Wal-Mart : Customized health plans making a difference

By Jeff Mores Staff Writer // jeffm@nwanews.com

Posted on Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Email this story | Printer-friendly version

BENTONVILLE — As health-care coverage and issues have taken center stage in the United States over the past couple of years, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has received plenty of criticism.

Many of its critics — most notably Wal-Mart Watch, which bills itself as a nationwide public education campaign to challenge the world’s largest retailer — claim the health-care plans take too much out of associates’ pockets and don’t offer enough in return.

Wal-Mart says it has taken that criticism to heart and has spent the past several years attempting to formulate plans to better address associates’ needs.

On Tuesday, Linda Dillman, executive vice president of benefits and risk management for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., held a news conference to share statistics that support the fact that the retailer has made significant improvements.

The Bentonville-based corporation announced the number of associates who now have health-care coverage through its new associate-tailored plans or another source has increased from 90. 4 percent in 2007 to 92. 7 percent heading into 2008.

In addition, the number of uninsured Wal-Mart associates decreased by more than 2 percent, compared to one year ago.

“ We’ve worked hard over the past couple of years to improve our health-care plans and help reach out to more associates, ” Dillman said.

“ We’ve worked to reduce deductibles, co-pays and increase the number of $ 4 generic prescriptions available. We have more than 50 ways for our associates to customize their coverage, and we’re excited they’re embracing these options. ”

According to data collected in a survey during the fall 2007 open-enrollment period, more than 30, 000 associates who chose Wal-Mart’s coverage for the first time reported being previously uninsured.

During the past year, the percentage of associates who reported having no coverage declined from 9. 6 percent to 7. 3 percent — a figure significantly lower than the 17. 7 percent uninsured rate nationwide for U. S. employed workers that was recently reported by the U. S. Census Bureau.

While most of the numbers indicate significant progress, Wal-Mart Watch executive director David Nassar said the 7. 3 percent who declined coverage and remained uninsured is more than alarming.

And the fact that more than half of its associates are insured through the plan of a spouse or parent shows negatively on the world’s largest retailer.

“ We are surprised that Wal-Mart is proud to report that half its employees choose not to take Wal-Mart’s health-care plan, including 7. 3 percent who think Wal-Mart’s plan is worse than nothing at all, ” said Nassar, in a statement issued immediately following the news conference.

“ In addition, since Wal-Mart neglects to release the enrollment numbers for specific plans, it is impossible to determine if enrolled employees signed up for the cheap plans, which offer little coverage and high deductibles or whether employees signed up for the expensive plans with better coverage. ”

Hewitt Associates annually examines the health-care plans offered by the nation’s largest retailers and scores them accordingly.

For 2008, Wal-Mart’s plans were compared against those of the 18 largest retailers in the country and scored 113. 8, up from 102 in 2007. The average score of the remaining 17 retailers was 100.

Hewitt’s benefits-index methodology has been used by more than 500 companies over the past 40 years to benchmark the competitive value of the complex array of benefit plans and provisions of various industry and labormarket competitors.

While the numbers suggest more Wal-Mart associates have embraced plans that can be customized to better meet their needs and preferences, Dillman said Wal-Mart continues to work to close the gap.

“ Were going to commission a survey to help us learn more, ” Dillman said. “ We want to know what else we can do to reduce the number of associates without coverage. ”

Dillman said associates have the option of selecting premiums as low as $ 5 per month.

Wal-Mart Watch suggested the retailer is capable of offering more.

“ Wal-Mart needs to focus its attention on making substantive changes to its plans rather than manipulating numbers to tell the public-relations story it wants, ” Nassar said.

“ The bottom line is that after nearly three years of criticism, and millions of dollars spent to revamp and promote new plans, Wal-Mart has failed to persuade just an additional 3 percent of its employees to enroll in the company’s health-care plan. ”

FEEDBACK:

Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online

ADVERTISEMENT