County Council Moves Forward With Health Reform Initiative

On Monday, The King County Council acted on two measures to move forward on a bold new Health Reform Initiative to improve health and contain healthcare costs. The measures were enacted to help reduce the cost of government and thereby make wiser use of public dollars for other needs. “Cost containment is a critical part of our work to balance our budget.” said Council Chair Larry Phillips. “Without a cost-containment strategy, providing benefits to our public employees — the people who drive your bus, inspect your favorite restaurants, and treat your wastewater — could double in cost in the next seven years. At a time when high costs are driving many employers to move away from paying for their employees’ health care, King County is saying ‘let’s think of a better idea.'” The goal of the Health Reform Initiative is to reduce the county’s health care costs by $40 million for the medical benefits package that will cover the three years from 2007 to 2009. The plan has three parts. The external strategy is embodied by the Puget Sound Health Alliance, a new regional partnership of health care purchasers, plans, health care professionals and patients collaborating to improve quality and reduce costs in health care delivery across the 4-county region of King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties. Alliance participants are working to improve quality of care, slow the rate of increase in health care expenditures in the Puget Sound region, and improve health outcomes. The Alliance was formed following the recommendation of the King County Health Advisory Task Force convened by County Executive Ron Sims in 2004. Partners include the region’s leading organizations: Starbucks, Boeing, REI, and more than 42 others representing more than 700,000 individuals. The Alliance recently hired Margaret Stanley, a well-known and respected health professional as its first Executive Director. The internal strategy is to get employees and their families healthy and keeping them that way. Two programs, the Healthy Incentives Program and Wellness at Work, support this goal. As its name suggests, the Healthy Incentives Program seeks to provide an incentive in the 2007-2009 benefits package for employees to be an active participant in their own health. The Wellness at Work program seeks to provide a supportive environment in the work place for employees to eat smart and move more while at work. The strategy envisions weight management, quit-smoking, and other programs to encourage healthier behaviors. This in turn prevents lower-risk problems from becoming catastrophic — again, with the goal of containing health care costs so as to reduce the cost of government. The Council last year approved funding to begin the Health Reform Initiative, but asked the Executive to transmit business cases on the potential benefits of initiative programs. The Council also required a progress report on the Puget Sound Health Alliance. The Council today approved the business case for the Health Reform Initiative and approved the progress report on the Puget Sound Health Alliance. The Council deferred action for one week on the business case for the Benefit Health Information Project — a project to replace the current paper-based employee enrollment process with a Web portal to support county employees in becoming wise advocates for their health. The Executive is expected to request action on the Wellness to Work program as part of his 2006 budget proposal. “Getting healthy and staying healthy is a goal for all of us. It is also a key to controlling our bottom line,” added Phillips. “The strength of King County government is the people who work for it. Working with the Executive and the unions who represent many county employees, we are creating a national model for keeping employee health care affordable.”Council Moves Forward With Health Reform Initiative / page 2(more)