Nystrom & Associates is one of the largest behavioral health organizations in the country with over 60 locations in five states. The organization’s 2,100 employees are on a mission to empower people to become the best version of themselves by providing therapy, psychiatry, addiction treatment, and a variety of other services for adults, children, couples, and families.
Tony Rosenberg, Senior Director of HR Shared Services at Nystrom, is responsible for delivering employee benefits to the clinicians who direct patient care, as well as the administrative staff supporting those clinicians. For years, Nystrom had a traditional group health plan, but as the organization grew, it needed to provide cost effective healthcare to employees in several Midwest states as well as remote workers.
In 2021, Nystrom switched to an individual coverage HRA (ICHRA), giving employees an allowance to spend on an individual health plan in their local community. The organization was seeing double-digit annual increases on its existing plan and could no longer bear the financial burden of traditional group healthcare. Nystrom also wanted to know in advance what it would be spending each month on benefits.
Rosenberg worked with Nystrom’s brokers to shop around for different ICHRA vendors. After meeting with several companies, Rosenberg was sold on the different types of support that Take Command offered. Onboarding went “very smoothly,” Rosenberg remembered, noting that the tools Take Command provided — like the platform for employees to choose their own insurance — were user-friendly.
Empowering employees to choose
Rosenberg hears primarily very positive feedback about ICHRA from employees. Initially, many employees used to having one or two healthcare options are a little apprehensive about the many different plan options that ICHRA provides. But employees eventually come to appreciate the wealth of options and the ability to choose. The additional support and tools for shopping on the Take Command platform make things easy for employees.
The biggest challenge Nystrom faced when switching over to ICHRA was that most employees didn’t know what it was. The employees were accustomed to going to an HR department for answers to any and all questions about their health insurance. Because ICHRA involves individual policies that Nystrom reimburses for, Rosenberg and his team can’t be an expert in all of the 200 different plan options that employees across five states select.
A successful switch
Rosenberg knows there are a lot of HR leaders in his shoes right now, forced to choose between cost and quality on their traditional health plans. Rather than pass on excess costs to their employees, ICHRA offers an affordable alternative. Rosenberg says the switch is worth the investment, because the model gives employees more options that fit their lifestyle and their family’s needs.
With ICHRA, Nystrom can take better care of its employees so that they can in turn provide better care to the adults, children, couples, and families who rely on the organization. The flexible benefits solution helps everyone access the healthcare services that matter most to themselves and their families, at a price they can afford.
