WellPoint's size can help it effect reform, CEO says

Indianapolis Star, February 24, 2005
As the nation's new No. 1 health benefits company, WellPoint Inc. packs the clout to improve the workings of America's health care system, says its president.
In a luncheon speech to the Economic Club of Indianapolis on Wednesday, Larry Glasscock sketched out his view of a more efficient, better-performing health care system, with Indianapolis-based WellPoint leading the charge.
The newly merged WellPoint serves 27.7 million members, or about one of 10 Americans, giving it the scale and leverage to push programs that improve care to patients, he said.
"With the resources we have brought together, we have created a company that can play a key role in meeting the challenges facing health care in our nation," he said.
Glasscock's comments, before more than 600 people in an Indiana Convention Center ballroom, drew on much of the rationale he cited to persuade insurance regulators in 10 states to approve Anthem Inc.'s $20.8 billion acquisition late last year of California-based WellPoint Health Networks.
WellPoint can use its size to help reduce upward-spiraling health care costs by pushing disease- and care-management programs that direct help to chronically ill patients before their health problems become more serious and costly, Glasscock said.
"Quality in health care can actually cost less," he said.
Glasscock also said WellPoint is investing in a "wired" health care system that makes patient records more accessible by putting them in electronic form, rather than on paper, and moves insurance claim processing onto electronic systems, which are 18 times cheaper to administer than paper.
Information technology can be "the penicillin of the 21st century" for health care if it is widely used, he said.
For the 16 million Americans too poor to afford health insurance and not old enough to qualify for federal Medicare coverage, private companies like WellPoint are at a loss, Glasscock acknowledged.
"We do need government help here," he said in answer to a question about aiding the uninsured.
Glasscock suggested that new government programs or tax credits to private insurers are needed to extend health care or health coverage to those with low incomes.