The Principal Financial Group Expands Consumer Driven Healthcare Offerings
July 31, 2006 (Des Moines, Iowa) — Keeping pace with the changing healthcare landscape, The Principal Financial Group® is now providing employers an enhanced health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) that can integrate with a health savings account (HSA). With this new offering, employers have flexibility to design deductibles, reimbursement percentages and rollover options that meet the needs of their employees.
"Employers are looking for new ways to create cost-effective benefits programs that also attract and retain employees," said Jerry Ripperger, director of consumer health for the Principal Financial Group. "As an innovator in consumer driven healthcare, The Principal is taking the lead in offering an enhanced HRA, allowing employers to develop a more customized, flexible design that takes advantage of the best consumer driven healthcare features."
With a full offering of HSAs, HRAs and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs), The Principal has the compliance expertise to help employers transition from an HRA to an HRA/HSA combination. The Principal offers a single-source solution that leverages the company's capabilities in health insurance, banking services and investment management.
"Our expertise and comprehensive offerings help employers create designs that meet their individual needs," added Ripperger. "Furthermore, our offerings give employees the freedom of choice when making decisions about their own health, making them smarter consumers of healthcare services."
Wellness Developments
To further engage members in making healthier decisions, The Principal is also announcing two new developments to the Principal HealthyEssentialsSM program. The program will now include companies with 26 or more employees and Principal HealthyEssentials will be available in three additional states - Arizona, Pennsylvania and Virginia. For all health insurance members, The Principal is now providing access to the Treatment Cost AdvisorSM. With this online tool, members can evaluate the price of specific procedures, such as surgeries and hospital stays as well as medications.
"Wellness and education are important components of consumer driven healthcare," noted Ripperger. "As we empower healthcare consumers, we must also help them find ways to improve their health."
Continually adding to consumer driven health care offerings, The Principal recently launched Principal Direct Connect HSA service, which allows employers to make contributions and transfer funds electronically into employees' HSAs, helping automate the process. At the same time, The Principal extended HSA offerings to other companies including insurers, third party administrators (TPAs) and investment firms.
For more information about consumer driven healthcare options, visit www.principal.com
About The Principal Financial Group
The Principal Financial Group® (The Principal®)1 is a leader in offering businesses, individuals and institutional clients a wide range of financial products and services, including retirement and investment services, life and health insurance and banking through its diverse family of financial services companies and national network of financial professionals. A member of the Fortune 500, the Principal Financial Group has $205.3 billion in assets under management2 and serves some 16 million customers worldwide from offices in Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America and the United States. Principal Financial Group, Inc. is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PFG. For more information, visit www.principal.com.
1) "The Principal Financial Group" and "The Principal" are registered service marks of Principal Financial Services, Inc., a member of the Principal Financial Group.
2) As of March 31, 2006.
Insurance products and plan administrative services are provided by Principal Life Insurance Company, a member of the Principal Financial Group, Des Moines, IA 50392.
