Deductibles cut for healthy employees

PreferredOne offers employers a plan that lets workers pay less for health care if they are in good shape.

By Carolina Procter, AMNews staff. July 23/30, 2007.

A Minnesota health plan is adding another component to its high-deductible plans -- the use of blood pressure, body mass index, cholesterol levels and other wellness indicators to determine out-of-pocket payments.

PreferredOne, which in January 2004 became one of the first plans to offer health savings accounts, has begun marketing plans that offer clients the option of using "biomarkers" to reward healthier employees with lower deductibles.

Low blood pressure, target BMI and other positive indicators can slash deductibles by up to 20%, said Eugene Sako, PreferredOne's manager of product development.

"A lot of our clients have moved from a co-pay plan to a high-deductible plan. They had to give the employee something to bridge that leap from a $10 office co-pay to a $1,000 deductible. In the past it was a health reimbursement arrangement or a health savings account," Sako said. "This is allowing them to say, 'I'm not just going to give you the [money], I'm going to give it to you only if you're healthy.' Instead of just giving a kid an allowance, it's making him work for it."

Sako said 180,000 members will be eligible for incentives. The firm sells to mostly small- and medium-sized businesses. Experts say other plans have begun looking into biomarkers but that PreferredOne is among the first to use them widely in setting rates.