PDMD offers help for medically uninsured
The Trucker News Services
4/7/2008
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Professional Drivers Medical Depots (PDMD) has announced an insurance program designed for the nearly one-third of drivers and their families who currently have no insurance.
The Professional Driver Insurance Program (PDIP) was developed through partnerships with the National Association of Workplace Programs (NAWP), Enrollment First Inc. and Scott Insurance, according to Dr. John McElligott, chairman and chief medical officer of PDMD.
McElligott said the insurance program offers drivers customary insurance coverage and benefits, including medical, dental, vision, accident, short-term disability, cancer, critical illness insurance and also includes a 24-hour medical hotline benefit available to all PDIP insured.
“Research shows there are more than 3.2 million professional drivers in the United States, and at least one million of those drivers are not currently covered by medical insurance,” McElligott said. “We realized that in order to truly achieve our goal of providing convenient and affordable healthcare to the nation’s drivers, we needed to have an insurance product available that will help them pay for their treatment, not just provide the facilities and services.”
To create the insurance product, PDMD and its partners surveyed a combination of professional drivers, fleet managers and industry experts through five focus groups at various travel centers to create the most comprehensive plan that incorporated the medical features most significant to drivers, company officials said.
“We focused on uninsured or insured, but dissatisfied drivers, and our study showed the most highly valued services were office visits, diagnostic testing coverage, accidental injury coverage, group term life, critical illness, prescription drug and surgical benefits,” Jeffrey Miller, president and CEO of PDMD, said. “Based on this, we have created a program designed specifically to meet drivers’ needs, and we hope this affordable product will help drivers out there without insurance coverage. Based on the response we got at the truck show, we think this product is going to make a tremendous impact.”
PDMD, Enrollment First Inc., NAWP and Scott Insurance used the research results to create the medical insurance plan, with four types of coverage offered to drivers — single member, member and spouse, member and children and family coverage.
The limited medical plan is designed to cover the general health needs of drivers, including routine doctor visits, hospital stays, surgery, wellness exams and prescriptions, and the catastrophic medical insurance provides additional coverage up to one million dollars.
The insurance program is available to insure both drivers and their families and is designed to decrease the out of pocket responsibilities for the driver through no deductibles, excluding accident benefits, and the elimination of co-pays, except for prescriptions, Miller said.
To enroll in PDIP, drivers can call (866) 817-9674 and customer service representatives will complete the transaction completely over the phone.
The facilities provide services to professional drivers, including DOT-related medical care (physicals, drug screening, breath alcohol testing), first aid and minor trauma care, personal medical care (chronic disease, infectious disease, musculoskeletal disorders, chiropractic care, dentistry, prescription drugs, sleep disorders), as well as preventive medicine (flu shots, wellness checks, smoking cessation, weight management, pneumonia vaccine).
For more information about PDMD, call (865) 531-1542 or visit www.pd-md.com.
