Health and wellness insurance model for University of Florida and Shands employees – GatorCare

Dr. David Guzick, Senior Vice President, Health Affairs and President, UF&Shands Health System Dr. Joe Glover, Senior Vice President and Provost Dr. Jack Payne, Senior Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources Dr. Win Phillips, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Paula Fussell, Vice President, Human Resource Services

The University of Florida and Shands are working to create a new model for offering health and wellness insurance to provide more cost-effective, customized care and better health outcomes for employees and their dependents.

When implemented, pending legislative approval, this model will result in a consolidated health insurance plan that will encompass all eligible faculty, staff, graduate assistants (on appointments), housestaff/residents, and postdoctoral associates at the University of Florida; Shands employees (Gainesville and Jacksonville); and employees of all Direct Support Organizations (DSOs) and Affiliates of the university.

One of the most important goals of this new model is to be as responsive to employee needs as possible by seeking ways to help improve health care access, health outcomes and quality of life—while keeping health care costs as low and competitive as possible. Such efforts are also mindful of the current uncertain health care benefit landscape and the probability of changes to state employee health plans that will likely lead to higher contributions from our employees.

This new health plan, to be called GatorCare, is expected to be effective January 2013, with open enrollment occurring for most in fall 2012.

No doubt you have questions about how this new plan will work and its costs. We don’t have all of the answers yet since GatorCare remains in its formative stages.  Regular updates, further details and plan information will be provided as they become available.

This project is guided by a governing structure that includes Executive Sponsors, a Project Steering Committee and various implementation workgroups involving many faculty and staff.

To learn more, please visit http://www.healthplan.ufl.edu.