Robert Frost’s phrase about the “road less traveled” is all about making the unconventional choice and following a different path, one that expresses individuality, leadership and courage.
Literally, it could just mean you are on the bumpy, roughly hewn route to your destination.
We have been experiencing a bit of both here lately at NOVO Health. As we go to press for this issue, we have found ourselves facing the havoc created by the worldwide coronavirus outbreak. As you will read in the message from CEO Curt Kubiak on page 21, we have postponed our annual NOVO Health Conference until 2021 to ease any uncertainty and help reduce the risk of exposure. It’s been a bumpy few days of highs and lows.
The annual event was something we look forward to each year to celebrate and recognize those who have chosen the road less traveled when it comes to providing and buying health care for the workforces of our community. NOVO Health is currently the lesser traveled route, but those who have chosen it have shown some true leadership and been rewarded for that choice, both financially and in good will.
I was thinking about that a bit this month when I interviewed Cliff Sanderson of Mayville Engineering Company (MEC) for our cover story, which starts on page 12. Cliff is a numbers guy – a data scientist before being one was cool – and talks all the time about knowing your numbers, whether that’s your salary, vacation days, blood pressure, BMI or program savings. When you know the numbers, you make good decisions, he says.
MEC is certainly enjoying the benefit of those numbers: it’s kept its benefit cost curve nearly flat since 2013, saved nearly $500,000 since adding NOVO Health to its benefits program and the employees we have talked to love it. As an employee-owned company, the success of the program
directly affects each employee’s bottom line. For now, the path blazed by MEC and other NOVO Health employer partners is a lesser traveled route, but one we think will soon become a superhighway as companies realize there are options to purchase only the health care they need – sans the expensive overhead – that empower their employees to seek low-cost and high-quality options, support local independent providers and make their communities healthier. Both medically and financially. The route you choose will make all the difference.
