Reducing claims seen as key to curbing health care costs

Without change, the Business Roundtable, an association of major U.S. corporate CEOs, predicts employer health care costs will increase 166 percent by 2019, resulting in a cost burden of $28,530 per employee - almost triple the 2009 employee cost of $10,743.

Greg Dunn, president and chief executive officer of Benefit Solutions Inc. in Cedar Rapids, said health care reform has accomplished some improvement. But, said Dunn, who works with about 150 companies that range in size from two employees to several thousand employees, it has not curtailed the large number of claims coming through the system.

“Most companies are still experiencing tremendous usage, even with wellness programs and other initiatives,” he said.

“Many employers are trying to curtail (that) usage through the design of their health care plans. Co-payments are going up, deductibles are going up, and many insurance companies like Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield are going to a primary care model.

“There's a higher co-payment at the specialty level than at the general practitioner level, to guide people initially to their G.P.”

Some companies are adding their own spin. Midwest Metal Products, for example, a precision sheet metal fabrication shop in Cedar Rapids, was experiencing rising health care and prescription drug claims early in the last decade when it decided to try something beyond the usual employee wellness program.

“Our family had been introduced to glyconutritionals in 1996. Knowing what it had done for us, we had talked about it informally with our employees,” said Rita Jelinek, vice president and co-owner of Midwest Metal with her brother, Kevin Urban.

“Glyconutritionals are eight essential sugars that are not found in most diets today but are necessary for cells to communicate. When cells can communicate properly, they can fight off bacteria, viruses and other things that bombard them.”

In 2001, Midwest Metal, 800 66th Ave. SW, officially introduced glyconutritionals to its employees and brought in a speaker to talk about the benefits of the dietary supplement. After 9/11, business took a downturn, and Midwest Metal had to cut back on some things and purchasing glyconutritionals was one of them.

“We reintroduced glyconutritionals to our employees in the summer of 2006, but the economy again went into a downturn,” Jelinek said. “Figuring the third time was the charm, we reintroduced glyconutritionals again in July 2010, and not quite 50 percent of our employees participate.

"We've also held some open educational meetings in the evenings for family members and friends.”

Midwest Metal, which subsidizes the costs, has the dietary supplement shipped to the plant, and participating employees take the glyconutritionals twice a day. Employees have responded to surveys indicating improvements in energy, mental clarity, sleep, body weight, digestion, joint stiffness and soreness, blood pressure, respiratory issues, mood, quicker recovery from physical workouts and needing fewer prescriptions.

Medical studies have supported the benefits of glyconutritionals enhancing antioxidant protection against free radical damage in marathon runners and the treatment of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The latter, characterized by inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity, is typically treated using stimulants such as methylphenidate.

In 1998, a pilot study was conducted by Dykman and Dykman and reported in “Integrative Physiological and Behavioral Science” to document the effects of glyconutritional supplements in children with ADHD. During the first two weeks of the study, a decrease was noted in severity of symptoms associated with ADHD in children taking glyconutritionals.

In 2005, a team of professionals, with the support of Fisher Institute for Medical Research, studied the effects of glyconutritionals in 20 children between ages 5 and 18 diagnosed with ADHD.

Eleven children completed the 40-week study. Two children experienced improvement by the fourth week and considerable improvement was noted in five children by the eighth week and two children by week 12.

Jelinek said the glyconutritionals are part of a multi-pronged approach at Midwest Metal to improve employee health and reduce overall heath care costs. The company has changed what is sold in its vending machines, offers free flu shots annually, brings in healthy lunches twice a week for purchase by employees, promotes exercise and offers health education with lunch-and-learn events.

“We have not seen a reduction in our health care premiums, but it's hard to determine return on investment when a single employee can have a heart attack and that will impact premiums,” Jelinek said. “We tell our employees that the key to reducing premiums is healthier life styles and fewer claims.”

Midwest Metal purchases its glyconutritionals from Mannatech Inc., a Coppell, Texas, developer and provider of nutritional supplements and skin care products. Mannatech markets glyconutritionals as dietary supplements and does not claim that they can cure any disease or illness.

The cost of care

The cost of employer-sponsored health insurance increased 7.9 percent in 2010 to an average of $8,945 in Iowa, according to Mercer's National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans released in December. Employers expected their costs to rise 11.8 percent this year if they made no changes to their health plans, but planned to lower the increase to 7.4 percent by making changes to plan designs or vendors.

The Mercer survey found 34 percent of employers planning to shift health benefit costs to employees this year by raising deductibles, co-payments, co-insurance or out-of-pocket maximums. In addition, 28 percent planned to increase employees' share of the premium contribution and 18 percent expected to increase employee cost-sharing some other way.

David DeWitte of The Gazette contributed to this story.