In Issue 20 of Medical Travel Today we introduced Sam Shallenberger of RJ Young, a $100 million equipment and leasing company based in Nashville, Tenn. Like many US companies, RJ Young faces the challenge of providing affordable healthcare coverage to its 450 employees. Currently RJ Young offers a high deductible health plan with an employee HSA and an employer HRA, all through Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Tennessee. Excluding preventative care, the risk layers are: First $2,500 annually – Employee       Next $1,500 annually – 80/20 BCBS/RJY       Remainder – BCBS fully insured After some initial research, Shallenberger requested that his broker, Alex Tolbert of Bernard Health, begin investigating medical travel as an option. In the few weeks that have elapsed since Issue 20 published, Tolbert has been in contact with several medical travel companies exploring the opportunities and how they fit with RJ Young’s needs and plans. It’s important to note that prior to offering a consumer-driven plan, RJ Young was self-insured. The company expects to move back to self-insured at some point in the future when premiums for fully-insured or modified fully-insured are disadvantaged compared to self-insurance expectations. Tolbert’s initial research indicates that a great deal of the financial benefits to medical travel have a greater impact for self-insured employers. However, Tolbert notes there are a number of non-financial benefits that need to be considered. For example, says Shallenberger, “We are learning that some providers may have demonstrably superior outcomes for certain categories of procedures. …We are exploring the option at renewal in September of 2013 of offering certain categories of procedures – such as cardiac – and providing network coverage for non-emergency treatment for those categories at selected providers which offer both better outcomes and better pricing.” Shallenberger remains open to either domestic or overseas providers.