Illinois Employers Can Now Enhance Their Health Benefits Through Direct Purchase of Complementary Health Benefit Plans

Rosemont, IL (December 4, 2003) -- For the first time, Illinois employers can now directly purchase complementary health benefit plans from a specialty benefits health insurance company, making such popular options as acupuncture and chiropractic care more readily accessible to a local workforce. Massage therapy and dietetic counseling are also offered as benefit plan options.

These new benefit programs are available to Illinois businesses with 51 or more employees through American Specialty Health Insurance Company (ASH Insurance). ASH Insurance is a subsidiary of American Specialty Health, Incorporated (ASH), the nation’s largest complementary health care organization, covering over 9 million members across the United States. Employer groups are able to purchase complementary health benefits as a supplemental group benefit rider similar to purchasing vision, dental, or behavioral health coverage.

"At a time when employers are being hit with double-digit annual increases in medical premiums, interest in complementary health care is at an all-time high," said George DeVries, president and chief executive officer of ASH. "In fact, complementary health benefit plans are one of the few programs employers are continuing to add to their employee benefit packages."

DeVries attributes this trend to two compelling factors – low cost and popularity with employees. "Business managers look at complementary health benefit plans as a positive way to enhance their employee benefit package at a very low cost while medical plans are raising copayments and deductibles due to medical insurance inflation," he says. "Roughly half of all Americans use some form of complementary health care each year. As a result, it has become a standard part of the American health care system. Adding these benefits allow employers to attract and retain employees through a low-cost enhancement to their benefit packages. In fact, the cost for some complementary health benefit plan options is roughly the same as, or even less, than vision or dental benefit riders."

According to Melrose Park-based chiropractor Martin Massari, DC, a participating provider in ASH Insurance’s provider network, these direct offerings are a “critically important addition” to health benefit coverage in Illinois. "Consumers have been pressuring employers and lawmakers to make complementary and alternative health insurance coverage more readily available for some time," he says. "Without this important coverage, consumers are forced to pay the entire amount themselves."

The new product offerings in Illinois are part of ASH Insurance’s strategy to help meet today’s heightened consumer demand and to fulfill regulatory requirements to offer insured complementary health benefits. Local employees who have this benefit can access an Illinois network of more than 200 contracted providers. Furthermore, when insureds are traveling, they have in-network access to a national provider network of more than 22,000 contracted acupuncturists, chiropractors, dietitians, massage therapists, medical doctors, and osteopathic physicians. In many cases, ASH Insurance may also cover employees residing in other states.

ASH Insurance offers a broad range of benefit options, combinations, and plans for Illinois employers and their employees. For maximum flexibility, employers may choose from approximately 15 different combinations of complementary health care benefits. Once an employer group has selected a benefit combination, it is then able to select from as many as 25 different benefit plans for each benefit combination.

In-network benefits range from 20, 30, 40, 50, or unlimited visits per year with copayments of $0, $5, $10, $15 or $20 per visit, depending upon plan design. Out-of-network benefits provide reimbursem