Caterpillar, Inc.

Purpose:

To reduce projected direct health care cost increases by identifying health risks early, and intervening to reduce those risks and accompanying costs

Target Population:

Employees (80,000) and others covered by Caterpillar health plans (120,000 total)

Program Goals:

• Identify health risks early

• Promote risk reduction and disease/care management

• Achieve 80 percent employee engagement in health improvement activities by 2010

• Engage providers in collaborative care network

• Improve clinical and financial outcomes over time

 

Years in Operation:

1997 – present

Results:

• Ninety percent health-risk assessment participation

• For diabetes management program: 50 percent experienced HbA1C reduction; 96 percent are measuring A1C levels; 72 percent are meeting Surgeon General's activity recommendations; 98 percent are on aspirin therapy

• 50 percent reduction in disability days

• Smoking cessation rate of 35 percent, even after 3 years

Funding:

Caterpillar funds the programs.

Key Partners:

Caterpillar employees, retirees and dependents; company and union leadership; providers

What Works and Why:

Caterpillar relies on data specific to its employees to evaluate and identify health risks and develop its risk management strategy. It provides employees with incentives to participate in health risk assessments and health promotion activities. The company also removes barriers to participation in disease/care management and employee assistant program offerings. Caterpillar tracks both clinical and financial outcomes, and shares information with employees about their current health status compared with employees overall and about improvements made over time.

Structure and Operations:

Caterpillar determined that coronary, diabetes and stroke events were driving claims costs as well as disability, and developed a focused risk-management strategy to identify those at highest risk. The company encourages participation in health-risk assessments by providing a $900 reduction on yearly insurance for each employee, spouse and retiree under age 65 who participates. Caterpillar also removes barriers to disease/care management and its employee assistance program, which resulted in 80,000 enrollees. The company encourages healthy choices in the cafeteria by subsidizing healthier meal options. Employees receive a personal scorecard that shows their improvement against the aggregate employee health status and employee improvement over time. Caterpillar engaged with providers to enroll in collaborative risk/disease/case management for employees relying on integrated claims, pharmacies and a self-report database. The company tracks both clinical and financial outcomes over time.

Barriers to Success:

The size and diversity of the international workforce make tailoring programs difficult and costly.

More Information:

http://www.vbhealth.org/Caterpillarv3.pdf

Download:

Download this program information in PDF format.