Altru to change its employee health coverage

Talk about it

More...

• Blue Cross N.D. faces Meritcare enrollee loss in addition to Altru employees

Grand Forks-based Altru Health System is switching its employee health coverage next year, the compensation and benefits manager said Friday.

Jeff Franck said about 2,700 of its 3,700 employees get their health coverage through Altru, which has long been under Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota. Effective Jan. 1, the health coverage will switch to Medica, and dental coverage is changing to Delta Dental.

Franck said the change, which was decided in late September and told to employees the next day, came after “long deliberations over the proposal of both plans from both companies.”

“It was not an easy decision for us to make, but after reviewing both of them, we had to go with the highest value for our employees,” he said.

Changes

Medica’s coverage should offer a better value for employees, Franck said. The new plan will offer a number of new benefits, including a 24-hour nurse line, extra wellness products such as smoking cessation and no age restriction on wellness services and fewer restrictions in general.

“When we looked at what’s best for our employees, we’re able to get more for the fees that were charged through Medica,” he said.

There will be a 7 percent premium increase along with the switch. But Franck said that raise is “at par or less than” the increase that would have happened Jan. 1 had they stuck with their current provider.

Altru already had a provider relationship with Medica, he said, and will continue to maintain a good provider relationship with Blue Cross after the change. Franck said employees covered by the new plan should continue to receive “just as adequate” health coverage in the future.

Relationships with both companies didn’t influence the change, he said. “The decision was based on the value for the employees for their insurance product, not on any changes that we had with Medica as a provider of services.”

The same goes for Blue Cross, Franck said, and there shouldn’t be a relationship change with the provider because “they’re independent relationships.”

He said employees are excited about the switch, and how it all works out remains to be seen. “Our expectations for Medica are very high, but it’s really too early to tell anything.”

Reach Johnson at (701) 780-1105; (800) 477-6572, ext. 105; or send e-mail to rjohnson@gfherald.com.

Tags: local news, gf and egf, altru health system, employee health coverage, health insurance, blue cross blue shield, altru, medica, breakingnews