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
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