Forum addresses consortiums, health-care costs

~ Speakers presented successful ways they have lowered health-care costs on the state level.

A think tank will be formed to develop a system for small businesses in Southeast Missouri to help lower health-care costs through consortiums.

Sen. Jason Crowell and Steve McPheeters, communications superintendent with Noranda Aluminum, facilitated a forum at the Glenn Auditorium on the Southeast Missouri State University campus Thursday to make health care more affordable for the area's workforce. The forum was hosted by the Missouri Research Corporation and Providers Assuring Rehabilitation Efficacy.

Speakers presented ways they have lowered health-care costs on the state level.

Rita Needham of the Southwest Area Manufacturers Association discussed how she prompted the Missouri Department of Insurance to waive the requirement that rates for similar small businesses be within 20 percent of one another. For manufacturing jobs in the Southwest, this allowed companies of 25 employees or fewer the option to create a consortium and purchase group health care as a single employer, which they couldn't do under the Small Employer Health Insurance Availability Act.

"It was the first time in Missouri this waiver was granted, and I'm happy to say it was the last time it will be granted," Needham said.

Gov. Matt Blunt signed Needham's health care model into law July 14.

According to data that Needham presented, there are 700,000 uninsured in Missouri and 80 percent are employed. The average manufacturer in the state has 30 to 40 employees, but 87 percent have fewer than 25 employees.

The Southwest Area Manufacturers Association includes 32 companies banded together to have the buying power of a large employer. The companies represent a total of 1,300 employees and 2,000 when their covered counterparts are counted.

The initial savings of the pilot project ranged from 18 percent to 50 percent depending on the size of the company, according to Needham.

As a group, the Southwest Area Manufacturers Association decided that companies in the consortium would have to sign a three-year commitment with one another so healthy groups don't leave. The group increased deductibles from $50 to $100 for emergency room visits and increased co-pay to specialists $5, so members are encouraged to see their primary-care physician first. Needham said it's not so members are discouraged from getting the appropriate treatment pointing out that statistically most visits to the emergency room and specialists are not necessary according to her data.

This year, the association implemented a wellness program to address adverse selection.

"By educating employees and bringing together groups in private sectors to form power in numbers, my hope is that more jobs will come to the side of the state," Crowell said.

To show the impact preventing illness through education could have on health-care costs, John Kraemer of the Southeast Center for Environmental Analysis talked about an asthma awareness program he directed that he said saved insured patients in Southeast Missouri $504,000 in medical costs last year.

More than 150 health-care providers took the training program, and Kraemer said there was a decrease in number of visits to the emergency room thus saving taxpayer money. The program was made possible through a grant he received from the Environmental Protection Agency.

At the end of the session, McPheeters asked the nearly 75 community leaders in the audience to serve on a group to address issues to make it possible for small businesses consortiums to form in Southeast Missouri.

tkrakowiak@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137