The planning committee for the New York State Conference of Mayors (NYCOM) asked Perry & Carroll’s Vice President, John Holleran, to speak at the 100^th annual meeting in Saratoga, NY.  John spoke along side Envision Rx’s Chief Sales Manager, George Flarity, on Successful Approaches to Controlling the Cost of Health Benefits.  John McDonald, retired pharmacist, Mayor of Cohoes and president of NYCOM was the moderator of the discussion.

John Holleran, who has worked for Perry & Carroll, Inc. for 14 years, and for Excellus BlueCross BlueShield as a marketing representative for 7 years before that, stated that, “we have the best health care in the world but the difficult part is being able to afford it.”  How does an employer contain or control the cost?? 

It is evident that there will be a public plan by the end of year but we do not know what the underwriting requirements, the benefit level or the cost of it will be.  John’s message to mayors and municipalities was to work with their local broker to remain abreast with the impending plan. 

Another aspect that John covered was that the health and wellness of employees is crucial.  The most utilized drugs that we see among our clients are for indigestion and other lifestyle type reasons.  They are referred to as the “help me drugs.”  They give the patient the ability to continue to eat poorly and to pop a pill to feel better.  But lower healthcare costs starts with employees changing their lifestyles by becoming healthy, thus reducing the severity of physician visits, prescription drugs and ultimately the overall cost of the group’s healthcare.  They should eat, sleep, and exercise well to control obesity and diabetes.  There are two wellness programs that an employer can implement to reduce costs and have an impact on their health insurance costs immediately: smoking cessation program and diabetic prescreening.  If the employee/patient is moved into immediate care, it will have a direct impact on the employer’s claims.

John spoke of the many factors that attribute to the high cost of health care.  But he focused more attention on two of the more influential issues.  The first was our country’s aging population.  The number of people in the US who are over age 65 is greater than the entire population of Canada.  Obviously, people in our country are living longer thus requiring more medical care and prescriptions.  The second daunting issue covered was medical malpractice.  We live in a litigious society, which has a dual effect.  Premiums for medical malpractice go up and as a result of settlements; providers administer more tests and procedures.

John stressed that the key theme is education.  It is important for Mayors and municipalities to work with their broker to educate themselves of the financial contract with the insurance company.  They can also work with their broker to educate their employees to become better consumers of healthcare.  Finally, they should share information with employees so they can understand the difficult position that employers are in by providing health insurance.