Pine Rest takes over employee assistance contracts from Cherry Health

Pine Rest takes over employee assistance contracts from Cherry Health
Pine Rest Christian Mental Services’ 68th Street campus.

GRAND RAPIDS — Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services has acquired employee assistance program contracts from Cherry Health.

The acquisition transitions the book of business for Cherry Health’s Employee Assistance Center to Pine Rest’s Employee Assistance Program and covers more than 550 Michigan employers and 100,000 people. Through the move completed March 10, Pine Rest took over as the provider of employee assistance program benefits that the Cherry Health Employee Assistance Center previously managed.

“Cherry Health is proud of our long-standing partnership with EAC and is grateful to the entire team for their contributions to our organization. We are confident that this transition to Pine Rest will allow EAC’s clients to continue receiving the high-quality services they are used to,” Cherry Health Chief Operating Officer Bill Joure said in a statement on the transition.

Financial terms of the transaction were undisclosed.

The change will allow Cherry Health, a federally qualified health center that opened its EAC in 1979, “to focus its resources on its core health care lines of business,” according to the statement. Pine Rest has offered positions to staff and clinicians at Cherry Health EAC.

Cherry Health EAC clients now have access to additional benefits available through the Pine Rest EAP, plus behavioral health services at 21 Pine Rest clinics in West and North Michigan.

“We want to help keep the workforce healthy, prevent crises before they occur, and drive behavioral health care costs down for as many Michigan employees as possible,” said Jean Holthaus, regional director for Pine Rest’s Outpatient and Recovery Services and Employee Assistance Program. “We aren’t just caring for clients or employees of companies that contract with us, we are improving the lives of people in our community – our friends, neighbors, and families. We also know that as we help employees thrive, we are helping local businesses grow and succeed.”