One of the Nation’s Top 25 Hospital Systems Engages Covala Group to Enhance Its Disability Benefit

The Employer

Located in the Midwest, this hospital group is nationally ranked in the top 25 based on number of hospitals.  Its unique partnership with one of the nation’s leading medical schools gives its patients access to innovative treatments and therapies.  The system is comprised of hospitals, physicians and allied services dedicated to providing preeminent care throughout the Midwest.

The employer has two distinct employee groups – executives and staff and, separately, a physicians group.  Each group has its own benefits team and benefit plan designs.

 

The Challenge

The employer wanted to close the coverage gaps for executives and physicians through the enhancement of the employer’s Long Term Disability (LTD) benefit by:

  • Increasing the benefit maximum
  • Protecting bonus compensation
  • Providing tax free benefit payments
  • Adding an element of portability

The benefits team needed to implement the enhancement in a high quality fashion to over 1,200 eligible employees at multiple locations throughout the Midwest.  The enrollment needed to be executed in November and December, while avoiding holiday distractions.  Finally, communications needed to be customized for three distinct employee groups at different business units and reviewed by two separate benefits staffs.

The Solution

The two benefits groups of the hospital system negotiated a product solution – portable IDI at a 25% discount with no medical exam.

With a product solution in place, the benefit’s teams turned their attention towards the enrollment which could be challenging due to a number of factors:

  • Multiple locations:  Eligible executives and physicians were located in 21 different cities throughout the Midwest
  • Multiple segments:  Communications needed to be customized to account for:
    • Two business units
    • Three eligible employee classes
    • Three separate Group LTD plan designs
  • Group LTD design:  A change was implemented during the annual enrollment that reduced the benefit available to one of the employee classes

The benefits groups leveraged Covala Group’s enrollment and administration capabilities to achieve their enhancement goals and outsource all enrollment and administration work.