Employee Benefits News recently named David Hines, executive director of benefits at Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS), its 2020 Benny Award winner for Healthcare Leadership. The annual awards recognize excellence and innovation in the employee benefits/human resources field.
Hines manages the benefits of MNPS’ certificated teaching staff, which includes 6,000 active employees and 3,000 retirees. When dependents are accounted for, that’s a total of 18,000 covered lives. Annually MNPS spends over $100 million on the health plan alone.
Searching for a better maternity care experience for Metro Nashville Public School (MNPS) employees, Hines went to every hospital system in the Nashville area and asked for a value-based purchasing arrangement for maternity care. After being turned down by multiple health systems, Vanderbilt Health collaborated with him to pilot MyMaternityHealth on January 1, 2020.
MyMaternityHealth combines maternity and select newborn services that an expectant mother and baby need from enrollment until 12 weeks after delivery. The potential savings from the program is so significant that MNPS has been able to lower the health plan member’s copayment to zero, saving employees at least $2,500 annually.
“Keeping my teachers well is a long-term investment,” Hines says in an Employee Benefits News article about his award. “Imagine what they can do with that extra money they’re not spending each time they have a baby?”
“It’s hard to overstate what an innovator and thought leader David is,” Employee Benefits News quoted C.J. Stimson, cancer surgeon and senior adviser to the chief health system officer at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “It’s inspiring to see someone with his decades of experience be willing to take risks and try new things.”
Hines is also planning to introduce upcoming MyHealth Bundles for cochlear implants, spine surgery, total joint replacement surgery for hip and knee, and surgical weight loss, all of which will potentially have zero out-of-pocket costs for MNPS employees.
Learn more about Hines' experience with MyMaternityHealth in the video below.
