Open for Business: 40 Square’s renewal season begins
40 Square Cooperative Solutions’ health plan model is one of a kind – and second to none.
40 Square is rooted in Minnesota’s proud farming tradition and remains the state’s only agricultural co-op focusing exclusively on providing farm families, agribusiness – and their employees – along with agriculture trade associations and cooperatives access to self-funded health plan options.
“We’re in this for the long haul,” Executive Director Amanda Beavens said.
40 Square can enroll businesses throughout the year and is excited to launch its sixth year of open enrollment, which begins Nov. 1 and runs through Dec. 31, 2022, for Jan. 1, 2023, effective dates. Interested plan participants can receive a rate estimate today.
“We’re excited to offer a variety of comprehensive self-funded health plans that give Minnesota’s agriculture community more options for their health care,” said Beavens, who joined the organization in June 2022. “This open enrollment season, we’re focused on growing and encourage those in our state’s ag community to take a closer look at our health plans to see if we’re the right fit for them.”
40 Square, which moved its headquarters to Mankato in 2022, has been encouraged by the enrollment outcome over the organization’s first five years, which covers nearly 1,000 individuals. Minnesota is the nation’s leading cooperative state, supporting more than 600 co-ops, many of which are engaged in production agriculture.
“The fact that 40 Square is an agricultural co-op is really important,” 40 Square Chair Cole Trebesch said. “Most farmers belong to multiple ag co-ops. They’re a great thing, and 40 Square gives farmers some control over the various health plans we offer.”
Structure of Cooperative and Health Plan
The 40 Square co-op sponsors the health plan and is governed by a board of directors elected by members/patrons. Fifty-one percent of governance is members and patrons, 49 percent is represented by cooperative sponsors.
“Our board is comprehensive,” Sponsor Board Member and Minnesota farmer Therese Romsdhal said. “We have people with financial experience, and we have the hands-on farmers and people representing the farmers themselves. That’s the unique thing about 40 Square – you have farmers on the board, so we are involved in all the discussions.”
40 Square is not an insurance company and puts people above profits. Participant members pay into the co-op to self fund the health plan. Those funds are then placed into a Trust, only to be used for health plan expenses. The Trust is a separate board governed by the five elected plan members; however, all health plan participants retain 100 percent ownership interest in the Trust. If resources are not spent during any given health plan year, the money remains in the Trust for reserves and can help stabilize health plan fee increases for the following plan year.
“I knew I wanted to have a say about my health plan, and I knew this was about the only way that I could,” Vice Chair and Minnesota farmer Steve Hoffman said. “Anything to support rural Minnesota is a good thing for me.”
Health Plan Details
40 Square offers participants a variety of health plans to choose from, including health savings account (HSA) eligible plans. Similar to traditional health insurance, 40 Square’s self-funded plans have an annual deductible, coinsurance and copays that members are responsible for. The amount of coverage received depends on the plan selected. Additional optional benefits include: vision, dental and life. Other non-insurance products to enhance the health plan include: hearing benefits, free telemedicine doctor visits, care navigators that help explain tests, claims or billing and cost comparisons for procedures. In addition, the co-op offers AgriPlan and BizPlan, which helps farmers and agribusinesses declare medical expenses as a business expense on taxes.
“As a farmer, we are eternal optimists,” said 40 Square Board Director Kevin Lauwagie said. “I think we’re certainly a good organization that offers another look at health care, and we’re offering competitive coverage to Minnesota farm families and agriculture businesses.”
Aetna Partnership
Since 2021, 40 Square has partnered with Aetna, a nationally renowned carrier, as its health plan administrator. The transition to Aetna has provided 40 Square access to Aetna’s cost-effective, broad statewide and national network with a goal toward long-term savings for its members, along with improved customer service and enhanced telemedicine services through Teladoc.
In addition to its robust network through its partnership with Aetna, the co-op also offers an additional value-based network, The Aetna Premier Care Network Plus – Allina Health Performance Network. This more focused network offers strong access, including more than 18,000 providers, 40 hospitals, 29 urgent care centers and 44-minute clinic locations. The APCN Plus Plan is available to eligible employees who reside in any of the following 13 Minnesota counties:
- Anoka
- Brown
- Carver
- Chisago
- Dakota
- Hennepin
- Isanti
- Nicollet
- Ramsey
- Rice
- Scott
- Washington
- Wright
Membership Matters
To become a member of 40 Square, farmers, agribusinesses and ag trade associations must meet certain criteria.
Additionally, 40 Square continues to offer the state’s agricultural trade associations (ATA) and cooperatives the ability to join 40 Square. As a result of becoming an ATA/co-op member of 40 Square, trade associations and cooperatives are able to provide their members – should they meet the qualifications – the ability to join 40 Square without paying a stock investment cost.
Current investor-members include: Minnesota Farmers Union, Cooperative Network, Crystal Valley Cooperative, Central Region Cooperative, River Country Cooperative, United Farmers Cooperative, Farmward Cooperative and the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association, respectively.
“This offering is a unique opportunity for members of those associations and co-ops to join 40 Square,” Beavens said. “We’re all trying to work together to create a health plan that is governed by farmers and the ag industry so we can have the ability to create unique health plans.”
For members and Minnesota farmers like Trebesch, the 40 Square difference means joining an organization that always keeps the best interests of its members at heart.
“I support 40 Square because it’s nice not having an insurance company that’s trying to make a bunch of money,” he said. “It’s a co-op to service its members.”
For more information, contact Amanda Beavens at 507-353-1562 or email her at abeavens@40square.coop