Wartburg Seminary earns discount in contributions to health plan for 2008

by Frank Imhoff, ELCA News Service

Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa, earned a 2 percent
discount on contributions it makes to the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America (ELCA) Health Benefits Plan for its employees
for 2008. Wartburg qualified for the discount when more than 75
percent of its employees and their spouses receiving ELCA primary
health coverage completed the Mayo Clinic Health Risk Assessment,
which the ELCA Board of Pensions, Minneapolis, offered as a
health plan benefit. The discount means Wartburg, one of eight
ELCA seminaries, will save more than $11,000 this year.

"Wartburg Seminary's achievement means far more than dollar
savings," said John G. Kapanke, president, ELCA Board of
Pensions. "The seminary and its employees and spouses clearly
understand that healthy leaders enhance lives and that their
health benefits can support their efforts to live well," he said.
The ELCA Board of Pensions also qualified for the 2 percent
discount for 2008 and will save approximately $39,000 on its
health plan contributions.

ELCA Board of Pensions is a $7 billion nonprofit corporation
providing retirement, health and other benefits and related
services for ELCA pastors, lay ministers, employees and their
families. It has offered the health risk assessment to its plan
members for four years. 2008 is the first year it is offering a
financial reward to plan members and their spouses who take the
assessment -- $100 into a personal wellness account to help
offset medical costs. It is offering the discount to ELCA
employers -- synods, institutions, churchwide organization -- as
an additional incentive for plan members to complete the
assessment. If 75 percent of the employees and their spouses of
each ELCA employer complete the assessment by the end of
September 2008, the church could see discounts of approximately
$2.5 million for the year.