Wendy's Franchisee super-sizes cost savings
Download full report (PDF, 259KB)
“We felt that Great-West Healthcare’s self-funded model made a lot of sense. We could more readily take advantage of a healthy group. On average, our costs have been about 20 percent lower than they would have been.” –Bolivar Andrews, President and CEO, CTW
CTW, based in Waco, Texas, owns and operates 15 Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers restaurants throughout central Texas. Founded six years ago upon the acquisition of eight restaurants, the franchisee now employs 450 people at restaurants in cities such as Waco, Temple and Killeen. Over the past 35 years, Wendy’s has become one of the top quick service restaurant chains in America, best known for its juicy square-shaped burgers and chicken breast sandwiches, quality ingredients, fresh salads, delicious chili, and of course its chocolate FrostyTM Dairy Dessert.
Benefits needs:
- Facing rising health care benefits costs, CTW looked to lower its expenses and take advantage of its unique employee group demographics instead of paying high premiums based on industry averages for higher ages and usage.
- A health plan that is easy to understand and administer.
The Great-West Healthcare solution:
- CTW is rewarded for its low health care use by paying actual employees claims instead of premiums, which saves about 20 percent on costs.
- At renewal time, CTW faced only a two percent increase in costs, compared to industry averages of 18 percent.
- CTW increased the use of generic drugs, thereby lowering costs, with higher brand-name copays and lower generic copays.
- The office manager easily administers and manages the health plan with informative employee packets and comprehensive online resources from Great-West Healthcare.