Phoebe Putney Health System faced the same problems with its 3,500+ workforce as other employers.
- The costs of benefits kept rising.
- Many employees had multiple health conditions.
The HR team wanted to do more than just address health problems once they arose. They wanted to focus further upstream where they could encourage healthier behaviors and cost-conscious decisions
Their vision? Put a theory of unified benefits into practice, so that benefits worked together with wellness incentives built into every plan.
The goal? Better health and engagement for employees.
How Partnership Made the Vision Real
- The Partnership: Standard Insurance Company (The Standard)* worked with multiple partners to implement Phoebe Putney’s vision of wellness in every benefit.
- The Solution: OneDigital designed the program. The Standard built customized group insurance products for that program. Hodges-Mace managed enrollment.
- The Result: A unique partnership brings Phoebe Putney’s vision to life.
* Phoebe Putney's partnership is with Standard Insurance Company of Portland, Oregon, which is licensed in all states except New York.
Committed
The Right Partners
Collaboration was key to making Phoebe Putney’s vision a reality. So the health network turned to two trusted benefits consulting firms, OneDigital and Hodges-Mace. The Standard completed the team. From experience, the firms knew they could count on us to develop creative, flexible products.
Phoebe Putney Health System
Phoebe Putney envisioned benefits that worked together with wellness incentives built into every plan. The not-for-profit medical network that serves 500,000+ residents in Atlanta, Georgia and the surrounding area. Phoebe Putney’s 4,500+ doctors, nurses, professional staff and volunteers offer a better way to health and wellness for people across the 35-county region.
OneDigital Health and Benefits
OneDigital designed a program with flexible, incentivized benefits. The nation’s largest provider of benefits for employers of all sizes, OneDigital delivers market-leading benefits solutions, including strategic advisory services, analytics, compliance support, technical innovations and HR capital management tools.
The Standard
The Standard built customized group products for the program. A leading national carrier headquartered in Portland, Oregon, The Standard provides benefits to more than 6.6 million employees. A holistic approach sets us apart, including our innovative Workplace PossibilitiesSM program.
Hodges-Mace, LLC
Hodges-Mace created and carried out an enhanced enrollment strategy. The firm is a leading provider of employee benefits communication and custom enrollment services to large U.S. employers with headquarters are located in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Solution
Phoebe Putney’s medical plan already had incentives for wellness. To unify the whole benefits program, we helped create other group insurance products that could also drive healthier behavior.
- OneDigital designed a program with flexible, incentivized benefits.
- The Standard built customized group insurance products for the program.
- Hodges-Mace created and carried out an enhanced enrollment strategy.
The Standard made accountability a part of every plan. As employees used their benefits, their wellness choices would directly affect their costs and benefits.
New Product That Gets Results
Hospital Indemnity+ Raises the Bar
The Standard worked with Phoebe Putney to create Hospital Indemnity Plus. Listening to our client led to a new product tailored to meet the goal of encouraging employees to seek care within its system. HI+ also appealed to employees. Their incentive? A bonus benefit payout built right into the new product.
9%
Enrollment for Hospital Indemnity Insurance
Industry average: 9%1
Phoebe average: 9%2
22%
Enrollment for Hospital Indemnity Plus
Increased more than 2x its original number.
Increased from 9% to 22%.
Based on 2017 mid-year rollout
Built-In Accountability
How Built-In Accountability Works*
The Standard built a separate wellness-compliant rate structure to reward employees who participate in Phoebe Putney’s wellness program.
Employees participate by:
- Meeting a number of fitness goals
- Completing regular health check-ins and screenings
- Attending optional cooking classes
60%
income replacement for a wellness program participant
50%
income replacement for a non-participant
*Up to $5,000 weekly benefits, or as specified in the policy. This example is for a Short Term Disability policy. Please note that a wellness component is part of all benefits that Phoebe Putney offers.
A Better Enrollment Experience
The Delivery
The final step in this endeavor? Delivery. But delivering a new vision for benefits demanded a new vision for enrollment. No more overloading employees with information once a year. Instead, we worked with Phoebe Putney and Hodges-Mace on ongoing communications.
We’re trickling out the information year-round and doing different things to ensure engagement so people really get into thinking, ‘How do these benefits impact me, my family and my finances?, said Kevin McNamara, voluntary practice leader at The Standard.
Another key to success? Making benefits education personal. Using feedback from Hodges-Mace and Phoebe Putney, we refined our Decision Support Tool to create messaging that spoke directly to different types of employees.
The Standard also simplified communications to help people find and grasp information quickly. The result? Greater retention, higher enrollment rates — and employees with more awareness of how benefits can make life better.
The Result
Wellness Incentives Built Into Every Plan
The Standard devised a separate rate structure to reward employees who participate in Phoebe Putney’s wellness program. The result? Employees who comply can support their employer and earn richer benefits at lower costs.
90%
of employees enroll in the benefits plan2
6 pts
increase in employee retention rates2
Will Peterson
Case Study Close-Ups
Discover how rethinking enrollment led to higher participation and greater retention for Phoebe Putney.
Learn the details of how we helped create a new group insurance product that improved benefits for Phoebe Putney Health System employees while also driving business for their employer.