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80 Doing Business in Connecticut | 2014 SPONSORED REPORT The company anticipates that employers will enjoy even greater savings in the future as providers assume more responsibility for quality and outcomes, and employees assume more accountability for managing their health and becoming better-educated consumers of health care. "Connecticut employers continue to look for ways to provide their employees and their families with access to high-quality health care coverage, while addressing em- ployer cost concerns," said Bill Husic, execu- tive vice president and actuary of Lockton. "UnitedHealthcare continues to expand its portfolio of plans and health and well-being programs to help individuals better manage their health and provide them with tools to make them better health care consumers." "Health in Numbers" A TV commercial spot opens with a scene of a crew painting a house. The voiceover begins. "My customers can shop around to see who does good work and compare costs," says the owner of the painting company. "It doesn't usually work that way with health care. But with UnitedHealthcare, I get information on quality-rated doctors, treatment options and estimates for how much I'll pay." UnitedHealthcare makes it as easy for consumers to shop for health care as it is to purchase other goods and services. Until now, that hasn't been possible, because consumers haven't had access to informa- tion on actual health care costs. "There's a great deal of price and quality variability in the health delivery system that people don't even know," said Farrell, illustrating with an example of an MRI that cost $2,600 in the hospital, and the same test at an outpatient facility costing $600. UnitedHealthcare has created simple, user-friendly tools to make this type of infor- mation transparent for consumers. "You can look up your providers and see if they are Premium® Tier 1 providers, who are the best quality, and then use the myHealthcare Cost Estimator to tell you — based on your actual plan design and your actual deductible and how much of it you have met — this is going to cost you X." Consumers get a sum- mary of treatment options with alternatives. Plans guide members with complex care needs to centers of excellence, connecting them to the most experienced physicians and hospitals for treatment. A national company with a local perspective Key components of UnitedHealthcare's modernization strategy are plan and net- work designs that address the unique needs of the local market. "We take the resources and innovation that a large company has and determine how to apply it for the best use of local businesses," said Farrell. UnitedHealthcare helps Connecticut businesses reduce costs by giving plan spon- sors a choice of provider networks. "Having one network or a one-size-fits-all mentality really doesn't take into account the character- istics of what a business may want or need," said Golden. "The type of network a Fortune 20 company wants is probably different than the network that would be appropriate for a five-person law firm. The law firm might be perfectly happy with a network with half the amount of doctors and hospitals, but with a price point that could be lower." Plan design is another way United- Healthcare is making health care more affordable. All of UnitedHealthcare's health plans for its own employees are based on some form of health savings account (HSA). This type of plan gives employees more control over their health care costs, but also requires them to assume more respon- sibility for managing their health. UnitedHealthcare is working with Con- necticut's plan sponsors to help them mi- grate employees toward consumer-directed health plans over the next several years. "We help employers think through such questions as, 'Should they use an HRA (health reimbursement account) or an HSA, and why?" said Farrell. "What kind of employee population do they have? What kind of plan gives employees the best mix of responsibil- ity, wellness plans and incentives?" An employer can choose the type of be- haviors they want to incentivize based on the population of their employees. "We may look at the data and say to an employer, you have a lot of pre-diabetics and diabetics in your population," said Elizabeth Winsor, CEO of UnitedHealthcare National Accounts. "Then we might suggest that an employer offer our diabetes health plan program." When em- ployees participate in programs such as this, the employer rewards them through built-in savings features such as zero out-of-pocket expenses for diabetes-related doctor visits and condition-specific medications. Solutions for retirement Connecticut employers of all sizes are in- terested in helping employees plan for retire- ment. UnitedHealthcare delivers health and well-being benefits in partnership with AARP to more than 120,000 Connecticut residents age 50 and older. The company is one of the top providers of Medicare Advantage plans in Connecticut with 47,000 members. "We are committed to continued growth and offering a strong benefit package that seniors can use to meet their health care needs," said Jennifer Hartford's UnitedHealth Group employees cheer on some of the more than 200 injured veterans and their supporters as they end the Providence-to- Hartford leg of the annual UnitedHealthcare Ride 2 Recovery Minuteman Challenge. Ride 2 Recov- ery supports physical and psychological rehabilita- tion programs for injured veterans, featuring cycling as the core activity. UnitedHealthcare's Jeff Alter (far left) and Bill Golden (far right) spend time with a Connecticut family that received a United- Healthcare Children's Foundation grant. The foundation grants help families pay for children's medical expenses not covered, or not fully covered, by a commercial health insurance plan. Since its founding in 1999, UHCCF has funded more than 6,500 medi- cal grants totaling more than $20 million. > Continued from previous page