MONEY MATTERS: Our Health Care Plan By Stephen Voorhees - VP of Finance & Accounting
ELECT RX One of the newest additions to our overall health program is Elect RX. This program allows recurring medications to be ordered internationally at significant cost savings for the employee-owner and the company. There is a limited list of medications that are available through this program, but if you are on a maintenance medication and it is on the list, I would encourage you to take advantage of the cost savings. The company will also benefit from the lower cost. SMOKING CESSATION For those employee-owners who use tobacco, we have also partnered with EX Program, a smoking cessation program. The company has paid the fees for the program; it is available to all participants who want to quit tobacco, at no cost to the employee-owner. Those who complete the program are also eligible to receive the weekly premium credit on their paycheck. VIRTUAL VISITS Due to the mobile nature of our employee base, we understand that it is often difficult to get to the doctor, and it is very expensive to visit urgent care facilities or emergency rooms. We have partnered with Physician Now to offer virtual access to physicians for those who are unable, for whatever reason, to see a physician in person. These visits are provided at no cost to the employee-owner and result in significant savings to both the participant and the health care plan compared to an urgent care or emergency room visit. COST COMPARISON Every year, we benchmark our health care program against several hundred other companies that are similar sized, and year after year, our benefits program proves to be among the best. There are few, if any, other companies that have a $750 deductible, and our employee contribution is very competitive for the quality of the program we offer. Being employee-owned, it is crucial that all employees have access to owner-level insurance coverage. It is rare that all employees have the exact same level of coverage for the same employee contribution, but this has always been a focus for us. For the last five years, the cost per employee that the company pays for our health plan has remained constant at around $5,300. This is a cost of about 5.5 cents a mile based on total miles driven in any given year. CALL CENTER We have invested significant time and resources in the call center that is maintained by our health care insurance advisors, Cottingham and Butler. If there are questions that employees, spouses, or dependents have about our plan, they can reach out to the call center and get questions answered. It is important to us that all employee-owners understand the fantastic benefits package that the company offers. We want to make sure that all of our employees and families get any necessary medical treatment, but we also encourage you to shop where you can and utilize all of the available tools to minimize costs to you as well as the company, with the financial impact to the company and your associated ESOP account in mind. As costs continue to increase, it is important that we all are wise consumers of health care.
I thought I would take the opportunity in this issue to better explain some of the details around our health care plan. I am not sure how many of our employee-owners know that our medical plan is self-insured. This means that the company pays for each and every claim up to $100,000. We buy stop-loss insurance that covers any amount over $100,000. When you understand that the company pays each dollar of claims, it may help clarify why we do some of the things we do. When we make decisions about health insurance, it is important to understand that the health of our employees and the improvement in the quality of life are the primary driving factor in those decisions. Secondarily, we also look at the economics of these decisions on the company overall. As employee-owners, improving the overall financial health of the company positively impacts each and every one of us as the stock price increases and the value of each participant’s account increases. HEALTHCHECK 360 One of the key components of our health care plan is HealthCheck 360. Every year, we offer the opportunity for our employee-owners to receive a free health risk assessment screening that is very comprehensive. As a reward for participating in this program, we offer premium credits to your health care premiums for the upcoming year. Any participant who is enrolled in the critical illness insurance can receive a $50 annual health screening benefit reimbursement check through MetLife for completing the screening. For those participants who receive all credits, the annual savings is almost $2,300/year, and the minimum that you will receive just for participating is $1,144/year per participant. We have made sure that these credits keep health care premiums affordable. For single participants who receive all of the credits, the cost to the participant is $7.50 per week less than it was five years ago. We focus on this program because historically, participants who identify health issues early — and receive treatment — that typically would have gone undiagnosed lessen the chances of significant health challenges and costs to both the participant and the plan. It is important to mention that risk assessment results for specific individuals are contained at HealthCheck 360 and are not communicated to the company; we only receive information on the total credit to the premium each participant is eligible to receive. CONDITION MANAGEMENT We often get questions surrounding the Condition Management program from those involved. The reason we have implemented the Condition Management program is to improve the overall health of the employee-owners involved — those with conditions that, if not kept in check, can result in serious health issues with long-term effects. These conditions also have potentially long-term significant costs for the company-funded health plan. It is imperative that participants in the health plan effectively manage their conditions for both their long-term health and the financial impact on the company.
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