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Success Stories

Wellness

"At the end of December, I set up an appointment with a local doctor. I had not had a family physician in over 18 years. The results were rather scary!

Without having a requirement to go through this wellness program I would still be on the same track I was, going down the road stopping at convenience food stores as to not lose any time in my travels. When I had my biometric screening done I did not think much of it until the results were given to me.

My total cholesterol was very high and my good cholesterol was too low. I totally changed my diet and followed some of the advice you gave our company through the wellness program.

Six weeks later I had an appointment with my new permanent physician. It was 6 weeks after I had changed my diet and wanted to see how the change in my diet affected my cholesterollevels and to discuss options with my new doctor.

I would have done cartwheels with a 20 point drop in my total cholesterol but I had more than a 50 point decrease in my bad cholesterol! Your advice was very helpful with diets and planning.

I share this experience with you only to show how much this all has changed my perspective.Without your help, who knows what may have happened or when it would have happened.

Many, many thanks!!"

Employee, Salem Tools


"The Wellness Program has truly inspired my department to take charge of our health. Personally, I'm pleased to say I am now walking outdoors or on a treadmill 45 minutes 5 -6 days per week since the fair in March. Others are applying small behavioral changes. We're all challenged to drink 4 bottles of water a day. We were trying to keep up with how many steps we logged to try to reach the AHA standard of 10,000 per day but these pedometers kept losing track.

My next plan is to start bringing in fruit to keep on my desk for those snack cravings we get. Just wanted you to know that we appreciate the program and the company's investment!"

Von, GRTC

Health Insurance

Situation: The employer is in an area with very limited carrier options.

Challenge: Their health care costs were annually exceeding the market or in their terms ‘running away’.

Action: We created a plan combining a Qualified High Deductible Plan, Health Savings Accounts, Medical Expense Reimbursement Plan, Flexible Spending Accounts and a vigorous wellness program.

Result: Their renewals have been below market for the past 4 years. A majority of their employees are in the Qualified High Deductible Plan and have carried over money in their HSA accounts.


Situation: A client was interested in CDHP’s in order to help with overall healthcare costs, but wanted to implement a strategy over several years.

Action: Our strategic plan consisted of implementing a MERP for the first couple of years, with the employer contributing 50% of incurred deductible claims and 50% of total out of pocket max. But, alongside that plan, they included a more expensive traditional plan in which the employees could buy up. The first year, the difference in both plans was not significant for the employee coverage, but over the next several years, contributions and premium differentials were weighted more heavily for the MERP. Finally, they decided to offer just the one MERP plan, with some minor adjustments, for all employees.

Result: Because of this decision, they were able to keep their overall premiums level. (their original renewal numbers started out with a 20% increase) They are aware that their MERP contributions will increase, but the savings they will incur will overshadow those contributions.

Cost Savings

Situation: Client of 380 employees in multiple states received 15% rate increase.

Challenge: The challenge was to get this renewal down to a reasonable level as quickly as possible. We wanted to have this renewal negotiated to the appropriate renewal increase prior to the renewal meeting as to be a good steward of the employer’s time.

Action: After reviewing their claims data and their last year rate build up information, we performed our own renewal underwriting analysis. Our renewal analysis showed that the client’s renewal increase should have been 8.13%. We spoke with the carrier’s underwriter directly regarding our underwriting analysis.

Result: The carrier came back and issued an 8% renewal increase with no benefit changes. Once the client made a minor benefit change to one of their plans, the overall net increase was 7%.


Situation: Nonprofit client with 65 employees in received 0% rate increase.

Challenge: The challenge was to get this renewal down below their current medical rates. Since this client is a nonprofit it was extremely important to lower current costs, but keep the benefits at the same high level for their employees.

Action: We reviewed their claims data and their last year rate build up information. We also sent a request for proposal to other medical insurance carriers for competitive bids.

Result: The carrier came back and issued a 3% reduction to their current medical premium with no benefit changes. The client was able to continue offering the same high level medical benefit plan and still achieve their goal of lowering costs.

Training

Situation: Client has been experiencing a big drop in management morale due to lay offs and pay cuts.

Challenge: Client wants to provide management training but has no buy-in from upper management to allow for large amounts of time.

Action: We designed a management training series present over “lunch and learns”, therefore using time managers would be away from their desks anyway.

Result: Morale has improved. Each seminar in the series has had increased participation, and requests have been made to HR to offer certain classes again for those who missed the first round but heard through word of mouth the benefits.

Compliance

Situation: Client neglects to add COBRA participants to the health plan for over four months. Individuals had been paying premiums all along. Because these individuals have no medical coverage, medical claims and prescription drug claims are not being paid. Client was potentially liable for fines resulting from their oversight as well as the cost of the denied medical claims and prescriptions.

Challenge: Client no longer had coverage through this carrier. The carrier has no legal responsibility to add these individuals back to the plan: premiums had not been paid to the carrier and the COBRA 60-day deadline was long past.

Action: MBI assisted the client with an appeal. MBI was able to persuade the carrier to forgive this oversight by calling on our long term relationship with the carrier.

Result: The carrier added the COBRA participants back to the plan retroactively, resolving the coverage issue and avoiding potential legal issues for the client (take out). Medical claims and prescription drug claims were reprocessed and the individuals were reimbursed for out of pocket expenses incurred due to the error.


Situation: Client called to say they had an employee accuse another employee of sexual harassment.

Challenge: They did not have a lot of experience conducting a proper, legal investigation.

Action: MBI had provided investigation tips along with sexual harassment training to the client several weeks before.

Result: The client stated they “would have been lost” without the tips, and they were able to conduct a thorough investigation of the situation properly.