McKesson Honored by NBCH for Leadership in Building a Culture of Health

Award recognizes McKesson’s value-based benefit design efforts and effective wellness program

DALLAS – Nov. 18, 2015 – McKesson Corporation was presented with the Employer Excellence Award at the National Business Coalition on Health’s (NBCH) annual conference. McKesson was recognized for leadership and efforts to improve the health and wellness of employees while creating a health care system focused on lower costs, higher quality, and better health for all.

“While we’re in the business of better health, our commitment starts with our workforce,” said, Jerry Warren, Senior Vice President, Total Rewards, McKesson. “We strongly believe that making investments in our people and community is not only good for business, but also benefits the communities where our employees live and work. Our health and wellness program successfully promotes the physical, mental, and social well-being of our employees and their families. We have improved their health, while also creating opportunities to lower health care costs for our company, our employees and their families.”

Neil Oktavec, Manager, Benefits Strategy & Analytics for McKesson Corporation, accepts the award from NBCH CEO Chuck Smithers; Robin Turpin, Director, U.S. Health Delivery Systems, Takeda Pharmaceuticals; Karen van Caulil, NBCH Board Chair, Pres. and CEO Florida Health Care Coalition; and Lauren Vela, Sr. Director, Member Value, Pacific Business Group on Health

Offered to employees and spouses, McKesson’s health and wellness program is powered by Vitality and includes health risk assessments and screenings, educational tools, physical activities and prevention efforts. The program has had increased employee engagement each year since its inception in 2007 and has evolved from a payout for completed health assessments into a comprehensive health promotion program with an integrated incentive structure that rewards participants for healthy behaviors. Through Vitality, employees engage in approximately 80 healthy activities each year.

Employees have become more highly engaged as a result of McKesson’s key programs that involve incentives, value-based benefit design and consumer-driven health plans. The result has been higher achievements in health including:

• Employees are engaged with 90% participating in the wellness program at some level.
• A 5% lower medical cost trend (resulting in over $4 million in savings in one year) was reported for those highly engaged in the wellness programs over the last five years relative to those not highly engaged.
• Approximately 85% of employees in a health plan have done the health risk questionnaire in the last two years, over 60% biometric screening, and over 40% of the population has verified physical activity through the wellness program.
• For disease management, 25-30% of McKesson’s chronic population have engaged in programs over the last four years, a 10 times increase from prior periods.
• McKesson measures population risk through many metrics, such as Vitality Age (measure of lifestyle risk) and DxCG risk scores. In 2011, 83% of McKesson’s eligible population had a Vitality Age that was older than their chronological age. In 2013, results were at 77%.

McKesson’s vendors are also required to have skin in the game. Approximately $3 million (20%) of self-insured health plan fees are at risk, mostly on risk adjusted cost results. More efficient plans get lower employee premiums gaining significant market share. Wellness, condition management, and transparency vendors have often 35%-100% of fees contingent on reaching certain aggressive engagement milestones and ROI.

“McKesson has an impressive history of being at the forefront of health care innovation, said Charles Smithers, NBCH CEO. “They are an excellent example of an employer committed to improving the health care delivery system and health of their employees. We applaud their efforts and congratulate them on receiving this award.”

NBCH’s Employer Excellence Award is sponsored by Takeda. McKesson is a member of the Pacific Business Group on Health.

About McKesson Corporation
McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 11th on the FORTUNE 500, is a healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to making the business of healthcare run better. McKesson partners with payers, hospitals, physician offices, pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies and others across the spectrum of care to build healthier organizations that deliver better care to patients in every setting. McKesson helps its customers improve their financial, operational, and clinical performance with solutions that include pharmaceutical and medical-surgical supply management, healthcare information technology, and business and clinical services. For more information, visit www.mckesson.com.

About the National Business Coalition on Health
National Business Coalition on Health (NBCH) is a national nonprofit membership organization of purchaser-led health care coalitions, representing more than 7,000 employers, unions and local governments, and approximately 35 million employees and dependents across the United States. NBCH and its members are dedicated to value-based purchasing of health care services through the collective action of public and private purchasers. NBCH seeks to accelerate the nation’s progress toward safe, efficient, high-quality health care and the improved health status of the American population. Follow on Twitter: @NBCH

# # #