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Meritain Health Employees Donate Paid Time Off to Twin Cities Red Cross

U.S. Insurance News
August 13, 2007

Tragedies and disasters often bring out the best in people.

The employees of Meritain Health are proof of that.

The 400 Minneapolis-based employees of Mertain Health can donate up to eight hours of their paid time off to the American Red Cross-Twin Cities Chapter in order to assist in the I-35W bridge collapse relief effort.

Meritain Health, which provides services for self-funded health plans and operates with the CBSA brand name in Minneapolis, will determine the contribution based on each donating employee's hourly wage or annual salary. Furthermore, the company will match its employees' donations with a straight cash contribution of up to $30,000.

Steve Adamson, general manager of Meritain's CBSA health company in Minneapolis, said that the firm was fortunate that none of its employees were involved on the bridge when it collapsed. Still, the disaster has affected the workers. As Adamson explained, "several of our friends and loved ones are still missing."

That's why Meritain is helping the recovery efforts and healing process. "With so many Minnesotans being forced to leave their jobs for extended periods of time to deal with unspeakable loss, we thought it was only appropriate to allow our employees to symbolically donate the time away from work that our friends and neighbors desperately need, all while financially helping the larger relief effort," Adamson explained.

Meritain Health is also encouraging its employees to donate blood.