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Agenda Item
ASR
Control 25-000158 |
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MEETING
DATE: |
03/11/25 |
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legal entity taking action: |
Board
of Supervisors |
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board of supervisors district(s): |
All
Districts |
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SUBMITTING Agency/Department: |
County
Executive Office (Approved) |
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Department contact person(s): |
Kim
Derrick (714) 834-2564 |
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Lauren
Pierson (714) 834-5376 |
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Subject: Renewal of Contract for
Administration of Health Management Program with WebMD
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ceo CONCUR |
County Counsel Review |
Clerk of the Board |
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Concur |
Approved
Agreement to Form |
Discussion |
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3
Votes Board Majority |
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Budgeted: Yes |
Current Year
Cost: $366,767 |
Annual Cost: FY 2025-26: $1,945,726 |
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Staffing Impact: |
No |
# of Positions: |
Sole Source: No |
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Current Fiscal Year Revenue: N/A
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Prior Board Action: 12/14/2021 #38 |
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RECOMMENDED
ACTION(S):
Authorize the Chief Human Resources
Officer or designee to execute Amendment Number One to the Contract with WebMD
Health Services Group, Inc. for the administration of the Health Management
Program for the County of Orange employees, effective May 1, 2025, through
April 30, 2027, for an estimated total of $3,961,798, for a revised cumulative
estimated contract amount of $8,285,898.
SUMMARY:
Approval of Amendment Number One
will allow the County to continue to provide administration of the Health
Management Program for the County of Orange employees, as required under the
various Memorandums of Understanding.
BACKGROUND
INFORMATION:
In 2014, as agreed through labor
negotiations, the County implemented a five percent reduction on health
premiums for eligible employees that participated in the County’s Wellness
Program. The program, Your Pathway to Wellness, is designed to help employees
become aware of their risk factors and key information that impact their
health, as well as provide cost-effective health management interventions to
assist employees in maintaining or improving their health.
Over the years, the program has
seen participation rates greater than 80 percent and has evolved to promote
year-round engagement and offer employees greater flexibility to choose the
areas of wellness they want to focus on. The program now consists of a menu of
healthy actions that focus on physical, emotional, financial, and social
wellbeing.
The program has been a contributing
factor in controlling the cost of the health plan premiums. The continued
engagement and decrease in risk prevalence among the population can be
attributed to the evolution of the wellness program. The modifiable risk prevalence continues to
improve among the employees who have completed the health assessment. The largest improvement among the 2023
to 2024 cohort report of participants was seen in the risk areas of exercise,
nutrition, and sleep. Over a three-year period of 2022 to 2024,
participants saw the largest improvement in nutrition with a 14.69
percent risk prevalence improvement, followed by sleep with a 10.4 percent
improvement over the same period.
WebMD Health Services Group, Inc.
(WebMD) is the leading provider of health information and services to
consumers, physicians, health care professionals, employers, and health plans
through public and private online platforms. WebMD supports 100 direct
clients and 2,000 clients across their business groups. Additionally, WebMD
currently services 13 government clients and supports over 63 million
lives.
The current contract with WebMD
expires on April 30, 2025. Over the last
nine years, WebMD has been the County’s administrator of the Health Management
Program for the County of Orange employees. WebMD will continue to administer
the Wellness Credit Program and provide online health trackers, telephonic
coaching, online emotional and financial wellness programs, and wellness
challenges. WebMD will subcontract with Quest and Total Health to complete the
Biometric Screening services.
WebMD offers a holistic approach to
wellbeing that supports the whole person. 83 percent of County employees have
registered for the WebMD portal and averaged six site visits in 2024. On the
portal, employees have access to a wide variety of health management resources,
including health trackers for employees to track their activity, sleep, hydration,
and more. Employees have access to the Beyond Well podcasts that are hosted by
a team of medical doctors, psychologists, and therapists to provide current and
evidence-based content focused on mental health.
In 2024, employees downloaded 533
podcasts from Beyond Well, available on the WebMD portal, on identifying and
understanding mental illness, and another 109 podcasts on self-care and work
life balance.
Their online stress and resilience
solution, meQuilibrium, offers participants help with increasing their
resilience and emotional wellbeing by combining the care of a personal coach
with the convenience of an online solution. Over the initial three-year term of
the contract, the enrollment in meQuilibrium has increased from 36 users in
2022 to 6,325 users in 2024.
The financial wellness platform,
Enrich, also available on the WebMD portal, offers engaging, effective, online
financial programs that are customized to each participant, offering a
personalized approach to help individuals meet their financial goals. In 2024,
4,098 employees utilized the Enrich program to focus on savings goals and to
manage debt.
In addition, the contract offers a
variety of coaching programs. One such program is Daily Habits which offers a
self-driven coaching program, designed to turn small, attainable goals into
long-term behavior change. Topics range from lifestyle programs like increasing
exercise to clinical programs such as diabetes management. Throughout 2024, County employees started
4,041 goals in Daily Habits with the most popular topics being Balance Your
Diet, Enjoy Exercise, and Improve Back Health.
WebMD’s telephonic health coaching
program is focused on creating sustainable lifestyle behavior changes through
one-on-one coaching sessions. Participants are provided with health
advice, resources, and referrals to other County resources that best fit their
current wellbeing needs. By using methodology such as Motivational
Interviewing and SMART goal setting, coaches can reduce barriers to success for
those that participate. For employees that qualify, WebMD has a more
specialized health coaching program focused on weight management, called
Positively Me. This is a 12-month program that follows a diabetes
prevention inspired curriculum to guide participants through the necessary
behavior changes to see healthy and sustainable weight loss. Participants learn
skills to break negative thought patterns, overcome time constraints, improve
their nutrition and physical activity. In 2024 we increased our efforts around
promoting these programs through email communications and quarterly newsletter
articles. Both programs’ utilization is trending positively compared to last
year. We take a passive approach to coaching and allow employees to opt-in to
the programs rather than auto-enrolling them based on their health assessment
results and having WebMD make outbound calls to eligible employees.
The WebMD Contract also includes
three dedicated onsite Wellbeing Coordinators. The onsite Wellbeing
team's mission is to provide expert guidance that inspires people to take
charge of their health. They do this by helping the County's employees
understand their health risks, make smart health care decisions, and take
active steps toward living and maintaining healthier lives. The key
responsibilities for these positions include:
- Increasing awareness and engagement in
County-wide, wellbeing offerings.
- Educating employees about cardiovascular
and metabolic health management and chronic condition management.
- Coordinating and assisting with
implementation of over 35 biometric screening events across 20 different County
locations that screened over 3,700 employees in 2024.
- Processing appeals for the annual
Wellness Credit program.
- Instructing over 300 yoga and guided
meditation classes for the Employee Wellness Center in 2024 that had over 3,400
participants.
- Administering the Wellness on Wheels
Program that extends the programming in the Wellness Center to other locations
throughout the County which visited 10 County departments and had over 1,600
participants.
- Assisting in the delivery and
coordination of health improvement, health and wellness programs, and
challenges for employees.
- Coordinating the flow of information and
materials between WebMD and individual County locations.
- Assisting and facilitating the linkage
between County HRS/Employee Benefits, WebMD, the Employee Assistance Program,
and other County benefits vendors.
- Working with the WebMD communications
team to coordinate the customization of standard communication vehicles and the
development of original materials, including the quarterly Your Pathway to
Wellness Newsletter for County employees.
- Ongoing program performance review and
wellness program strategy support.
Modifications to
the contract have been made. Attachment
B, Compensation/Payment, has been revised to remove services no longer provided
by WebMD and to include new services now offered by WebMD. Additionally, the
Performance Standards have been updated and restated in Attachment E of the
contract.
Human Resource Services is
satisfied with WebMD’s performance under the current contract, which has
provided valuable programs and resources to support the County employees’
wellbeing. Throughout the three-year term of the current contract, WebMD has
achieved 94.7 percent or higher of their Performance Guarantees. WebMD will
continue to offer 7.9 percent in fees at risk for core services and seven
percent of fees at risk for health coaching services plus additional fees at
risk for onsite biometric screening services based on service metrics as it
relates to start times, adequate event supplies, staffing, client
satisfaction, event cancellations, equipment quality assurance, and
reporting.
On December 14, 2021, the Board
approved the initial contract for the period of May 1, 2022, through April 30,
2025, renewable for two additional one-year periods. HRS asked for the standard
three-year term with WebMD, renewable for two additional one-year periods, due
to the fact it was the first year under the WebMD service contract after
acquiring Staywell, the previous administrator of the Health Management
Program. HRS is requesting to combine the two one-year renewal periods into one
and renew the contract with WebMD for two years. This is the result of being
satisfied with their performance, along with WebMD offering the same fee
structure, keeping the pricing the same over the next two years, and they will
continue to offer the County credits totaling an annual maximum amount of $75,000
that may be used towards programs, new products, communications, challenges
and/or data files.
HRS has verified there are no
concerns that must be addressed with respect to Contractor’s ownership/name,
litigation status or conflicts with County interests. As such, HRS requests
approval of the contract before your Board today to continue the administration
of the Health Management Program for the County of Orange employees.
CONTRACT AND PRIOR BOARD ACTIONS:
On December 14, 2021, the Board
approved execution of the Contract with WebMD for the administration of a
Health Management Program effective May 1, 2022, through April 30, 2025,
renewable for two additional one-year periods per Board policy.
FINANCIAL
IMPACT:
The total cost for the two-year
amendment is estimated at $3,961,798. The actual cost will vary based on
employees participating in the Wellness Credit Program and the various other
Your Pathway to Wellness programs.
Appropriations for this Contract are included
in Fund 29W FY 2024-25 Budget and will be included in the budgeting process for
future years.
The proposed Contract includes provisions
that the Contract is contingent upon the availability of funds in the budget
approved by the Board for each fiscal year the Contract remains in effect or
operation. In the event such funding is terminated or reduced, the County may
terminate the Contract, reduce the County’s maximum obligation, or modify the
Contract, without penalty.
STAFFING
IMPACT:
N/A
ATTACHMENT(S):
Attachment
A – Amendment One to Contract with WebMD
Attachment B - Contract Summary Form
Attachment C - WebMD Performance Guarantee Summary