Expect Cost Saving Provisions, Other Changes

Earlier this year in its annual “call letter” to insurance carriers, OPM again put emphasis on getting enrollees to participate in wellness programs and on holding down expenses for prescription drugs. It told the companies that they must offer a health risk assessment; encouraged plans to offer financial incentives for enrollees to participate in wellness programs through credits to purchase health related goods and services; said they further may pay out cash or gift cards for that purpose worth up to $75 per individual or $200 per family; expanded the standard list of preventive services they must offer, to include certain screenings for lung cancer and hepatitis C; and called for more publicity of tobacco cessation and counseling benefits, continued obesity prevention and treatment programs, and new emphasis on blood pressure control.