News Releases

Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield and Wellmark Health Plan of Iowa See Small Business Health Plan Sales Surge

Contact:
Angela Feig
515.245.4551
feigab@wellmark.com

(Des Moines, Iowa) –Many small-business owners, who face health insurance premiums rising at rates far in excess of overall inflation, find it harder and harder to offer coverage to their employees.  

To help Iowa small businesses access quality, affordable health insurance for their employees, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield and Wellmark Health Plan of Iowa, Inc. launched the new “Real Solutions for Small Businesses” product portfolio designed exclusively for groups with 2-100 employees.  These products became available in October 2006. 

“We asked our small-business customers what product features were most important to them, we listened, and we’re now delivering to them this innovative health plan portfolio,” says Matt Shaffer, senior vice president, Sales, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield.   “Competitive benefits are important for small businesses to help them attract and compete for employees with larger companies.  Small businesses want to offer quality coverage, but they need to balance benefits with costs.”

“The response to the new Real Solutions plans has been tremendous,” Shaffer adds.  “We have enrolled more than 17,400 Iowa small-business employees since October 2006, and we believe that the affordable rates of these new plans are even making it possible for some previously uninsured small employers to begin offering coverage to their employees.” 

At one small business, Overhead Door Co. of Cedar Rapids and Iowa City (www.overheaddoor.com), Owner Deric Powell and General Manager Martin Fauchier chose two of Wellmark’s new Real Solutions health plans to cover the company’s 30 employees.  “We have a lot of young people in the company and several people over 50, which is why we chose two coverage options,” says Fauchier.  “The younger employees like the lower premium costs of the managed care plan, while the PPO plan appeals to our longer-term employees because of the greater freedom of choice in health care providers.”

The Real Solutions portfolio offers a variety of product designs, including Alliance Select Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) and consumer-directed Blue Priority HSA plans, as well as three managed care products --Blue Choice, Blue Access, and Blue Advantage.  To offer premium and coverage flexibility for small businesses, these plans offer a broad range of choice in deductible, copayment, coinsurance and out-of-pocket amounts. 

All plans include coverage for preventive care, prescription drugs and contraceptives, well-child care to age 7, and access to Wellmark’s comprehensive provider networks. The plans also include a number of value-added programs and services to help small businesses and their employees manage their health and health care benefits, including:  Decisions Count health literacy program materials; health management programs for preventive and pregnancy care, and case and disease management; BlueConnection Tools for employers; and myhealth@wellmark health information, tools and resources for employees. 

“What small business owners want and what Wellmark gave them is rate relief, benefit and management designs to control costs, and a variety of health plan options for their unique needs,” Shaffer adds. “We did this by streamlining and merging our 2-50 and 51-100 benefit portfolios into a single 2-100 small business segment, and making benefit changes to reduce some administrative inefficiencies to achieve immediate rate relief and help offset future costs trends and rate increases.  Factoring in our now even lower corporate operating margin target of 0 to 1 percent, we’ve been able to deliver very competitive rates to small business customers,” Shaffer says.

Wellmark, Inc. (www.wellmark.com) does business as Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa.  Wellmark and its subsidiaries and affiliated companies, including Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Dakota and Wellmark Health Plan of Iowa, Inc., insure or pay health benefit claims for more than two million members in Iowa and South Dakota.  Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Dakota, and Wellmark Health Plan of Iowa, Inc. are independent licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

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Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield is an Independent Licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. Blue Cross®, Blue Shield®, and the Cross® and Shield® symbols are registered marks of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, an Association of Independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans.