By Evan Falchuk

For the next in my continuing series of real people making real change to health care I interviewed Joanne Jones, Senior Director of Benefits & Global Mobility for Genzyme Corporation.  Genzyme is one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, with more than 11,000 employees.  It’s also one of the world’s most innovative companies when it comes to health care and health care benefits.

Joanne recently shared her thoughts on how Genzyme helps its employees live healthier lives, and how Genzyme helps their employees and their families improve the quality — and cost — of care.

The market for employees in your industry is highly competitive – how does that impact on how you think about employee health care?  Are health care costs a burden?

Genzyme’s success depends on the efforts each employee makes every day.  In return, we provide resources and protection for employees and their families with significant health care needs.  We are committed to providing support to help protect their well-being through our benefits package and cultivating a culture that encourages healthy living. Our health care programs and tools are designed to engage employees and their families in healthy behaviors and health care decisions to optimize their health.  We do not see it as a burden at all, we feel that it is the right thing to do and will ultimately end up benefiting both the employee and Genzyme which will naturally provide a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

In terms of those healthy decisions, what kinds of things does Genzyme do to help employees?

We are a relatively young company with an average age of 41.5 so we have not yet felt the impact of typical high dollar claims related to diabetes, hypertension and heart disease.  In order to minimize the impact that will come as we age, we offer a variety of programs that are designed to give everyone, regardless of their current health status, an opportunity to optimize their health today and in the future.  We believe they have been successful because we keep a continuous stream of information and programs (using a variety of media) about the benefits of health management flowing throughout the year.  The information markets our benefit plans, includes practical tips on wellness along with reminders of services and resources available from our vendors.

Joanne Jones, Genzyme

How much of a problem are health care costs for Genzyme and what drives them?  Do you have programs to try to control those costs?

Our costs are rising just like everyone else’s.  Pregnancy, musculoskeletal disorders and cancer claims combined represent about 40% of our total health care expenditures.  We have been working with our insurer to look for creative ways to identify and manage potentially high cost maternities early into the pregnancy with the hopes of avoiding complex deliveries.  We have introduced fitness programs designed to educate employees on the correct way to exercise and to encourage exercising on a regular basis.  We have partnered with our internal medical staff to educate employees on the importance of taking action to reduce the risk of cancer and also stressing the importance of early detection.

What are the most common concerns you hear from employees about the health care system?  What does Genzyme do to help?

The most common concern we hear is how hard it is to navigate the health care system when you are faced with a serious medical condition.  Often times employees don’t know where to turn for help and understanding their options.  We see our role as providing help in any way we can to empower them to make educated decisions.   One thing we do is offer access to the Best Doctors program.  Best Doctors is a unique program that helps our employees achieve certainty in their complex healthcare decisions and helps them navigate the system when are facing a serious diagnosis.  The Best Doctors process evaluates each member case as a clean slate, thoroughly reviewing the clinical record and consulting with top world-class specialists to help our employees, their immediate family members and their doctors answer the critical medical questions that guide their diagnosis and treatment plans.

Are there big trends in the next 2-3 years that you see happening in employee benefits and employer health care?

Wellness programs seem to be one of the most logical, timely and potentially cost-saving initiatives that employers can adopt in the coming years to help their employees and their families achieve or maintain healthier lifestyles.  We think that there will be a trend to adopt more health and wellness programs that engage employees to manage their diet, lifestyle and chronic conditions.  In addition we think there will an emphasis in providing targeted benefits communications programs that create awareness, understanding and utilization of these benefits.

Is Genzyme planning changes to its benefits approach because of health care reform?

At this point we are waiting to see what the final package will look like.  Then we will analyze how it will affect our benefits package.