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North Carolina Bank Employees Enjoy One Month "Holiday" from Paying Healthcare
Insurance Premiums
North Carolina Banker’s Association Health Benefit Trust Enjoys Second Year in a
Row of Below Trend Increases; CareGuide’s One Care Street Predictive Modeling System
Helps Produce Budget Surplus
CORAL SPRINGS, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CareGuide, Inc. (OTCBB:CGDE), a total population
health management company, today announced that its One Care Street™ predictive
modeling and health coaching system helped the North Carolina Banker’s Association
Health Benefit Trust experience two consecutive years of below average insurance
renewals and the slowing down of healthcare cost increases.
Despite the average 7.7 percent annual healthcare cost increase faced by employers
from 2005 to 2006*, the North Carolina Banker’s Association Health Benefit Trust
renewal rate dipped to 5 percent in June 2007. As a result of this decrease, the
North Carolina Banker’s Association Health Benefit Trust came in $1.2 million under
the projected budget for its healthcare expenditures and will be able to offer North
Carolina Bank employees a one month “holiday” from paying healthcare insurance premiums.
“We have been working more than eight years to slow down healthcare expenditures
and relieve our members’ burden with it comes to premium increases,” said T. Rann
Paynter, Executive Vice President Community Bank Services.
In 2005, The North Carolina Banker’s Association introduced a new approach to population
health management to stem yearly healthcare cost increases. Offered to its 2,272
member employees, CareGuide’s One Care Street system combines predictive modeling
science and health coaching support to identify people who are likely to use large
amounts of costly healthcare services before they need such services over the coming
6-12 month period.
The One Care Street system moves beyond disease management, which relies on past
healthcare usage to find those that will use large amounts of healthcare services.
One Care Street identifies a broader range of indicators that make people seek help
(physical, emotional and behavioral) and put an employee at risk. Research has demonstrated
that the standard disease management approach is accurate in identifying only 10-15
percent of the people who will actually use large amounts of healthcare services,
as compared to the 63-67 percent of high utilizers reliably identified by One Care
Street.
“As costs continue to go up, employers are getting more aggressive and taking matters
into their own hands when it comes to trying new ways to stem insurance renewal
increases,” said Julie A. Meek, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President
of CareGuide. “These results show that if you help employees earlier and better,
healthcare costs can be contained, which improves a company’s bottom line and the
health of its employees.”
Once employees are identified as high-risk through the One Care Street survey, health
coaches work one-on-one with participants to identify negative contributing factors,
motivate employees and provide the resources necessary to change health behaviors.
In 2006, 77 percent of the North Carolina Banker’s Association Health Benefit Trust
member employees identified as high-risk participated in CareGuide health coaching.
Scott Insurance, an employee-owned provider of benefits services and risk management
consulting, manages the One Care Street program for the association. “As expected,
we found many employees that needed immediate help, not due to any one diagnosable
disease, but a mixture of symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, feeling frustrated,
angry or depressed, or suffering from allergies or arthritis. These are warning
signs that people need help and if provided soon enough, employers can avoid the
higher, longer-term costs,” added Diana Mason, Vice President at Scott Insurance.
*According to the 2006 Kaiser Family Foundation’s Employer Health Benefits study.
About North Carolina Banker’s Association Health Benefit Trust
The North Carolina Banker’s Association Health Benefit Trust, representing more
than 50 member financial institutions across the state of North Carolina, provides
medical and dental insurance benefits programs.
CareGuide, Inc.
June 11, 2007
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