What Does It Mean to Me?

Your Plan for Health is a new, multi-phase approach to how we think about health, focused on helping both you and the university reach our healthiest potential together. How? By offering programs, tools, and incentives to do the following.

Identify and act on health care risks. Prevention is the cornerstone of healthier living. By offering a Personal Health Assessment (PHA) and other resources, Ohio State is committed to helping you focus on what you can do to improve your life right now—today.

Promote smart, cost-efficient choices based on individual needs. Each of us has different types of health care risks or conditions to manage. With good tools and information, you can determine the best choices for you and your family. This starts with the decisions you make during Open Enrollment and continues year-round with how you use your benefits to:

• Get the most appropriate care when you need it.
• Live healthier through regular checkups, diet, exercise, and other strategies.

In 2006, there were important enhancements to our tobacco cessation and weight management programs, as well as changes to our coverage for prescription drugs and alternative treatments. We also introduced the health coaching and care coordination programs to provide expert help for managing your health. You can expect to see additional changes in future years that are designed to promote choice, flexibility, and affordability in our health benefit programs. Click here to find out who’s eligible for all of the Your Plan for Health programs and benefits. (135kb pdf)

Take control of health care spending. Nationally, health care costs continue to rise at unaffordable rates for employers and employees. On average, costs for employer-sponsored health plans are increasing between 10% and 12% each year, while prescription drug costs are rising between 16% and 19%. The university’s health plan is also affected by these trends. Unless we make changes, our health care costs are forecast to increase by 8.5% to 9.5% each year over the next five years. The following chart shows the impact of what these cost increases could mean over time for you and the university.

*The overall university subsidy is 83% across all medical plans that are offered.

Careful management of provider contracts and administrative expenses has helped the university keep its rate of increase below the national average in recent years. However, the expected increases are still not manageable over time—our health care costs are already rising faster than salaries and inflation. None of us can afford to sit by and let this continue to happen.

The university subsidizes health care premiums at a higher rate than many other employers (85% of the University Prime Care [UPC] rate for any level of coverage, versus an average of 80% among Columbus-area employers and nationally). Maintaining this rate of subsidy requires all of us to do our part to control overall health care spending.

This is why Ohio State is taking the responsible step of evaluating plan and coverage changes, while introducing programs that promote healthier lifestyle choices—the primary drivers of Your Plan for Health. By acting now and putting new emphasis on preventing and better managing illness, we can get more value for our health care dollars over the longer term. Your participation is critical to making this investment pay off for everyone.

• How Do I Benefit From Your Plan for Health?
• What’s the Medical Center’s Role?
• Where Do I Start?
• What Changes Can I Expect in the Future?

How Do I Benefit From Your Plan for Health?

Your Plan for Health can help you reach your highest potential for health. You’ll have new programs, tools, and incentives to help you address potential health risks, manage an illness or chronic condition, and live as healthy as you can. (Click here to find out who’s eligible for all of the Your Plan for Health programs and benefits. [135kb pdf]) Being healthy isn’t your only reward—as the OSU community gets healthier, Your Plan for Health can help control and minimize the cost of your future medical premiums.

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What’s the Medical Center’s Role?

We are in the unique position to partner with The Ohio State University Medical Center (OSUMC) and take advantage of its educational, scientific, technical, and people resources. One example of this partnership is Your Plan for Health’s utilization of the Personal Health Assessment (PHA) that was developed and is administered by OSUMC. The PHA is a key component of our efforts to create a healthier Ohio State. We’re fortunate to have a nationally ranked medical center working alongside our team of professionals from OSU Managed Health Care Systems, Inc. and the Office of Human Resources.

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Where Do I Start?

Your first step is to take the Personal Health Assessment. Even though you might already know some of your health risks, the PHA results will provide a more complete view and offer guidance to help you take advantage of the programs and resources available as part of the Your Plan for Health initiative.

Healthier living is up to each of us—and each person’s “plan for health” may be somewhat different. Your plan may involve quitting smoking, losing weight, exercising more, joining a health club, working with your doctor to address other risks to your health, or, maybe, trying again to kick an old, unhealthy habit with renewed determination.

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What Changes Can I Expect in the Future?

The university is committed to providing the best medical outcomes and care for you and your family. To maintain this focus, we will continually evaluate and refine plan offerings based on program results and member feedback. You can expect to see additional plan and process enhancements through Your Plan for Health in the future.

You'll also see lots of Your Plan for Health ads and brochures around campus and in campus publications.

Still have a question about Your Plan for Health? Click here for more Frequently Asked Questions.

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