Miriam Kinkheune Subject: Maple Syrup Urine Disease
From: Miriam Kinkheune
Date: 10/16/08 12:15pm

Hi Everyone: Sorry if my subject line scared you, but that is an actual and serious disease that happened to a co-worker’s son at one of my former jobs (managing the entire Physics department at Garabondine College). Here is a link to explain what I mean).


My point is that, Pieter and Aidan, you mentioned benefits when I was hired and I just wanted to re-bring that up again and see where we are vis a vis the employee health coverage?

Replies

Aidan Weinglas Aidan Weinglas at 12:17PM
Yes! This is something that the Wonderglen management takes seriously – caring for our employees health. I have been purusing options very seriously and discussing plans with some different providers.

Miriam Kinkheune Miriam Kinkheune at 12:17PM
Great! What are some of the options we are thinking about?

Aidan Weinglas Aidan Weinglas at 5:49PM
Sorry about the delay responding, Miriam. I have been researching this and it looks like there are some really good plans out there:


•LifePlus has something called a Wellness Buddy System, where they pair you with a person in your same medical condition so you can talk to each other to have someone who understands your suffering, which really rang true to me as far artistic vision, etc.


•Doctors Without Offices is an HMO that also has a really economical fee-for-service plan, but it looks like you have to go to either the airport or to the medical tent at a big event (such as a rock concert or a parade) in order to get a checkup, which seems like a downside. The upside is with no permanent offices they pass the savings along to the customer, so it’s a tough call.


•One really good option for Wonder Glen would be an “HPO,” which is very very similar to an HMO.

Miriam Kinkheune Miriam Kinkheune at 5:50PM
OK. I am not familiar with this type of organization.

Aidan Weinglas Aidan Weinglas at 6:00PM
It’s a “Health Point Organization” — as far as I can understand, each person has points that they can build up for healthy behaviors that then apply against their principal. It’s run similarly to the W-DICK program for single women with dependent children or Blue Cross’ Healthy Deluxe SHOM. They have great doctors and you can also see any non-network provider who has plan privileges and accepts “Healthy Bucks.” Sounds fun!

Sarah Madrick Sarah Madrick at 6:19PM

So if Lance and I were in a car crash, that is something we could just pay for with the Healthy Bucks?

Aidan Weinglas Aidan Weinglas at 6:22PM
I think so. Yes. Still figuring that out. Let’s definitely continue this discussion and figure out what works best for us all w/r/t Health Care!

Nick Carcallo Nick Carcallo at 7:11PM
Universal health care for ALL. There are people suffering every day. Case in point, conditions of people of the third world. Warning, this is hard to look at: