El Foundling de Nueva York logra el éxito a largo plazo con la estrategia de seguro médico de la tarjeta diferencial
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Una organización sin ánimo de lucro de Nueva York se sienta con The Difference Card para hablar de una década de ahorro sanitario.
The New York Foundling es una agencia de servicios sociales sin ánimo de lucro que atiende a los 5 distritos de Nueva York. Esta organización ofrece programas cuidadosamente diseñados, servicios eficaces e interrelacionados y oportunidades para que los miembros de la comunidad creen un cambio transformador en sus propias vidas.
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Taylor Britt, de The Difference Card, se sentó con Meghan O'Keefe, de The New York Foundling, y su corredor de seguros médicos, Julien Rousson, de Medical Link, para hablar de su éxito en el uso de la estrategia de The Difference Card como forma de mantener bajos los costes del seguro médico al tiempo que ofrecen las mejores prestaciones posibles a sus empleados.
¡Hola, Meghan! Es un placer hablar contigo hoy. Háblanos de ti y de tu papel en The New York Foundling.
Meghan O’Keefe: I am one of our Assistant Vice Presidents here within our HR department at The Foundling. I oversee employee relations and our benefits program for the agency. I've been with The NY Foundling for almost 9 years. In terms of my history here at The Foundling, I started off as an assistant and have moved my way up, so I've been involved in benefits at a lot of different levels from the processing end, but also from the employee end.
Háblenos un poco de The New York Foundling y del trabajo que realizan en su comunidad.
Meghan: Sí, absolutamente. The New York Foundling es una agencia de servicios sociales sin ánimo de lucro que presta sus servicios en los cinco distritos de la ciudad de Nueva York, el condado de Rockland, el condado de Westchester y el condado de Orange. También tenemos un programa de Head Start y presencia en Puerto Rico.
Ofrecemos una variedad de servicios en la comunidad, todos ellos diseñados para proporcionar oportunidades a niños, familias y adultos. Ofrecemos servicios sociales que incluyen acogimiento familiar, programas preventivos y de justicia juvenil, apoyo educativo, servicios médicos y salud mental en general y apoyo a familias y niños.
Su agente, Julien Rousson, de Medical Link, está hoy aquí con nosotros. Julien, háblanos de Medical Link y de por qué te gusta asociarte con The Difference Card.
Julien Rousson: I'm a Senior Benefits Consultant with Medical Link. Medical Link is a benefits broker, and we work with our clients to develop benefit programs to control costs and provide rich benefits to employees. I've been with Medical Link for about eight years, and I’ve been working with The Foundling directly for the majority of that. As a whole, Medical Link has worked with The Foundling for over 15 years and The Foundling has worked with The Difference Card for a large portion of that.
La Tarjeta Diferencia nos permite controlar los costes y reducir el coste de los planes de salud, al tiempo que proporciona importantes beneficios a los empleados de The Foundling. Para las organizaciones sin ánimo de lucro, y para todas las empresas, eso es algo importante que hay que conseguir como asesor de beneficios para empleados.
La Tarjeta Diferencia ha sido un programa realmente exitoso. Combinado con el aspecto de bienestar del programa The Healthy Difference, anima e incentiva a los empleados a tomar decisiones de vida más saludables. Esto no sólo ayuda a los empleados, sino que también contribuye a controlar los costes de las reclamaciones y a gestionar el coste global del programa. Creo que el programa ha tenido éxito en todos esos aspectos.
The Foundling lleva utilizando la Tarjeta Diferencia como solución desde 2010. A qué atribuye el éxito a largo plazo de esta asociación durante los últimos 13 años?
Meghan: I would say the overall benefits that it provides to our employees. They're really front facing for our employees and our employees appreciate the $0 copay.
As Julian referenced, our Healthy Difference Wellness program also works to keep our staff engaged and healthy. They have to get their physical, they have to engage in these Wellness activities. So overall it's helping the employees with their benefits and wellness activities are keeping them engaged throughout the year.
Julien: Sí, estoy de acuerdo con todo lo que has dicho, Meghan. Creo que lo más importante es el compromiso. Consigue que los empleados se comprometan y sean activos y piensen en su salud y sus prestaciones. Obviamente, los costes de la atención sanitaria en todo el país no dejan de aumentar, por lo que es importante que la gente se involucre, por así decirlo, y piense en este tipo de cosas. Creo que ha sido positivo desde el punto de vista cultural y de los empleados que todo el mundo se haya comprometido.
And from the employer side, it's been very successful in helping to control the cost of a program while still being able to offer rich benefits to employees. Oftentimes companies will just cut benefits to employees but not do anything on the other end to help out the employee and relieve some of that burden.
Por lo tanto, ofrece el equilibrio perfecto entre el control de los costes para el empresario y el mantenimiento de unas prestaciones abundantes para los trabajadores.
La última pieza también es la perspectiva del servicio al afiliado. The Difference Card siempre ha prestado un servicio excelente, tanto desde el punto de vista de la atención al cliente de los empleados como del de los grupos. Creo que son muy superiores a la mayoría de los demás proveedores del sector.
Hoy tenemos con nosotros a Cindy Cano, su ejecutiva de cuentas de Difference Card. Cindy, cuéntanos por qué The New York Foundling es un cliente tan importante para ti.
Cindy: The New York Foundling is such a wonderful organization. It's amazing to see the impact they have on their community. Knowing that we're able to provide these employees that are doing such selfless work with better benefits while helping them save on out-of-pocket costs is such a gratifying feeling.
The New York Foundling hosts a gala every year and I've been fortunate enough to attend the last three. It's impactful to see what a difference the organization makes and to see how passionate everyone is about their work. Additionally, it's nice to see the end benefit of The Difference Card strategy. We're looking at it from an insurance perspective, but once you see the trickledown effect for these employees, you can really appreciate the product and the benefit it has for their staff.
The New York Foundling ha ahorrado más de 500.000 dólares al año con la Tarjeta Diferencia en los últimos 13 años. Qué significa eso para una organización como The Foundling?
Meghan: Yeah, obviously we're a nonprofit. So, having that savings is important! We can use that money to give back to our staff and for use in other ways like building out our wellness program or giving cash flow back to our finance department to invest in other opportunities for our staff. Really just asking ourselves “What can we give back from what we’ve saved?”
Cindy: It feels great to help a client achieve great savings, but it means more when it’s a group like New York Foundling! Obviously, The New York Foundling does a lot of amazing work in the community, and they have a lot of great employees that they treat very well. So, to be able to take some of those savings and make benefits more affordable and richer to the employees is great. Every dollar that they're saving is money that can be reinvested into helping the community, allowing them to do even more amazing work. It's a nice feeling to be able to help with that!
También ha podido mejorar las prestaciones de sus empleados. Decidieron crear una prestación primaria de copago cero. Cuéntenos por qué unas prestaciones generosas para los empleados, como el copago de 0 $, son importantes para una organización como The New York Foundling.
Julien: So not only are we saving some money, but we’re also improving benefits for employees and giving them a $0 primary copay benefit. By making the primary care copay free, it really removes that burden of going to the doctor and makes it easier and more cost effective for people to go to the doctor when they need to. This removes the barrier where patients avoid going to the doctor because they're afraid it's going to be too expensive. You really want to encourage that primary care relationship and ultimately encourage as many well visits as possible to limit claims costs.
Earlier I alluded to The Healthy Difference Wellness program, and you know one of the main aspects of the wellness program is to get your annual physical, which is a key part in preventing major issues down the line. If everyone's getting their annual physicals, the idea is that if someone is ill, you're going to catch that earlier on and it is going to provide a better outcome for the patients as well as ultimately lowering that claim cost down the line.
Meghan: I agree that fostering that positive relationship with the primary care doctor is important. If you have that relationship with your primary care physician, you're going to feel more comfortable going and knowing that you're not paying anything out of pocket for your copay is only going to enhance the want or need to go to the doctor.
We try to use the $0 copay as a retention and recruiting tool. We try to use the benefit as much as we can for any type of interaction with staff. We're constantly reminding staff of The Difference Card benefits and one of them being the $0 copay for your primary care. We are always encouraging staff to use The Difference Card, to participate in the program, and to get their regular well visits.
In the long run, it's going to help them in their health long term, which would also ultimately save them some costs long term. Like Julien said, if they're going more regularly, you'll find something earlier on in the process, which might then avoid having to go to those larger specialty visits or something like that is going to cost the employees more out of pocket.
Cindy: The New York Foundling has a very, very rich benefit plan, which is actually what makes them such great employers- one of the many things that makes them great. We wish we could see more employers do that, but it's not that common. A $0 copay is not used that frequently, unfortunately but we think it would a long way in improving the health of the employees and their experience with their health plan.
También puede utilizar la tarjeta The Difference Card para administrar una cuenta de gastos flexibles para sus empleados. Háblenos de la facilidad de tener todos sus beneficios para empleados en una sola tarjeta.
Meghan: I can speak from the employee perspective in the sense of feedback we’ve gotten from staff. They have said that since they contribute to their FSA directly from their paycheck, they don’t have to think about where it’s coming from. They know that The Foundling is covering their percentage and then the rest of it is covered through their FSA. Employees don't really have track anything, it's a one stop shop. You log in, you can see your FSA account and the balance, and all the different claims. So, from an employee perspective, it really an easy route for them!
Julien: “Yeah, exactly. And just to reiterate - for most people it's very confusing to keep track of multiple health insurance accounts like your base plan and an FSA. You hear about it in open enrollment once a year, but then you probably don't remember much about it after that. So, to have everything on one smart card is a game changer. The card knows where to pull funds from which makes it a lot easier for employees to manage their healthcare expenses. Employees don't need to keep track of multiple cards or the logistics of using the card. Overall, it makes administration a lot easier for employers and employees.
Cindy: There is excitement in having everything contained on one card. Like Julian said, it makes it easier from the employee perspective. It’s easier for employees to track and be able to see what their funds are and to understand what they use them for. Because we've been partnering for so long, we have been able to establish open communication with HR throughout the year and the open enrollment process has become very streamlined and easy. I think that's also one of the advantages of having such a long partnership. I think this is the dream team when it comes to facilitating employees and providing great service, all the pieces just come together. By now, the employees are very familiar with The Difference Card and are very engaged with their health benefits.
Como ya hemos mencionado, The NY Foundling decidió ofrecer un incentivo de bienestar a través del plan Healthy Difference Wellness de The Difference Card. Háblenos del éxito de los distintos incentivos, como su reto de caminar.
Meghan: We've done two walking challenges over the years. We've done the typical track your steps challenge across departments and divisions. But we recently rolled at walking club at each of our regional sites. We outlined a path at each of our sites, and everyone can go at a time that works best for them.
Creo que al personal le viene muy bien disponer de una hora para salir, respirar aire fresco y hacer ejercicio. Pero también ayuda a nuestro personal con las relaciones interpersonales en el trabajo, animándoles a conocer a gente de fuera de su departamento o división, gente a la que de otro modo no habrían conocido o con la que no habrían pasado tanto tiempo. Creo que formar esas asociaciones entre divisiones dentro de la agencia a través de los retos a pie y conocer a la gente realmente habla de lo que es la fundación. Somos una gran familia. Además, la Tarjeta Diferencia facilita mucho las cosas a nuestro equipo, ya que les permite llevar la cuenta de todo.
Por último, ¿recomendaría la Tarjeta Diferencia como solución de beneficios para empleados a otras organizaciones sin ánimo de lucro?
Meghan: As Julian and I have both shared, it makes employees' lives a lot easier. They know they have this program they participate in, and they get great benefits. But also, from the employer's perspective we have the cost savings advantage and all the other benefits that come along with The Difference Card. So, I would absolutely recommend it to another nonprofit organization.
Julien: Yeah, absolutely. We work with a lot of other non-profits as well as for-profit businesses that use The Difference Card and it's good for both.
I think it's particularly good for non-profits because it's important for them to provide rich benefits to their employees. And with costs increasing, it has become increasingly hard to do that. So, The Difference cCrd is a really good solution to be able to continue offering those types of benefits to the employees.
También creo que la tarjeta The Difference Card es muy buena para fomentar el compromiso de los empleados y animarles a aprovechar las visitas de control y llevar un estilo de vida saludable. Una gran parte de nuestro trabajo consiste en examinar el aspecto financiero y controlar los costes de los siniestros. Así que realmente beneficia a todos esos aspectos y es una solución muy buena tanto para las organizaciones sin ánimo de lucro como para las empresas con ánimo de lucro.
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