Stop-loss carrier’s employees to use Oklahoma City-based wellness, cost-containment program

Nov. 27--NEW YORK -- IHC Risk Solutions Inc. -- one of the country's top 10 reinsurers -- announced Tuesday that it will offer its employees the patented, Internet-based wellness and cost containment program of Oklahoma City-based MedEncentive LLC.

Employees who use the MedEncentive product, which educates them and tests them on their health, will get a portion of their co-pays waived, while participating doctors, who are rated by patients based on their adherence to recommended care, will be compensated an additional $15 per office visit.

For the past two years, IHC has offered discounts on medical stop-loss insurance to self-funded employers that adopt MedEncentive, IHC President Michael Kemp said.

"We've been impressed by MedEncentive's continuing commitment to controlling health care costs ... and now will be able to experience the program for ourselves and work with MedEncentive to test enhancements for other employers," Kemp said.

An eight-year-old startup, MedEncentive recently received its breakthrough with a $3.8 million, three-year study that will begin Jan. 1 and involve 15,000 active Oklahoma state employees and their families on the HealthChoice insurance plan. If the product pays for itself, state administrators say MedEncentive will be offered to the entire 125,000 active employees on the plan, the most popular among state workers.

MedEncentive founder and CEO Jeff Greene said independent research studies by the University of Kansas and The Loomis Co. in Pennsylvania found return on investment on MedEncentive's product -- which has been sold in Oklahoma, Washington, New Jersey and Pennsylvania for $3 per member per month -- ranges from 3-to-1 to 17-to-1, considering financial incentives and fees.

In addition to IHC, reinsurers Sun Life Financial and AIG also offer discounts to self-funded employers that offer MedEncentive.

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