PepsiCo chose North Texas as the first region where it will pay employees’ insurance premiums if they use certain physician groups, a savings of up to $650, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Over 5,200 employees and their families enrolled in the program, whose goal is to get more people to see their primary care physician. If workers from Pepsi see a physician before April, they get a $100 gift card, DMN reports. They can choose between Catalyst Health Network, Genesis Physicians Group, and the North Texas Clinically Integrated Network as their primary care doctors.
Pepsi chose DFW because its workers’ healthcare costs are $3,000 more than workers nationwide, and 60 percent of PepsiCo’s workers have never been to a primary care doctor despite having coverage, according to DMN. They hope that investing on the front of end of for workers healthcare will reduce costs in the long run. Betsy Harrison, Pepsi’s director of benefits for North America, announced the plan at the Dallas Fort Worth Business Group on Health last week.
Learn more about the announcement and the forum here.