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Employees want benefits, not pizza parties—but for small to medium-sized businesses, being able to offer employee benefits doesn’t always seem possible.

Alberta Blue Cross^® doesn’t want companies to have to choose between keeping the lights on and offering a benefit plan. That’s why their new group plan, Employee Choice™, gives businesses with 2 to 50 employees another option.

Employee Choice™ provides more predictable costs for employers so they can offer their diverse and multigenerational employees the ultimate level of flexibility and choice.

The core of Employee Choice™ is a Health Spending Account, which provides reimbursement for eligible health care expenses or other benefits not covered under provincial health insurance plans, and access to Alberta Blue Cross’s^® online wellness program, Balance®. Employers can then choose add-ons such as a Wellness Spending Account, a bundled package to protect employees from unforeseen catastrophic events known as peace of mind coverage, virtual care coverage and various Life and Disability insurance options.

Unlike traditional plans, Employee Choice™ provides fewer fluctuations in pricing and no surprising rate increases at renewal time. And because a Health Spending Account is the core benefit of the Employee Choice™ plan, employers can choose how many credits to allocate to their employees’ spending accounts each year, giving employers better control of their budget.

With Employee Choice™, employees are empowered to choose how they spend their allocated credits each year based on their health and wellness needs. For example, if an employee needs to dedicate more funds to prescription drugs one year and dental the next, they have the flexibility to do so.

“This plan really puts employees in the driver’s seat,” says Alberta Blue Cross’s^® vice-president of Group, Jerry Rudelic. “A young employee may not need coverage for many benefits that are components of traditional plans, such as a wheelchair, a knee brace and hearing aids. But what they might want instead is to use their credits for massage, dental and mental health coverage.”

And everything can be done completely online—from getting a quote using the online calculator, to designing and purchasing a plan that’s right for your business, to employees enrolling in the plan and submitting claims.

More information about the Employee Choice™ plan is available on the Alberta Blue Cross^® website.

This media release was shared as a news story on:

BPM News on Alberta Blue Cross^® offering a new plan

About Alberta Blue Cross^®

As Alberta’s largest benefit provider, Alberta Blue Cross^® provides health, dental, life and travel coverage to more than 1.8 million plan members.

For more information, please contact Sharmin Hislop, Director of Corporate Communications, Alberta Blue Cross^® at shislop@ab.bluecross.ca.