International Business Machines Corp., the World’s largest computer-services company, will provide US employees with 100% coverage for primary care, a policy designed to curb health expenses. Beginning Y 2010, employees will no longer have to pay deductibles for visits to in-network doctors such as internists, general practitioners and pediatricians, Armonk, New York-based IBM said today in a statement. The company said it is one of the 1st US employers to adopt such a policy. The decision is aimed at encouraging employees to visit the doctor more often, so illnesses are treated before they become serious. IBM said the policy will cover about 80 percent of its 115,000 U.S. employees The other 20% belong to health maintenance organizations. “We believe in giving people incentives to get health care early and often,” said Marianne DeFazio, director of health- care benefits and strategy at IBM. “When people have no barriers to getting primary care, you catch things early and you prevent things.”
IBM said it has invested US$79M in nutrition and exercise programs between 2004 and 2007, saving more than twice that amount in health-care costs.
DeFazio declined to say how much the move would cost IBM in the near term. More prevention will eventually cut health cost inflation, she said. “We believe more efficient and individualized care will result in better outcomes and lower costs for everyone,” she said.
-Paul A. Ebeling, Jnr. www.livetradingnews.com
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