Sustainablility

It is obvious to almost everyone that our current health care delivery model is not sustainable. Who is not aware that we are in a health care crisis - only 4% of physicians are family doctors and most of them can no longer open clinics to provide care because of the insane complexity and cost imposed by insurance carriers, legal restrictions imposed by unintelligible contracts and procedures, and artificially fragmented definitions of health care.

Elements saw the problem 10 years ago and looked at models that would work and yet have not heard authentic or genuine conversation in the public arena from politicians, business leaders or insurance executives. Instead, we continue to make our health care system more complex assuring that we don't understand or want to pay attention to possibilities. We have become jaded and disheartened that anything real will occur. For the past 6 years Elements has quietly been designing and executing a sustainable and integrated health benefits program that works each and every time because it is based on care with a new economic model that rewards employer groups, employees and their families and practitioners for seeking a life of wellbeing.

Our current health care (or as we call it sick care) model is a punitive approach that costs/punishes people for seeking information and guidance on the complexities of living our lives well. Health care is delivered by insurance people who are paid too well, responsive to Wall Street and don't even know they are in the business of health. They think they are in the business of insurance and equities. The sales and service staffs of brokerage firms are there to support the status quo with the pretence of supporting their client. But, the client is the one who pays while the broker and insurance companies flourish. Elements designs plans based on a genuine conversation between insurance and health care experts who care, health technology people and end users or clients. We speak together from a place that says by doing good we will all prosper. And we will prosper together in ways that include financial, yet go beyond to the fullness of wellbeing. Elements calls this the five elements of health;

Through science-based studies and our years of providing health benefit programs, we know that health is a dynamic interplay. It encompasses our Physical, Financial, Spiritual, Self, and Relationship health—the Five Elements of Health.

We design plans that know we all want to be well and that if given the resources and support we will seek wellbeing. And then we find an economic model that makes this work so that the more we seek wellbeing, the less our plan will cost. We do this by designing plans that are economically sound for all involved and because we are completely transparent, we hide nothing for in showing utilization, plan costs and analyzing patterns we will look ways to make the plan and its members succeed.

WHY ELEMENTS

When we developed our plan we believed that the health insurance industry wanted a real way to save dollars and support its policy holders, but as one insurance executive stated to us, "Just because you're right, doesn't mean it will work." We showed our plan to brokerage firms only to be told, "Out of the 1,500 sales reps we have, maybe 2 will get it." So, we realized that we would need to market and service our plans ourselves. Elements now provides all the services of a broker and consultant, yet we work for our client and design plans that work. The Elements Plan is designed to change the adversarial nature of health care delivery, contain costs, bring ownership of the plan to the client, stop the endless cycle of changing carriers, raising deductibles and co-pays, and charging employees more for less. And most important we developed a plan based on the real way people want to use plans by supporting and nurturing the seeking of information and skill acquisition to remain well. Instead of sleeping many nights we read insurance contracts and wrote our questions to bring to insurance executives, becoming more knowledgeable than the writers of the complex language now known as Insurance-ese.

We hold all appropriate licenses and credentials and given that we like to learn some of us are Certified Financial Planners, Certified Coaches, Therapists, etc. We have learned our field very well and found the best and brightest to partner with when it comes to administrating plans, de-coding the legal, etc.

Elements Health is not new or old, it is a firm rooted in clear and forward thinking about the delivery of health care. And health is not a commodity. It is a caring, sophisticated balance or dance of science and art. We looked at the components that make up our fragmented and broken health care delivery model and realized that people want to feel well and if we care and support, provide tools and incentives for information and skill acquisition people will respond. If we change the insurance economics by lowering administrative and fixed costs and constantly analyze claims data along with predictive risk data while providing individuals the necessary tools and support to improve their lives, claims will go down. And when claims go down, healthcare costs go down. We are not fragmented beings, we are integrated, complex humans who do our best to find balance in an increasingly challenging environment. So, separating wellness and health care and creating an industry that believes it is in the insurance business rather the health care business, with sales and support people who know nothing about health is ridiculous. And as your costs escalates broker's commissions go up as well is insane.

Elements Health Plans is a breath of fresh air in a toxic environment. We know that wellness and insurance are illogical artificial separations that are not sustainable. We live, we want to be well. And people want a model that will support and nurture their journey. Elements Health Plans is not a wellness program or an insurance product. It is a real response to the delivery of health care where costs meet care, and science is balanced with art. Our clients experience lower costs and while receiving more benefit, simply because we changed the economics to provide more care and skill support as a part of their health plan. Elements is in the health delivery business and brokers are in the insurance business hoping to keep the status quo as it pays so well.

So, your broker helps you with administration support and navigating the complex claims morass and is charming, taking you to formal dinners or golf. Well, your broker is compensated so well they do not want to see things change. They like the status quo – do you? Elements does not go on bonus holidays or earn more commissions as your costs rise, we design health plans that work, keep costs contained and support transparency. Why are you complicit with a system that compensates your consultant based on your increased costs and where your insurance carrier can provide you increases without total transparency? Why are you supporting a system that only allows you to decrease the benefits you provide your employees or increase your employees costs of health insurance in order for you to even afford to offer health benefits? We have allowed and supported a fragmented, broken health care model to be controlled by insurance executives, sales people and share holders, naming us consumers and confusing us so much we can't tell when a real program is presented. Elements Health Plans is different, because it is in the business of health care delivery designing programs that work, every time.