AA integrating health concepts under one roof
AA integrating health concepts under one roof
Goal is healthier, more productive employees
Dallas-based American Airlines (AA) is in the process of integrating all of its health related services under a single umbrella. Through this significant move, says the airline, it is "developing programs that best make employees happy and productive at work in the most cost-effective manner." AA’s new Integrated Health Management program (IHM), to be headed by David McKenas, MD, will be responsible for all strategic employee health-related work. This will include:
• Health Strategy — Health plan management, benefits management, financial analysis, benefits compliance.
• Integrated Disability Management — Nurse case management, absence management, accommodation (Americans with Disabilities Act compliance).
• Clinical Services — Supervision and coordination of area medical directors and employee health clinics, post-offer exams, drug collection, return to work disposition, fitness for duty determinations.
• Wellness — Preventive wellness, EAP (Employee Assistance Program), drug program administration, health promotion, ergonomics.
• ROI (Return on Investment) & Measurement — Financial analysis.
"Our integrated health database will be the engine’ for integrating health concepts into AA," said McKenas in a communication to the airline employees. "This permits us to continually identify where our cost drivers are and then implement generous preventive programs to drive those costs down." Some of the other ventures McKenas anticipates include developing single claim management services, regardless of the disability, injury, or medical condition, and comprehensive absence management programs. These will be provided through both telephonic and Internet tools.
A significant shift
IHM represents a significant shift in the way AA approaches employee health services, notes Tom Bettes, MD, MPH, director of clinical services. "As part of a complete top to bottom reorganization, what we’ve done in a nutshell is that human resources, personal insurance benefits and workers’ comp are now under Dave McKenas’ management," he explains. "Before, we had separate reporting structures to the VP level, and not a whole lot of close cooperation between all the different entities, which is ideally what you want."
How this new structure plays out remains to be seen, of course, but Bettes believes it will have a huge impact. "One of the realities of a big corporation is that you have a lot of employees who utilize benefits," he notes. "They all tie into each other, but there hasn’t been a way of seeing the big picture. For example, family leave impacts all other leaves — injury on duty leave, long-term disability, but until recently the management of these programs was under different people. We’ve now acknowledged that they all impact the company, so we’ll manage them all as if they were time away from work — which is what they are."
Benefiting employee health
Bettes has a strong sense that integration will also help boost employee health efforts. "Our medical department has been very successful in opening up an employee health clinic at [Dallas Fort Worth] Airport," he says. "It’s been shown to have impacted the time off work for injuries received while on duty, and we believe it has also impacted time away from work for injuries received while on personal time. But we have been using two different measuring systems for these two types of injuries. The success of these clinics has helped to drive further integration under one roof."
The clinic, now two years old, has been very popular with employees. Another has recently opened in Los Angeles, as well as other medical hubs.’ Now, all of these clinics will be monitored under a single system. "Dr. McKenas is currently looking at different vendors," says Bettes. "He can do this now because he is manager of all the different health-related departments and entities."
McKenas and Bettes are also occupational medicine physicians, which, says Bettes, will be a plus for employees under this new system. "Traditionally, our medical department dealt with things like pilot new-hire physicals," he notes. "But since the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act we have been fairly successful in becoming more in tune with the full spectrum of occupational services — prevention, ergonomics, fitness for duty, drug testing, and so on. We have branched out to provide even more valuable services." Many of the AA physicians and nurses, he adds, are trained in occupational medicine.
He sees integrated health as the ultimate fulfillment of this movement. "The final phase is to branch out into more integrated health," he asserts. "And the occupational health person is the ideal individual to integrate a lot of these different functions — especially with the prevention and biostatistical functions. We think this is an ideal setup."
[For more information, contact: Tom Bettes, MD, MPH, director of clinical services, American Airlines, Dallas, TX. Telephone: (817) 963-1251.]
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