Amica Press Releases

12.17.09

Amica Earns Award for Innovative Employee Benefits Program

LINCOLN, RI – Amica Mutual Insurance Co. accepted a 2009 "Best Benefits Practice" award from the New England Employee Benefits Council (NEEBC) at the organization’s December 9 conference in Waltham, Mass.

Dina Pescione, a benefits manager in Amica's human resources department, accepted the award for the company and gave conference attendees a detailed look at Amica's award-winning program that focuses on helping employees with diabetes. The award is presented every year to New England companies that employ the best innovation and creativity in the planning and delivery of their employee benefit programs.

The program, featured in a Feb. 12, 2009, TIME magazine article, has proven to be highly successful, according to Pescione, because it has helped to change employee behaviors and decrease medical costs and hospitalizations in its first year.

The company made a strategic decision to reduce costs for employees who engage in the right behaviors," said Pescione, "and we're getting a better outcome for both the company and employees in the program. It's a win-win scenario."

Employees in the program received incentives, such as free medications, to encourage proper chronic condition management. As a result, Amica saved an average of almost $4,000 per year on medical claims for each diabetic health plan member who completed the incentive-based health management program. Members with diabetes demonstrated a 50 percent participation rate as a result of the incentive program.

"We launched the program in an effort to reduce the 24 percent trend in claims cost increases for diabetic employees and to encourage and reward their use of self management activities," said Jill Andy, vice president in human resources at Amica.

Amica works with Abacus Employer Health Solutions (Abacus), a consulting company that designs health programs, communicates with employees, tracks program compliance and handles incentive administration.
This program not only reduces health plan costs to the employer, but it also reduces out-of-pocket costs to the employee who is proactive in self-care. Only members who maintain compliance with program criteria earn the incentives. Other benefits of the program include a dramatic reduction in hospital admissions and length of stays for participating employees and a striking increase in the utilization of the available health coaches.