ELCA News Blog
March 6, 2008
Wartburg Seminary earns discount in contributions to health plan for 2008
by Frank Imhoff, ELCA News Service
Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa, earned a 2 percent discount on contributions it makes to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Health Benefits Plan for its employees for 2008. Wartburg qualified for the discount when more than 75 percent of its employees and their spouses receiving ELCA primary health coverage completed the Mayo Clinic Health Risk Assessment, which the ELCA Board of Pensions, Minneapolis, offered as a health plan benefit. The discount means Wartburg, one of eight ELCA seminaries, will save more than $11,000 this year.
"Wartburg Seminary's achievement means far more than dollar savings," said John G. Kapanke, president, ELCA Board of Pensions. "The seminary and its employees and spouses clearly understand that healthy leaders enhance lives and that their health benefits can support their efforts to live well," he said. The ELCA Board of Pensions also qualified for the 2 percent discount for 2008 and will save approximately $39,000 on its health plan contributions.
ELCA Board of Pensions is a $7 billion nonprofit corporation providing retirement, health and other benefits and related services for ELCA pastors, lay ministers, employees and their families. It has offered the health risk assessment to its plan members for four years. 2008 is the first year it is offering a financial reward to plan members and their spouses who take the assessment -- $100 into a personal wellness account to help offset medical costs. It is offering the discount to ELCA employers -- synods, institutions, churchwide organization -- as an additional incentive for plan members to complete the assessment. If 75 percent of the employees and their spouses of each ELCA employer complete the assessment by the end of September 2008, the church could see discounts of approximately $2.5 million for the year.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org http://www.elca.org/news ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog