MAPP working toward health care coalition

Indianapolis — The Manufacturers Association for Plastics Processors is attempting to put together a coalition of processors in an effort use combined buying power to lower health care costs.

The plan was discussed during the association's annual Benchmarking and Best Practices Conference in Indianapolis Oct. 10-12.

Troy Nix, executive director of the organization, said the response following the discussion was "absolutely crazy."

"It's going to take a little time, but I feel extremely confident that with the expertise we have assembled that we will have a very strong impacting coalition," Nix said.

During the discussion, Brian Klepper, principal of Worksite Health Advisors, and Mick Rodgers, managing partner of Axial Benefits Group, talked to the gathering of executives from processors.

Nix said MAPP tried to start a similar group in 2011 in Indiana but hit a roadblock after the rollout of the Affordable Care Act.

"It shattered a year and a half worth of work," Nix said. "Since then, I've been stewing because we failed. I think we could be doing something for our members."

Ultimately some good came from that effort: A coalition of businesses in upstate New York formed a collective to buy health insurance led by Polymer Conversions Inc. That led to lower costs and better coverage for members.

Nix said he was optimistic that new legislation recently signed by President Donald Trump would allow trade associations to help its members with health care.

"I was waiting and waiting for it," Nix said. "If you read the fine print, it doesn't do anything to help associations bulk purchase health care and transition across all 50 states."

He said since then, his team has been digging deep for options and decided to have Klepper and Rodgers speak to the group's executive board before presenting to MAPP as a group.

Rodgers said one of the reasons bigger companies are able to maintain more stable health care plans is because of their size. They buy in bulk and, like Costco, that comes with benefits. He said Axial Benefits Group has been helping related companies join together and buy bulk services in the background to help drive down costs. The effort doesn't force companies to purchase all one plan. The companies would aggregate together for insurance purchase but remain independent for what they specifically buy.

"We have been traveling across the country for the last five years, banding companies together to try to get that bulk size, so that small and midsized companies can buy like Fortune 100 companies. It's been very successful," Rodgers said.

He said they want to start a similar group with MAPP, and the sweet spot is around 10,000 combined employees.

Klepper said Worksite Health Advisors works toward better health outcomes with better pricing.

"The current paradigm just doesn't work any more," he said. "It's possible to have a good health plan, a safe health plan, with way better results than we're currently paying for, for about a quarter or 50 percent less than we're currently paying."

Klepper said big companies like Michelin, Whole Foods and Boeing have been focusing on different strategies that avoid care that isn't needed.

"The fee for service reimbursement model has led to a system where we do a lot of things that are unnecessary and inappropriate. And we charge egregious unit prices for it," he said.

The group works with employers to find health care vendors that can be integrated and work with existing plans.

"The health care industry owns the legislature," Klepper said. "The only place to win is in the marketplace. Offer up a deal they can't refuse, and we can move forward and fix the health care system."