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Transamerica Launches New Voluntary Prescription Drug Indemnity Benefit for Part-Time and Limited-Income Workers

More than one-in-five American workers are not eligible for health benefits offered by their employer¹, creating coverage gaps that prevent employees from accessing needed care. Now, in addition to existing benefits that help employees with the cost of other common health care needs, Transamerica's new drug indemnity benefit provides access to deeply-discounted prescriptions, including Walmart's $4 prescription program. The drug indemnity program also offers the added benefit option of quickly receiving the amount of any excess benefit payment back in cash for the policyholder.

The prescription drug indemnity benefit is a new option for the TransChoice Plus voluntary limited benefit hospital indemnity insurance policy, underwritten by Transamerica Life Insurance Company, which allows employers to offer meaningful healthcare benefits to their entire staff, including part-time and limited-income workers. TransChoice Plus is available to employees at cost-effective group rates with no cost to the business owner.

"Transamerica is committed to helping employers provide their workforce with a comprehensive suite of attractive and affordable insurance benefits," says Randy Clarkson, president of Transamerica's Employee Benefits division. "This new benefit from Transamerica is a significant step forward in closing the insurance gap by giving employees, including those workers who don't typically qualify for major medical insurance, access to much-needed health and prescription benefits."

How it Works

Purchasers of TransChoice Plus are issued a TransChoice Plus Insurance ID card, which is also a MasterCard debit card. When the insured fills a prescription and the discounted cost is less than the indemnity benefit amount, Transamerica will pay the excess directly to them. Participants who fill their prescriptions at Walmart or Sam's Club preferred pharmacies using their TransChoice Plus ID/debit card will have any excess benefit credited directly to the TransChoice Plus ID/debit card within 30 minutes, and the additional cash can be spent anywhere MasterCard is accepted. If prescriptions are filled at other pharmacies, Transamerica will mail a check that will arrive within four weeks to the policyholder for any excess prescription drug indemnity benefit. An example of the transaction process is as follows:

* Amounts in the above chart are examples only. Prices and benefits may vary.

The indemnity benefit amount will be paid to participants for each prescription filled, up to 12 prescription fills per year, with unlimited access to discounted prescriptions year-round. If the cost of a prescription is more than the benefit, the policyholder will be required to pay the additional amount.

"As a broker, I am thrilled with the new prescription benefit option for TransChoice Plus, and my clients are very excited to offer this new unique benefit to their staffs," says Mitchell Besvinick, President of Innobenefits, LLC in Newtown Square, Pa. "It truly enhances the great TransChoice offering by giving employees much more flexibility with the prescription benefits that they are already utilizing. Additionally, since many of our employee groups frequently shop at Walmart, the added benefit of an instant reimbursement to the debit card will really allow them to stretch their dollars even more."

The new drug indemnity benefit will be available to all TransChoice Plus plans beginning May 1. TransChoice Plus is flexible and customizable, offering employers multiple plan selections and 15 optional benefits - including the new drug indemnity benefit - to meet the diverse needs of their workforce. As with all other Transamerica supplemental health benefits, TransChoice Plus can be 100 percent employee-paid and is guaranteed issue with no pre-existing condition limitations for employer groups. Transamerica products offer seamless implementation, convenient payroll deduction and on-going administration through the services of WEB-TPA, a third party administrator located in Irving, TX.

About Transamerica

Transamerica companies have been helping people create better futures for over a century. The Transamerica Employee Benefits, formerly known as Transamerica Worksite Marketing, division of Transamerica Life Insurance Company (Cedar Rapids, IA) and Transamerica Financial Life Insurance Company (Harrison, NY) designs and markets voluntary group life and supplemental health insurance products. For more information, please visit www.transamericaemployeebenefits.com.

¹ "Employer Health Benefits 2010 Annual Survey" , (#8085) The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and HRET, September 2010

Edelman
Jaren Anderson, 415-486-3217
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Jennifer Chan, 415-229-7650
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