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ByTomMurphy The Associated Press Paula Bennett pockets about $3,000 a year from her employer mainly for driving around 80 miles roundtrip for a deal on doses of her Crohn's dis- ease treatment Remicade. The extra income comes through SmartShopper, a program offered by some employers to provide cash to workers who choose quality health care options with lower prices. "I absolutely love the pro- gram," said Bennett, 43, a fiscal specialist with New Hampshire's Division for Children, Youth and Fam- ilies. SmartShopper repre- sents a twist in how cor- porate America is dealing with rising health care ex- penses. It's part of a push by employers to heap more responsibility for costs onto the people who are covered by their health care plans. Companies for years have raised deductibles, or the amount employees pay be- fore most of their coverage begins. They've also given workers online tools to help them shop for the best deals on things like imag- ing exams and bloodwork. Now, some are using cash to nudge employees toward those deals. "We're in the process of changing habits," said Mitch Rothschild, founder of the health care data firm Vitals, which cre- ated SmartShopper. "And frankly there's nothing better for changing hab- its than to give somebody money." SmartShopper works by offering financial incen- tives for about 40 catego- ries, from lab tests to some surgeries. It steers clear of areas like cancer care, though, because Rothschild says "you don't want to hear from us on an economic in- centive when your life is at stake." The program gives work- ers a list of potential pro- viders in their insurance network. It rates them us- ing standards based on the specialty, government data and patient reviews. It also tells patients providers to avoid because they may be low quality. It then offers cash incen- tives for many of the re- maining options. The in- centive size depends on the care being performed and the difference in cost com- pared with other options. A blood test may garner a $25 reward for a worker picking a lower-cost pro- vider. Meanwhile, someone getting bariatric surgery, which can cost upward of $20,000, could get a $500 check. Rothschild said patients generally make a few hun- dred dollars each year. The biggest earner last year brought in around $3,500. The money is considered income, so anything over $600 has to be declared on a patient's income tax re- turn. Bennett, the New Hamp- shire employee, gets about $500 every couple of months after traveling to an IV infusion center for a dose of Remicade. Vitals, citing laws pro- tecting patient privacy, de- clined to detail the savings that Bennett generates for her employer by using the infusion center. Vitals says the SmartShopper program saves, on average, about $8,000 per Remicade in- fusion, which a company spokeswoman says can cost anywhere from about $3,000 to $22,000 in New Hampshire. Bennett also earns incen- tive payments from regular blood testing she needs to have as a thyroid cancer survivor. She's used her ex- tra income to help pay for a Florida trip and Christ- mas gifts. The idea of providing an incentive for choosing care is not new. Nearly a quar- ter of large firms nationally provide insurance coverage with a network that groups providers with good qual- ity ratings, according to the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, which studies health care issues. Patients often get an enticement like a smaller co-payment for using providers in those networks. Aside from shopping for the best price, employers and insurers also want pa- tients to choose good doc- tors because quality care with fewer complications can help cut costs. These programs have po- tential to grow as employers look to cut costs ahead of a health care overhaul tax on expensive benefits plans that starts in 2018. "It's really a win-win, because it benefits the con- sumer, and it also benefits the employer," said Susan Rider, an insurance broker for Gregory & Appel in In- dianapolis. The prospect of earning extra income and receiv- ing help shopping for care may prove popular, says Kit Yarrow, a psychology and marketing professor with Golden Gate University. "I think it's a pretty irre- sistible combination," she said. SMARTSHOPPER Employersoffercashtopromote shopping around for health care JIMCOLE—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Paula Bennett poses at her home in Barrington, N.H. Bennett pockets about $3,000a year from her employer mainly for driving around 80miles roundtrip for a deal on doses of her Crohn's disease treatment Remicade. The extra income comes through SmartShopper, a program offered by some employers to provide cash to workers who choose quality health care options with lower prices. By John Kekis The Associated Press NEW HARTFORD, N.Y. Two teenage brothers were brutally beaten in church — one fatally — in an ef- fort by their parents, sister and other members to get them to confess their sins, police said Wednesday in a case involving an insu- lar congregation that had sparked gossip and suspi- cion among neighbors. Police said spiritual "counseling" at the Word of Life church in upstate New York turned into an hours-long attack Sunday night in which Lucas Leon- ard, 19, and his 17-year-old brother, Christopher, were pummeled with fists and kicked. They suffered inju- ries to the abdomen, geni- tals, back and thighs. Eventually, Lucas stopped breathing and rel- atives took him early Mon- day to a hospital, where he died, police said. Authori- ties went to the church and found his younger brother, who was hospitalized in serious condition. "Both brothers were subjected to physical pun- ishment over the course of several hours, in hopes that each would confess to prior sins and ask for for- giveness," Police Chief Mi- chael Inserra said. He said investigators have not determined what the supposed sins were. The brothers' parents, Bruce and Deborah Leon- ard, were charged with manslaughter in Lucas' death. Four other adults were charged with assault in the younger brother's beating, including Sarah Ferguson, 33, the victims' sister. The beatings took place at a red-brick former ele- mentary school that serves as both a church and a home for several mem- bers of the congregation, including one of the sus- pects. The church has ex- isted for as many as 30 years in New Hartford, a once-thriving mill town of 22,000 people about 50 miles from Syracuse. "I'm really afraid. In my heart I don't think this is the first incident," said Eva Monaghan, who lives around the corner. "Over all the years, I can't imag- ine this is the first thing. Maybe nothing as bad. Around town, it's consid- ered a cult." The police chief, how- ever, said he had no indica- tion Word of Life was any- thing but a church and a home. Tara Litz, who used to live next door to the church, said: "I never re- ally had any ill problems with them, but I did see a lot of sketchy things re- garding stuff in my back- yard, weird hours of the night, weird chanting, humming." Nancy Kneller, who used to work at a Catholic church next door, said resi- dents had long been suspi- cious of the place. "Why are they so se- cretive? Why are there no kids out playing?" she said. Still, she added, "I think they're good people that made a bad decision." Nearby, in the village where the Leonard broth- ers lived with their par- ents, neighbors recalled a deeply religious family that kept mostly to itself. All the suspects pleaded not guilty. Lawyers for the parents and the sister had no comment. Seven children, four of them Ferguson's, were turned over to child wel- fare authorities. Police said more arrests are expected as the inves- tigation continues. "We're not alleging that they intended to kill their son," Inserra said of the parents, but "they were at- tempting to seriously hurt their son, and he died as a result." After Lucas was brought to the hospital, police sus- pected Christopher had been hurt, too, but his rel- atives wouldn't tell officers where he was, the chief said. After searching for hours, police found him on the church's second floor. The Leonards live in Clayville, a village of 350 people, in a two-story, wood-frame duplex. The sister lives in the attic with her own children, a neigh- bor said. Lucas and Christopher read the Bible two hours a day at their parents' in- sistence and "weren't re- ally allowed to go out of their house" for sleepovers, said another neighbor, Ni- cole Howard. The brothers "weren't allowed to do nor- mal things, but they tried to be as normal as they could be." The Leonards home- schooled their children, eschewed TV and did not take part in Halloween, ei- ther leaving home or turn- ing off all the lights, neigh- bor Jim Constantine said. Some Christians do not ob- serve Halloween because of its pagan origins and macabre themes. The children weren't entirely isolated from ev- eryday life, though: Lu- cas Leonard was routinely hired to watch Constan- tine's dog when he was away, including this past weekend. SPIRITUAL 'COUNSELING' Police says brothers beaten in church to make them confess NEW HARTFORD POLICE DEPARTMENT VIA AP Deborah Leonard and her husband, Bruce Leonard of Clayville, N.Y., were charged with first-degree manslaughter in the beating death of their 19-year-old son, Lucas. By Michael Liedtke The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO Netflix is hooking fewer U.S. viewers than it hoped, even as its binge-watching addiction rapidly spreads to other parts of the world. The Internet video ser- vice added 3.62 million sub- scribers during the three months ended September, it announced Wednesday as part of its third-quarter earnings. That's slightly more than the company had predicted. But Netflix didn't gain as many U.S. subscribers dur- ing the latest quarter as management anticipated, a shortfall that it blamed on an unusually large number of accounts cancelled be- cause the company couldn't charge their credit cards. The company believes the trouble is tied to the new credit-card account num- bers banks are issuing as they adopt card technology based on computer chips in- stead of magnetic stripes. More of the cards still need to be issued, raising the specter of more sub- scriber cancellations in the months ahead. Netflix also recently announced a price increase on its most popu- lar U.S. plan. In the third quarter, Net- flix gained 880,000 sub- scribers in the U.S., below the 1.15 million customers that the company had pre- dicted. It was also fewer than the 980,000 U.S. sub- scribers that the service added this time last year. "The business is still growing by leaps and bounds," Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said in an inter- view. "We are taking it in stride because people want on-demand television. We are very excited about it." Netflix has picked up 16 million more subscribers during the past year alone, leaving the service with 69 million worldwide custom- ers through September. Disappointing growth in the U.S. appeared to raise fears that Netflix may be having trouble attract- ing more subscribers in its biggest market. It's facing tougher Internet-video com- petition from Amazon.com, Hulu and an online-only ap- plication from pay-TV pro- vider HBO. Netflix expects to add 1.65 million U.S. sub- scribers in the current quar- ter, 13 percent fewer than the same time last year. Netflix's stock shed $2.68, or 2 percent, to $107.55 in extended trading after the numbers came out. Even with that dip, the shares have still more than dou- bled so far this year. Nearly two-thirds of Net- flix's subscribers, 43 mil- lion accounts, are located in the U.S. But the stream- ing service is turning into a global phenomenon; Netflix is pushing to offer its ser- vice in 200 countries by the end of next year. Netflix is currently avail- able in about 80 nations, meaning it will have to launch its service in an av- erage of about eight more countries each month to meet its deadline. The ser- vice will start streaming in Spain, Italy and Portugal be- fore the end of this year and then go into South Korea, HongKong,TaiwanandSin- gapore early next year. Many of the countries located in Asia and Africa are likely to be more chal- lenging to navigate than the mostly European and Latin American countries that Netflix has already en- tered. The Los Gatos, Califor- nia, company currently has 26 million subscribers outside the U.S., a 64 per- cent increase from the same time last year when it was in fewer countries. The international push is costing Netflix hundreds of millions of dollars, al- though the company has remained profitable. Netf- lix earned $29.4 million in its latest quarter, a 50 per- cent drop from the same time last year. The com- pany expects to break even next year. Netflix's profit margins are also being squeezed as it pours more money into original programming such as the "Orange Is The New Black," which can only been seen on its service (at least initially). In the latest quar- ter, Netflix lured viewers with a series called "Nar- cos" and on Friday will de- but a critically acclaimed movie called "Beasts of No Nation" that is also being shown in theaters. Although the original programs have been a key factor in Netflix's recent success, the licensing bills are starting to take a toll. Netflix's programming costs are expected to rise from $3 billion this year to about $5 billion next year, with even more increases expected in subsequent years. To help cover its ex- penses, Netflix last week announced it's raising the price of its most popular video plan by a dollar to $10 per month. Netflix has insu- lated its current subscribers by guaranteeing their rates will remain unchanged un- til October 2015. 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