Health Plan Savings for Manufacturers
Client Snapshot
Industry: Manufacturing
Employees: 113
Location: St. Louis, MO
Annual Healthcare Spend: ≈ $1.1 Million
Previous Plan Type: Fully Insured
True Fitness is a long-standing St. Louis manufacturer known for high-performance equipment—and until recently, a high-cost health plan that lacked performance visibility.
The Challenge
A Million-Dollar Plan Managed by Spreadsheet
For more than a decade, True Fitness had remained with the same carrier, renewing year after year with no real strategy.
Their broker was running the same play every renewal season—resulting in back-to-back 19 % premium increases and a total annual spend that topped $1 million.
The company had no claims data, no insight into what was driving cost, and no way to measure value. Leadership knew they were losing control of one of their largest budget lines—but didn’t know where to start.
Every year it was the same story – same broker, same carrier, same increase.
The Approach (2024)
Phase: Prepare → Architect
The first step was visibility.
BeneSmart introduced True Fitness to the Benefit Cost Containment Blueprint, beginning with access to data and analytics to understand where dollars were actually going.
In 2024, the company transitioned from a fully insured plan to a Cigna level-funded structure, reducing annual premiums from $1.399 million to $1.226 million — a $173 k savings in the first year alone.
The Approach (2025)
Phase: Deploy
With quarterly executive reviews in place, BeneSmart helped the team uncover a major red flag: pharmacy costs.
Three specialty drugs alone were driving $35 k per month in spend.
Through BeneSmart’s proprietary vendor evaluation process, True Fitness carved out pharmacy benefits and implemented:
- A PBM partnership with SmithRx
- Specialty drug sourcing strategies
- A direct contract with BJC Health Solutions
- Migration into a captive structure with Tokio Marine, Consociate, and Pareto
These moves created cash-flow efficiency, reduced volatility, and shifted leverage back to the employer.
The Results
- 85 % reduction in pharmacy cost within 30 days
- $173 k savings in Year 1 premiums
- 20 % lower medical claims after direct contracting
- Employee satisfaction at an all-time high
“The rave reviews are coming in and there’s been nothing but good things happening with our drug coverage. I have a prescription that used to cost $127 per fill with Cigna — it’s now $5!” — Jessi, HR Manager at True Fitness
Key Insight
The turning point came when leadership saw their claims on paper – and realized they could finally control the outcome.
Managing inputs, not outputs, transformed a high-cost liability into a controllable business asset.