BenefitsPRO-Perspectives podcast: Recent Episodes
BenefitsPRO
Perspectives taps into BenefitsPRO's partners to provide leading insights on pressing topics shaping the industry. This podcast will feature news on the technology, regulations and best practices that are impacting today's benefits professional.
With health care expenses increasing, benefits advisors are turning to supplemental benefits to help their clients manage coverage and control costs.
Advanced primary care helps control chronic conditions and also ensures employees are using their prescription medication correctly. Dr. Jeff Wells of Marathon Health explains how benefits advisors can use this to craft better healthcare packages.
More and more Americans are living with chronic conditions. A study noted that 76 percent of U.S. adults live with at least one chronic condition, while more than half live with multiple.
When quality care is hard to access, these conditions often go unmanaged—leading to avoidable complications, higher costs, and a lower quality of life. Access to care shouldn't depend on geography. Yet for many employees in rural or underserved areas, it still does.
In a podcast series titled The Business Case for Advanced Primary Care, Dr. Nirav Vakharia from Marathon Health sits down with BenefitsPRO contributor Michael Krieger to discuss:
- The rising prevalence of chronic conditions and the effect on healthcare cost and utilization
- How organizations are leveraging advanced primary care to close access gaps, manage chronic disease more effectively, and improve long-term outcomes
- The role of technology—like virtual primary care, remote monitoring, asynchronous touchpoints—in expanding access and enabling stronger patient-provider relationships
- What benefits leaders and advisors can do to help reduce costs while still delivering quality care to their people
Advanced primary care is growing in popularity as a strategy for many benefits leaders. Dr. Jeff Wells of Marathon Health explains why — and looks at the impact these services can deliver for both employers and employees.
While millions of Americans are affected by musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions, these chronic issues often don't receive the attention they deserve – even as they contribute to rising health care costs and lost productivity.
For benefits brokers and advisors, MSK presents numerous challenges. This, in turn, demands an innovative, data-driven approach that can reduce costs, elevate care and improve workforce productivity.
In this special podcast, “Rewriting the playbook on MSK: innovation that benefits everyone,” that is sponsored by AposHealth, BenefitsPRO Contributor Michael Krieger talks MSK with two leading experts in the field:
- Gus Georgiadis - the former Area Chairman of the Gallagher Benefit Services operations in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and upstate New York. He is also the founder and President of Triad USA, Inc., and Executive Vice President for Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield.
- Scott Thompson – who is an Area President in Chicago with the Research and Insights service line, which is part of Gallagher's Human Resources and Compensation Consulting practice.
During the podcast, Krieger, Georgiadis and Thompson discuss:
- The major shift in how employers and benefits advisors view MSK, and what’s driving that change
- How MSK affects absenteeism and productivity, and what benefits brokers can do to better address these challenges
- The role of wearables and other devices in MSK care, and which technologies are actually moving the needle
Founded as a COVID-19 testing firm, Texas-based Curative has pivoted into employee benefits with a unique approach: No copays and no deductibles as long as members complete a Baseline Visit or orientation to the plan within the first 120 days.
As a member of the Luminaires Class of 2024, Curative is being recognized in the category of Humanizing Benefits. CEO and co-founder Fred Turner recently sat down with BenefitsPRO contributor Michael Krieger to discuss how the company’s approach helps expand coverage by removing financial barriers to quality health care.
During a recent program examining critical facets shaping consulting firm success, Consulting Magazine and Integreon delved into the minds of real clients to learn what is truly important, from their perspective. With a focus on understanding and leveraging the generational advantages within firms; as well as extracting rainmaking secrets from some of the best business development professionals in the service industry.
That program focused on key elements for advancing firm client development capabilities and practices for cultivating strong business relationships and nurturing lifelong clients.
In this episode of INDUSTRY INSIGHTS, we talk with Murray Joslin, Executive Vice President of Creative and Business Solutions with Integreon and editor-in-chief of the LinkedIn newsletter Scaling Greatness, about what those industry luminaries shared regarding these critical elements shaping the success of modern consulting firms.
During this episode Michael and Murray discuss:
- The art of making rain
- The secrets of cultivating strong relationships and nurturing lifelong clients
- What really matters to clients and their real expectations from consultants and firms
With employee recruitment and retention still at the top of the agenda for many organizations, total rewards programs can help HR and benefits professionals deliver a better worker experience.
Keeping employees both happy and healthy is a difficult task. To help workers, many
organizations have shifted their focus from preventative care to creating a culture of
well-being that focuses more on ensuring employees have what they need to manage
stress, create time for self-care and develop tools for resilience.
In this second episode of a new podcast series sponsored by LabCorp, What Are Your
Answers for a Healthy and Resilient Workforce?, Dr. Richard Safeer, Chief Medical
Director, Employee Health and Wellbeing at Johns Hopkins Medicine, talks to Shavise
Hargro, Wellness Program Manager at LabCorp, about how the 'Healthy' at Hopkins
employee health and wellness program works to address workers' well-being in a more
holistic way.
To hear the second episode, press play. You can also listen to Labcorp's first episode in the series by clicking the link below:
Fresh Approaches to Employee Health and Wellbeing
Keeping employees both happy and healthy is a difficult task. To help workers, many
organizations have shifted their focus from preventative care to creating a culture of
well-being that focuses more on ensuring employees have what they need to manage
stress, create time for self-care and develop tools for resilience.
In this second episode of a new podcast series sponsored by LabCorp, What Are Your
Answers for a Healthy and Resilient Workforce?, Dr. Richard Safeer, Chief Medical
Director, Employee Health and Wellbeing at Johns Hopkins Medicine, talks to Shavise
Hargro, Wellness Program Manager at LabCorp, about how the 'Healthy' at Hopkins
employee health and wellness program works to address workers' well-being in a more
holistic way.
To hear the second episode, press play. You can also listen to Labcorp's first episode in the series by clicking the link below:
Fresh Approaches to Employee Health and Wellbeing
In this episode of the Perspectives podcast we’ll hear highlights from the presentation How to Ensure a Critical Work Life Balance for Parents.
In this episode of the Perspectives podcast, sponsored by Rethink Care and hosted on BenefitsPRO, we’ll hear highlights from the Aug. 25 webcast, How to Ensure a Critical Work Life Balance for Parents.
For many organizations, work-life balance is a common problem, especially for parents. According to a FlexJobs survey, 53% of working mothers and 51% of working fathers say managing a career makes it hard to be a good parent. Achieving a healthy work-life balance, however, is often not only up to the individual, but the company or organization.
However, a healthy work-life balance is not only good for your employees, but also for business.
During this episode, Angela Nelson, Vice President and Executive Director of Clinical Services of RethinkCare, discusses how the post-pandemic world is changing how we think about work-life balance, and what challenges working moms and dads face as they try to balance their families and careers. Some of the topics covered include:
- What work-life balance is and where the concept originated from;
- Why work-life balance is critical for both individuals and organizations;
- How to progress towards a better work-life balance.
The webcast can be found in its entirety on demand at https://www.benefitspro.com/2022/06/28/how-to-ensure-a-critical-work-life-balance-for-parents/
In this episode of the Perspectives podcast we’ll hear highlights from the presentation How to Ensure a Critical Work Life Balance for Parents.
In this episode of the Perspectives podcast, sponsored by Rethink Care and hosted on BenefitsPRO, we’ll hear highlights from the Aug. 25 webcast, How to Ensure a Critical Work Life Balance for Parents.
For many organizations, work-life balance is a common problem, especially for parents. According to a FlexJobs survey, 53% of working mothers and 51% of working fathers say managing a career makes it hard to be a good parent. Achieving a healthy work-life balance, however, is often not only up to the individual, but the company or organization.
However, a healthy work-life balance is not only good for your employees, but also for business.
During this episode, Angela Nelson, Vice President and Executive Director of Clinical Services of RethinkCare, discusses how the post-pandemic world is changing how we think about work-life balance, and what challenges working moms and dads face as they try to balance their families and careers. Some of the topics covered include:
- What work-life balance is and where the concept originated from;
- Why work-life balance is critical for both individuals and organizations;
- How to progress towards a better work-life balance.
The webcast can be found in its entirety on demand at https://www.benefitspro.com/2022/06/28/how-to-ensure-a-critical-work-life-balance-for-parents/
Since the pandemic, the twin concerns of employee health and wellbeing have been on the minds of human resources executives and benefits directors as they look to balance the needs of remote work and the flexibility that the workforce demands.
In the first episode of a new podcast series sponsored by LabCorp, What Are Your Answers for a Healthy and Resilient Workforce, Emily Roberts, Leader of Client Success at Labcorp Employer Services and Dr. Richard Safeer, Chief Medical Director, Employee Health and Wellbeing at Johns Hopkins Medicine, talk about changes in employee health and wellbeing over the last two years. They also detail how Johns Hopkins has taken innovative approaches to address these issues with workers and their families.
Roberts and Safeer also discuss the relationship between LabCorp and Johns Hopkins.
To hear the first episode, press play.
In this episode of the Perspectives podcast we’ll hear highlights from the presentation The Great Reimagining: Your Opportunity to Reframe the Value of Benefit Spending and Savings Accounts.
In this episode of the Perspectives podcast, sponsored by UMB Healthcare and hosted on Benefits Pro, we’ll hear highlights from the May 11 presentation, The Great Reimagining: Your Opportunity to Reframe the Value of Benefit Spending and Savings Accounts.
As the US returns to pre-pandemic behavior, employers are grappling with an ever-changing business landscape. Unemployment is at record lows, financial markets are in flux, and employees are rethinking how, where—and even if—they want to work going forward. As a result, attracting and retaining top talent is a major challenge for organizations of all sizes.
Most employee benefits are table stakes in the competition for the best and brightest candidates. The great reimagining is a moment to not only demonstrate that you’re hearing what clients want, but also to make sure that their benefits fit into this newly reimagined work world.
During this episode, Phil Mason, Executive Vice President, COO Institutional Banking, Director of Healthcare Services at UMB Healthcare, and Matt Clarkin, principal and co-found of Access Point HSA, discuss recent employment trends and how benefit spending and savings accounts can help various organizations. Some of the topics covered include:
- Key features and advantages of benefit spending and savings accounts;
- Myths versus facts around what these accounts can and should do;
- What employees need from their benefit accounts and key features and services that employers expect from account vendors.
The webcast can be found in its entirety on demand at: https://www.benefitspro.com/2022/03/24/the-great-reimagining-your-opportunity-to-reframe-the-value-of-benefit-spending-savings-accounts/
Health care should not be one size fits all.
That’s according to Dr. Erich Huang, Onduo’s Chief Science and Innovation Officer. Huang has a long career in academic medicine at Duke University, and now spearheads clinical evidence generating programs and research at the virtual care company, which is based in Newton, Mass.
Huang, who is a Ph.D. and a medical doctor, notes that in today’s healthcare environment, there is little room for personalization. But he and his team at Onduo are working hard to change that.
“We need to be part of people’s lives to get signals that are health relevant and then help navigate them to better health,” he says.
He discusses how health care providers need to look at an individual’s activities, or a series of tests, to find better ways to personalize their care. Taking these signals from the course of an individual’s life and using them to tailor care over time is the future, states Huang.
Press play to hear more of Dr. Huang’s expertise about how employers are improving and further personalizing benefits and what the future holds.
Highlights from the August 25 webcast “Catastrophic Risk Protection in a Post-Pandemic World.” This event featured, both from HM Insurance Group, Eric Berg, Sr. Vice President, Reinsurance, Partnerships and Operations; and Greg Sullivan, Sr. Vice President, Business Enablement.
The webcast can be found in its entirety on demand at https://www.benefitspro.com/2021/07/23/catastrophic-risk-protection-in-a-post-pandemic-world/
Highlights from the August 4 webcast “Today’s Political Landscape & The Powerful Possibilities of HSAs.” This event featured Kevin McKechnie, Executive Director of Health Savings Account & Senior Vice President at the American Bankers Association, and Phil Mason, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer & Director Healthcare Services at UMB.
In this episode of the Perspectives podcast, sponsored by Liberty Mutual and hosted on BenefitsPRO.com, we’ll hear highlights from the July 7th presentation titled, Voluntary Benefits: Why Pet Insurance is Trending & Your Clients Should Offer It.
In this episode of the Perspectives podcast, sponsored by Perky and hosted on BenefitsPRO.com, we’ll hear highlights from the June 15th presentation titled, How to Solve Benefits Communication Challenges.
A challenge benefits brokers continue to face is helping clients communicate effectively with their workforce regarding available benefits. With in-person and remote workers, new and long-term employees, a simple communication tool can clarify what is available, increase usage and improve onboarding. Different decision support solutions can facilitate benefits utilization and address employee concerns.
Jim Prekop, CEO of PeopleStrategy, Shelby George, JD, CEBS, CEO of Perky, and Samantha Smith, Director of Marketing at Perky, address solutions to help tackle clients’ communication concerns.
The full on-demand webcast can be found here: https://www.benefitspro.com/2021/05/14/how-to-solve-benefits-communication-challenges/
Jim Prekop | CEO | PeopleStrategy
Mr. Prekop, a senior growth-focused leader, has proven success delivering exceptional results in developing and executing business and product development strategies and sales. His role has a continued focus on Client Acquisition and New Markets growth.
Shelby George, JD, CEBS | CEO | Perky
Shelby is an employee benefits evangelist and believes that benefits like health insurance, retirement savings, and life insurance play an essential role in improving consumers’ financial security. As an ERISA attorney turned CEO, her passion is using that knowledge to create new tools and resources to help workers make the most of their paychecks.
Samantha Smith | Director of Marketing | Perky
Samantha is focused on increasing awareness and utilization of employee benefits through the use of decision support and will act as the session’s moderator
According to Versant Health’s Lisa Hall and Kelly Wenrich, more employers are recognizing that offering vision benefits is a cost-effective way to reduce health-related absenteeism and health care premiums, while increasing productivity.
Providing a vision care plan to employees gives employers a “leg up on the competition” because it’s a benefit not yet commonplace in the recruitment process, says Kelly Wenrich, director of client management for Versant Health.
Wenrich also points out that when employees take care of their vision, they are healthier and more productive, which can benefit the company overall.
Encouraging employees and their families to have annual eye exams can be a relatively low-cost and minimally invasive way for them to gain a window into their overall health.
“A comprehensive eye exam is much more than reading an eye chart,” says Lisa Hall, Versant’s regional vice president of third party commercial sales. She adds that more than 25 chronic health conditions can be identified through an eye exam and that surprisingly, 20% of people diagnosed with diabetes first learned of their condition through a routine eye exam.
Both Wenrich and Hall say that offering a vision care benefit requires very little commitment from employers, both operationally and financially, yet it can be a key component for increasing employee satisfaction and loyalty.
Press play to hear more from Hall and Wenrich on ways to encourage vision care enrollment, its effect on pricing and network choice, and its role in early detection of chronic conditions.
In this episode of the Perspectives podcast, sponsored by Artemis Health and hosted on BenefitsPRO, we’ll hear highlights from the April 14th presentation titled, Create holistic benefits strategies: Tips for partnering with the C-Suite and HR.
As businesses shift the way they view benefits in light of the past year, CFOs and other members of the C-suite continue to become more involved in benefits decision-making. This emerging trend is good news for advisors who are prepared to take advantage of it. Engaging with more decision makers presents opportunities for education and innovation, but also requires data and transparency to generate buy-in and create more impactful plans.
The panelists — Steve Watson, CFO & CHRO at Trendbreakers; Kim Eckelbarger, Founder of Tropical Benefits; James Froschmayer, Director of Product Analytics at Artemis Health; and Paul Wilson, Editor-In-Chief of BenefitsPro — discuss why companies that have a more engaged C-suite tend to be more progressive in managing their benefits plans, as well as how to leverage benefits analytics to identify opportunities, and much more.
The full on-demand webcast can be found here: https://www.benefitspro.com/2021/03/10/partnering-with-the-c-suite-and-hr-to-create-holistic-benefits-strategies/
Steve Watson, CPA, SHRM-SCP |CFO & CHRO | Trendbreakers
Steve Watson has a diverse background and a lot of titles that can be put after his name – CEO, CFO, CHRO, and CPA. It could be intimidating, until you meet him. Rather than riding the wave and seeking ever more important positions, Steve looks for ways to give back. He grew up on a sheep farm in Utah, earned his degree in business and international finance at BYU, got married, worked in accounting, and at the age of 26, moved to Brazil and took a job as finance director for a publicly traded company.
Five years later, in 2009, he moved his growing family back to the U.S and took a position as a CFO at a mid-sized social work company in Phoenix, Arizona. It wasn’t long before they asked him to take on the role of Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO).
All the different titles he wears could be confusing, but Steve has found a unique way to put them all together and complement each other. This is especially true in his role as CEO of TrendBreakers, a consulting business where his extensive knowledge and skills meet to help other companies break the trend of rising healthcare costs. He is also a nationally known speaker, hosts a podcast three times each week, is a married father of seven, and is bilingual in Portuguese.
Kim Eckelbarger | Founder | Tropical Benefits
Kim participated in the NextGen Benefits Mastermind Partnership, as well as Health Rosetta and serves as Founder & President of Tropical Benefits in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area.She has been profiled in Employee Benefit Adviser (EBA) magazine and was the cover story in their August 2018 edition. Kim was named “NextGen Benefits Adviser of the Year” at the 2019 ASCEND conference. Kim has been invited to share learned expertise at prestigious industry conferences, including the Workplace Benefits conference, the BenefitsPRO Broker Expo and the World Health Care Congress 2019.
Kim is a co-author of the Amazon bestselling book, Breaking Through the Status Quo, which outlines some of the cutting-edge strategies she and other NextGen Benefits Advisers are using to control and lower healthcare costs.She is an early adopter of innovative strategies, including Healthcare Abroad, Direct Primary Care, Second Opinions, and RBP, and has implemented these employer solutions with successful outcomes. Her clients outcomes have been published in industry specific publications and the outcomes are accomplished with data and transparency.
James Froschmayer | Director of Product Analytics | Artemis Health
As a Director of Product Analytics, James Froschmayer works with product management, user experience, and health analytics experts to meet the needs of benefits teams today and anticipate their needs in the future. James is responsible for developing leading-edge analytic methodologies embedded within the Artemis reporting system. He also performs analyses and supports clients in the implementation of their integrated health, attendance and disability management programs.
Having come from the consulting world, James has seen the landscape of employee benefits become increasingly complex. As an analytics expert, he helps self-insured employers to identify opportunities within their data to manage costs, improve program value, and boost employee health and well-being. James is passionate and committed to using industry best practices and technologies to improve the healthcare system from both the patient, provider, and payer perspectives.
Paul Wilson | Editor-In-Chief | BenefitPro | Webcast Moderator
Paul Wilson is the editor-in-chief of BenefitsPRO Magazine and BenefitsPRO.com. He has covered the insurance industry for more than a decade, including stints at Retirement Advisor Magazine and ProducersWeb.
Dr. Mark Ruchman and Lisa Hall of Versant Health discuss how vision care and coverage can impact key stages of advancement in childhood.
Experts report that vision health is intricately linked to a child’s ability to learn and develop socially.
“Simply, children can’t learn if they can’t see” says Dr. Mark Ruchman, Versant Health’s chief medical officer, but young children “don’t know what they don’t know.”
While adults can sense a change in vision, younger children may simply cope due to a lack of understanding about what they are experiencing, he adds. Ruchman stresses that vision evaluations are a central component of comprehensive health care for children and can provide a wealth of wellness indicators.
Annual eye exams can help evaluate vision and identify if a child is at the appropriate neurological and social stage for their age. In turn, the information can be shared with educators and pediatricians who work together for the benefit of the child, says Ruchman.
The widespread introduction of remote learning over the past year has significantly increased screen time for many children and adults, says Lisa Hall, Versant Health’s regional vice president of third-party commercial sales.
“Adults and kids spend most of their day in front of a computer, tablet or phone,” says Hall, which is significantly increasing eye strain issues.
According to Hall, one in four school-aged children have vision problems that can affect learning and development. She says this is why vision experts recommend an eye exam at birth, 6 months old, 3-4 years old, just prior to entering kindergarten, and then every year following.
“So much of society is based on visual learning,” adds Dr. Ruchman, “and children need to begin their formative years by seeing well.”
Press play to hear Dr. Ruchman and Lisa Hall further discuss the links between vision and childhood development, the nationwide “Vision to Learn” initiative and why it’s important to consider the employee’s entire family when determining vision plan coverage.
In this episode of the Perspectives podcast, sponsored by Carrot Fertility and hosted on BenefitsPRO.com, we’ll hear highlights from the March 16th presentation titled, Building an Inclusive Benefits Package for a Remote Workforce.
Listen to Versant Health’s Amy Mann and Larry Opperman as they break down the role of vision coverage and how employers can better educate employees on its benefits.
Offering vision coverage is often seen as a healthcare benefits perk, but it also can contribute to employee loyalty, well-being and safety. It plays a key part in a comprehensive benefits package by helping attract and keep employees, while improving vision wellness.
Amy Mann, Versant Health’s vice president of human resources, says more than 50 percent of HR professionals agree that offering voluntary benefits like vision care helps organizations attract and retain employees.
“To employees, voluntary offerings, such as vision care, has really become the expectation of a competitive benefits package,” she says, adding that research has shown more than 68 percent of employees say having the option of enrolling in these programs can influence whether they select or stay with a company.
Premium vision benefits can also improve overall productivity by saving time and reducing work-related sick days that often goes unnoticed, notes Mann. Expanding vision coverage can affect a company’s financial and administrative bottom lines.
Versant Health’s regional vice president of third party commercial sales, Larry Opperman, says that with simple steps, such as adding safety eyewear programs or addressing digital eye strain (a condition that has been on the rise with increased remote working), employers can increase the value of coverage and quickly see administration efficiencies by streamlining billing, eligibility and more. He notes that the connection between safety eyewear programs and increasing administrative efficiencies has come a long way over the last 10 years in the vision space.
Both Mann and Opperman agree: clear vision is needed for employees to efficiently and effectively perform their jobs. Encouraging utilization of benefits can reduce downline medical costs for both employers and employees.
Press play to hear more about how employers can promote workplace safety, benefits utilization and overall vision care — all of which contribute to attracting and retaining a robust workforce.
Medical billing errors have long been a problem that self-insured employers seek to weed out. One such effort involves payment integrity to help stem the tide of fraud, waste and abuse by implementing processes and procedures to ensure that all health claims are correctly paid. With this in mind, it’s imperative for a TPA to have a robust, end-to-end solution to address these concerns, suggests Jessica Bemowski, manager of payment integrity at UMR, a United Healthcare Company. Such practices include a review of all stages within the life of a claim, ranging from pre-adjudication logic and prepayment to post-adjudication and post-payment.
In an interview, she explains that now more than ever it’s imperative for self-funded employers to be aware of what they’re spending their money on, noting how UMR’s use of payment integrity routinely saves its customers $5 to $10 per member each month. The overriding goal is to apply cost-containment solutions as early as possible, including giving providers an opportunity to correct errors prior to routing claims through the system.
Since new schemes are always emerging, it’s critically important that the TPA field a team of expert investigators who are well trained to spot and eliminate them, as well as provide a list of organizations with whom continuing education and training are provided. California, Texas and Florida are a hotbed of such activity, while air-ambulance providers have become increasingly egregious in overbilling customers. The more that a system can be automated, the more Bemowski says it will strategically free up representatives to be on the lookout for inaccurate billing.
In this episode of the Perspectives podcast, sponsored by Liberty Mutual and hosted on BenefitsPRO, we’ll hear highlights from the March 23rd presentation titled,Top Benefits Trends for 2021: How Brokers & Employers Can Stay Ahead.
Building a benefits program that helps clients attract and support employees is already a challenge. When you add layers of remote work and caregiver responsibilities, it becomes even trickier. That is why it’s important to stay on top of benefits trends that will shape the industry in 2021, so you can empower your clients to address the unique times we live in.
The panelists – Emily Rose, SVP of Sales, LegalShield; Sara McClain, Assistant Director, Product Research, Liberty Mutual Insurance; and Mark A. Enright, Senior Sales Leader, Voluntary Benefits, Liberty Mutual Insurance – provide an overview of this year’s trends and how you can discuss them with clients.
The full on-demand webcast can be found here: https://www.benefitspro.com/2021/02/01/top-benefits-trends-for-2021-how-brokers-employers-can-stay-ahead/
Pharmacy benefits management is one of the most promising cost-containment methods that a self-insured health plan sponsor can employ to rein in the fastest-growing segment of healthcare spending. But success is often predicated upon targeting a small percentage of specialty medications that drive the lion’s share of cost.
Although only 1% to 2% of the U.S. population have conditions that require these drugs, which account for 2% of all prescriptions, these scripts account for roughly 30% of all Rx spending, according to Corri Holcomb, senior vice president care management, customer solutions at UMR, a United Healthcare Company. Nearly half of these drugs cost more than $100,000 per patient each year to treat complex or rare conditions that require ongoing or intensive care coordination, she says in an interview, noting how costly they can be.
Many specialty drugs are known as biologics that are derived from living cells and very difficult to manufacture. Holcomb explains that this makes them much more expensive than traditional drugs. Significant differences in the reimbursement methodology of these specialty drugs “can result in wide disparities in cost,” she adds. Some of the most expensive and cutting-edge treatments include cellular and gene therapies totaling more than $2 million per administration and requiring repeated treatments. This is why she says an important consideration is the total cost over a lifetime of that disease process.
Given these challenges, there are a number of multiple cost-savings strategies that can be employed. Among those programs that UMR uses: prior authorization, step therapy, preferred products, medical necessity criteria, built-in management, file reviews, claims adjudication, site-of-care redirection and special-investigation units. Other efforts include carving out specialty medication management and point solutions.
In this episode of the Perspectives podcast, sponsored by WEX Health and hosted on BenefitsPRO.com, we’ll hear highlights from the March 10th presentation titled, HSAs and Why You Should Change the Retirement Strategy Story.
Hear from Versant Health’s Courtney Smith-Brawner and SecureCare’s president Mark Popejoy as they discuss the benefits of offering both vision and dental care and why it’s critical for employers to understand the rewards.
Offering vision and dental coverage may simply seem like the right thing for employers to do. But the benefits far outweigh basic healthcare. According to SecureCare’s Mark Popejoy, dental and vision insurance are reasonably priced and can be a critical component of comprehensive benefits packages for several reasons.
“Dental and vision care are the most requested benefit after medical coverage,” says Popejoy. “It’s important for overall health and wellness, and it’s also a smart move to help recruit, retain and engage employees.”
Courtney Smith-Brawner, Versant Health’s regional vice president of third party sales, concurs. “Most people want to work at organizations where they feel valued and appreciated, and employee benefits are a significant draw for potential employees,” she says, adding that health benefits are far more appealing than even retirement plans or vacation days.
And while dental and vision care balance out health coverage, they can also offer practical and economic returns for all involved. Annual eye exams can assist in identifying chronic health issues, according to experts, and early detection can save in treatment and care costs.
“Offering a vehicle to obtain affordable oral and vision care becomes an invaluable benefit to many employees,” adds Smith-Brawner, especially in light of the financial hardships many have endured during the recent pandemic.
Listen to the podcast for more insight on the link between oral wellness and eye health, as well as incentives behind offering comprehensive health, vision and dental coverage.
In this episode of the Perspectives podcast, sponsored by Pareto Captive Services and hosted on BenefitsPRO.com, we’ll hear highlights from the February 24th presentation titled, How the Captive Model Can Help Clients - Achieving Stability Through Scale.
The demand for self-insurance is increasing, even though many of the stop-loss products on the market continue to fall short. With the frequency and severity of catastrophic claims on the rise, it is a prime time to help clients self-fund the smart way. This year it’s critical to identify and explain flaws in stop-loss programs, as well as those associated with some captive models.
Andrew Clayton, President at Pareto Captive Services, and Austin Madison, Senior Vice President, Executive Vice President at HUB International address what to look for in a captive and how to ensure you select the best option for you and your clients.
The full on-demand webcast can be found here: https://www.benefitspro.com/2021/01/06/how-the-captive-model-can-help-clients-achieving-stability-through-scale/
Andrew Clayton, President, Pareto Captive Services
Andrew has nearly 25 years of experience creating captives and employer-centric risk financing programs. Andrew has structured property and casualty captives for Fortune 500 companies but is best known as an industry leader in the employee benefit group captive space. Andrew’s areas of expertise include healthcare finance, risk management, and cost containment. Andrew graduated from Swarthmore College and lives in Philadelphia with his wife and two sons.
Austin Madison, Senior Vice President, Executive Vice President, HUB International
Austin has been in the insurance industry since 2005, and began his Employee Benefits Consultant career with The Crichton Group in 2007 – eventually becoming a Partner in 2011. The Crichton Group joined HUB International in 2019, in which Austin co-leads the HUB Mid-South Employee Benefits Practice. His responsibilities include: business development, leadership and responsibility for the benefits department’s strategy, consulting and advisory guidance for clients, and carrier and vendor-partner relationships at the leadership level. Austin is from Lexington, KY. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Corporate Communications from the University of Kentucky.
It’s one thing to offer vision care to clients, but another to get members to use the plan as intended. While vision care is a key component of most health care coverages, it is often underutilized by members.
This issue not only affects individual well-being, but also company productivity and expenses, says Elizabeth Klunk, RN, BSN, CCM-R, and Versant Health’s senior vice president of medical management.
“Employers should clearly communicate the benefits and value of vision care and how it connects to overall health and wellness,” she says, citing that undiagnosed problems can quickly lead to larger issues, which can cascade into impacting different areas of an individual’s life.
Klunk says emphasizing the value of eye exams is critical not only to vision care, but overall health care, noting that more than 30 medical conditions are identified through routine eye exams. These low-cost exams can often catch medical conditions before they become advanced or chronic, connecting individuals to the medical system even earlier and reducing treatment costs.
And while managing optical wellness is important, it can also carry over to the workplace, and specifically, the company’s bottom line.
“If an individual is not at their optimal health and wellness, they won’t be able to produce as well at work, and of course, medical costs will be higher,” she says.
Klunk notes that uncorrected vision problems, such as near and farsightedness, or the need for progressive lenses, can have an impact on the global economy to the tune of $272 billion in lost productivity annually.
Press play to hear more about the link between optical care and overall health, gender disparities in vision care and the financial considerations of underutilized vision coverage.
Versant Health’s Dr. Mark Ruchman discusses how preventative eye care is critically important to detecting not only eye disease, but other potential chronic issues – which leads to better management of health care expenses.
Many companies offer a full array of health benefits, but employees often underutilize their vision coverage because they tend to underestimate the benefit of regular eye exams.
According to Versant Health’s chief medical officer, Dr. Mark Ruchman, if individuals wait until they experience symptoms, the damage – often irreversible – can be done. It also positions them for increased health risk – and potentially higher treatment expenses.
“It would not be overstating the principle to say that the most important health care event you can do is a regular eye examination,” says Ruchman.
It’s vital for employers to understand that vision exams aren’t just about eyes. Rather, such exams play a role in managing the overall health of their workforce.
Routine eye exams can prompt early intervention for potential eye disease before symptoms surface, notes Ruchman. Exams can also give critical indicators about systemic health threats, such as diabetes, which may not yet manifest symptoms.
And while early detection is key to keeping employees healthy and minimizing treatment expenses, it can also help avoid a devastating financial consequence.
“The cumulative loss to the economy of productive citizens with preventable vision disability is on the order of billions of dollars,” says Ruchman.
Press play to learn more about the importance of vision care utilization and engaging employees with their eye health.
As health care expenses rise, insurers seek to contain costs, enhance consumer experience
Thanks to a collaborative approach among providers, patients and employers, cost containment and positive consumer experiences are possible, say Harvard Pilgrim Health Care experts.
Health care expenditures continue to rise. However, health insurers, such as Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, are finding innovative ways to reign in costs without sacrificing consumer experience.
According to Harvard Pilgrim’s Kate Wallis, vice president of population health and clinical operations, health plans are uniquely equipped to find solutions that strike the balance between cost and care.
“We have a comprehensive view of members’ care and the services they are using, whether it’s medical, behavioral health or pharmaceutical,” says Wallis. “This, along with care management data, allows us to identify where the coverage gaps are and guide us to the right initiatives.”
These include innovative utilization management programs that tackle specialty pharmaceutical medication, as well as chemotherapy and radiation therapy programs that focus on minimizing patient side effects, unnecessary toxicity and over utilization, while also producing a provider satisfaction rate of 96%.
It’s important to find programs that not only address cost drivers, but are collaborative between doctors, patients and health plans, adds Beth Roberts, senior vice president of commercial business at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.
“Providers and health plans are working together to ensure the member is getting the best care out of the gate in an affordable care pattern, which means it’s a winning experience for all involved,” adds Roberts.
Listen to learn more about specific cost containment programs that are delivering results and keeping the patient experience front and center.
Health care benefits are not “one size fits all.” Harvard Pilgrim Health Care is leading the way, using data to drive point solutions to address a variety of participants’ health issues.
Point solutions are often delivered digitally through apps to provide a personalized approach to a specific health condition.
To help employers find the appropriate point solutions, Harvard Pilgrim’s senior vice president of commercial business, Beth Roberts, says health insurers are uniquely positioned to understand outcomes and engagement rates to determine which point solutions are making a difference in order to address specific health care needs.
“It can be challenging for HR benefit providers because there are so many point solutions available in the marketplace,” she says. “However, we can match and marry pharmaceutical patterns with medical and behavioral care and see a holistic picture.”
Roberts notes that by measuring the success of available point solutions, they can ensure the best one is available to members.
Various point solutions have been vetted and can be made available to members, says Harvard Pilgrim’s Kate Wallis, vice president of population health and clinical operations. Popular options include those addressing issues such as fertility, pregnancy and early parenting, type 2 diabetes and apps that help reduce the symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression.
Point solutions options are scalable to work for any size employer and even individual members. The goal is to make them widely available to encourage all participants to take care of their health, according to Roberts.
Press play to hear the latest on point solutions’ role in an overall employee benefit strategy and how they can be personalized to best address employer and member needs.
Between improving healthcare literacy and explaining how a benefit plan works, self-insured employers offer their covered lives an opportunity to make more informed choices about the care they purchase from providers and facilities. UMR’s GenerationYou serves as the technology engine for helping accomplish this often elusive objective during open enrollment. It also enables consumers to answer that age-old question: what’s in it for me?
Most studies suggest that influencing behavior change upfront can substantially reduce the cost of care for health plan members and sponsors, according to Bart Halling, VP, product management - consumer directed health and emerging markets at UMR, a UnitedHealthcare Company. One conservative estimate shows that consumers save more than $700 annually on average. The key to doing so is when more educated decisions are made around the wild variation of cost and quality. In this podcast, Halling explains that when members use decision support tools and choose providers that follow evidence-based protocols, UMR’s internal data shows they save more than 36 percent compared with those who aren’t engaged upfront.
The aim of GenerationYou, along with URM’s CarePrepare program, is to help health plan members make better decisions about their care and reward them for doing so, which Halling says can be applied toward reducing the cost of treatment. The focus is on having wide access to provider choice, strong options around high-quality care and a wide variability on the cost of care that’s plannable and shoppable. Members can talk through their care options upfront in 16 different core categories.
Communication and personalization unlock better consumer engagement in the selection of self-insured healthcare coverage. The latter unleashes the power of information to help health plan members make better choices when driven by the latest technology.
Claims activities, decision patterns and previous interactions serve as a variety of rich data sources that help shape communication, laying the groundwork for a customized approach built around relevant information, observes Bart Halling, VP, product management - consumer directed health and emerging markets at UMR, a UnitedHealthcare company. In this podcast, he notes that the building blocks of this approach include clinical diagnostics and health risk stratification data, as well as how members are using digital resources. All such information can be leveraged to make their next experience even more specific to their needs.
UMR’s GenerationYou represents a fresh approach when it comes to engaging health plan members. The aim is to capture what’s happening in their household and apply it so that they no longer need to keep retelling their story. Another important element is to tailor communication to each member’s preferred method, while their responses are tracked. The technology’s engine generates logical opportunities for members to engage in their health plans based on data that represents their unique situation. For example, health screenings may be recommended if risks for developing certain conditions are identified.
When members become more savvy about their benefits selection, Halling says it’s easier to drive sustainable and tangible improvements to healthcare cost trends for plan participants and sponsors alike.
When it comes to protecting the health and wealth of benefit plan participants, along with saving money for self-insured employers, the key to success involves early engagement, observes Stephanie Meyer, senior director of activation strategies at UMR, a UnitedHealthcare company.
Meyer says members who engage at the very beginning of the plan year or even beforehand are much more likely to make better clinical and purchasing decisions that can change the course of care, as well as help their vitality and finances. This proactive approach pays dividends to plan members and sponsors alike, especially when it comes to helping those who are at risk for developing serious medical conditions.
UMR’s GenerationYou healthcare advocacy and engagement solution is underpinned by what the TPA calls the “Story of You,” which is a unique activation consult that helps members use a digital onboarding process to become more familiar with their plan. As part of that process, Meyer explains in this interview, members are able to list their preferred way of being contacted and express any concerns about their overall health or how to navigate their benefits coverage. Other key facts may include details about past or anticipated hospitalizations, as well as life events, such as the birth of a child.
Based on the information they submit, the GenYou engine compiles a summary that includes personalized recommendations for exploring programs that fit the unique needs of each member and allows them to earn financial rewards, including a prepaid gift card. Another dynamic Meyer references is how members research and select medical providers and facilities. A CarePrepare telephone consult helps members find the most optimal high quality care, review the entire care path and anticipate any post-surgical impacts. With the
Advocacy, which helps health plan members navigate a rocky landscape with ease, is worth its weight in gold given the inherent complexity associated with plan design, narrow networks and clinical programs. Ultimately, it creates a pathway to finding high-quality care at an affordable price. When healthcare consumers are empowered to make more informed decisions, they’re better able to understand the nuances, cost, quality and value of their self-funded plan choices, according to Stephanie Meyer, senior director of activation strategies at UMR, a UnitedHealthcare company. She says an ability to review transparent data involving provider quality rankings and the cost of services helps health plan members find the right care, eliminate stress and leverage the use of their benefits.
UMR provides a single access point and centralized engagement hub for advocacy support involving medical, dental, vision, pharmacy, behavioral health and other care. She says advocates in the GenerationYou solution know every detail about the member’s benefits plan and have access to real-time information to assist with a host of tasks that include prior authorization and claims submission.
The reason engagement is so critically important, Meyer explains in this podcast, is that being more informed typically results in members receiving higher quality care, paying less for services and maximizing the value of their health plan. They also tend to take advantage of other products and services that help maintain their health and vitality, pursue preventive screenings or close care gaps. Those benefits also enable the plan sponsor to rein in their employee healthcare costs.
It’s been a challenging year for many companies as they try to help employees balance the new circumstances 2020 has brought.
One study reported the staggering effect the pandemic is having on mental wellness, with one-third of Americans experiencing high levels of psychological distress at some point during the extended period of social distancing, necessary to slow the spread of COVID-19.
It’s no surprise that Harvard Pilgrim Health Care’s associate medical director for behavioral health, Dr. Anthony Sossong, is laser-focused on how health insurers and employers can enhance mental health and emotional well-being programs to support employees.
“There’s been a shift in focus from providing benefits to address illness to helping employees (either individually or as a group) maintain physical, emotional and financial wellness,” says Sossong, adding that they all have become integrated within the workplace.
There’s also an increased appreciation that mental, physical and financial well-being cannot be subdivided, according to Sossong, and yet, they are all interdependent.
The pandemic has been a life changer for many, and employers are especially looking to align their benefits for a more seamless experience for their employees, says Beth Roberts, senior vice president for commercial business at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.
“Employers are doing more to ensure employees have easy access to services,” says Roberts, including proactively educating employees on available offerings, including employee assistance program (EAP) services. She further encourages employers to collaborate with health insurers and their experts to help bring the right wellness solutions to their employees.
Listen to how employers and insurers are working together to expand ways for employees to connect, as well as learn about increased telehealth options, turnkey wellness outreach, rapid appointment access and more.
As the United States continues to grapple with the long-term emotional drain and impact of a global pandemic, along with unexpected remote work places, the mental health and well-being of employees are becoming an even higher priority. In the past, these programs were often seen as a feel-good employer offering; however, as the pandemic work environment evolved, so did the importance and flexibility of options.
Creating and expanding programs in real-time, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care gave tremendous thought as to what people are experiencing and what programs could help them best, says the company’s director of population health improvement, Tami Ireland.
“We needed to be able to adapt to the circumstances and find new possibilities — and then take advantage of them.”
Ireland details how they are connecting employees through online communities, virtual programming, team building activities, mobile apps and more, all while addressing individuals’ different needs.
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care’s Beth Roberts says their research demonstrates that the more employers do for their employees’ well-being, especially during these challenging times, the better workers will feel about the company. She says employers need to recognize that it’s not only about keeping an employee mentally and physically healthy, but that it makes them “feel part of something bigger” when they are cared for and engaged.
“It improves the favorability of the employer-employee relationship in a way that is unprecedented.”
Press play to hear more about how Harvard Pilgrim Health Care is approaching the “new normal” of wellness programs and how it just might change the way the country works.
In this episode of the Perspectives podcast, sponsored by MetLife and hosted on BenefitsPRO, we’ll hear highlights from the October 28th presentation titled, Breaking Down the Mental Health Stigma Through Collaboration.
The U.S. workforce is currently facing an increased amount of stress, and it seems to grow every day in light of the coronavirus pandemic, economic downturn and more. This type of mental strain can impact employee productivity and overall health. Tracey Ferstler, Ph.D., Assistant Vice President, Head of Return to Health, U.S. Claims and Operations at MetLife, and Garen K. Staglin, Co-Founder of One Mind, Founding Organization Of One Mind At Work, lend insights to help brokers and plan sponsors craft better mental health solutions during this challenging time.
The full on-demand webcast can be found here: https://www.benefitspro.com/2020/09/25/breaking-down-the-mental-health-stigma-through-collaboration/
Tracey Ferstler, Ph.D. | Assistant Vice President, Head of Return to Health, U.S. Claims and Operations | MetLife
Tracey is responsible for MetLife’s Return to Health (Clinical) organization and Network Management teams. For the last two years she has been part of the Process Excellence team as an Assistant Vice President, partnering with the Global Claims Organization on the planning and execution of various transformational initiatives.
She started at MetLife in 2004 as a vocational rehabilitation counselor in the company’s Disability organization and worked in a number of product operations areas (TAM, STD, LTD, and Clinical) as a disability consultant and senior operations manager. Tracey also supported the Group Dental Organization as the director of vendor channel management. She is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC) and holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology.
Garen K. Staglin | Co-Founder | One Mind – Founding Organization Of One Mind At Work
Garen and his wife, Shari, are Co-Founders and Board members of One Mind (“OM”) (formerly the International Mental Health Research Organization), a 501c(3) non-profit organization. During the last twenty six years, OM and the Music Festival for Brain Health event have raised almost $500 million for mental health charities and research. Launched in 2011 with former Congressman Patrick Kennedy and now led by President, Brandon Staglin, One Mind is pursuing a number of large scale public private partnerships in Schizophrenia, TBI and PTS as well as funding cutting edge research with 38 rising star scientists.
Garen is a private equity investor and philanthropist with more than 40 years of experience in building and starting companies in the financial services and payment industries. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Silicon Valley Bank, ExL Services, and Profit Velocity Solutions. He is also a Senior Advisor to FTV Capital. Garen is a graduate of UCLA, B.S.-Engineering (1966), and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, MBA (1968). He is a recipient of the Gold Spike Award, Stanford University’s highest award for volunteer service and the UCLA College of Letters & Science Fellows Award. He was Co-Chairman of the UCLA Centennial Capital Campaign which set a record for a public university raising $5.48 Billion.
Healthcare benefits evolve as a result of Covid-19
The pandemic is bringing unprecedented change, but Harvard Pilgrim Health Care’s Beth Roberts and Dr. Elizabeth Cote from MyHealthMath say this is exactly what healthcare benefits need.
In a tumultuous year, with consumers facing stressful decisions about their healthcare options, many employers and insurers are transforming the way that they approach benefits.
Beth Roberts, senior vice president for commercial business at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, says the industry is at a “tipping point” due to the rising costs of health insurance and that many employers are feeling pressure to do better on behalf of their constituents. She also predicts that the insurers who can help consumers navigate and make healthcare decisions in their best interests, such as opting in for preventative care, will be the companies that stand out.
Accountability is key and a stark differentiator, adds Dr. Elizabeth Cote of MyHealthMath, because both employees and employers want to know the value of their healthcare dollars, noting it is one of the biggest budget items they have. Consumers “deserve to have this accountability and know what they are purchasing with their dollars,” she says.
Press play to hear Roberts and Cote, as they discuss these issues as well as the changes to brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, the rising importance of cost transparency and how it all will affect benefits for years to come.
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care’s Beth Roberts and Dr. Elizabeth Cote from MyHealthMath discuss how this evolution will impact health benefits in 2021 – and beyond.
Healthcare has always been challenging for consumers, but this year has brought it to a new level. As a result, health insurers and employers are feeling the pressure to do better on behalf of their constituents. By easing employee confusion, stress, and financial strain, insurers and employers can be invaluable allies during this crisis—and visionary leaders in a rapidly changing healthcare environment.
“It’s important that no matter where a consumer is on the healthcare spectrum, that they are able to access the care they need,” says Beth Roberts, senior vice president for commercial business at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. Talking about the importance of access, she says that though providers and carriers have had some form of virtual interaction with patients and members in the past, the Covid-19 crisis has caused them to enhance and increase this experience even more.
Dr. Elizabeth Cote of MyHealthMath brings her unique perspective as a medical professional and policy maker, noting that there is a “blanket of exhaustion settling on the nation,” and consumers are hungry for answers to their healthcare needs. Cote says that the solutions that offer more transparency and clear answers will win the day for consumers seeking more empowerment and engagement.
Hear more from Roberts and Cote, including their thoughts on the role of healthcare insurers and employers on instilling consumer trust, the economic considerations of health care plan options, and how plans will evolve even further.
In this episode of the Perspectives podcast, sponsored by Lively and hosted on BenefitsPRO.com, we’ll hear highlights from the October 20th presentation titled, How to Maximize Open Enrollment Virtually & Reduce Costs with CDHP Adoption.
Employers are facing many challenges. And some of them are approaching virtual open enrollment for the first time, all while trying to help employees make cost-conscious health plan selections, which is more important than ever. Brokers can help them save money by guiding them towards the right coverage mix for business and personal needs, as well as by helping with communication and health plan education. Doing this without in-person meetings requires an entirely new toolkit.
Andrew Bruns, Regional Director, Business Development at Lively, and Nataliya Boychenko Stone, Account Executive and Shareholder at Holmes, Murphy & Associates, discuss how to maximize understanding of Consumer-Driven Health Plans, driving adoption and engagement.
The full on-demand webcast can be found here: https://www.benefitspro.com/2020/09/03/how-to-maximize-open-enrollment-virtually-reduce-costs-with-cdhp-adoption/
Andrew Bruns | Regional Director, Business Development | Lively
Andrew Bruns is a Regional Director of Business Development at Lively who works with health insurance and benefits consultants, general agencies, and registered investment advisors to simplify and enhance their HSA offering. With over 12 years of financial services, benefits and insurance experience Andrew is passionate about bringing people together to discuss transparent solutions that result in a better way to do business and improve lives.
Nataliya Boychenko | Account Executive & Shareholder | Holmes Murphy & Associates
Nataliya Boychenko is an Account Executive and Shareholder at Holmes Murphy & Associates. She is dedicated to providing creative solutions and tools her clients need to design their employee benefit programs. Nataliya specializes in healthcare data analysis, health care reform and legal compliance, cutting edge wellness programs as well as a full suite of employer-sponsored benefit programs. Nataliya is a frequent speaker on Health Care topics at local, regional, and national industry events. She also serves as an Adjunct Professor at Drake University where she teaches employee benefits.
Employers have long recognized the business case for addressing employee mental health and well-being: reduced absenteeism, increased productivity, and greater overall health, contributing to decreased health care expenses.
Unfortunately, the stigma of discussing mental health has long been a barrier to accessing available services. But it’s possible that, as mental health and resiliency become a greater issue as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, greater collective awareness will help overcome the stigma.
“I’ve seen so many television programs lately — series and docudramas — that have addressed the issue of mental health head-on,” says Debora Roland, vice president of human resources at CareeArc. “It is one of those things that people don’t really like to talk about, but you can have normalcy even if you are challenged with stressors.”
With the increased incidence of mental health issues poised to have a major impact on the workplace, it’s imperative for employers to start the discussion and encourage employees to take advantage of all available resources. “Education is really important, guiding people to articles, videos, podcasts is a way to help people understand what mental health is,” Roland says.”None of us is superhuman and sometimes you need help, and that’s okay. Giving resources to get that help is really important.”
Listen to Ms. Roland and managing editor Emily Payne discuss the various wellness and mental health support tools available and how to drive utilization.
Click here to listen to other Supporting Mental Health During Challenging Times podcasts.
In this episode of the Perspectives podcast, sponsored by Artemis Health and hosted on BenefitsPRO, we’ll hear highlights from the October 7th presentation titled, How Transparency, Technology and Data Analytics Are Transforming Employee Benefits.
In a world where every dollar matters, it’s vital for employers and their brokers to understand the value of current benefits offerings, identify opportunities for cost savings and make better decisions. Getting a more holistic view of health plans and employee data plays a key part in this endeavor.
Rion Shearer, Senior Employee Benefits Consultant at USI Insurance Services; Grant Gordon, CEO & Co-Founder of Artemis Health; Lester Morales, Co-Founder & CEO of Next Impact; and Paul Wilson, Editor in Chief of BenefitsPRO deliver insights on how advances in technology, transparency and data analytics are changing employee benefits and how you can leverage new tools to make the best decisions.
The full on-demand webcast can be found here: https://www.benefitspro.com/2020/08/18/how-transparency-technology-and-data-analytics-are-transforming-employee-benefits/
Rion Shearer | Senior Employee Benefits Consultant | USI Insurance Services
Rion has been in the employee benefits industry for over 13 years. He is a graduate of the Terry School of Business at The University of Georgia with a degree in Risk Management and Insurance. Rion immediately began working in employee benefits with Aetna, a large national health insurance carrier, as a National Accounts Account Manager. As an account manager, Rion provided daily service and advice to employers with 3,000+ employees including Food Lion, Unisource Worldwide and BlueLinx. Rion has been a broker for 11 years and has been recognized as one of the top 20 rising stars in employee benefit advising by EBA magazine.
Grant Gordon | CEO & Co-Founder | Artemis Health
Grant Gordon is one of Artemis Health’s founders, and he draws on deep experience in design, user research, software engineering, and data analysis. Prior to Artemis, he also co-founded EnticeLabs, an online advertising optimization company, and RationalIUX, a software user experience design firm. He is passionate about empowering employers to fix healthcare through data access and analytics. Artemis Health offers the tools employers, consultants, and brokers need to find insights and take action with their benefits data.
Lester J. Morales | Co-Founder & CEO | Next Impact
Lester J. Morales is a true consultant in the human capital and employee benefits arena and currently serves as CEO of Next Impact, LLC. Focused on innovation and changing the “status quo,” Next Impact is a full-service employee benefits consulting company, committed to helping companies, and their advisors, save 20% on their health benefits while improving the quality of the coverage being offered.
Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Lester served more than three years as Executive Vice-President and Chief Growth Officer for Willis’ Human Capital Practice, one of the largest insurance brokerages in the world. In this role, Lester led over 200 producers/consultants in 40 + offices as part of a $350,000,000 practice- Willis’ single largest practice in North America.
As states shut down in response to the initial threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, many employers made the sudden decision to switch employees to remote work. While many have found success with the transition, the remote work environment has created a number of new causes of stress for employees, including the blurring of work/life balance and the disruption of their normal routines.
“The stressors from working from home are interesting in that it’s just something we’re not used to,” says Debora Roland, vice president of human resources at CareeArc. “Anything from being on Zoom calls and having your kids playing in the background or having the dog bark, to having to manage just the day-to-day issues while at home and not being able to focus completely on the work product can be a challenge, and that stresses people out. They think, ‘Am I doing a good job, either at home or at work?’
Adding to the disruption in the daily work routine are the disruptions to daily life: the pandemic has changed how we interact with our friends and family, and the election, economy and a whole list of other uncertainties are making employees worry about what the future has in store for them.
Listen to Ms. Roland and managing editor Emily Payne discuss the causes of stress in today’s office environment, as well as their impact on worker health and productivity.
Click here to listen to other Supporting Mental Health During Challenging Times podcasts.
Technology, innovation and changing customer expectations are transforming the insurance industry. Survey results show that 45% of insurance customers are “likely” or “very likely” to change insurance providers within the next 12 months. What’s more is that only half of customers are “very satisfied” with the payment options that their insurance company offers, making the customer experience and technology increasingly important.
In this episode of the Insurtech Center Podcast Series, we spoke with Tom Griffin, President of Invoice Cloud, to discuss the role of online payment options and how insurance companies can build more engagement and retention by leveraging innovative technologies. To learn more, hit play.
As HR professionals and other business leaders work to help employees navigate the COVID pandemic, benefits advisors can be a key resource in helping them chart the path forward.
But while there are many ways in which employers and their broker partners can assess and understand employees’ needs and make informed decisions about resources and benefits, it’s imperative that those systems, tools and partners are held to a high standard. “It’s on us as advisors, HR directors and employers to pressure test what we have in place and be real about what we’re using and whether it’s working,” says Dennis Hartin, president of Hartin Dynamics.
He adds that while there are a growing number of ways to approach the issues presented by the pandemic, the key is to first figure out the specific problems for each employer.
Hartin notes that three major challenges exist when it comes to solving mental health issues: stigma, lack of awareness and access to care. Like so much in the benefits and health care space these days, the key to moving forward lies in innovation, adaptability and teamwork.
Listen to Dennis Hartin and Editor-in-chief Paul Wilson talk about the complicated issues surrounding mental health, financial wellness and overall well-being, as well as practical ways in which benefits advisors, business leaders and other partners can work together to create benefits strategies and company cultures that set employees up to succeed.
Even before the pandemic disrupted our lives, many were concerned that factors like social media and overscheduling were limiting true connection and taking a toll on social wellness. In
our current environment, many of these existing issues have been exacerbated and are taking an even bigger toll. In fact, one recent study found that nearly half of employees believe their
behavioral health has declined since the beginning of the pandemic.
According to Dennis Hartin, president of Hartin Dynamics, disconnection and loneliness could turn out to have long-term repercussions in the months and years to come. “Loneliness could be the next health crisis,” he says.
The matter is further complicated by stigmas and misconceptions that make topics surrounding mental health difficult to talk about and treat.
In addition, a large percentage of full-time workers say the economic impact of COVID-19 could be worse than the virus itself, while research from Metlife and others shows that financial health is a top contributor to overall mental health.
Listen to Dennis Hartin and Editor-in-chief Paul Wilson discuss the ongoing issues faced by benefits advisors, employers and their employees as they adapt to the ongoing challenges of a
pandemic that has exposed existing problems in our society and health care system.
Member advocacy has become an increasingly important means of supporting healthcare consumers in the selection of their health benefits and treatment options. Among the key themes that have emerged with this approach are a need to optimize the customer experience, navigate the healthcare system and coordinate benefits across the spectrum of care, as well as leverage technology to drive informed interaction.
Self-funded customers will find advocacy services particularly valuable because they have the freedom and flexibility to customize their health benefit plans, according to Stephanie Meyer, senior director of activation strategies at UMR. Indeed, members need an expert to help them understand the proliferation of available options – from clinical and nurseline to telemedicine and employee assistance programs. Layer on top of that traditional options such as PPOs and consumer-driven health plans, along with strategies involving tiered structures, narrow networks and reference-based pricing, and the complexity of a changing landscape has proven to be too much for most health plan members.
This area is critically important because it involves not only an individual’s health status, but also their personal finances, she points out in an interview. Advocacy takes the onus off consumers and places it on trusted advisers who can ensure that they’re well supported, educated and comfortable. Having grown out of a traditional customer service model that was transactional, advocacy now uses multiple communication channels to better support individual member circumstances. Meyer predicts that smart and purposeful artificial intelligence and machine learning will represent the next frontier in advocacy as it becomes more personalized and better anticipates member needs through real-time interaction and claims data.
As people struggle to cope with continued isolation, lack of social connection, health
concerns, remote work challenges, and financial pressures, it can have a huge impact
on their overall health and well-being.
A large number of employees admit to increasingly lower levels of resilience, meaning
they often don’t have the skills to cope with the challenges they’re facing. This can
negatively impact everything from relationships to health to productivity. So, how can we
become more resilient as individuals, as employers and as a society?
According to psychologist Dr. Helena Boschi, an expert on applied neuroscience in the
workplace, “When we keep ourselves active, it helps our brain release dopamine in a
way that keeps us motivated and engaged.” A key aspect of resilience, she says, is to
stay busy. “In a world with very little certainty, we need to find things we can control.” In
addition, factors like sleep, proper diet and exercise play a huge role in maintaining
overall well-being, she adds.
When it comes to our work lives, employees, business leaders and advisors all play a
key role in supporting and maintaining mental wellness.
“You should be creating the right balance in your digital day,” Boschi says. “We can’t
just take the office environment and plunk it into our homes. One of the biggest
problems right now is the boundaries between work and personal life are increasingly
blurred.”
And organizational leaders, including HR professionals, must lead by example. “Mental
health shouldn’t be an add-on to business life” she adds. “This is something that has to
be integrated into every aspect of how we live.
Listen to Dr. Boschi and Editor-in-chief Paul Wilson talk about managing stress,
supporting mental health and building a culture of resiliency.
Vision is something employers don’t often think about when it comes to benefits planning, sticking with the same, traditional, voluntary vision plan each year. However, vision care is more than just correction and vision issues can be symptoms of much larger medical problems that may cost employers and their employees more in the long run. Because of this, more than 70% of employers with 100+ employees are actively integrating or considering integrating their vision benefits under their health and wellness programs in the next 5 years.
Kim Dwyer, Vice President at Inspera Health; Dr. Michael Dueñas, Chief Public Health Officer at American Optometric Association (AOA), and Dr. Steven P. Eiss, Senior Partner, Eyecare of the Valley deliver insights to make more informed choices regarding vision benefits, and why they ought to link with medical coverage.
As the COVID-19 pandemic stretches on and the U.S. continues to struggle through social and
political upheaval, many Americans are facing levels of stress unlike anything they’ve
experienced before. As a result, a number of experts are warning of a potential mental health
crisis in the coming months and years.
According to psychologist Dr. Helena Boschi, an expert on applied neuroscience in the
workplace, when our brain reacts to uncertainty or threats, “it immediately activates chemicals
that strengthen our system to fight or to run.” But while this reaction evolved to address threats
such as saber toothed tigers, it doesn’t always work well for modern life.
“Currently, the biggest threat isn’t necessarily the pandemic itself,” she explains, “but the
uncertainty we’re all facing and simply not knowing what the future holds.”
If we don’t properly manage our daily stress and monitor our well-being, it can result in chronic
stress, which can affect our emotions, memory, decision making and even physical health.
What are the warning signs of poor mental health? What would a mental health crisis look like?
And how does stress impact our daily lives at home and at work?
Listen to Dr. Boschi and Editor-in-chief Paul Wilson discuss the mental health challenges
currently facing individuals, families and businesses navigating their way through these stressful times.
About 15 years ago, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System sought to standardize the pricing methodology for an abundance of knee surgeries by pegging it to Medicare plus a profit layer over and above that rate as part of an any-willing-provider contract. Much has happened since the creation of that strategy known as reference-based pricing (RBP), according to Tom Bartlett, VP of customer solutions for the reference-based pricing segment at UMR.
The earliest version of this arrangement was fairly aggressive and disruptive – with self-insured employers threatening litigation if their suggested prices weren’t paid. Nowadays, he explains in an insightful interview, reasonable rates are proposed vs. unilaterally demanded as part of a strategy that’s more responsive to providers and keeps employees from being caught in the middle of any pricing disputes. Elective procedures can be scheduled with a narrow network of providers to lower the cost and contracts can prohibit balance bills.
The chief advantage of RBP is that it generates a known number that health plan sponsors can expect to pay for a particular type of medical treatment. Moreover, significant improvements in data and technology have enabled employers to identify which providers and facilities will accept RBP. While this transparent strategy can eliminate a great deal of unit costs associated with healthcare facilities, Bartlett notes that it may not be right for all organizations. For example, some companies may fear too much disruption among employees who are accustomed to a turnkey PPO solution and prefer not to become involved in the pricing methodology. Whatever the decision, he predicts that RBP will help elevate the future of value-based care.
Bind Benefits president Jodi Hubler offers her unique insight into the importance of health care
choice and how consumers and HR professionals are taking health insurance design to the next
level.
The digitization of health was supposed to make the consumer the epicenter of health care
decision-making. But according to Bind Benefits president Jodi Hubler, "digital health care has
created an abundance of noise and has instead, overwhelmed consumers."
Hubler and the Bind team are revolutionizing the role consumers play and putting them firmly
into the health care driver's seat. Bind believes people deserve to see treatment options and
compare costs in advance of care, so they can make informed choices that meet their personal
needs for their conditions.
Humanizing consumer choice is a cornerstone of the Bind approach that helps drive their
evidence-based treatment programs and provide resources that empower consumers with
options. Hubler shares why choice is a fundamental right with almost every buying decision we make, and why choice in health care treatment is no exception.
Additionally, human resources and benefits leaders are becoming even more important players in the health care arena, and Hubler stresses their pivotal part in shaping health insurance
design. "They provide expertise and recommendations for one of the most critical components in our lives: our health," says Hubler.
In this podcast, we explore how Bind is helping people shop for and buy health care with
confidence—from the palm of their hand.
Listen now to Hubler's insights on where Bind is taking health insurance design and the
important roles that HR professionals, brokers and consumers will play.
Bind is changing the way we think about health insurance. According to Tamra Lair, Chief
Analytics Officer, Bind “took apart health insurance and “now it works,” Or more simply,
consumers are getting “more of what they need and less of what they don’t.”. As the Bind
analytics and reporting leader, Lair talks about how creating a more personalized health plan is
benefiting everyone.
Health insurance had seen little change until Bind entered the market. According to Lair, Bind is changing how people think about health care as well as how they seek care. By providing cost clarity and a condition-first approach, consumers can make better decisions and achieve more affordable, intuitive and personalized care. Bind data shows that the vast majority of its members find their plan understandable. In an industry that is known to be complex and confusing to consumers, that statistic alone sets Bind apart. The cost savings are remarkable as well: Bind members’ annual out-of-pocket pharmacy and medical expenditures are less than half of the national average. Additionally, compared to industry benchmarks, Bind is seeing double-digit savings when it comes to total cost of care for members and employers.
Listen to Lair connect the dots by breaking down costs and the effect savings is having on
consumer behavior.
Bind CEO Tony Miller talks about how health insurance should work like the other useful
services in our modern daily lives. Clear, flexible health plans that can be personalized to meet
our individual needs are the future of health insurance design.
All pharmacy benefit managers offer similar services around formularies and manufacturer rebates, as well as clinical programs and network options to manage ingredient cost trends for their self-funded employer customers. There’s also little distinction across their reporting, customer service, account management and claims processing. But there are important differentiators to consider when selecting a PBM partner, according to Cindy Brigman, director of PBM solutions at UMR, Inc., a UnitedHealthcare ASO solution.
They include understanding pass-through pricing agreements and knowing whether the PBM is managing its own rebate contracts, formularies or networks. It’s also helpful to know what’s included in their pricing (i.e., ancillary fees and clinical review or prior authorization charges), as well as an ability to determine return on investment. Another critical area to examine is whether the prescription drug area is carved in or carved out, and if prescription and medical rates are underwritten together.
Since pharmacy is the fastest-growing segment of healthcare costs, Brigman suggests key cost-management strategies for employers. They include understanding what they’re paying for, as well as implementing a limited or exclusionary formulary across all categories of medication and utilization management programs. Educating health plan members to become better prescription consumers will also go a long way toward improving adherence and clinical outcomes.
In this podcast interview, she explains the concept of real-time accumulators for managing deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums and whether it’s worth investing in this area. Finally, Brigman offers several inventive strategies for managing rising specialty scripts that drive prescription trends, such as using grants from drug manufacturers.
Hit play to learn more.
At a time when data analysis has never been more important for managing employee health benefit costs and clinical outcomes, reporting is critical for self-funded customers that customize their health plan coverage. Timely financial reporting is necessary to know how much they’re paying in medical claims, while utilization reporting helps them understand the types of services health plan members are receiving. This drives decision-making around plan design, incentive solutions and member advocacy, all of which are critical to the success of a health plan, explains Jason Stephen, vice president of information and analytic services at UMR, Inc., a UnitedHealthcare ASO solution.
The key is to access data in a way that’s timely and actionable, he says. For example, UMR offers employers access to self-service reporting tools that are updated daily with only a two-business-day lag versus waiting for carrier or TPA reporting to be refreshed on a monthly basis. Another solution is for employers to contract with health analytic vendors to create their own data warehouse.
Stephen notes that the more employers understand which conditions are driving their healthcare spend, the easier it is to decide on specific care management solutions. Drilling down into claims data can help customers understand their utilization patterns and ensure that members are receiving the right care in the right setting by a high-quality provider. He predicts artificial intelligence will continue to spot trends lurking in the data, noting that sophisticated algorithms extract insights quickly and efficiently.
Hit play to learn more about health plan reporting.
In this episode of the Perspectives podcast, sponsored by Control Risks and hosted on Law.com, we’ll hear highlights from the July 29th presentation titled, Looking Ahead: Lessons Learned for Investigations.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced many organizations to revisit their approach to investigations. In recent months, investigators have been dealing with challenges in identifying, preserving, and reviewing data, holding remote interviews and collaborating from their homes. Michele Wiener, Partner in Control Risks’ Compliance, Investigations and Technology practice in the Americas region, and Michael Zimmern, Partner in Control Risks’ London office, address best practices and lessons learned for investigations to prepare for whatever the future may hold.
The full on-demand webcast can be found here:
https://www.law.com/2020/06/30/looking-ahead-lessons-learned-for-investigations/
Hospitals are preaching to their own workforce what’s being practiced on the communities they serve – a strategy that’s improving quality and health outcomes, as well as bending the proverbial cost curve. Three key areas of focus include increasing so-called domestic steerage or utilization to hospital-owned providers and facilities, managing medical trend and holding down specialty drug costs.
Lola Brysz, vice president of the hospital market segment for UMR, sat down to talk about how the nation’s largest third-party administrator for self-funded medical plans is helping hospitals implement these innovative initiatives and reaping the rewards. Her clients are beta testing on their own employees and dependents the benefits of access to these tier-one providers, facilities and pharmacies. One key to success is offering financial incentives in the form of lower out-of-pocket costs for more robust medical benefits that fit this approach.
But the use of meaningful data is also needed to evaluate domestic utilization results and hospital readmissions for both employee populations and the community at large, especially with regard to the management of high-cost claimants and fast-rising Rx spending. In addition, data analytics are being used to evaluate the number of ER versus urgent care visits to encourage more appropriate avenues of treatment.
In the interview, Brysz also addresses how offering onsite or telephonic wellness programs or coaching and care management with the right incentives will help prevent high-cost claims involving chronic conditions.
Hit play to learn more about what’s happening inside the hospital space.
While stop-loss insurance can be a complex and sometimes confusing topic, it enables employers to wrest control of rising employee health benefit costs. But when placing such coverage for a self-funded plan, it’s critically important to read the fine print and look beyond spreadsheet premiums for a high quality product. Without a concept called plan mirroring, carriers will audit to their stop-loss contracts, resulting in potential coverage gaps, according to Marla Kolbeck, director of stop-loss relationship, customer solutions at UMR, Inc.
She explains that this approach closes any loopholes by ensuring that a stop-loss contract works hand in glove with the medical plan document to eliminate any surprises. Two types of stop-loss coverage are specific coverage involving a single claimant and aggregate coverage, which protects against the accumulation of many claims exceeding an agreed upon level. An additional level of protection includes aggregating a specific coverage deductible.
With so many managing general underwriters (MGUs) and stop-loss carriers to choose from, Kolbeck says there are notable offerings that differentiate service providers. One such example is advanced funding, which protects employers from unplanned cash flow fluctuation by holding the plan sponsor’s provider payments for medical claims processed for individuals whose covered claims exceed the specific stop-loss deductible. Another is an experience refund, which is the portion of an insurance company’s premiums or profits to be returned to the policyholder if loss experience is better than expected.
Press play to learn more about the nuances of stop-loss insurance.
People are being asked to shoulder more of their health burden, but there’s a solution to this potential problem: health savings accounts. In this latest episode of the MassMutual’s Financial Wellness podcast series, hear Susan Grader, Financial Wellness Strategist at MassMutual and Mark Irzyk, Partner Account Executive at WEX Health, and as they explore how HSAs can be a valuable tool for financial wellness and retirement as health and wealth continue to converge.
Why are student loan benefits the right fit for your business? In a word, it’s demographics. In this latest episode of MassMutual’s Financial Wellness podcast series hear Danielle Villar, Financial Wellness Strategist at MassMutual and Scott Thompson, CEO of tuition.io, and as they explore how this benefit works for your entire organization.
In this episode of the Expert Perspectives podcast, sponsored by Wolters Kluwer and hosted on Law.com, we’ll hear highlights from the May 19th presentation titled, Change Management for Legal Operations: Keys to Leading Change When Adopting Advanced Technology.
Advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence, can bring significant efficiencies and improved outcomes to the legal department. However, along with the technology comes change – and if not managed properly, can make or break your technology investment.
Nathan Cemenska, Director of Legal Operations and Industry Insights at Wolters Kluwer’s ELM Solutions, and Kimberly Williams, Director of Global Legal Solutions at Citi, address change management challenges that legal operations face as they bring new technologies to their organization and share best practices for how you can begin to manage change in your legal department more effectively.
Listen to a 10-minute podcast hosted by Eric Leverson, Lead Regulatory Consultant. This episode offers thoughts insight about retirement plans for organizations that are shut down, those that are already recovering and those in-between. Sponsored by MassMutual
Listen to a 6-minute podcast hosted by Eric Leverson, Lead Regulatory Consultant. This episode explores the CARES Act, discussing key gaps and where we feel regulators can offer further clarification and guidance. Sponsored by MassMutual.
In this episode of the Expert Perspectives podcast, sponsored by Lively and hosted on BenefitsPRO, we’ll hear highlights from the May 19th presentation titled, How COVID-19 Has Transformed HSAs and Why They Enhance Today’s Benefit Packages.
There are early predictions that, in 2021, the cost of healthcare for employers will rise by at least 6% – with increasingly costly implications stemming from the current COVID-19 pandemic. Curbing the costs of healthcare is essential, now more than ever, without sacrificing performance or support.
Jordan Mazur, Head of Legal at Lively; Kevin McKechnie, Executive Director, Health Savings Account Council at the American Bankers Association; and Michael Olson, Account Manager at Alliant Insurance Services explore why combining Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and High-Deductible Health Plans (HDHPs) is still a viable and optimal option for reducing health care costs.
The full on-demand webcast can be found here: https://www.benefitspro.com/2020/04/14/how-covid-19-has-impacted-hsas-and-why-they-can-still-help-during-this-time/
In this episode, sponsored by Mutual of Omaha, we’re bringing you highlights from the April 16th webcast, Benefit Trends to Watch in 2020 and Beyond. This event featured Marty Traynor, Retired Senior Vice President at Mutual of Omaha, as well as Anita Potter, Assistant Vice President at LIMRA.
In this episode of the Expert Perspectives podcast, sponsored by Lively and hosted on BenefitsPRO, we’ll hear highlights from the March 17th presentation titled, How to Manage Increasing Healthcare Costs with Consumer Driven Health Plans.
As healthcare costs continue to rise, your clients look to you for solutions to curb the impact on their company’s bottom line. Shifting to a consumer-driven strategy can be an effective way of reducing this strain — but it requires your support and guidance during every step to ensure clients can make the transition without any added burden. Brian Shonat, Regional Director, Business Development at Lively and Matt Hylant, Client Executive at Hylant explore Consumer Driven Health Plan (CDHP) discuss strategies and provide actionable tips for a successful implementation that maximizes employee satisfaction.
In this latest episode of the Perspectives podcast, hosted on BenefitsPRO, we’re bringing you highlights from the November webcast, “Do Employees Love Their Benefits? Measuring the Value of Total Rewards Packages.” The event was sponsored by Evive and featured two of their insiders: CEO Prashant Srivastava and executive vice president of client experience Allen Kline.
The full on-demand presentation can be found at https://www.benefitspro.com/2019/09/17/how-to-make-sure-employees-love-their-benefits/
Your clients and employees spend a great deal of time and money worrying about health and wellness. And in recent years, this includes a renewed focus on financial wellness. Providing clients with tools and strategies to help bend the cost curve as well as the best benefits possible is crucial to your success. Figuring out how HSAs can play a larger role may be a key way to do that.
In this episode of the Expert Perspectives podcast, sponsored by Fidelity and hosted on BenefitsPRO, we’ll hear highlights from the September 25th presentation titled, How HSA’s impact financial wellness & retirement.
Recent research by Fidelity reveals that American workers are struggling in all four domains of their Total Well-Being: money, work, health, and life. However, Health Savings Accounts can help mitigate that. An HSA is a great way to pay for current qualified medical expenses because of the tax advantages – but it’s also a great way to save money for retirement. Understanding the role HSAs play in financial wellness will help you better advise clients and their employees as they save for the future.
William Applegate, VP, Industry Relations at Fidelity Investments, addresses how HSAs fit into the domains of Total Well-Being, what current HSA holders are doing and their savings behaviors, as well as how to engage your clients and their employees in understanding the power of their HSA.
The full on-demand webcast can be found here: https://www.benefitspro.com/2019/08/15/how-hsas-impact-financial-wellness-retirement/
William Applegate | VP, Industry Relations | Fidelity Investments
In this episode of the Expert Perspectives podcast, sponsored by Artemis Health and hosted on BenefitsPRO, we’ll hear highlights from the September 18th presentation titled, Overcome common challenges to gain benefits data insights.
For innovative benefits leaders, data is the key to making great recommendations for clients. It can help you tailor benefits plans, explore employee needs and meet cost goals. But there are some common hurdles advisors and employers face on the path to data-driven decisions.
Scott Guichard, Director of Solutions Engineering at Artemis Health, discusses how to utilize benefits data to save both time and resources, as well as how to ensure you and your clients have access to high-quality, reliable data and more.
The full on-demand webcast can be found here: https://www.benefitspro.com/2019/08/19/webcast-overcome-common-challenges-to-gain-benefits-data-insights/
Scott Guichard | Director of Solutions Engineering | Artemis Health
Scott has spent the last 25 years in the healthcare industry, with about 15 years directly supporting self-insured employers using data analytics platforms like Artemis. He’s lived and worked internationally in a number of countries and experienced their unique healthcare systems firsthand. Currently based in Atlanta, Scott is now focused on helping enterprise employers optimize their benefits using data.
In this episode of the Expert Perspectives podcast, sponsored by UMB Healthcare Services and hosted on BenefitsPRO, we’ll hear highlights from the September 10th presentation titled, “How to help employers reduce healthcare costs.”
In this episode of the Expert Perspectives podcast, sponsored by HM Insurance Group and hosted on BenefitsPRO, we’ll hear highlights from the August 29th presentation titled, “An Anthropologist and a Rock Scientist Talk Stop Loss: Using Data to Empower Smart Decisions.”
Deriving data from group dynamics and market insights helps to create informed, knowledge-backed solutions. This is essential in a market facing a rising high-dollar claims trend. Self-funded employers need your help implementing Stop Loss coverage that truly works to protect their bottom line. And to help ensure proper protection is available, Stop Loss carriers must make smart decisions fueled by data.
Mark Lawrence, Senior Vice President, Underwriting at HM Insurance Group, and Tom Doran, President at HM Insurance Group, address how the use of data is essential to decision-making and informing Stop Loss plans for the future, as well as how these plans can help protect your self-funded clients.
In this episode of the Expert Perspectives podcast, sponsored by ID Experts and hosted on BenefitsPRO, we’ll hear highlights from the August 13th presentation titled, How to Engage Employees of All Ages in Today’s Digital Landscape.
In addition to traditional health care and retirement offerings, modern benefits plans must help employers and employees address a variety of new challenges, including data protection and other difficulties presented by today’s digital landscape. Moreover, understanding the increasingly multi-generational workforce, their differing needs and how to create employee benefits strategies that suit this diversity is critical.
Cheryl Morrison Deutsch, Chief Experience Officer at Zillion, Bo Armstrong, Chief Marketing Officer at DataPath and Jonathan Boston, Senior Vice President, Global Sales at ID Experts explain how you can differentiate your offerings and appeal to today’s digitally savvy consumers.
The full on-demand webcast can be found here: https://www.benefitspro.com/2019/07/21/how-to-engage-employees-of-all-ages-in-todays-digital-landscape/
Cheryl Morrison Deutsch | Chief Experience Officer (CXO) | Zillion
Cheryl Morrison Deutsch is the Chief Experience Officer at Zillion, a leading health behavior modification company, where she leads the strategy, planning, and execution of the Zillion experience for customers, members, and employees across the digital health programs on the platform. She has nearly three decades of experience in optimizing internal operations through the development and implementation of activities designed to accelerate change, specifically in the healthcare sector.
Bo Armstrong | Chief Marketing Officer | DataPath
Bo Armstrong is a national conference speaker and author of numerous white papers and articles on the health care benefits industry. As DataPath’s Chief Marketing Officer, Bo focuses on identifying emerging market trends within the benefits industry and advocating for customers and their needs within DataPath. DataPath, Inc. creates cloud-based technology solutions for FSA, HRA, and HSA administration. The company also created the award-winning employee education and engagement program, The Adventures of Captain Contributor.
Jonathan Boston | Senior Vice President, Global Sales | ID Experts
Jonathan brings more than two decades of sales leadership to his role as the Senior VP of Global Sales at ID Experts. Jonathan’s focus has been in driving the dramatic growth of ID Experts’ employee benefits business, as well their industry leading data breach response business unit. Prior to joining ID Experts, he was vice president of sales at NAVEX Global, governance, risk and compliance software and services provider to more than 12,500 organizations globally. Before joining NAVEX Global, Jonathan was the director of North American Sales at global software company, Sage Software.
In this episode of the Expert Pespective podcast, hosted on BenefitsPro and sponsored by American Century Investments, we’ll look at highlights from the recent webcast titled “Design Retirement Plans with Both Plan Sponsors & Participants in Mind.” The presentation broke down recent survey results from American Century Investments, and featured Diane Gallagher from American Century, and Sasha Franger of Empower Retirement.
For the full on-demand presentation, click here:
https://www.benefitspro.com/2019/06/17/how-to-design-retirement-plans-with-both-plan-sponsors-participants-in-mind/
About Diane Gallager:
Vice President Diane Gallagher is responsible for developing content and value-add programs for clients and is also a spokesperson on retirement investing.
Diane originally joined American Century Investments in 1995 and developed communication programs for clients of J.P. Morgan/American Century Retirement Plan Services. Prior to returning to American Century in 2012, Diane was vice president, Retirement Insights for J.P. Morgan Asset Management. Previously, she led product marketing for J.P. Morgan Retirement Plan Services and directed the participant communications and education department. Prior to 1995, Diane served as media relations manager for the Mutual Fund Education Alliance (MFEA). She also worked in Corporate Communications and Marketing for Sinai Health Care System in Detroit, Michigan.
Diane earned a bachelor’s degree in communications, magna cum laude, from the University of Detroit. She is accredited by the International Association of Business Communications (IABC) and has earned many awards for her communication programs. She is a Board member of the Hands & Hearts Auxiliary for Children for Children’s Mercy Hospital and is a member of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce’s Centurions Leadership Program, class of 2019. She is Past-President of the Board of Directors of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Kansas City and currently serves on its Advisory Board. In 2007, Diane was named one of Kansas City’s “40 Under 40″ leaders by Ingram’s magazine. A frequent conference speaker, she holds series 7, 63 and 24 licenses.
About Sasha Franger:
Sasha Franger is the Director of Thought Leadership for Empower Retirement. In her role, she leads the strategy and execution of thought leadership programs for advisors, plan sponsors and consultants. Sasha believes that we do not just want to live longer but that we want to live well longer, and an important aspect of this is to be prepared financially for retirement.
Seizing the opportunity to build a thought leadership content program from the ground up, Sasha joined the organization in 2016. She has 10 years of industry experience and has also worked as an Analyst with Lipper, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters, where she created reports for mutual fund company boards, and as a Marketing Manager at Jackson National Life Distributors.
Sasha holds a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University and a master’s degree in political science from Michigan State University. She currently maintains FINRA Series 6 and 63 securities registrations and holds FINRA Series 7 credentials.
In this episode of the Expert Perspectives podcast, sponsored by MetLife and hosted on BenefitsPRO, we’ll hear highlights from the July 24th presentation titled, Employee Benefits Trends Study: Insights to Improve Client Consultation.
With low unemployment and heightened competition for top talent, benefits play a key role in helping employees – and the companies they work for – thrive in the new work-life world. Understanding the sources of financial stress for employees and how they view their benefits will help you provide your clients with the right benefits solutions to address their unique challenges and retain their employees. Vincent Branchesi, National Director, Group Benefits Center of Excellence at MetLife, gives an inside look at how employees feel about their benefits and the solutions you can present to your clients.
In this episode of the Expert Perspectives podcast, sponsored by Artemis Health and hosted on BenefitsPRO.com, we’ll hear highlights from the June 27th presentation titled, The Future of Transparency: Can Data Fix Health Care? Innovative employers and their benefits advisors know that a key way to stay ahead of many of the challenges facing employee health care lies in the data, and they must evolve to keep up. Grant Gordon, CEO of Artemis Health; Jim Blachek, Co-founder & Principal of The Benefits Group, LLC; Eric Silverman, Founder of Voluntary Disruption; Lester Morales, CEO of Next Impact, LLC; and David Contorno, Founder & CEO or E Powered Benefits anticipate the biggest changes in the next five to 10 years regarding health care data and how organizations can make predictive analytics more than a buzzword.
In this episode of the Perspectives podcast, we’ll hear highlights from the May 14th presentation titled High-deductible health plans & HSAs: Trends, Considerations & Opportunities. The rising cost of healthcare benefits will persist, and employers will look to brokers for answers on how they can fight this trend without it negatively impacting their bottom line. Misty Baker, Director of Compliance and Government Affairs at Benefitmall, Tanya Boyd, President and Chief Executive Officer at Tanya Boyd & Associates, and Michael Olaiz, Senior Vice President of Regional Business Development at Lively discuss the latest trends and strategies being used in the high-deductible health plan and HSA space and how to maximize adoption. The full on-demand webcast can be found here: https://www.benefitspro.com/2019/04/03/high-deductible-health-plans-hsas-trends-considerations-opportunities/
In this podcast you will learn that the best way to land a promising prospect is to get in front of key individuals in the C-Suite and HR. Being able to gain their trust, communicate clearly and address all levels of their benefits needs in the same conversation are crucial.
More and more of your client’s applicants and new employees are leaving school with significant amounts of student debt. In this podcast, Tara Fung discusses the conversations she has with employers on a daily basis to help them determine whether student loan benefits make sense for their organization.
As benefits consultants and their employer clients continue to seek new and better ways to control health costs while improving quality, voluntary benefits will remain a key piece of the puzzle. It’s imperative that you stay up to date and prepared for the future, especially when it comes to making sure benefits offerings keep pace with the changing landscape.