A good health plan doesn’t just cover health care costs; it creates better health care consumers. That’s the premise behind CIGNA Voluntary’s new vision statement:
To Improve the health and Well-Being of the Working Uninsured by Providing Affordable and Easy-to-Understand Benefits.

The challenge for limited-benefit health plans in particular is that less educated consumers have basic challenges in comprehending the value of insurance and how they can stretch their benefit dollars. That’s why in early 2008, we’ve decided to make member education a priority for our entire organization, and we hope you’ll join us in promoting these efforts to your clients. What does this new initiative mean to your clients and their employees? First, we’ve completely revised all of our enrollment materials to better reflect our research findings. Some of the key issues we address include:

• Our targeted demographic doesn’t understand network discounts and the savings they receive regardless of their benefit maximums.
• Many hourly workers don’t understand the value of insurance/why they should enroll.
• Employees in this demographic frequently use the emergency room for
  non-emergency care.
• Employees also don’t understand basic health care terminology including words like copay, coinsurance, provider, and network.

We’ve also recently introduced a monthly member newsletter that focuses on wellness and education topics and incorporated similar messaging into our member “welcome kits.” In addition, we’re developing a unique employee website at www.starbridge.com which will focus exclusively on issues related to consumer education and enrollment. Look for this new site in late 2008 and if you haven’t reviewed our enrollment and marketing materials in a while, call your sales representative for copies of these new-and-improved pieces.

Is your client the right fit for Starbridge?

Not sure if your client is a good candidate for one of our Starbridge limited-benefit plans? Ask yourself the following questions to see if Starbridge has the “right stuff” for you prospect or client:

• Does your client employ a significant number of hourly employees?
• Do they provide franchise opportunities?
• Are they in the restaurant, retail, staffing, construction, security, hospitality or manufacturing industries?
• Do they currently have a large number of working uninsured in their population?
• Would they like to offer separate plans to their populations: e.g. major medical for professional staff, a more limited plan for hourly employees, and something in between for store or franchise managers?
• Are they concerned about plan ease of administration?
• Do they have ongoing issues with employee attraction, retention or productivity?

If you answered yes to two or more of these questions, contact your CIGNA Voluntary sales representative to request materials that explain how Starbridge limited-benefit health plans can meet the needs of your client or prospect.

Broker Spotlight: Benefits executive walks the talk when it comes to wellness.

Two years ago, Dan Rigby was skiing in Colorado when a friend started teasing him about his weight. Dan knew that he’d packed on some pounds recently—in fact at his last check up his cholesterol exceeded 300 and he tipped the scales at 260 pounds. Although he worked in the health care industry as a benefits advisor, Dan was struggling with his own health due to a sedentary lifestyle and poor nutrition.
A month later, what started as good-natured joke among friends began weighing on his mind and the same friend decided to help Dan make a serious lifestyle change.

“I’ve been in this business for 20 years,” said Rigby. “My company has a wellness newsletter and we emphasize the value of good health to our clients but I wasn’t exactly the picture of health myself. I needed to change my life and this event became the catalyst.”

Dan’s friend started showing up at his door every day and suggested they go jogging. Dan scoffed, knowing that he was in no shape to start running up the block. But the friend suggested they start slow—simply walking a block, then jogging a block. For two weeks they kept to the routine. Later they added bicycling, then
full-time jogging. Dan started making other changes such as making healthier food choices with a common-sense approach to nutrition. Then a coworker of Dan’s mentioned the Naperville triathlon—a grueling competition that incorporates swimming 400 meters, biking 20 kilometers, then running five kilometers. Dan was intimidated by the idea but took it as a good sign that the event took place on August 15—Dan’s 45th birthday. His goal: simply to finish.

He did that and more. As Dan’s weight began to slide toward the 200 mark, he carried on training throughout the year. He also decided to “pay it forward” by motivating others the way his good friend had done for him. He brought his new lifestyle to the workplace and started implementing changes such as mandating healthy refreshments during meetings. He and his staff at Human Resources Management Systems (HRMS) actually authored and printed a book to distribute to clients about with tips and tricks for healthy living.

The next year, HRMS became a sponsor of the Naperville triathlon and put together a team to participate in the event. In fact, every client was invited to send employees to join “Team HRMS” and Dan’s company would pay the entry and provide the training. Client interest and participation was phenomenal--although they expected 50 participants, more than 120 signed up. One client was so excited by his employees’ participation that he bought new bikes for all of them.

The Naperville triathlon takes place on August 10, 2008, and in preparation, team HRMS is busy training and sharing their individual success stories. Today Dan is 200 pounds and leads a healthy, active life. He continues to share his success with other brokers, clients and coworkers.

“It’s the second half of my life and I’m going to do it right. I want to see my daughter’s graduation. I don’t want to have to sit down to tie my shoelaces. As I lost the weight,
I became a better coworker, a better spouse, and a better parent.”

For more information about Human Resources Management Systems
and “Team HRMS” visit www.hrmsllc.com