TrueScripts Becomes a Team Member Owned Company
TrueScripts Becomes a Team Member Owned Company
December 2023 – TrueScripts Management Services, a pharmacist-founded Prescription Benefit Management (PBM) company, proudly announces they are now Team Member Owned. The company's transition to a Team Member Owned plan (also known as an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, or ESOP) turns more than 150 Team Members across the United States into company owners.
"Becoming a Team Member Owned Company means that each and every member of our dedicated team now has an even greater stake in our success. We often say that "Amazing Care starts from within," and we strongly believe that a shared ownership model fosters collaboration, innovation, a sense of belonging, and a strong culture within our talented organization," said TrueScripts Founder Nathan Gabhart. "From the beginning, it has been our unspoken goal that everyone who works for TrueScripts leaves changed. This allows us to do that."
TrueScripts' Leadership and Executive Team will continue in its current form, with the addition of an ESOP Committee that will facilitate large decisions and act in the exclusive interest of the team. In line with Truescripts' position in the marketplace as an "anything but ordinary" company, its leaders have chosen to do things a bit differently in the ESOP arrangement as well:
• TrueScripts Team Members are not your average employees, and while "ESOP" remains the technical term for their new arrangement, TrueScripts will refer to themselves as a "Team Member Owned Company."
• The selling shareholders and Board wanted this past year to count towards vesting schedules, so all Team Members hired before Nov. 13, 2023, will receive contributions for the year.
• TrueScripts currently offers a 6% company match to Team Members' 401(k) contributions. When an ESOP is introduced, it is common for the plan sponsor to decrease its 401(k) match in order to fund the ESOP. With TrueScripts, there will be no changes to the existing 401(k) Retirement Plan and 6% Company Match, except that the profit-sharing contribution will be made to the ESOP starting in 2024.
To assist in the transaction, TrueScripts hired Business Transition Advisors (BTA), a succession planning services provider that has helped more than 400 companies transition to ESOP. BTA's Managing Director, Rick Jaye, explained that over his career in helping business owners with exit planning, those who gravitate to ESOPs have common goals and objectives. Rick states, "In working with TrueScripts, the three owners and Executive Management Team had many of those same characteristics. They deeply care about the organization and the people who help make it successful. They feel an overriding commitment to the community and customers they support, and they want to see the legacy of what they have built continue and not be dismantled or broken apart through an alternative sale."
When reflecting on the transaction, Rick says, "The unique beliefs and actions of the TrueScripts team resonated with myself and the BTA team in a very different way. These individuals hold themselves to a different standard, putting others they serve first." He says, "I spent time thinking about what this
transaction truly meant to me and my team, the owners of TrueScripts, the families of their Team Members, and to the thousands of customers who rely on the incredible guidance and work that TrueScripts provides. The lyrics to a wonderful song came to mind: "You raise me up to more than I can be." I can think of no greater words to describe what this company and transaction mean to so many. All are better for what this does and how it will continue to support patients, families, businesses, and communities. I appreciate all the companies who entrust me to help guide them through this process, but I have to say that the TrueScripts transaction changed me for the better just having spent time with these individuals."
TrueScripts has received many significant purchase offers over the years, but the owners have remained adamant about not selling out to another corporate entity. Company Co-Founder John Bell says, "We've been blessed many times over here at TrueScripts, and we (the Founders) want to make sure that this never – and I do mean never - goes away. The best way we knew how to do that was to make TrueScripts a Team Member Owned Company." In a message to the TrueScripts Team, Co-Founder Kevin Messmer adds, "We have always said, "We are blessed so that we can be a blessing to others." And now, it is our sheer joy to be a blessing to you. You are now the owners of TrueScripts!"
To sum things up, in the words of TrueScripts President and CEO Dean Merder, "The best is yet to come!"
About TrueScripts TrueScripts Management Services is a pharmacist-founded PBM based on truth and transparency. Our mission is to build lasting relationships by providing prescription benefit management expertise at a personal and customized level to ensure optimum value at the lowest possible cost. We are committed to lowering prescription drug spend, achieving clinically enriched outcomes, and always delivering Amazing Care.
