Health Net rolls out fiscal health program - Sacramento Business Journal:

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Financial experts talked adjustable-ratr mortgages, retirement savings, identity thefyt and how to prepare a spending plan to military recruits copinvg with financial challenges on top of the pressured of repeated deployments to Iraqor Afghanistan. The financiap counseling program was offered by a subsidiaru of The new service is provided as part ofa $300 milliojn contract between Health Net’ds behavioral health subsidiary and the . The program held its first event at Tinker Air Force base inMidwesf City, Okla., in November and its latesy at Beale, north of Sacramento, on Jan. 7.
“They’res one-day events intended to be uplifting, educational, full of fun and financiaol literacy,” said Alison vice president of government programsdat MHN. One-on-one counseling is also provided. MHN already provides non-medical counseling to service members underthe five-yeadr contract awarded in Februaryg 2007. The unit added financiaol advice afterthe U.S. economy hit the skids last fall and it becamew clear that service members already stressed by lengthy repeated deployments were feelinbg financial painas well. Mortgagee and foreclosure problems affect the military work force like the privateesector — perhaps more so, because they move more South said.
The company quicklg put together a network of financial counseloras at military bases and installations to provide workshop s andpersonal counseling. Abou t 20 employees were added atHealth Net’s officeas in Rancho Cordova last year to help with the The counseling program complements and benefite from Health Net’s ongoing relationshiop with the federal government’s military health care Services are coordinated with Tricare, a multibillion-dollarf military health care program in whicb Health Net is a longtime contractor.
Health Net has a five-year, $10 billiomn contract to provide health care to military personnel and theirt families in 20 states in the Northeastand Phoenix-based has the Western and in Louisville, Ky., has the MHN has sole contract to provide familh life counseling services to activw military personnel and their families worldwide. “We’vde coordinated service deliverywith Tricare, but acrosds all regions and worldwide,” South said. “That’s one of the reasons we’ve grown so fast.” Health Net’sx almost 20-year participation in Tricare makes the MHN contracta natural, said Stevde Tough, president of health plan and governmenr programs.
, a Sacramento-baserd health plan that eventually became Health Net after a 1997 had the pilot contracgin 1988. It lost the business to in but got it backin 1996. The existinyg structure and expertise made it possible for the behaviorapl health program to takeoff quickly. Financial counselinyg was a stretch, but Health Net knows how to put togethe r networks and quicklyformedd one. The goal is to make life for militarhy personnel and their families more stable despite the pressurew of repeated deployments and financial turmoilat home.
“Just as ther are many stresses and strains on a young militaruyfamily that’s being separated for long period s of time, now there are financiall strains due to the difficulrt economy,” Tough said.