LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y.—Joseph Molloy, corporate director of benefits at North Shore-LIJ Health Care System, is critical of the way U.S. health care is delivered and compensated, but he is optimistic employers can improve the quality of employees' health care and hold down its cost.

Since he joined the Great Neck,-N.Y.-based health care system in 2005, Mr. Molloy has drawn on his decades of experience in employee benefit issues to design plans to protect the system's employees and incorporate wellness programs, all while holding down costs.

“As corporate director of benefits, Joe Molloy has been instrumental in helping us achieve our goals. Without question, he has one of the toughest jobs in the organization,” wrote Joseph Cabral, North Shore-LIJ's senior vp and chief human resources officer, in nominating Mr. Molloy, who has been named to the Business Insurance 2010 Benefit Management Honor Roll.

“He has made significant contributions—in his first year alone he saved North Shore-LIJ more than $30 million in health plan design changes. In addition to the financial bottom line, Joe's personal contributions have impacted employee satisfaction and utilization of in-system resources, reflecting the organization's mission to continue to provide the highest quality care to our patients and our employees,” added Mr. Cabral, who is Mr. Molloy's boss.

Mr. Molloy, who works in North Shore-LIJ's Lake Success, N.Y., office, is a critic of the current health care system where he says not enough dollars are invested to keep individuals healthy or spot medical problems early.

“Our system nationally is not about health care. It is about sick care,” he says.

But during the past five years, he has developed a multifaceted strategy to implement his vision of how employee benefit plans should be designed. It includes:

Much of Mr. Molloy's vision has become reality, including slowing health care cost increases and ensuring that more employees have retirement savings in addition to saving the health care system millions of dollars.

“The innovative programs he oversees all reflect a fundamental guiding principle: They're the right thing to do for employees, providers and the community North Shore-LIJ serves,” wrote Stacey Thaler and David Scheer, senior consultants at Towers Watson & Co. in New York, which is one of the health care system's benefit consultants.

Modestly, Mr. Molloy gives credit for the changes put in place to his superiors, who have welcomed efforts to hold down costs, but have not demanded an immediate return on the health system's investment.

“What they have asked for are programs and benefits that will get our employees healthier,” Mr. Molloy said. “The pieces are coming together and I'm excited to be part of it.”

One key change put in place at the start of this year was eliminating copayments, which previously were $15, for a slew of preventive services such as annual examinations.

“We wanted to ensure that there were no financial barriers at all to employees for ascertaining this aspect of wellness coverage,” Mr. Molloy said.

North Shore-LIJ's health care's plans were revamped to give employees significant financial incentives to receive services from in-system providers, with the cost differential widened depending on whether care was delivered in-system, in-network or out-of-network.

For example, in 2009, in managed care plans offered through Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Aetna Inc., 100% coverage was provided for in-system care, with 90% coverage for services provided in-network, with no deductible and a $1,000 maximum out-of-pocket limit.

This year, 100% coverage remains for in-system care, but a $250 individual and $500 family deductible was imposed for in-network services delivered in two Empire and Aetna plans, while the out-of-pocket limit was raised to $2,000 for individual coverage and $4,000 for family coverage.

Preliminary claims data information, Mr. Molloy said, shows an increase in treatment delivered in-system which will improve employees' health over the long term.

“If we get more employees into our "in-system' for services, and the physicians participating in treating our employees work with us to better understand their patients' and our employees' health, the ultimate result should be a healthier workforce,” Mr. Molloy said.

And Mr. Molloy is spearheading more changes that he says should lead to a healthier workforce.

Later this year, employees will be asked to complete health risk assessments to identify employee health conditions. Notices then would be sent to employees and their doctors so plans could be developed to address those conditions. Financial incentives linked to the program have not yet been decided.

Ultimately, information gleaned on an aggregate basis from those assessments will enable to the health care system to identify employees' most significant chronic and modifiable conditions.

Down the road, Mr. Molloy has an even more ambitious goal: analyzing claims data to determine which physicians have the best results in treating medical conditions.

“It is our intent to work within the physician community,” sharing the data to develop better outcomes through evidence-based medicine, Mr. Molloy said.