wfn.org | ELCA saves $295,000 on health contributions in 2009

[<NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

>ELCA News Blog

>November 5, 2009  

ELCA saves $295,000 on health contributions in 2009

>by Frank Imhoff, ELCA News Service*

Across the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), 15 synods,
seminaries and churchwide ministries saved collectively more than
$295,000 this year on ELCA health benefit contribution payments,
according to a news release from the ELCA Board of Pensions. The savings
came from a 2 percent discount on health contributions the Board awarded
to employer groups after 75 percent of their eligible employees and
spouses completed the online Mayo Clinic Health Assessment. Nearly two-
thirds of all ELCA-primary plan members completed the 2009 assessment,
which closed Sept. 30. In the last month of the program, the ELCA
Northern Great Lakes Synod qualified to save $3,750; the Lutheran
Theological Seminary at Philadelphia saved $3,000; and the ELCA Lutheran
Center in Chicago saved $32,000 on health contributions from October
through the end of 2009. Twelve other synods, seminaries and churchwide
ministries received the discount earlier in the year.

The ELCA Board of Pensions will make a few changes to this program in
2010. The online assessment will be open for nine months again, but ELCA-
primary health plan members and eligible spouses must take it in the
first four months -- by April 30, 2010 -- for their respective employers
to get the 2 percent discount. Employer groups will receive the 2 percent
discount after 65 percent -- instead of 75 percent -- of their eligible
employees and spouses complete the assessment. The discount will be
applied to all 2010 health contributions, retroactive to Jan. 1, and not
just those months remaining in the year. Since contribution rates
increase 2 percent in 2010, the discount would offset that increase for
the year. If all churchwide ministries, the eight seminaries and
employers within all 65 synods earned a full-year discount on their 2010
health plan contributions, the ELCA would save collectively approximately
$2.5 million.

*Information provided by Kami Lund, marketing and communications, ELCA
Board of Pensions

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