Local 49’s health care plan earns the praise of a doctor and legislator

It’s an awfully big compliment when a legislator suggests your organization’s health care plan is so efficient at saving money and providing the best medical outcomes that it should be the state’s model. But when that legislator is also a medical professional, it’s a huge validation of your organization’s work.

“The 49ers have a very advanced, very innovative health plan,” said Rep. Jim Abeler (R-Anoka), who’s also an Anoka chiropractor.

“They care about people, they care about money; they don’t mind if they spend extra money to help people get better outcomes,” Rep. Abeler said at a recent House Commerce and Labor Committee hearing held on a bill about insurance companies providing more detailed health data.

“We want to make sure the doctors we’re sending our members to are the most qualified in their field,” says Martha LaFave, Local 49’s health fund coordinator. “This legislation will help us monitor which doctors are keeping patients healthy and which are just running up medical bills.”

A lot of health care dollars and time are wasted because patients bounce from provider to provider who struggle with the proper diagnosis or continually treat patients with limited success. Knowing which doctors are best at treating which types of ailments at the greatest value provides another tool to patient advocates like Health Systems Management (HMS), which guides Local 49’s 33,000 members and their families through the complex world of medicine.