The months of August, September, and October were busy ones at IBM with a flurry of announcements in hardware, software, services, acquisitions, and strategic alliances. The complete index of IBM Happenings (by year and month) is here. In addition to the major focus on a “smarter planet“, IBM is heavily engaged in healthcare both as an information technology and business solutions company but also as an employer..
In a bold move to cut healthcare costs, IBM plans to drop co-pays by employees when they visit their primary care physicians under the company’s self-insured coverage. The idea is to save costs over time by encouraging people to go to primary-care doctors sooner in order to get earlier diagnoses that could save on expensive visits to specialists and emergency rooms later. The company is able to make this change because it pays for the health-care benefits, not insurance companies. With 115,000 U.S. employees, IBM spends about $1.3 billion a year on healthcare so it is highly motivated to launch new healthcare initiatives.
Approximately 50% of Americans (133 million) have some form of chronic medical condition. Most of these people are not actually disabled, but they absorb a large amount of the country’s healthcare resources. The most common chronic conditions are high blood pressure, arthritis, respiratory diseases like emphysema, and high cholesterol. The projections are that the number of people with chronic conditions will continue to increase. Most of the people in this category are between the ages of 18 and 64 — in other words they are people who are working.
By encouraging employees to consult with their primary-care physicians IBM hopes to drive down costs over time. The company does not require primary-physician referrals for employees to see specialists. The combination of these factors — no co-pay for primary care and no approvals for specialists plus payments of up to $300 a year to employees for taking exercise classes or enrolling their children in online weight-monitoring programs to curb obesity — makes IBM a trend setter. The benefits will surely flow to both employees and shareholders.

• Complete Index of IBM Happenings (by year and month)