Workers Want Healthcare Control, But Only to a Point
Edwards Lifesciences Device Studied; Beckman Gets New Software Pact
HEALTHCARE
by Vita Reed
Employees are looking for more control and choice in healthcare benefits, according to a new survey from Hewitt Associates LLC, a Lincolnshire, Ill.-based consulting firm with an office in Newport Beach. Hewitt’s study found that workers may be interested in so-called “consumer choice” healthcare models and rank healthcare as the most important work benefit. In fact, healthcare outscored compensation as the key work-related benefit by a margin of two to one.
The firm surveyed 528 workers around the country.
The study found that 87% of participants felt they understood “fairly or very well” how to choose the best health plan for their needs. Some 13% said they had “little or no” understanding.
Additionally, 88% of employees said they felt “somewhat or extremely” comfortable when asked about their comfort level with taking more responsibility for researching, choosing and maintaining their healthcare coverage.
But when Hewitt asked workers whether they would want to take full responsibility for purchasing their own healthcare coverage, only 49% responded in the affirmative. Another 42% responded no, while 9% said it depends.
Nearly half of the respondents, 40%, said they believed that people who don’t manage their health should bear a higher portion of out-of-pocket costs. More than three-quarters of them, 77%, said they would participate in a health insurance exchange. That’s where workers would have access to a broader choice of health plans through a third party with improved information and customer services, if it provided a 10% cost reduction. Sixty-seven percent said they were still interested as long as there were no cost increases.
Edwards Catheter Highlighted
Results from a study using a catheter made by Edwards Lifesciences Corp., Irvine, were presented late last month by Dr. Emanuel Rivers of Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit at a symposium on critical care, trauma and emergency medicine in Las Vegas.
The research showed that emergency room patients treated with an Edwards catheter that measured central venous oxygen saturation as part of an early, aggressive course to treat severe blood infection had better overall outcomes, including lower mortality rates and shorter hospital stays.
The research involved 263 patients who were presented to Henry Ford’s emergency room within a three-year period.
As for the Edwards catheter, it is now available for limited commercial release in the U.S., and the company is exploring potential use in Europe.
Beckman Signs Software Contract
Beckman Coulter Inc., the Fullerton-based biomedical testing company, has a new contract with Axeda Systems Inc. of Mansfield, Mass.
Under the deal, Beckman will use Axeda’s device relationship management software system on its Coulter LH 700 hematology instrument line.
Diagnostic laboratories use Coulter LH 700 instruments to perform routine and emergency blood cell counts. Axeda’s software allows Web transmission of instrument data, including temperature, voltage, calibration and other events, and alerts service representatives if an instrument operates outside of preset performance standards.
Beckman is incorporating Axeda’s software as part of an automated monitoring and troubleshooting service. Beckman previously started using Axeda on its Synchron LX clinical chemistry analyzing system.
Healthcare Board Appointments
Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, Newport Beach, added two new members to its board of directors, Carol Hoffman and Ronald Merriman.
Hoffman is principal of Government Solutions, a Newport Beach-based land development industry consulting firm. Her career also includes 13 years at The Irvine Company, where she was vice president of entitlement and community relations.
Merriman is a managing director at Los Angeles-based law firm O’Melveny & Myers LLP. Merriman has been a member of the 552 Club, a large Hoag fundraising group, for nearly 20 years. In 1995, he chaired a capital campaign to renovate Hoag’s emergency care unit that raised $7.3 million, $500,000 above its goal.
Separately, the Integrated Healthcare Association, Walnut Creek, named Dr. Bartley Asner to its board of directors. Asner is chief executive of Monarch HealthCare, Mission Viejo, which provides health services to 150,000 commercial and Medicare HMO members. Asner is also president, health services for Physician WebLink, a Mission Viejo medical management and healthcare information technology company.
Integrated Healthcare Association is a group made up of health plans, physician groups and healthcare systems, along with at-large academic, purchaser, consumer and pharmaceutical industry representatives.
