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GM Trying To Trim Down Health Costs
Flint -- General Motors is aggressively seeking ways to help employees and retirees stay healthier -- so the automaker's bottom line stays healthy.
L.L. "Woody" Williams, GM's executive director of health care initiatives, was here Thursday to discuss GM's health care cost picture and initiatives. Accompanying him was Thomas M. Smith Jr., GM's regional manager of health care initiatives in the Flint area.
Williams is visiting U.S. cities with high concentrations of GM employees.
Flint was his first stop in that effort.
"Rising costs aren't just a GM issue, they are a national issue," said Williams, who started with GM as a co-op student at Buick in Flint in 1969. He said U.S. companies are facing annual double-digit increases in health-care costs, and those are expected to extend into the foreseeable future.
GM wants to improve the quality of health care for its 1.21 million employees, retirees and dependents, Williams said, by working with those people as well as health care providers.
That means providing them information so they can make good health care decisions, improving the quality of their lives, he said.
Those GM-covered people represent 0.5 percent of the U.S. population.
Simply improving quality will help GM cut costs by as much as 25 percent, he said.
Nine communities account for 61 percent of GM's health care costs, and Flint is among those nine. However, Flint is in about the middle of the pack as far as cost rankings, Williams said.
With a work force with an average age of 48, GM's health care costs are rising, and expected to continue to climb as that work force ages.
Last year, GM saw health care costs jump 8.6 percent -- down from a U.S. average of 13-14 percent.
As one example of skyrocketing prescription costs, GM spent $55 million last year on Prilosec, a common heartburn prescription. By simply prescribing a generic remedy, GM could save millions each year, he said.
Also, by providing information to employees, high risk symptoms can be identified and treated before they become more serious problems requiring expensive surgery or other intervention, he said.
"In every city we have a community initiative, we are seeing a greater reduction (in costs) than in cities we don't," Williams said
QUICK FACTS: GM's health tab
Statistics on General Motor's health care costs in 2001:
=$4.2 billion: Spent on health care costs.
=$1.3 billion: Prescription costs
=1.21 million: Number of employees, retirees and dependents covered under GM health plans.
These figures below are just for Flint!
$416 million: Local spending on health care by covered employees, retirees and dependents in the immediate Flint area.
121,000: Employees, retirees and family members in the immediate Flint area.
156,000: Employees, retirees and family members in the Genesee County area.
Flint -- General Motors is aggressively seeking ways to help employees and retirees stay healthier -- so the automaker's bottom line stays healthy.
L.L. "Woody" Williams, GM's executive director of health care initiatives, was here Thursday to discuss GM's health care cost picture and initiatives. Accompanying him was Thomas M. Smith Jr., GM's regional manager of health care initiatives in the Flint area.
Williams is visiting U.S. cities with high concentrations of GM employees.
Flint was his first stop in that effort.
"Rising costs aren't just a GM issue, they are a national issue," said Williams, who started with GM as a co-op student at Buick in Flint in 1969. He said U.S. companies are facing annual double-digit increases in health-care costs, and those are expected to extend into the foreseeable future.
GM wants to improve the quality of health care for its 1.21 million employees, retirees and dependents, Williams said, by working with those people as well as health care providers.
That means providing them information so they can make good health care decisions, improving the quality of their lives, he said.
Those GM-covered people represent 0.5 percent of the U.S. population.
Simply improving quality will help GM cut costs by as much as 25 percent, he said.
Nine communities account for 61 percent of GM's health care costs, and Flint is among those nine. However, Flint is in about the middle of the pack as far as cost rankings, Williams said.
With a work force with an average age of 48, GM's health care costs are rising, and expected to continue to climb as that work force ages.
Last year, GM saw health care costs jump 8.6 percent -- down from a U.S. average of 13-14 percent.
As one example of skyrocketing prescription costs, GM spent $55 million last year on Prilosec, a common heartburn prescription. By simply prescribing a generic remedy, GM could save millions each year, he said.
Also, by providing information to employees, high risk symptoms can be identified and treated before they become more serious problems requiring expensive surgery or other intervention, he said.
"In every city we have a community initiative, we are seeing a greater reduction (in costs) than in cities we don't," Williams said
QUICK FACTS: GM's health tab
Statistics on General Motor's health care costs in 2001:
=$4.2 billion: Spent on health care costs.
=$1.3 billion: Prescription costs
=1.21 million: Number of employees, retirees and dependents covered under GM health plans.
These figures below are just for Flint!
$416 million: Local spending on health care by covered employees, retirees and dependents in the immediate Flint area.
121,000: Employees, retirees and family members in the immediate Flint area.
156,000: Employees, retirees and family members in the Genesee County area.
