by About twenty years ago, Tangelo Park was a Florida neighborhood of small houses that was trying to overcome a growing presence of drugs, crime and too many shuttered homes. Nearly half its students were dropping out of school.
But today, Tangelo Park is a striking success story. Because living in Tangelo Park means:
- Lowered crime rate by 63%.
- High school graduation rates up from 45% to ~100%.
- Free Daycare, Pre-K, and after school programs in communities where many employees live.
- Full tuition/book scholarships to in-state universities and colleges.
This incredible transformation began with one company deciding to get their healthcare costs under control.
Harris Rosen is the founder and CEO of Rosen Hotels & Resorts, a small regional chain in Orlando, Florida. Though he’s not a health care expert, he intuitively knew what PwC data famously showed: half of health care spending doesn’t add value. In a business of ups and downs in which staff costs are a major factor, Rosen surrounded himself with a special executive team to tackle this challenge. To date, they’ve saved approximately $315 million on health care costs since 1971 and spend 50 percent less per capita than the average employer.”
They achieved this through creating a unique health plan for employees that included things like:
- On-site primary care clinics that offer unlimited, free, on-the-clock visits for all employees, plus free transportation to other appointments.
- Free physicals and health screenings.
- $0 copays on 90% of prescriptions.
- Negotiated reference-based pricing for most major procedures.
- Onsite fitness, flu shots, cooking classes, nutritional services, and more.
- Pay cost differences between unhealthy and healthy meals at company cafeterias.
It is estimated that if all employers followed suit, $500 billion of waste from health care could be removed and shift it to other sectors of the economy. The employees at Rosen come from very diverse backgrounds, including many immigrants that have not had access to healthcare previously. This incredible coverage for the average employee is only $18.75 per week for benefits that include medical, dental, and pharmacy.
To make this story even better, Rosen Hotels then invested their healthcare savings into their employees and their community, which allowed them to fund scholarships, provide free day care, improve local schools, and much more.
It’s so inspiring, and life-changing to see what can happen when healthcare is done right. Can you imagine if all companies and healthcare organizations followed this example?
To learn more about the Rosen Hotel success story, check out these links below:
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/26/us/tangelo-park-orlando-florida.html
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