$5,000 Grants Help Children Get the Care they Need

Four-year-old Alexander could hear the sounds. He could see the way the lips of others moved and he understood everything he needed to do to say the words. But his mouth and tongue didn’t seem to work and no one could understand what he said. It was frustrating for this happy and sociable pre-schooler, and even more frustrating for his parents who were running out of money to pay for the therapy he needed.

It’s called Apraxia of speech, and the special speech therapy needed to help Alexander and other children with this physical disability to overcome it is usually not covered by health insurance.

Luckily, Alexander’s mom, found out about the UnitedHealthcare Children’s Foundation (UHCCF) from a friend she saw at a business conference. Alexander's mom applied for and was awarded a grant.

Alexander’s grant paid for intensive speech therapy sessions with a licensed speech therapist.  Alexander improved rapidly and his mom reports that she now understands nearly 50 percent of what he says, whereas it used to be only about 20 percent.

UHCCF awards grants of up to $5,000 to families nationwide to help pay the cost of their children’s health care treatments, medical services and equipment not covered or fully covered by their commercial health insurance such as physical, occupational and speech therapy, counseling services, surgeries, prescriptions, wheelchairs, orthotics, eyeglasses and hearing aids. UHCCF grants are available throughout the year for families with children aged 16 and under.

 To be eligible for a grant, your child must be 16 years of age or younger. In addition your family must meet economic guidelines; you must reside in the United States and have a commercial health insurance plan. Grants are available for medical expenses you have incurred for your child 60 days prior to the date of application as well as for ongoing and future medical needs. A parent or legal guardian may apply for grants at www.uhccf.org, and there is no application deadline.

In 2012, UHCCF awarded more than 1,300 grants, worth more than $4.1 million, to families across the United States for treatments associated with medical conditions such as cancer, spina bifida, muscular dystrophy, diabetes, hearing loss, autism, cystic fibrosis, Down syndrome, ADHD and cerebral palsy. Parents or legal guardians may apply for grants at www.uhccf.org

Pink never looked so good

Almost everybody has a breast cancer story.  “My mom had it,” “my sister has it,” “my wife had it,” “I have it.”  As I look at the 30,000 people gathered in photos and videos of the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Philadelphia this Mother’s Day, I’m reminded of just how many people have been touched by the disease.

But what really stands out is the number of pink t-shirts, which are worn by the survivors.  Every year, there are more pink t-shirts at the race, and an increasing number of breast cancer stories end with “but now she’s five years cancer-free,” “ten years cancer-free” or “twenty years cancer-free.”

Breast cancer survivors and supporters at Susan G. Komen's Race for the Cure
 Mother's Day, Philadelphia.

And not only are many, many more women breast cancer free, but because of organizations like Susan G. Komen that support breast cancer research, a diagnosis of breast cancer is no longer a death sentence.  In fact, 90 percent of people with breast cancer will survive for at least five years after they are diagnosed.  When the cancer is detected early, the five-year survival rate is 99 percent.

I have been personally involved with Susan G. Komen for the Cure in Philadelphia for several years, and I am so pleased that my employer, UnitedHealthcare, supports the organization.  At this year’s race, UnitedHealthcare sponsored two events.

The first was Children’s Fun Fest, a place for families to gather and enjoy magicians, clowns, music and games.

The second event was one that we launched last year, the UnitedHealthcare Children’s Dash to Make a Difference for kids between ages three and twelve.  “The Dash” was created to help young children take part in making a difference.  No matter their age or the distance they walk or run, “The Dash” teaches a child that they, too, play a part in the fight against breast cancer, and encourages them to grow into adults who will continue the fight against the disease.

This year’s “Dash” leader was Michelle Goglia, vice president of sales at UnitedHealthcare. Michelle and many other UnitedHealthcare employees took part in the day’s activities including holding “The Dash” finish line tape.  According to Michelle, watching this very special group of breast cancer fighters who were there for their moms, neighbors, teachers, aunts and grandmas was like watching the next generation of cancer researchers dash towards a cancer free future.

JDRF Promise Ball showed delicate balance of life with diabetes

“Both children and adults like me who live with type 1 diabetes need to be mathematicians, physicians, personal trainers and dieticians all rolled into one. We need to be constantly factoring and adjusting, making frequent finger sticks to check blood sugars, and giving ourselves multiple daily insulin injections just to stay alive.”

- JDRF International Chairman Mary Tyler Moore

Although I have worked with JDRF for several years, attending the JDRF Promise Ball last weekend really heightened my awareness of just how difficult it is to live with type 1 diabetes. For these people, many of them children, staying healthy means maintaining a difficult and fragile balance – almost like working with glass.

Glass sculptures played a big role in this year’s Promise Ball, in addition to the fun Beatles theme. A stunning glass sculpture by glass artist Andy Paiko was specially designed for the live auction at the Ball to raise money for diabetes research.

Titled “Ladder to Light,” the sculpture conveyed the ups and downs of type 1 diabetes as voiced by the diabetes community. Diabetics, their families and their friends shared powerful words about diabetes with Paiko, who translated the emotions into glass. According to Andy, the words told him of darkness, but also of personal growth and the abundant strength that comes from managing diabetes.

Andy’s piece was beautiful and incredibly moving. But it was another glass sculpture that truly took my breath away.

As this year’s JDRF honoree, along with my company, UnitedHealthcare, I was humbled when to my surprise I was presented with a glass sculpture of my own, inspired by Andy’s work and created by diabetic children involved with JDRF. It turns out that the kids had spent an afternoon at East Falls Glassworks to learn about working with glass and worked together to make the sculpture for me.

The glass sculpture was a beautiful way to represent the delicate balance of life with diabetes, and I’m honored that the kids took the time to create the sculpture for me.

The hopeful note that was captured in both glass sculptures reminded me of just how much these people are relying on scientific research to help them live healthier lives. And despite the evening’s celebration of the scientific advances into the causes, treatment and possible cures for diabetes that were made in 2012 with the support of JDRF, there is still much work ahead of us. We’ve got to keep on going, until we find a cure!

JDRF ambassaors present Sue Schick with "balance of life" scupture at 2013 Promise Ball

Moon Walk Challenge

As a healthcare executive, there are certainly many days when it feels as though the health problems facing our nation, from obesity to diabetes, are just too big to solve.

But then I hear that our programs that address health issues at the community level really are working, and I’m reminded that these small changes are what add up to big progress.

UnitedHealthcare awards micro – grants to community based organizations for programs that target childhood obesity as part of our childhood obesity initiative titled HEROES. As I am every year, I was impressed to see the creativity of the 2013 grant awardees programs, and couldn’t wait to see how they were implemented. One program that really caught my eye was in the Pittsburgh area, the Allegheny Valley YMCA’s Moon Walk Challenge.

The program tied together space education and physical activity. Children of all ages involved in the Y’s before and after school programs participated in fun activities about space, and ran or walked together every day before or after school, with the goal of walking the equivalent of the moon’s diameter over the course of the project, a distance of 2,160 miles.

When we checked in with the Allegheny Valley YMCA, they said that things didn’t go quite as planned. Instead of walking the diameter of the moon, students wanted to challenge themselves even further by setting the new goal to the circumference of the moon, an approximate distance of 6,784 miles.

Children at Allegheny Valley YMCA, logging their miles.

The YMCA used their grant money to purchase pedometers for the kids so they could keep track of how much they moved every day. Kids were excited to not only use them in their group walks, but keep track of their steps at baseball practice, walking to the bus stop, or even around their home.

Hearing kids say “let’s challenge ourselves to move even more!” is music to my ears, and I think we can safely say that it’s an indicator of the program’s success. Indeed, the YMCA reported that many of the kids saw their fitness levels improve significantly.

The Allegheny Valley YMCA’s Moon Walk Challenge is just one example of how organizations across the country have put HEROES grants to good use to really make a difference in kids’ education and attitudes about health and physical activity. Congratulations to all of our HEROES grant winners, and I hope to keep hearing more stories about the success of these programs!



E.J. Heckert, vice president, UnitedHealthcare, Western Pennsylvania and UnitedHealthcare volunteers presented the HEROES grant check to Allegheny Valley YMCA program coordinators



A way to give weight loss benefits to overweight adults

A new study about losing weight by researchers at Johns Hopkins University reminds me of the old blues song “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.”  The sad part, of course, is that people are dying early from diseases associated with being obese and overweight.

The study found that the overwhelming number of overweight adults believe that specific weight-loss benefits offered by health plans could help them lose weight, but few are willing to pay extra for them.

The numbers are very revealing: More than 80% of the people surveyed said they thought it was a good idea for health insurance to cover weight loss expenses, such as fitness center membership, financial incentives, commercial weight-loss programs and health coaching. But two-thirds of the overweight people surveyed would not pay any additional premium for the benefit.  About 21% would pay from $50-99 per year and only about 13% would pay more than $100 for a weight-loss benefit.

But what about the one third willing to pay a little extra to have the help they need to get down to a healthy weight?

Historically, these people might be out of luck, as employers could only offer one or at the most a few health plans to employees.  The concept of defined benefits has changed all that.

With a defined benefit health care benefit, the employer gives employees a defined amount for the health benefit and a menu of many health care plans from which to choose.  Depending on the plan selected, the employee will pay more or less of a premium. Many health insurers are going to the defined benefit model, because it gives employees more choice without raising the cost to employer.  For example, UnitedHealthcare calls its defined benefit package Multi-Choice and enables employees to select from up to 30 different plans.

In a defined benefit world, it’s easy for people to address the specific health needs of their family. Those one-third of overweight adults who would be willing to pay a little bit more in annual premium so they can get weight loss support through the health insurance can select a plan that includes weight loss features. Unlike in the past, the defined benefit approach essentially enables employees to customize the health plan they receive.

Let’s do some thinking out loud. If one-third of the two-thirds of all adults who are overweight took a plan that helped them lose the excess baggage, that would mean 22% of all American adults would be better positioned to lose the weight they need to lose.  Not only would we be healthier as a nation, but our health care costs would go down. A recent study by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that by 2030 we will spend an additional $550 billion on health care because of obesity. Imagine what we could do with the money as individuals and a nation if we cut 20% of that more than half a trillion dollars! 

Don’t forget April 15th deadline for HSA contributions

Tick tock. Tick tock.

This time of year you can almost hear the clock ticking as we rush to beat the April 15th deadline for filing income taxes.

But in the hustle to add, subtract, multiply and divide, it’s easy to forget a money-saving deadline that comes the same day as tax day. April 15th is also the very last day to make a contribution into a health savings account (HSA).

An HSA is a medical savings account available to consumers enrolled in a high-deductible health plan. The funds contributed to an HSA are not subject to federal income tax, nor are any accumulated income earned in an HSA. Consumers can pay for insurance premiums, deductibles, co-pays, prescription drugs and other eligible medical costs from the HSA throughout the year and can then roll over unused amounts into future years, potentially creating a kind of medical expense nest egg over time.

And according to the experts, you absolutely should save money for future medical needs. A recent study by Fidelity Benefits Consulting estimates that a 65-year-old couple who retired in 2012 will need $240,000 just to cover their medical costs in retirement.

Having an HSA tends to make people pay more attention not just to what they are paying for healthcare, but also to the care they receive. A study by UnitedHealthcare shows that five percent more of HSA members sought preventive care than a peer group of traditional PPO members. HSA members were 16-percent more likely to get cervical or prostate cancer screenings and those with heart conditions were 20-to 40- percent more likely to get important tests.

A UnitedHealthcare study also found that both physician groups and employees saved money with HSAs. The cost per consumer decreased three percent to five percent in the HSA plan during a three-year period. Plan participants had 22 percent fewer hospital admissions and 14-percent fewer emergency room visits.

HSAs are becoming more popular as more employers and individuals learn about the benefits. The Insurance industry trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans reported in 2012 that more than 13.5 million Americans with individual or employer group coverage had an HSA-qualified plan, an increase of 18 percent from 2011.

The federal government gives employees and employers (who are allowed to add funds to the HSAs of employees) until April 15th of the year to add funds to an HSA account for the prior year. That means that if you have an HSA and some extra funds, you can cut your taxes while adding to your nest egg for future medical care. The HSA limits for 2012 are $3,100 for an individual and $6,250 for a family. HSA holders 55 and older can contribute and deduct an additional $1,000.

So what are you waiting for? If you have an HSA, contribute as much as you can up to the maximum before April 15th. And if you don’t have an HSA and you want to learn more about them, visit uhc.com/individuals_families/health_insurance_plans/health_savings_accounts.htm.

Start Walking!

One thing I know for sure, at UnitedHealthcare we not only talk the health and wellness talk; we walk the walk…literally. 

UnitedHealth Group’s National Walk Teams program unites employees across the United States with the goal of generating awareness of and support for organizations which provide important health research, public education and support our mission to help people live healthier lives.

This is the fifth year of the National Walk Teams program. Each year the program has grown thanks to dedicated participants who have joined together and found a meaningful way to make a difference in their communities.

Next Wednesday, April 3, is National Walking Day 2013 and UnitedHealth Group employees across the country will lace up their shoes and walk with their colleagues, friends and family to celebrate a healthy lifestyle.  In some cities, employees will raise funds in support of one of three nonprofit organizations: the American Heart Association; American Cancer Society and Alzheimer’s Association.   Our participation and impact in the National Walk Teams program has been significant including:

• In 2012, UnitedHealth Group walk teams had more than 5,100 participants.
• UnitedHealth Group walk teams raised a total of $530,000 at nearly 200 walks across the country.

I love walking even when it’s not cause related.  I find it’s not only the best overall body conditioning exercise; it also allows me to take in my surroundings, clear my head (or do some serious thinking) and breathe deeply. 

UnitedHealthcare employees getting ready for this year's
National Walking Day on April 3rd