EXPLAIN FIVE STRENGTHS OF THE COMPANY AND EXPLAIN FOUR WEAKNESSES OF THE COMPANY! and specialists throughout the United States, coinciding with the company's primary locations.3. The insurance carrier would guarantee a high level of quality care to be provided to Polson's employees.4. Unlike other health maintenance organization (HMO) plans, under the new Polson Plan employees would be able toswitch from managed care to a traditional indemnity plan at will, but they would pay extra for exercising this option."We sought to change the way health care was delivered to our employees," says Al Gesler, corporate director of HRfor Polson. "The net result was a hybrid program, taking into account the best features of HMOS and indemnityplans and combining that with a partnership arrangement between Whiteffish, Polson and its employees." Whitefishwas chosen because it was a large and experienced insurance carrier and had a health-care network in place acrossthe United States that pretty well coincided with major locations where Polson had operations.In March 2003, Polson signed a three-year agreement with Whitefish for a managed-care program that wascalled "The Health Care Connection." This plan covered medical, dental, vision, and hearing care, as well asprescription medications. It also included a well-care program covering such items as an annual physical exam andprenatal care. An important feature of the plan was that Whitefish guaranteed annual premium increases of lessthan 10 percent during each of the three contract years on the managed-care side of the program. No similarguarantee was provided on the indemnity side. The actual figure would depend on the number of employees usingthe indemnity portion of the program."We wanted a very strong gatekeeper system," says McGee. "For our employees to take advantage of theextremely comprehensive benefits found on the in-network side of The Health-Care Connection program, as well asthe modest $20 copayment feature, they had to agree to choose a primary-care physician from within the closedpanel and visit specialists in hospitals only when referred by their primary-care physicians. That was the trade-off."Where employees stayed in the network, the costs were very modest: a $20 copayment per office visit and $20 perprescription (generic drug) and 35 percent of the cost of a brand-name drug. If employees chose to go outside thenetwork, they could switch to the indemnity side of the plan at any time for any particular illness or injury with norestrictions. Those who did, however, paid an annual deductible equal to 1 percent of their annual salaries and thenwere subject to an 80/20 copayment split (in other words, employees paid 20 percent of the medical care costs afterthe deductible was met)."The basic concept behind managed care is just that, managing it," says McGee. "By staying in the network,everyone saves money. We felt this was a major effort aimed at limiting unnecessary care."For its part, Whitefish is responsible for guaranteeing the quality of the managed-care side of the network. It isresponsible for using its buying power to ensure that hospitals in the plan attract an adequate supply of high-qualityphysicians. It also means continual monitoring of employee usage of different types of medical care throughutilization studies. Reducing Health-Care CostsIn the spring of 2006, Ron McGee, vice president of group insurance and labor relations at Polson Corporation, deliveredthe bad news to top management. Medical-Insurance premiums for the following fiscal year were expected to increaseapproximately 20 percent, up dramatically from the 8 percent increase of the previous year -and future cost projectionswere equally grim. It was estimated that by 2010, the company's $555 million annual health-care bill would increase toa staggering $813 million.Polson is a large, high-technology, automotive and electronics product company that employs about 70,000people in the United States. The company decided not to tinker with traditional remedies to escalating health-carecosts, such as increasing deductibles and shifting larger copayments to employees. Instead, it turned to managed health11care. It did so by contracting with Whitefish Corporation, a large employee-benefits company specializing in suchmanaged health-care plans.A task force was formed in 2006 under the direction of McGee. The task force included HR executives from thecorporate office of Polson in Morristown, New Jersey. This group was given the challenge of developing a custom-designed program that would hold down health-care premium costs to a reasonable level. The group decided that thenew program would be built on the following foundation:1. The insurance carrier, Whitefish Corporation, would be a partner in the program and would carry a financial risk, notmerely be an administrator that paid the bills as they came in.2. The insurance carrier would use its buying power to establish a network of highly qualified primary-care physiciansand specialists throughout the United States, coinciding with the company's primary locations.3. The insurance carrier would guarantee a high level of quality care to be provided to Polson's employees.4. Unlike other health maintenance organization (HMO) plans, under the new Polson Plan employees would be able toswitch from managed care to a traditional indemnity plan at will, but they would pay extra for exercising this option."We sought to change the way health care was delivered to our employees," says Al Gesler, corporate director of HRfor Polson. "The net result was a hybrid program, taking into account the best features of HMOS and indemnityplans and combining that with a partnership arrangement between Whiteffish, Polson and its employees." Whitefish

Question

EXPLAIN FIVE STRENGTHS OF THE COMPANY AND EXPLAIN FOUR WEAKNESSES OF THE COMPANY! and specialists throughout the United States, coinciding with the company's primary locations.3. The insurance carrier would guarantee a high level of quality care to be provided to Polson's employees.4. Unlike other health maintenance organization (HMO) plans, under the new Polson Plan employees would be able toswitch from managed care to a traditional indemnity plan at will, but they would pay extra for exercising this option.&#34;We sought to change the way health care was delivered to our employees,&#34; says Al Gesler, corporate director of HRfor Polson. &#34;The net result was a hybrid program, taking into account the best features of HMOS and indemnityplans and combining that with a partnership arrangement between Whiteffish, Polson and its employees.&#34; Whitefishwas chosen because it was a large and experienced insurance carrier and had a health-care network in place acrossthe United States that pretty well coincided with major locations where Polson had operations.In March 2003, Polson signed a three-year agreement with Whitefish for a managed-care program that wascalled &#34;The Health Care Connection.&#34; This plan covered medical, dental, vision, and hearing care, as well asprescription medications. It also included a well-care program covering such items as an annual physical exam andprenatal care. An important feature of the plan was that Whitefish guaranteed annual premium increases of lessthan 10 percent during each of the three contract years on the managed-care side of the program. No similarguarantee was provided on the indemnity side. The actual figure would depend on the number of employees usingthe indemnity portion of the program.&#34;We wanted a very strong gatekeeper system,&#34; says McGee. &#34;For our employees to take advantage of theextremely comprehensive benefits found on the in-network side of The Health-Care Connection program, as well asthe modest $20 copayment feature, they had to agree to choose a primary-care physician from within the closedpanel and visit specialists in hospitals only when referred by their primary-care physicians. That was the trade-off.&#34;Where employees stayed in the network, the costs were very modest: a $20 copayment per office visit and $20 perprescription (generic drug) and 35 percent of the cost of a brand-name drug. If employees chose to go outside thenetwork, they could switch to the indemnity side of the plan at any time for any particular illness or injury with norestrictions. Those who did, however, paid an annual deductible equal to 1 percent of their annual salaries and thenwere subject to an 80/20 copayment split (in other words, employees paid 20 percent of the medical care costs afterthe deductible was met).&#34;The basic concept behind managed care is just that, managing it,&#34; says McGee. &#34;By staying in the network,everyone saves money. We felt this was a major effort aimed at limiting unnecessary care.&#34;For its part, Whitefish is responsible for guaranteeing the quality of the managed-care side of the network. It isresponsible for using its buying power to ensure that hospitals in the plan attract an adequate supply of high-qualityphysicians. It also means continual monitoring of employee usage of different types of medical care throughutilization studies. Reducing Health-Care CostsIn the spring of 2006, Ron McGee, vice president of group insurance and labor relations at Polson Corporation, deliveredthe bad news to top management. Medical-Insurance premiums for the following fiscal year were expected to increaseapproximately 20 percent, up dramatically from the 8 percent increase of the previous year -and future cost projectionswere equally grim. It was estimated that by 2010, the company's $555 million annual health-care bill would increase toa staggering $813 million.Polson is a large, high-technology, automotive and electronics product company that employs about 70,000people in the United States. The company decided not to tinker with traditional remedies to escalating health-carecosts, such as increasing deductibles and shifting larger copayments to employees. Instead, it turned to managed health11care. It did so by contracting with Whitefish Corporation, a large employee-benefits company specializing in suchmanaged health-care plans.A task force was formed in 2006 under the direction of McGee. The task force included HR executives from thecorporate office of Polson in Morristown, New Jersey. This group was given the challenge of developing a custom-designed program that would hold down health-care premium costs to a reasonable level. The group decided that thenew program would be built on the following foundation:1. The insurance carrier, Whitefish Corporation, would be a partner in the program and would carry a financial risk, notmerely be an administrator that paid the bills as they came in.2. The insurance carrier would use its buying power to establish a network of highly qualified primary-care physiciansand specialists throughout the United States, coinciding with the company's primary locations.3. The insurance carrier would guarantee a high level of quality care to be provided to Polson's employees.4. Unlike other health maintenance organization (HMO) plans, under the new Polson Plan employees would be able toswitch from managed care to a traditional indemnity plan at will, but they would pay extra for exercising this option.&#34;We sought to change the way health care was delivered to our employees,&#34; says Al Gesler, corporate director of HRfor Polson. &#34;The net result was a hybrid program, taking into account the best features of HMOS and indemnityplans and combining that with a partnership arrangement between Whiteffish, Polson and its employees.&#34; Whitefish

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SWOT ANALYSIS: This is a strategic analytical tool that helps the business to outline different…