Canadian Baptist Ministries is supporting employee health and managing costs through a flexible benefits plan model that will be introduced at the end of 2025.
The new model has been in the works for several years, following feedback from plan members on the current benefits offering, says Rob Jackett, senior director of finance and administration.
“Not surprisingly, everybody wanted more benefits for the same or a lower cost. . . . However, our membership fully understood the increasing cost of benefits [and] the increasing difficulty, particularly in . . . the religious charitable sector, [of] affordability. So right off the bat, our membership believed in cost-sharing, either through deductibles or copays.
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“If you try to align the benefits needs of the members with the actual offering, it allows you to have some flexibility in targeting your benefits costs a little bit more than if you just offer a traditional plan.”
During the coronavirus pandemic, many plan sponsors saw utilization of their plans rapidly increase, says Jackett, noting the health crisis accelerated the redesign of the plan. “It’s been an interesting time. We also have an ageing demographic — our average age is now around 55, so I think that’s playing a part, too. We’ve had to go into a redesign mode in order to keep the benefits offering stable and sustainable over time.”
Canadian Baptist Ministries is communicating the redesigned plan to employees through several channels, including an internal website, email and direct mail, says Jackett. Plan enrolment takes place every two years and the plan’s in-house administrator will directly contact employees who aren’t yet currently enrolled in the plan.
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