Plan ties bonuses to members' health status

Physicians are concerned that WellPoint's employee incentives may lead to the weeding out of sicker patients.

By Jonathan G. Bethely, AMNews staff. May 7, 2007.

WellPoint Inc. said it's going to link bonuses for its own employees -- from the medical director to administrative assistants -- to members' increased use of preventive measures such as immunizations, cancer screenings and diabetes management tools.

The Indianapolis-based health plan has created what it calls a "member health index" to measure and track a patient's health status. WellPoint's member health index will focus on prevention and screenings, care management, clinical outcomes and patient safety. The company will use its own claims data as the source of its findings.

So far, WellPoint is only health plan offering its own employees additional compensation in such a program, said Susan Pisano, a spokeswoman for America's Health Insurance Plans.

Combined with the plan's pay-for-performance programs for physicians, the employee plan is designed to ensure that WellPoint's members stay their healthiest. "There's not one physician who would disagree with these goals as viable that they want to achieve for their patients," said Sam Nussbaum, MD, executive vice president and chief medical officer for WellPoint.

But there are physicians who disagree with whether WellPoint's bonus plan will encourage employees to weed out sicker patients instead of instituting measures to keep patients well.