About Us — President's Message

Like most business owners throughout the country, I have been following with great interest the growing national debate on the rise in health care costs — one that has made its way into virtually every locality. While I share the concerns of others in the business community; at the same time, as a member of the health care industry, I have a slightly different perspective.

All of us see the problem and ask, "What can we do about the cost of health care?" Like most major, often intimidating, problems, the answer lies in starting close to home, one step at a time. As business managers, we each have our specialty. With some success, we watch our operations grow. With this growth comes added costs, including health care and benefits for our employees, and securing a plan that ideally balances expense with the overall welfare of our personnel. Too often, however, we do not manage this area of our business with the same analysis and scrutiny that has led to success in our other areas of operation.

Managing health care costs is more than asking your broker once every year, "Can we do better than this quote?" It's about gaining a true understanding of the exact usage of the care you're offering, the health habits of the employees you're covering, and the costs you're incurring as a result. Then, when it's time to renew your plan, you can be in a position to identify what steps can be taken and what benefits can be offered to keep employees healthy, an approach that is more desirable not only from a bottom line perspective but from a human perspective as well.

The process I describe can be time consuming — in fact, it should be. If you saw expenses consistently skyrocketing in any other area of your operations, wouldn't you demand it receive the same attention?

John M. Adair


President, Endeavor Insurance Services, Inc.

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