Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey Works With Monmouth County to Improve the Quality and Delivery of Care for County Workforce

New results show that Monmouth County public employees are benefitting from a new wellness initiative designed by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey. County employees who used physicians in Horizon BCBSNJ’s Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) program showed a significant increase in preventive screenings, one of the goals of the program.

“Monmouth County is working to keep its employees healthy and better manage its health care costs by getting workers more engaged in preventive screenings and wellness care,” said Al Bowles, Vice President of Commercial and Major Accounts for Horizon BCBSNJ. “Together, we designed a program to encourage employees to undergo timely health screenings, and also to test how much a patient-centered program can influence engagement. The results were extraordinary.”

All Monmouth County employees received educational materials, incentives and rewards to encourage them and their family members to undergo health and wellness screenings as part of the initiative, which started in September, 2012, and ended in February, 2013.

During the six-month initiative, approximately one-in-eight Monmouth County employees (and dependents) covered by Horizon BCBSNJ were under the care of a participating medical home practice. PCMH practices made direct contact with their Monmouth County covered patients to encourage health and wellness screenings as part of this pilot.

While Monmouth County recorded improved health screenings workforce-wide, those employees attributed to a PCMH practice improved at a highly accelerated rate:

Colorectal Screenings:

Non-PCMH County workers - 10% increase. 
PCMH members - 33% increase. 
Total Average -- 13% increase

Breast Cancer Screenings 
Non-PCMH members -- 3% increase. 
PCMH members – 23% increase. 
Total Average – 9% increase.