Leading Manufacturer: Helping employees better understand their CDHP

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Leading Manufacturer

When the benefits director of a leading North American manufacturer joined the firm’s benefits team about five years ago, the company was placing an emphasis on expense control and all units were being asked to find better ways to manage costs. At the time, the company had hundreds of medical plans for its union and non-union employees, as well as its post-65 retirees.


The benefits director immediately began to streamline the company’s benefits offerings, focusing on the well-being of its large employee population in the U.S. and several thousand abroad—while looking for ways to decrease costs for both the company and its people. This included reducing the number of plans for active employees from more than 75 to fewer than 20.


Included among these was the company’s first consumer-directed health plan (CDHP) as an option for its employees. “To combat the burden of ever-rising healthcare costs, we knew we would require an innovative benefits program that put the responsibility on us as well as our employees,” said the executive. “Yet we also realized that offering a CDHP without transparency would be like asking consumers to shop at a grocery store while wearing a blindfold.”

Goals

  • Reduce healthcare cost and complexity by consolidating hundreds of healthcare benefit plans into just four plans for nonunion employees.
  • Launch a cost efficient consumer-directed health plan (CDHP).

Solution

  • Introduce Castlight to bring all health and wellness programs together.
  • Integrate systems and load several years of relevant claims, search, cost, and clinical data into the Castlight, providing a personalized healthcare experience so employees can make more informed choices for themselves and their families.
  • Develop an ongoing marketing and communications plan that included HR leader training and home mailings to reach out to the company’s U.S. employee base. Devise creative incentives to encourage registration
  • Link a health savings account (HSA) to each new CDHP, so individuals could pay for current medical expenses while saving for future medical costs and enjoy significant tax advantages.

Results

41

%

of households registered

26

%

cost savings on imaging costs for Castlight users

4

%

lower year-over-year medical spend trend

You need to have information easily at your fingertips for better buying decisions. We do it when we hunt for a mortgage or buy auto insurance. Why not healthcare consumerism? By working with Castlight, we’re giving our employees the insight they need to make more-informed, high-value care decisions.

Benefits Director
Leading Manufacturer

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