24 Jul CommonSpirit Health Employee Benefits Overview: Why It Pays to Work for This Mega Health Care System
On January 1, 2019, Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) and Dignity Health came together to form a single healthcare organization called CommonSpirit Health, in a $29 billion megamerger. However, both organizations currently retain their identities.
Under CommonSpirit Health, they expanded care to serve 700 care sites and 142 hospitals across communities in 21 states. Along the way, it’s also employing 150,000 hospital workers and 25,000 physicians and advanced practice clinicians.
According to Dignity Health’s press release on the merger, the goal was never to simply make a bigger organization, but one that was better than the sum of their parts. “We didn’t combine our ministries to get bigger. We came together to provide better care for more people,” said Lloyd Dean, Dignity Health’s CEO, who became CommonSpirit Health’s sole CEO on July 1, 2020, after CHI CEO, Kevin Lofton’s, planned retirement.
CommonSpirit Health is Taking Care of Its Employees Too
CommonSpirit Health is focusing its efforts in five key areas, one of which is recruiting and retaining highly-skilled workers who find personal and professional fulfillment in their work and are champions of service. So, it’s no surprise that CHI and Dignity Health offer extensive employee benefits.
Whether you’re already a CommonSpirit Health employee or are looking to become one, here are the benefits you can look forward to.
Benefits Both Offer:
Health
- Medical care benefits
- Dental and vision coverage
- Employee Assistance Programs (EAP)
Financial Well-being
- Life insurance
- Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance
- Short-term disability
- Long-term disability
- Retirements plans
Balanced Life
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- Paid time off (PTO)
Personal and Professional Growth
- Tuition assistance
Benefits Unique to Catholic Health Initiatives
Health
- FSA and HSA spending accounts
Financial Well-Being
- Free additional insurance:
- Business Travel Accident Insurance
- Voluntary benefits such as critical illness, accident insurance, and identity theft protection
- Additional life insurance coverage for employees and their dependents available for purchase
Balanced Life
- Adoption assistance
- Voluntary benefit programs
Personal and Professional Growth
- Wellness Program
- The program offers wellness challenges, webinars and lifestyle coaching to help employees achieve personal health goals.
- Tuition assistance programs are:
- Offered to all CHI employees and, in some cases, their families
- Both clinical and non-clinical courses related to the employee’s current or future job with CHI are eligible
- Evening and online class options available
- Five to 30 percent savings on tuition, and some schools waive application fees
Benefits Unique to Dignity Health
Health
- Healthy Lifestyles Programs (where available)
- Healthy eating options in cafeterias
Financial Well-Being
- Retiree medical (in most locations)
Balanced Life
- Holiday time
- Family-related leave
- Military leave
Personal and Professional Growth
- Dignity Health Learning Institute
- Seminars
- Professional associations
- Performance review management
Employee Recognition
- Performance-based cash awards
- Annual review of pay
- Special individual recognition awards
- Thank-you events
- Length of service recognition
Are CHI and Dignity Health Employees Eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)?
CHI, Dignity Health and CommonSpirit Health are all 501(c)(3) organizations, which means that yes, they are qualifying employers for PSLF. As long as you’re directly employed by one of them—meaning you aren’t an independent contractor—and are a full-time worker, you meet the requirement to get your student loans forgiven tax free after 10 years of working for a nonprofit
Does CHI or Dignity Health Help With Navigating PSLF?
While having qualifying employment is one requirement for PSLF, there are several others just as crucial, such as annually submitting an employment certification form. You need to have an authorized official sign your form. Here, your manager or human resources personnel can provide the signature.
CHI and Dignity Health currently don’t offer help in making sure you meet the other necessary PSLF requirements or in optimizing your payment plan. For example, every PSLF candidate needs to be under an income-driven repayment (IDR) plan. There are four plans to choose from, and which one saves you the most money on your student loan payments depends on the loans you have, your income, your tax filing status and may change each year.
Student Loan Debt Doesn’t Have to Be a Burden
There are many loan forgiveness programs hospital works can avail themselves of to ease their overall student loan debt. Those looking to make their student loan bills more manageable now can also do so through student loan refinancing and consolidation or by enrolling in income-driven repayment (IDR) plans.
If you’re not sure which student loan repayment and forgiveness options are best for you, our free virtual student loan assistant, Ed, can help. Ed tells you which programs you qualify for and which ones save you the most money on your current student loan bills. Give Ed a try today to see your savings.