Problem:

Private school received health insurance and employee benefits advice from a large well-known and respected employee benefits agency. The school had 25% of their staff on the health insurance. Rates continued to escalate, yet each year the current agent would bring to the school administration the same insurance carrier with suggestions of different benefit cuts to maintain current rates. Teachers and staff at this private school are on a very limited budget as is the school itself. Adjusting benefits to put more cost onto the employees was creating a problem for the school administration.

Solution:

Braden Benefit Strategies, Inc. discussed at length the issues with school administration and listened intently to determine what was causing the increasing premiums, what the school's long-term plans were and if the desired goal of the benefits to attract and retain excellent teachers was being met. BBSI staff members began with the current staff census noticing several staff members were of Medicare age. BBSI created a side-by-side comparison to evaluate the school group health insurance versus the cost of Medicare plus a supplement.

Results:

All Medicare eligible employees have opted for a Medicare supplemental plan outside the school's benefits. With the change in the census, BBSI staff marketed the group to several health insurance carriers obtaining significantly lower premiums and better coverage.

With the help of strategic alliance partner Independent School Management (ISM) a wellness program has been implemented to help teachers and staff address their height/weight issues. The goal is to have a much more "fit" employee population within the next 24 months thus cutting down the incidence of weight related medical conditions. This will decrease the group's loss ratio and positively affect their health insurance premium within 18 months.

Many DOL related issues were discovered during the insurance agency transition. BBSI was able to address these, working with the school administration to change the way employee benefits had previously been administered. Making these changes eliminated potentially thousands of dollars in Department of Labor fines. Additionally, the potential for negative press coverage that would have been attracted by such a fine and the resulting obstacle to growth in student enrollment was also eliminated. The administration and staff is very pleased with the investigative work and results they have received from Braden Benefit Strategies, Inc. and Independent School Management.