CBIA Launches Innovative Healthcare Program for Small, Medium-Sized Business Employees » CBIA

The state’s largest business organization today launched an innovative program providing small and medium business employees access to quality, affordable healthcare coverage.

As a new offering from the CBIA Health Connections suite of employee benefit solutions, the program is designed to help address the decline of the small group health insurance market and ongoing cost pressures faced by many employers.

“Small and medium businesses and their employees have battled rising costs and shrinking options for a number of years and desperately need robust, affordable health benefits,” CBIA president and CEO Chris DiPentima said today.

“We need to level the playing field and give those employers the opportunity to provide the same level of benefits for their employees as larger companies.”

National Networks

Ken Comeau, president of CBIA Service Corp., which manages Health Connections, said the employer self-funded program, which leverages relationships with a number of key partners, provides broad medical benefits and access to a national network of providers.

He noted that an enhanced member services component is a critical feature, providing enrolled employees and their dependents with one place to call for navigation in addition to traditional benefits, and claims-related questions.

“We’ve developed a next-generation solutions package focused on getting people to the right care at the right time, leading to better outcomes and lower costs for both the individual and the employer plan,” Comeau said.

The new program also takes aim at pharmacy costs, a major factor behind rapidly escalating healthcare costs.

The program will utilize the services of Ventegra, a California nonprofit public benefit corporation that operates nationally as a medical benefit manager to deliver pharmaceutical and healthcare solutions that go beyond traditional pharmacy benefit management to help build efficiencies, lower costs, and improve the overall quality of care.

Ventegra’s transparent pricing strategy and innovative, clinically driven and evidence-based solution for high-cost specialty drugs have consistently produced savings of greater than 20% when compared against the national average spend.

Employers in the program will each be level-funded—a common variation on self-funding—with stop-loss coverage to protect against deficits. They will also benefit from the return of 100% of any surplus claims dollars annually, a major point of differentiation.

Comeau added, “While it’s a sophisticated solution, the participant experience is designed to be easy with a well-recognized medical ID Card and 800# access for enhanced navigation, service, and support.”

‘Addressing Crisis’

DiPentima said the new program was developed after state lawmakers failed to act—for a second consecutive year—on bipartisan, transformational legislation addressing the growing crisis in the fully-insured small group market.

The bill allowed qualifying chambers of commerce and trade associations to aggregate their respective memberships and offer robustly regulated, self-funded health benefit arrangements—essentially acting as one large employer.

“That was a major disappointment, given that the legislation would positively impact hundreds of thousands of small business employees across the state,” DiPentima said.

DiPentima said the lack of legislative action led CBIA’s board of directors to authorize the development of a value-based program that “focuses on benefit offerings that small employers can’t access today.”

“It was clear that someone needed to step up and address this crisis, leading to CBIA’s board approving a significant capital investment for development costs,” he said.

“Recent efforts by the legislature and the Department of Insurance to make Connecticut an attractive environment to form and operate a captive, however, led to today’s positive and innovative solution for our member businesses and their employees.”

The new program will begin accepting applications immediately. Additional information can be found at CBIA Health Connections.

CBIA is Connecticut’s largest business organization, with thousands of member companies, small and large, representing a diverse range of industries from every part of the state. For more information, please contact Scott Beaulieu (860.244.1929).