommendations on the
current wellness program. In conclusion, Ms. Russell estimated a cost of $35,000 to $50,000 for
an “overall strategy review” and asked for an estimate as to when we could inform her of our
decision to use her services.
Jennifer Madsen asked if there would be problematic delays in obtaining claims data from our
various providers. Ms. Russell said there should be no trouble in getting the information she
needs.
John Riley asked if evaluation of the wellness plan could be approached by comparing claims
data between similar populations that varied mainly in that one group had a wellness plan while
the other did not. Ms. Russell felt there could be sampling problems but it might be an avenue to
explore.
The main intent in soliciting Fall River’s proposal was to try and evaluate the cost effectiveness
of the current WIN for Alaska wellness program. The committee already heard a proposal from
Ron Goetzel, Research Professor and Director of the Institute for Health and Productivity
Studies. The committee discussed the need to make a timely decision on hiring an auditor as all
plan design changes must be decided by December ’09 to be implemented on July 1, 2010. Mike
Humphrey will ask Ms. Russell for a clarification of services and charges by the end of the week.
Because of the time constraints, if the desired services can be arranged for less than $50,000, the
committee will be asked to vote by email correspondence on whether to engage Fall River
Consulting Group.
INSURANCE CARDS
Tim Powers reintroduced the idea of providing insurance cards that list all benefit providers, ID
numbers, and phone numbers on one card. If possible, it would be nice to include the dependent
benefit information, as well. Cyndee West has a prototype card issued from the VA that may be
of use. She will get quotes on the cost to provide these cards to all members.
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DEPENDENT AUDIT
Wendy Tisland gave the report for the Dependent Audit (DA) committee which included Ms.
Tisland, Mr. Roberts and Ms. Van Flein. Jennifer Madsen was also involved in the discussion,
having had experience with dependent audits in the past. The committee looked at different
strategies, (whether an internal or outsourced audit would be better), and possible repercussions
such as employees feeling it was an intrusive or burdensome process. If performed internally,
trying to track the paperwork, particularly if done during open enrollment, would be daunting.
The frequent movement of faculty would make it difficult to reach everyone in a timely manner.
Follow up on non-responders would need to be coordinated. It was agreed that if documentation
was processed internally, that employees may feel more comfortable talking to their PPAs than
HR. The committee felt an accurate idea of cost savings would be helpful in determining if a
DA and its consequences were worthwhile. There may still be loopholes and inaccuracies, but
the University also has a fiduciary responsibility to the members especially as they assume a
greater proportion of health benefits cost. It was suggested that if we engage Fall River
Consulting Group to perform a benefits audit for us, we ask their opinion on this matter.
ACTION ITEMS
Mike Humphrey will ask for a proposal with a breakdown of desired options from Fall River.
Cyndee West will send out an example of the insurance card she has and get quotes for possible
distribution among members.
All faculty members of JHCC will email their fall teaching schedules to Cyndee West.
All members will respond to Cyndee West regarding the November meeting date for the review
of the FY09 final health care cost and accounting data..
Meeting adjourned at 4:20 P.M.
The next meeting of the committee will be held September 22, 2009 via video from 2:00 – 4:00
P.M.
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