Let’s face it, there’s nothing fun about health insurance. On a spectrum of enjoyment, picking health insurance policies falls somewhere between fixing a flat tire and visiting the dentist.
But BeniComp doesn’t think it has to be that way. The 57-year-old Indiana and Tampa-based insurance company has rebranded itself in recent years to reflect a vision of healthcare that’s more focused on engaging patients to get up and get healthy than it is on simply treating to the uptick in lifestyle diseases like obesity and type 2 diabetes. BeniComp’s end goal is to make employees healthier in order to save employers (and employees) money.
“About 15 years ago, our owner, Doug Short, saw a crisis,” said Steve Presser, BeniComp’s COO. “Populations, particularly in the United States, were getting unhealthier. Claims were rising and healthcare was getting more expensive. We’re now at this point in which healthcare has become very unaffordable, so employers are taking more responsibility for the health of their employees. It’s become such a burden to companies.”
To address what he saw as a crisis, Short started investing in lifestyle-based healthcare products designed to fix the system. A few years ago, he opened an innovation office in Tampa, where 20 employees are tasked with devising product innovations to stem the rising tide of chronic disease and healthcare costs. With stiff competition from major group health insurance providers like Aetna and Humana, BeniComp needed a way to differentiate itself from the rest and help customers save money.
“The product we're the most excited about is IncentiCare,” said Presser, referring to a program that provides incentives to employees who attain certain health results. IncentiCare rewards employees with deductible reductions meant to motivate them to make improvements on biomarkers such as blood pressure, body mass index and LDL cholesterol, each of which can be addressed through lifestyle changes such as exercise and diet. The results, according to BeniComp, have been promising.
“On average, we get 96 percent of all employees to participate in annual health screenings compared to an industry average of 25 to 30 percent,” said Presser. “And these annual screenings sometimes identify health risks early on. We’ve seen a ton of pre-diabetics who had no idea they were a year away from becoming diabetic. That's such a critical time because it's much easier at that point to adjust their lifestyle and get healthy.”
BeniComp serves thousands of employer groups—both big and small—across the country. Although the company’s fees vary by products and plans, Presser said the company aims to cut 20 to 30 percent off a customer’s previous group healthcare plan when possible.
With their eyes set ahead, BeniComp aims to innovate and offer products that integrate with wearable technology, so employees can better track their progress toward health goals.
“We want people to be more accountable and have intuitive insight into what's going on in their body,” Presser said.
