Henry Ford, GM Enter 'Direct to Employer' Contract

First-of-its-kind initiative bypasses insurance middlemen and hopes to lower costs by improving access to primary care and pushing preventive medicine, wellness initiatives.

Henry Ford Health System and General Motors have signed what they're calling a first-of-its-kind "Direct to Employer" contract to provide care for the automaker's 24,000 employees and their families in Southeast Michigan.  

GM employees who select the automaker's "ConnectedCare" plan can access Henry Ford healthcare services including primary care, more than 40 specialties, behavioral health services, hospitalization and emergency care, pharmacy and other services, according to a joint media release.  

"GM's upcoming ConnectedCare option comes from our ongoing quest to improve employee health, while also seeking to offset rising healthcare costs for both the employee and the company," Sheila Savageau, US Healthcare Leader, General Motors, said in prepared remarks.

"Partnering with a regional healthcare leader like Henry Ford Health System enables us to provide an innovative new plan option for high quality, affordable care," she said.    

Under the contract:

• ConnectedCare will provide access to more than 3,000 providers from a network of primary care and specialty care doctors in communities where GM employees live. Open enrollment begins this fall, with service beginning in 2019.
   
• Henry Ford will help GM enrollees track of their health with regular wellness exams, monitoring chronic conditions, and preventive screenings.
   
• The health system will push members to less-expensive care venues, such as walk-in clinics rather than emergency rooms for minor illness and injury.
   
• GM enrollees will have dedicated resources for appointment scheduling and other services and access to same-day or next-day appointments with a primary care physician and the ability to see a specialist within 10 business days."

"If you talk to a lot of brokers and consultants around the country, they've been pushing for this idea of direct contracting as a way to save money and narrow not only the healthcare spend, but their exposure to various levels of quality and cost variation,” Bret Jackson, president of The Economic Alliance for Michigan, told EBN.

"This is a move that we knew was coming. But [GM's move] to contract where their headquarters are, and being in a market where there is a lot of hospital competition, sends a strong signal of what the future means for employee benefits," Jackson said.