KATIE HUFNAGLE, TRUE CHOICE SERVICES
Title: operation coordination
Age: 23
Katie Hufnagle, newly hired operations coordinator at True Choice Services, said working at the employee benefits advisory company fulfills her passion for helping people.
That passion was inspired in part, Hufnagle said, by conditions she saw while studying abroad in Africa. "I saw how truly important it is to have access to health care and to make sure that we are all able to receive preventive care," Hufnagle said.
Hufnagle serves as the main contact for client company owners, resource managers and employees working with Burnsville-based True Choice Services on employee health care plans.
Hufnagle helps companies, typically small businesses of five to 75 employees, transition from group health insurance plans to individual employee plans using a Health Reimbursement Account. Typically with these accounts, employees choose an individual policy and employers deposit money into those accounts for employees to pay individual insurance policy premiums. Switching to an individual policy can save employees on premium costs, Hufnagle said, in part because they're no longer part of a group that may include other employees with health conditions that drive up premium costs.
She offers employee education on individual policies and changes in regulations under the federal health care law, as most elements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act are phased in by January 2014.
Hufnagle, a Lakeville native, graduated earlier this year from Oklahoma State University with a bachelor's in health education and promotion. She previously interned with the American Red Cross, worked as a health care coordinator for Stillwater Group Homes and worked at a domestic violence shelter.
