Dupre Logistics is a diverse provider of logistics services spanning from fuel hauling, energy logistics, dedicated delivery, 3PL, to brokerage services. The company is regarded for its forward thinking approach to customer and employee focus. Dupre is Top 100 Transport, Top Place for Women to Work, Top 100 3PL Provider, and is consistently recognized for its innovation, client dedication, service, and family approach to employees. Headquartered in Lafayette, LA, with over 1,200 employees primarily in the south and southeast with terminals in over 13 states.
Although the company has been proactively managing its health plan since 2015, and had gotten some positive results, in 2022, the company was faced with its first renewal increase that caused it to consider increasing the employee contributions or making benefit cuts. Rather than cutting benefits or increasing employee costs, Dupre adopted a new benefit plan design.
Starting in January 2023, the company switched to an innovative benefit design. Employees pay $0 primary care, reduced specialist copayments, $0 deductible, and $0 coinsurance when employees engage with a nurse navigator. The plan uses independent, unconflicted, transparent and high-quality vendors for third-party administration, stoploss coverage, pharmaceutical benefit management, brand and specialty drug sourcing, surgery bundled contracts, and imaging procedures.
What’s unique about the customer service approach too is the personalized problem-solving so that the plan always does right by the patient. The TPA is empowered to negotiate directly with the providers for a single-case agreement or direct contract when appropriate to do so. For example a member needed back surgery after multiple second opinions. The nurse navigator was able to give the patient three highest-quality options to choose. The $0 options were a combination of local and one that required travel. The member ultimately picked the option that required travel as the doctor had better quality outcomes and had a better understanding of her needs. The beauty is that the member paid $0 for her surgery, including travel costs, and the plan saved well over $20,000 for this procedure.