HANCOCK COUNTY — Joel Hungate, the executive director of Hancock well-being and employer strategy for Hancock Health, proposed at the joint commissioners and council meeting on Jan. 30 the idea of a health opportunity through county employee insurance that would give discounts for access to all Hancock Wellness Centers.
Hungate said that with the employees already having access to Hancock Health clinics across the county, they are now wanting to extend that relationship and subsidize Hancock Wellness Centers as well as an incentive for county employees to obtain a 12-month membership.
Currently, while the enrollment fee is waived for county employees, they still have to pay the required membership fee. With the new contract proposed, the lowest rate of $38 a month for individuals would be offered and then the county would have the opportunity to subsidize the rate further for any associates that pursue the membership and attend the wellness centers.
In the contract, Hungate said it shows the price breakdowns whether the county decides to subsidize the memberships of county employees by $18, $10, $5 or another preferred amount.
“You can see the savings to the county, the savings to the employee and their family and how that propagates as another aspect of this very well-rounded, differentiated benefit,” said Hungate at the meeting.
Hungate said that they do this benefit for the associates at Hancock Health and that they see 20% to 30% engagement across the employee base and with their families.
In doing contracts like this, Hungate said they are designed to reduce the total cost of care and create no barriers to accessing that care. Hungate said other benefits of engaged wellbeing can reduce cardiovascular disease, diabetes, different types of cancers, depression and more.
“If we have the best benefit in the world, the best plan in the world, the best amenities in the world, it doesn’t matter if we don’t reach out for people to go in and go deeper,” Hungate said.
If an employee was to choose to participate in this benefit, Hungate said they would be required to visit a wellness center a certain amount of times in order to maintain the subsidized amount given, keeping track of how many times a person visits.
Hungate said that with the smaller rates, people stay a member on average for 4.2 years.
According to the contract presentation, a rough estimate of cost if the county decided to subsidize $18 off the monthly fee would be about $35,000 a year from the county, estimating an average range of 25% to 40% engagement of 160 employees plus dependents. Those numbers are subject to change, and the estimated numbers are for informational purposes.
Hancock County Sheriff Brad Burkart also spoke about the proposed contract and said that this goes with his wellness and health initiative that he had been working on at the sheriff’s office. Burkart said he thought with the subsidized $18, making the fee an even $20 a month, makes it clean and simple.
“I just think that there are a lot of benefits to this, “ Burkhart said. “We on the sheriff’s department side, we have a place for a weight room … You’ve got people who do various types of things between running and walking, and depending on which location you go to, you have swimming and basketball, which I can’t offer that stuff, but if I offer a membership to a location they can take full advantage of all of those things.”
While commissioners and council discussed the proposed contract, it is not final and has not been signed by commissioners. Future discussion of the contract and possible subsidized rates are yet to be determined.
