Turn Health Care Into A Competitive Advantage - Not a strategic threat

As many of you know, CHROME Compass is our proprietary modeling and planning platform providing a strategic framework for employers to understand and evaluate the impact that health care reform will have on their group health plans. In technology terms, it’s a crowd-sourced tool:  every consultant we work with, every ERISA attorney or benefits specialist we engage, introduces new and useful components to the tool. As a result, this predictive health care reform modeling tool is the best in the market. You know this, because many of you have had us analyze your clients’ plans. For those of you who have not yet gotten the chance to work with the CHROME Compass tool, continue reading for a case study that highlights the technology’s capabilities.

Current Direction

A certain de-identified company has 1,203 employees who work more than 30 hours per week, with current benefits eligibility beginning at 32 hours per week. They have 940 employees participating in their single plan, with 140 waiving coverage and 123 ineligible. They have a BCBS PPO plan that is fully insured and considered non-grandfathered. An initial review with the Compass tool revealed that their total plan cost is less than the national average while their employee contributions are higher, especially on family coverage.

Compass Heading

The CHROME Compass pointed the way to a three-year strategy to address plan savings and requirements of health care legislation. CHROME Compass recommended gradually adjusting the actuarial value of the plan to the mandated 60% by 2014, which would reduce possible adverse selection among employees eligible for subsidies. Compass also suggested offering excepted benefits as a way to enhance the overall compensation value despite a decrease in the major medical. They had already added voluntary benefits and employer-paid basic life in 2010, plus long-term disability for the higher paid in 2011. Strategies for “fair” employee access include creating coverage provisions for spouses who have access to other benefits, conducting full documentation verification for dependents added to the plan and moving to eligibility management integration with vendors to reduce theerror (and fiscal consequences) of manual eligibility management.

Results

·         Health care budget reduced by 33^%/3 years

·         21^% Employer/Employee combined savings

In this case, CHROME Compass points to a three

year plan that has potential to reduce the employee

benefits budget by 33% for the employer. Employer

and employee savings combined represent 21%

savings.

The Compass-optimized plan for 2014 would save this company over $1 million dollars compared to maintaining their current plan and nearly $3.5 million compared to terminating.

Competitive Advantage

ContinuousHealth and our CHROME Compass  are here to help turn health care into a competitive advantage for your clients rather than a strategic threat.

Contact us today for more information about this powerful tool:

    Jennifer Riley: (678) 335-0448 

    Rachael Foster: (678) 397-0071

or email: chrome@continuoushealth.com

This article was first featured in the July 17th edition of our e-newsletter, Directions. If you'd like to receive that weekly email, contact directions@continuoushealth.com. (Your email will never be shared, sold, or otherwise distributed, and you will receive only the type of content for which you sign up.)

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