Creative Civilization
About Creative Civilization
Founded in 1999 by national advertising leaders Al Aguilar and Gisela Girard, Creative Civilization offers a full range of marketing, branding, advertising, public relations and social media services. Creative Civilization’s diverse client category experience includes healthcare, retail, education, arts and culture and more. The agency is based in San Antonio, with an additional office in Austin.
Aguilar and Girard understood the importance of providing their employees with health benefits from the get-go, and for over 20 years, were insured by one of the major legacy health insurers. “Yes, it’s a brand name, but the costs were exorbitant,” said Aguilar. “We were just dissatisfied. We were a number, not a person. There was a lack of personalization.”
Finding a new health plan
Creative Civilization was not actively searching for a new health benefits provider when they discovered Sana. With a lean team, shopping for new health benefits was not top-of-mind.
Girard and Aguilar attended an open house for tech entrepreneurs and small businesses, where they saw the Sana booth. By chance, they were nearing the renewal of their current health benefits plan. Creative Civilization’s health plan costs had risen year after year without improvement in quality of service. Given their dissatisfaction with the value of their legacy carrier health plans, the two were pleasantly surprised by the breadth of the Sana offering for the price of the health plans. After speaking with Sana at the event, Girard and Aguilar were interested in learning more.
Creative Civilization chooses Sana for affordability, personalized support, and more
Frustrated by the increasing cost of their premiums for the few employees they had enrolled in their current plan, as well as the lack of personalized support, finding Sana was a “breath of fresh air” for everyone at Creative Civilization. Aguilar and Girard were impressed by Sana’s service throughout the sales process, despite not yet having made the switch to Sana—“you were always very patient and always ready to help,” Girard recalled.
Despite being unfamiliar with Sana at the time, Creative Civilization decided to make the switch to Sana:
Affordability of Sana Plans:
At the time, their monthly cost per employee was nearly $2,000, and their premiums were increasing by more than 10% each year. By contrast, Creative Civilization renewed its health plan with Sana for a 0% premium increase in 2021. Sana ensured Creative Civilization received fair and transparent pricing from providers, cutting billed rates in half in 2021.
Level of coverage and network:
Members are satisfied with the level of coverage offered by Sana plans and can receive the care they need, when they need it. When up for their renewal in 2020, they opted for the highest level of coverage – a $500 deductible with 90% coinsurance.
Personalized and attention and support:
Having access to a “real voice and real person” who will listen attentively to issues or questions is extremely valuable, given their lean team without an HR manager. Girard saves time she would have spent on answering employees’ questions and can now dedicate that time to core business initiatives.
Breadth of Sana offering:
Their employees enjoy using Sana Care, an ecosystem of $0 care providers including ClassPass for fitness and wellness, Vida for health and nutrition coaching, and PlushCare for virtual primary care. For Aguilar, this is the “icing on the cake.”
Girard and Aguilar recognize the cost-prohibitive nature of health insurance for small businesses and emphasized the value of intangibles since switching to Sana, such as their overall satisfaction with admin support and their employees’ happiness with their benefits.
Creative Civilization employees happily maximize use of Sana health plans
COVID-19 has taught the Creative Civilization team how important it is to manage their health. For Girard and Aguilar, one of the most fulfilling factors of switching to Sana has been having employees who are satisfied and happy with their health benefits. Hearing their team say that they love Sana is a “really, really strong benefit to us in terms of keeping […] happy staff.” In 2021, they rated Sana 100% for both admin and member satisfaction.
With Sana, they’ve found that it’s an easier, more convenient experience for their employees to use their benefits and maximize their coverage. When up for renewal in 2020, their employees unanimously opted for the highest level of coverage – a $500 deductible with 90% coinsurance – despite many being young and healthy and without as much of an immediate use for their benefits.
“They are all so pleased. And that means a lot to us,” Girard added.
