Business I entrepreneurships

'Caregiver' For An
Industry

Customer service a prime tenet of Employee Health Insurance Management Inc.

Bill Carroll
Special to the Jewish News

Mindi Fynk, who grew up
in Huntington Woods, now
owns a multi-million-dol-
lar company.

S

pending a few hours with Jewish
entrepreneur Mindi Fynk is sort
of like reading a Sidney Sheldon
novel. Sheldon was the late movie/TV writer
and novelist whose stories usually centered
on an attractive, talented, dynamic, deter-
mined woman who persevered in a tough
business world. She fits that job description.
Fynk, 54, was once a waitress, nurse
and billing manager in a physician's office
before launching a pharmacy benefit man-
agement business in her one-bedroom
apartment 20 years ago and has watched
it grow, mainly through word-of-mouth
publicity, into a multi-million-dollar a
year company, Employee Health Insurance
Management Inc.
She's now CEO, president and 100 percent
owner of the firm that has more than 100
employees occupying an entire floor of a
Southfield office buildingand servicing
about 2,000 customer companies nation-
wide. That's not too shabby for a "male-
dominated world," she reasons.
On a typical day at the office, Fynk leads
meetings in a huge conference room, talks to
clients on the phone, confers with aides on
sales information, keeps up with the latest
health care industry news, then drives home
late in the day to West Bloomfield in her
"American-made" Cadillac to her "committed
relationship" with Dr. Howard Wright. For
relaxation, she hangs out with her siblings
and nieces and nephews or plays a round
of golf (her handicap is 6) at Knollwood
Country Club in West Bloomfield, where she's
the only woman past president. Her commu-
nity charitable activities also receive a large
share of her time.

Family Roots
Taking time for a newspaper interview,
Fynk describes how she has strived to make
a difference in her industry by developing
a new model in the prescription benefit
health care segment, turning EHIM into
one of the fastest-growing pharmacy-
benefit providers in the country. But she
begins with a family touch. She grew up in
Huntington Woods, the daughter of Richard
and Iris Fynk, and attended Royal Oak
Dondero High School and Michigan State

University.
"My hero was my grandfather, Dr. Dennis
Kovan, who was a well-known pediatrician
in the Jewish community and who still
made house calls to the end [he died at 72
in the 1970s]:' Fynk reflected. "He was kind
and gentle and served as a great caretaker
for children in the community. I even still
have his old filing cabinet. In my business
now, I consider myself as a 'caregiver' from
the heart for my industry. And as part of
that, I hope to make a positive impact on

my community and family.
"I'm passionate about everything I do,
including giving old-fashioned customer
service to the more than 2 million employ-
ees of our customer companies. I stay
upbeat for my employees and customers,
and remain true to my principles and my
core beliefs!'

The Product
With prescriptions now consuming one-
third of the cost of employee health care

programs in the U.S., EHIM specializes in
providing customized, self-funded, pre-
scription drug benefits to corporate cus-
tomers of all sizes. These include federal,
state and local governments, military orga-
nizations, businesses, third-party admin-
istrators, insurance companies, workers
compensation claimants and others.
By letting EHIM manage their pharma-
cy-benefit programs, they achieve signifi-
cant savings and can devote their time and
resources to other areas of the business.
EHIM has a network of more than 60,000
pharmacies where employees of their cus-
tomers simply use an identification card to
fill prescriptions with the normal co-pays.
Compensated on a per-transaction basis,
EHIM creates cost-effective methods and
promotes a hand-on philosophy where
customers design self-funded prescription
programs that suit their needs.
"We leverage our years of expertise in
this business by developing a customized
plan for each company based on three-
month supplies of prescriptions, use of
generics, any necessary prior authoriza-
tions, deductible amounts, education
materials, and other factors. This can result
in savings of up to 40 percent compared to
our competitors:' Fynk explained.
"One of our goals is to help individuals
and families reduce costs. We're focused on
cost containment. For that reason, we feel
we're a better pharmacy provider than Blue
Cross. Actually, we're both a competitor of,
and partner with, Blue Cross. We compete
on pharmaceuticals; but they, of course,
handle the medical coverage for our cus-
tomers!"

Customer Perspective
A typical EHIM customer is Glassman
Automotive Group in Southfield, which has
almost 100 employees and has achieved
"significant savings" in its employee pre-
scription program during its 15-year rela-
tionship with EHIM, according to company
President George Glassman. "Health care is
a large part of our expense, and its difficult
and expensive to provide and manage now:'
said Glassman. "EHIM gives us a big help in
this regard. It's a large firm that really deliv-
ers great customer service.

Caregiver on page A42

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November 13 2008

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