Mission: Health at Sentara Healthcare

Sentara Healthcare is a nonprofit health care system headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia. It consists of 10 acute care hospitals and operates more than 100 sites in Virginia and North Carolina. Sentara Healthcare has 3,680 medical providers and three medical groups with 618 providers.

The Problem
Sentara Healthcare found that 20 percent of employees were responsible for 80 percent of the organization's health care costs. Refusing to continually increase insurance co-payments and premiums among its employees, health care leaders at Sentara explored innovative ways to cut costs.

The Solution
In 2008, Sentara Healthcare in partnership with Optima Health—a sector of the former and its insur-ance carrier—established Mission: Health, an incentive-based wellness and disease management pro-gram. The program was developed to manage health care costs for more than 11,200 benefit-eligible employees in both the Virginia and North Carolina locations. Nearly 80 percent of Sentara's employ-ees participate in Mission: Health.

Employees complete a voluntary health profile that measures their risk factors. Those identified as low-risk receive more than $500 in annual premium reductions while those considered high-risk are given an opportunity to earn the award by partnering with a health coach. Additional incentives are also avail¬able to employees with targeted chronic diseases such as diabetes, coronary artery disease or conges¬tive heart failure, or those who are pregnant. They are awarded an extra $450 if they partner with disease managers who monitor their medications, check-ups and other crucial health activities.

The Result
Both employers and employees benefit from the program. During the first year, not only did employees receive monetary rewards, 85 percent of participants who were identified as high-risk and monitored in the program maintained or improved their critical health risks.

In 2010, Sentara Healthcare saved $3.4 million in health care costs. According to Michael M. Dudley, president and CEO of Optima Health, for every dollar spent to reward employees, the organization saved $6. In a more recent study, Sentara saved more than $4 million in medical costs and sustained significant return on investment. In addition, for every dollar invested in the program, Sentara saved $2.70.

Lessons Learned
The Mission: Health program at Sentara Healthcare demonstrates that investing in workforce wellness is beneficial to employees and employer. The wellness incentive program engages employees to maintain or improve their health through monetary rewards while helping employers reduce health care spending and adapt to rising costs.

Contact Information
Jennifer M. Jones
(757) 455-7275
jmjones@sentara.com

This case study was originally featured in the HPOE guide: 'Engaging Health Care Users: A Framework for Healthy Individuals and Communities,' published January, 2013.

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