As epiphanies go, chances are you could count on one hand those that have taken place at corporate benefits meetings.
But that’s precisely what happened when Larry Dahl, CEO of EdenHill Communities, a continuing care retirement community in New Braunfels, Texas, attended such a meeting in St. Louis a few years ago.
There, Dahl heard representatives of the Pension Boards of the United Church of Christ (PBUCC) discuss CHHSM Health, the employee health insurance plan PBUCC offers to CHHSM members.
“At the presentation, one of the things that was attractive was that the Pension Boards operate their insurance as a not-for-profit program, so I knew we had similar values,” Dahl says. “I felt that the administrative costs and the profit margins that carriers would normally be writing into the program were really being passed back to us as savings. It was clear the Pension Boards operated the program with lots of integrity.”
With its existing health insurance plan, EdenHill was facing annual increases of 12 percent. “We are fully indemnified and self-insured and were facing large increases again even though our insurance rating was good,” he says. “PBUCC indicated they could save us between 10 and 15 percent.”
When representatives of PBUCC arrived at EdenHill in 2009, they determined that they could save the community over $100,000 on the cost of its employee health insurance program.
“That was significant for us, and as important was that their historical increases were less than half of the market increases for the last five years,” he says. “The industry average is 8 to 10 percent increases, and PBUCC was showing 3 to 5 percent.”
The math was convincing. EdenHill offered its first open enrollment with CHHSM Health in January of this year. The community has seen participation increase among its 250 employees, about half of which are enrolled.
In addition to the cost-savings, Dahl says EdenHill appreciated that CHHSM Health provides a broader menu of services to employees while keeping their premiums the same. Dahl says EdenHill will explore adding dental and vision coverage, as well as the option of a 401k next year.
“The CHHSM Health program has more value-added components that we weren’t even aware of initially, including reimbursement for physicals and monitoring for chronic diseases,” he says. “It always feels better to get more than you thought you were getting.”
The business basis for switching was sound, and the transition itself, Dahl says, was a smooth one. But beyond the bottom line, he emphasizes how impressed he has been with the way the program is run.
“My impression is that the Pension Boards are as concerned about serving our employees as we are,” he says. “They understand that we have to be good stewards of our organizations, and I think they have the best interests of our employees at heart.”
To learn how CHHSM Health can benefit your organization, contact Frank Loiacono, PBUCC’s director of health plan operations, at 800-642-6543 ext. 2806 or floiacono@pbucc.org.
