Van, call Express benefits in Memphis and ask them where the money comes from. I don't know if they'll tell you or not but it's a place to start. Ask your senior manager, ask your director. It's FedEx that pays the bills.Our healthcare is not paid for by separate insurance companies./QUOTE]
Think about what is collected monthly from each employee times the number of employees and add what FedEx contributes. That goes to an insurance company that takes it's cut and pays the medical bills from the rest. FedEx is self-insured to cover accidents we get into as no insurance company will touch that risk. Even then if an employee is hurt in an accident it's his healthcare insurance that pays for his treatment, not FedEx. Insurance companies operate with a vast pool of money, not just company specific. The reason our monthly premiums are reasonable is the company brings a large number of premium payers to the pool thus giving us a group discount. Actuaries figure out what to charge based on risk data.
The Plan
- Thread starter MrFedEx
- Start date
Which is my point. If FedEx pays the bills you wouldn't have to worry about PCP's, etc. Just send FedEx the bill.
And then FedEx would spend even more than the millions (billions??) it already spends on healthcare. The reason that FedEx pays an administrative fee to Cigna/Anthem, is because they are in the business of managing healthcare costs. FedEx is in the business of shipping packages. By using a plan administrator FedEx can balance costs with employee needs. Why are you so stubborn about this. Just go ask. Look up employer sponsored health plans. Do something other than just assuming that I'm wrong.
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MrFedEx
Engorged Member
I assume you're wrong all of the time. The reason FedEx pays an administrative fee to Cigna/Anthem is to manage costs (as you said), but to do it by denying care, eliminating provider choices, and making it a hassle to ever file a claim, which is the Prime Directive. Got it?
No, you are the one saying FexEx, because they are self-insured, pay medical costs it's employees incur. That our monthly premiums are only to pay Anthem and Cigna to administer said payments. You have a fundamental misunderstanding of how things work. You're wrong, and too proud to admit it. If FedEx was paying for everything, they'd have an in house dept that would handle cutting checks for medical costs. They wouldn't need Anthem or Cigna. If so their costs would be astronomical. Instead they collect money from employees, send it to Cigna and Anthem, and they pay employee healthcare expenses minus co-pays, deductibles, and out-of-pocket limits paid by employees. What I don't know is now that employee healthcare is no longer 100% company paid, what % are employees paying through payroll deductions and how much FedEx is paying. Either way, a premium is paid to an insurance provider, and if the employee incurs medical costs the insurance provider pays the bill, minus the above employee responsibilities. You've heard, read, whatever that FedEx is self-insured and assumed certain things. Sorry, but you are mistaken.
You know what they say about assuming and I must say you are very good at it. I've already stated how well things went in 2010 for my family so I really don't have any complaints about care being denied, provider choices being limited, or any hassles about filing a claims. In fact, even though under Anthem it is now our responsibility to get preauthorization, the doctors I'm dealing with told me not to worry and they still do it. And yes, the authorizations went through just fine. As I also said, FedEx pays Cigna/Anthem because they are in the business of managing healthcare so obviously I get it.
Ok Van, now I need to go to urgent care for the cut on my head where I banged it against the wall. Just kidding. I will gladly admit I'm wrong if you can provide some facts, not your opinion, that I'm wrong. You still haven't asked an expert and yet you continue to assume that I'm wrong.
I think we can agree that FedEx pays our wages, yes? Then why does FedEx use ADP to cut the payroll checks? Why does FedEx use ADP to send out the W2's? We use vendors when it is cheaper and better than doing it ourselves. It's the same with the healthcare costs. FedEx pays them but uses a vendor to manage the program and cut the checks.
To answer your question, FedEx pays somewhere in the region of 86-90% of the cost. The rest being the employee deductibles, copays, premiums, etc. (I could be off a couple % either way on this but it's close). It varies for each person depending on the type of coverage they have, etc.
Look, you said it yourself, if FedEx did all this in-house, their costs would be astronomical. That's why they pay an experienced vendor to manage the program. And again, instead of assuming I'm wrong because it seems you too have "heard, read,...and assumed certain things" please ask your senior manager, ask your director, call benefits in Memphis and ask them. I think you'll find that I'm right. If I'm not, then I have no problem saying I'm wrong. In the meantime, I'll try to find some info that I can point you too that you can see for yourself and not have to take my word for it.
But FedEx doesn't collect money from each employee to pay ADP so not a valid analogy. I wasn't saying that FedEx's costs would be astronomical to handle administrative costs in-house, but the actual paying of medical claims. Again, we pay into a huge pool with our premiums to have medical claims paid by the insurer. What you are saying is that we pay Aetna and Cigna many millions every month just to handle paperwork while FedEx actually pays the medical bills. Not so. Wikipedia has a good explanation if you Google how do employer healthcare plans work.
MrFedEx
Engorged Member
OK, because everything went well for your family, the Anthem/CIGNA plan is wonderful? Lots of employees have either had to switch PCP's, deal with Anthem for hours on the phone to justify care, or have just been flat out denied. Your rationale is faulty, as is your reasoning.
LTFedExer
Well-Known Member
It did for him and he is allowed to voice his positive opinions, just like you can voice your displeasure for Anthem. But, all your posts do is try and belittle him because his opinions don't match yours. I'm sure he isn't the only one with a good outcome. If he was, Anthem would be out of business.
MrFedEx
Engorged Member
quadro is a corporate apologist. If I say Fred is wearing a black suit today, quadro will say it's white.
You said "if FedEx was paying for everything they'd have an in-house dept that would handle cutting checks for medical costs". FedEx pays ALL our wages and yet doesn't have an in-house dept that handles cutting checks for payroll. I'd say as analogies go, it's pretty close.
I never said how much we pay Cigna/Anthem every month. I just said FedEx pays them to handle the plan. The money is fungible so whether our premiums go directly to them or to FedEx and then FedEx uses that money makes no difference. In its simplest form, it goes into an account somewhere. FedEx then adds somewhere between 7 and 12 times what we put in and that account is then used to pay the claims.
And I knew that you meant the medical claims would be astronomical, that's why I said FedEx pays Cigna/Anthem to manage the plan because that's their business not FedEx's (business as in that's what they do).
If you say the sky is velvet and I say it's blue, that doesn't make me an apologist. As LTFedExer said, and I've said many times, if someone doesn't agree with you, your opinion is that they are wrong. And to back up my claim, just look at the number of times someone proves you wrong and then you just ignore what they say.
MrFedEx
Engorged Member
When I'm proven wrong, I admit it. And velvet is a texture or a fabric, not a color.
Very good. Too bad you missed the point. I know it's a texture and I used something that specifically wouldn't be subjective. You used a subjective example to illustrate that I always say the opposite of what you say. My point was that if you say something that is clearly wrong and I point it out, you say I'm an apologist. You never admit your wrong at least as far as I'm concerned. I've shown you where you are wrong and you ignore what I say or change the subject.
Van, I've used parts of something you wrote about me to show you that you were actually talking about yourself and didn't know it. I hate to do that to you but I asked you repeatedly to verify what I was telling you but you insisted that I was wrong and that I wouldn't admit it.
If you haven't had a chance to verify what I told you, take a look in Your Employee Benefits Book. The 2009 version is the latest. The 2010 update just updates part of it and doesn't talk about who pays what. Go to page 8, I think it's page 8, and look at what it says about our Group Health Plan.
Perhaps after reading that you won't be so quick to dismiss what I say in the future.
MrFedEx
Engorged Member
Got it. I'm wrong whenever I say you're right, which is never, so you must always be wrong. Right?
If a tree falls in a forest.....
You are right on that. Excuse me while I wipe the egg off my face. Which begs the question, why are our premiums going up every year if FexEx is funding the plan? And why is Retiree healthcare so high? I'm still right about Iraqi Dinars however!
I don't remember what the deal was with the Dinars. Just because FedEx is funding the plan doesn't mean healthcare costs don't go up every year. As the costs go up, both FedEx and us have to pay proportionately more. The other thing to consider is that let's say FedEx could go for 3 - 5 years without raising the premiums and absorbed the cost. After 5 years, given that healthcare costs more each year, the increase we would see in our premiums would likely be very substantial. By increasing a little each year, it actually helps soften the blow. Make no mistake, it's still a blow, but nowhere near what it would be if it didn't rise gradually.
As for retiree healthcare, I don't know. I haven't looked into it yet. I think, and I stress think as this is just an educated guess, that it has something to do with the way retiree healthplans are structured and administered and that there's a defined benefit. Once the cost goes above that defined benefit, the retiree has to pay the difference. As healthcare costs rise, so does that difference.
