Business Brief: Medgaarden's Southwest Sales is first employer offering health insurance with HELPcare [Austin Daily Herald, Minn.]

Austin Daily Herald (MN)

Dec. 8—Medgaarden's Southwest Sales in Austin is the first employer to take advantage of a new program that reduces costs for employee health insurance while providing the benefits of HELPcare Clinic membership to employees.

"As a family business, we've always felt it was important to take care of our employees, and providing health insurance has been part of that," says co-owner Spencer Medgaarden. "But the costs go up every year, and in this year's renewal we were looking at a 9.4% increase with a $300 increase to the deductible. HELPcare Clinic membership seemed like a good idea to us, but we didn't think we could afford it for our employees on top of what we were already paying for health insurance. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that we could provide this extra benefit while reducing overall costs for the business and lowering barriers to health care for our employees."

HELPcare Clinic, which opened in Austin in February 2022, currently has 765 members.

"The problem most people have with health insurance is the high deductible that keeps them from even going to the doctor because they know it will all be out-of-pocket anyway," said HELPcare Clinic administrator Lee Aase. "With membership, they can get the regular and acute care they need without worrying about the bill. It doesn't count against their deductible: it's just free."

"Finding a consultant at North Risk Partners who could use HELPcare Clinic membership as a key ingredient in a complete employer health insurance plan was a game-changer. We call it 'Health Insurance with HELPcare.'" he continued. "The bottom line: this combination will save Medgaardens nearly 20% compared to the renewal they had been offered under their old plan, while their employees get unhurried, personal primary care at HELPcare Clinic at no cost to them."

Learn more about Health Insurance with HELPcare at HELPcare.health/Employers.ustin in February 2022. HELPcare Clinic in Rochester opened in January 2023. HELPcare LLC is a management services company that provides administrative support for practitioner-owned clinics that use a direct primary care (DPC) membership instead of accepting insurance.