Old article with a new(er) message

If you subscribed to Employee Benefit News back in 2006 you may have come across an article in the June issue entitled "Full replacement feat - HSA helps Wendy's grill health costs" by Leah Carlson Shepherd:

Wendy's put the kibosh on its medical inflation by offering a health savings account. The fast-food chain started offering the HSA as the only coverage option for workers last year.

Jeff Cava, Wendy's executive vice president of HR, notes, "We held premiums completely flat. That was the first time that happened in the history of the company."

Health claims costs fell by 14% from 2004 to 2005, and claims for this year are projected to be 4% less than last year. This coupled with premium savings, leads Cava to project the three-year ROI for the HSA to be 221%.

Roughly 60% of employees contributed to an HSA last year and 45% contributed this year. About 90% of HSA-users had account balances at the end of 2005, and the average balance was $600. The funds stashed in HSAs totaled $4 million. Wendy's contributes 60% of the deductible to workers' HSAs each year. Preventive care is covered before the deductible.

"I think the key here was the focus on preventive coverage,” Cava explains. “We're trying to change behavior. If it's about saving money, then you've missed the point. It has to be a sustained change in behavior that leads to a sustained improvement in health."

There is much more to this article, but since this is all that is posted on the Employee Benefit News website, you may have to dig through your old subscriptions.