FBN Innovations
FBN Health Benefits Group:
The Power of Speaking with One Voice
They said it couldn’t be done. When FBN wanted to form a group health insurance program, we faced tremendous resistance from the insurance community – carriers and brokers alike. But we continued our push, undaunted, relying on the collective persistence of our membership and a sound business strategy that built upon our successful history as a business alliance. Amazingly, we managed to forge a group program in just 120 days. The group’s savings exceeded $1.7 million the first year. Today, the program that “couldn’t be done” has become a best-practice model for Highmark, proving that successful deployment of worksite wellness programs and thoughtful benefit plan design can be long-term solutions to rising health care costs.
RxPartners-LTC:
Creating Our Own Solutions
If you want something done right, sometimes you have to do it yourself. So it was with our pharmacy. Faced with a long history of disappointing service from pharmacy providers, and a prolonged period of industry consolidation in which local and regional providers were being gobbled up by national proprietary chains, FBN decided to take control. Thanks to our strong regional presence, we were able to build our own pharmacy, RxPartners-LTC, in partnership with UPMC. Today, RxPartners-LTC offers outstanding quality, technological sophistication and truly customer-driven service. Through FBN membership, each member is in effect a pharmacy “owner” – a testament to the power of partnership.
Leadership Excellence:
Shared Learning Leads to Shared Success
Sometimes the best solution is the one you invent. When we asked our members how FBN could help with their workforce challenges, they told us to create a program to provide leadership training for front-line supervisors and managers. Existing training alternatives were too expensive, off the mark or lacking in flexibility, so we chose to design our own. After conducting a needs assessment of each member, FBN raised $225,000 from government and private foundation sources to underwrite the design and launch of our Leadership Excellence program with DDI. Grant funds were available because FBN members represented a regional consortium with the intent to continue training after the grant period ended. Our aggregate purchasing power and responsiveness to member preferences helped ensure a successful outcome. The resulting programs proved so effective that today, FBN resells a suite of DDI products and solutions.
Faith-Affiliated Insurance Program:
A Partnership Built on Trust
You’ve got to have trust. Especially when dollars are on the line. Faced with a liability insurance market that was fraught with volatility and runaway pricing, FBN members decided to band together to create their own insurance company. But such an undertaking involves risk, capital and time – and there are many legal complexities in the process of forming a business. It took two years to create the insurance captive. Many organizations dropped out along the way. Of the 22 organizations that participated in the feasibility study, 6 became founding members and owners. The effort wouldn’t have been possible without FBN. The organization not only facilitated the process; it also played an instrumental role in establishing a sense of trust among those involved. Today, the captive is on very strong financial footing, and its members are enjoying an outstanding loss history that is allowing them to build up reserves for future stability.
