Employees of Flowers Hospital in Dothan are now eligible for new benefits designed to help them eliminate their existing student debt faster, pursue additional professional education, and advance their careers.
Flowers Hospital Pathways, as the benefits program is called, is intended to support and retain employees and attract a strong workforce, especially frontline nurses, technicians, therapists and other clinicians and caregivers, along with support personnel, according to a hospital news release. Benefits include a new student loan repayment program that enables employees with outstanding student debt to consolidate their loans, reduce interest rates, and benefit from employer sponsored payments.
For most clinical employees, Flowers Hospital will directly pay a portion of loan premiums as long as the employee remains current with payments, offsetting student loan balances up to $20,000 per employee. A new employee reimbursement program has been established for licensure or certification renewals required for all job classifications and can be used for any license or certification testing or renewal not already offered for free by the hospital.
People are also reading… In addition, a long-standing tuition reimbursement program that provides employees up to $5,000 in tax-free reimbursement annually is being expanded and can now be used for continuing education related to any role within the hospital. Previously, employees could only use the tuition reimbursement program toward studies in their current field of work.
“We want to continue to find ways to support and invest in our staff who work tirelessly day in and day out to care for our patients and community,” Jeff Brannon, chief executive officer for Flowers Hospital, said. “Through these benefits, we hope Flowers Hospital Pathways will ease the burden of student debt and allow employees to focus on achieving their goals and career success.