Organization:
Eden II School (Eden II) programs are dedicated to enabling the children and adults with autism that it serves in New York City and Long Island to achieve the highest quality of life throughout their lives in school, in the community, at work and at home. Eden II was founded in 1976 on Staten Island with six children and one special education teacher, and over the past 25 years, Eden II’s highly successful model has lead to the expansion and development of a number of programs and services for individuals with autism. In 1994, Eden II opened its preschool program to serve children with autism, ages 3-5. This intensive program provides one-to-one services, maximizing the possibility of a successful return to mainstream education. Today, Eden II has eighteen campuses throughout New York City and Long Island serving many of the needs of the autistic community.

Challenge:
Since its inception the Eden II School system has offered its employees an expansive benefits package. To attract and retain highly qualified faculty and staff, Eden II must offer benefits and salaries comparable to the local public school system.

Eden II has been confronted, as have many non-profits over the years, with increased healthcare costs. Executive management has had to find solutions to their growing financial employee benefits challenges without compromising the quality of services it delivers to its student body.

Over the past decade, Keith Chambery, associate partner at College Benefits Group (CBG), has been heading up the management of employee benefits at Eden II. CBG is College Benefits Publishing’s sister organization specializing in association, consortia, and institutional management of member benefits and employee benefits.

The executive management at Eden II approached CBG with the task of reducing its overall employee benefits costs and at the same time increasing the benefits services that could be offered to their faculty and staff.

Solution:
CBG transitioned Eden II from a traditional fully-funded medical insurance plan to a self-funded medical insurance program. CBG also introduced employee paid voluntary benefits to fill any gaps in the employer-paid benefits packages Eden II offered its faculty and staff.

The new insurance programs needed advanced medical and financial administration, medical and pharmaceutical network providers, and a more effective way for Eden II executive management to deliver benefits information to faculty and staff.

College Benefits Publishing created, built, and is actively managing the Eden II communications and database management platform that includes an employee benefits website, an employee benefits eNewsletter, and simplified database management of faculty and staff. The new insurance plans database systems and accounting processes are managed by third party administrators under the guidance of CBG.

Results:
In the first year of the new insurance plan Eden II School has saved well over two hundred thousand dollars in insurance premiums. The new communications and database platform built for Eden II has provided senior and executive management a delivery tool that conveys clearer and more effective benefits information to faculty and staff.

Since its launch the communications and database platform has continually grown to include other important and relevant information for Eden II employees, such as employee training and scheduling of human resources events to name only a few.