Healthcare on the Rocks - Employee Benefits with a Twist

In this episode, Justin Holland , CEO and co-founder of HealthJoy , shares his international upbringing, entrepreneurial ventures, and the personal healthcare challenge that led to the creation of HealthJoy, a platform designed to simplify healthcare choices for employees and employers alike. With a focus on enhancing healthcare navigation and reducing costs, HealthJoy emerges as a critical partne...

Dive into an episode that's all about the big issues hitting our health and wallets: skyrocketing prescription costs and the obesity epidemic. Two co-authors of the 2024 Employee Health Trends report from Springbuk take you through the ins and outs of how these challenges are reshaping the landscape of employer healthcare spending and what it means for all of us.  Janet Young, MD, Clinical An...

Dive into the world of high-cost claimants trends with Janet Young, MD, Clinical Analytics Advisor at Springbuk and one of the authors of the 2024 Employee Health Trends report .  The report sheds light on managing those hefty healthcare expenses. Janet describes the journey through the world of healthcare economics, beginning with a breakdown of high-cost claimants into distinct segments, then ex...

In this engaging and informative podcast, hosts Mike Pattengale and Jennifer Jones chat with Alex Frommeyer, the co-founder and CEO of Beam Benefits. Alex shares his journey from being an engineer to founding Beam, a digitally native employee benefits company that's transforming dental insurance and more. Key takeaways: Digitally Native Benefits : Beam's success lies in being a native di...

Brian Whorley, founder of Paytient, explained how the company's health payment accounts provide interest-free credit lines for out-of-pocket healthcare expenses, aiming to bridge the gap between existing healthcare savings accounts (HSAs), flexible spending accounts (FSAs), and the financial burden of healthcare costs. Whorley stated, "Credit is what we use in our lives to turn large, un...

If you look at almost any engagement survey that a company does, career development is almost always one of the lowest scores. Robyn Clark, the founder of WinningWise, an HR and talent management company, says that’s largely because employers career development because they think it's only for the person – the employee – and not for them. That’s completely and utterly wrong. Robyn explains th...

A 2023 Business Group on Health survey showed that for the first time in history, cancer overtook musculoskeletal disease as the top cost driver for employers. Natalya Gertsik, vice president of Clear Cancer Solution Management at PHM, and a contributor to the 2023 Springbuk Employee Health Trends report, says this is a major issue from employers and their employees because of three main deficienc...

For the past few years, specialty drugs have played a large and growing role in the overall cost of employee healthcare. In this episode, Janet Young, M.D., lead clinical scientist and co-author of Springbuk's 2023 Employee Health Trends Report , describes the factors that are driving the biggest increases and get some tips on what employers can do to keep their costs under control.  Catch th...

We are now into our fourth year of dealing with COVID. Since it burst into our consciousness in early 2020, we've seen massive changes in treatments and long-term effects, including the enigmatic, long COVID  and strains on mental health. To kick off season two of “Healthcare on the Rocks: Employee Benefits with a Twist,” we're going to start with a mini-series, exploring the major trend...

Imagine you’ve just received a life-changing diagnosis: maybe it’s cancer, maybe it’s ALS. Whatever it is, the last thing you would want to worry about is finding the best specialist or questioning if your prognosis is correct.  That’s where an Expert Medical Opinion solution can help. Josh Reimer, Director of Channel Partnerships at Included Health, joined us to review many of the challenges of o...

“What we've seen in the last 10 to 15 years … is a juggernaut of costs from specialty medicines, usually wonderful medicines with great cures, but that come at a significant cost. … And whereas the split between medical and pharma used to be that we spent some of our time on utilization of pharmacy and prescriptions and generics and mail order versus retail, now specialty medicine is just blo...

The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (CAA) was signed into law, including many provisions that impact employer-sponsored health plans. The CAA mandates a new set of requirements for pharmacy reporting, mental health parity compliance, consumer price transparency, balance-billing practices, and other requirements related to contracts between employers, their health plans, and broker/consulta...

Healthiest Employers is the trusted awards program that recognizes people-first organizations that are taking a more proactive approach to employee health. Since its inception in 2009, the Healthiest Employers corporate wellness program has attracted over 10,000 employers representing more than 60 million employees from all across the United States. Haley Elmore , Healthiest Employers program coor...

Specialty drugs are playing a significant role in the increasing healthcare costs in the commercial market. In this third episode of a mini-series based on the 2022 Employee Health Trends report , Janet Young, M.D., Lead Clinical Scientist at Springbuk and co-author of the report, talks about which specialty drugs are driving the most cost and alternatives that benefits leaders can explore. Discov...

Health insurance was established to protect us from catastrophic financial loss, but David Contorno, CEO and founder of E-Powered Benefits , says, “medical debt is the number one cause of bankruptcy in the U.S., with the huge majority of them having had health insurance?” David explains how the typical broker and carrier contracts are structured so that they benefit most when costs go up. His firm...

In this second episode of a mini-series based on the 2022 Employee Health Trends report , we talk with co-author Janet Young, M.D., Lead Clinical Scientist at Springbuk, about the impacts COVID-19 has had on employee healthcare and employer benefit plans.  Armed with data from more than 30,000 COVID patients, Janet and her fellow data analysts split the research into individuals who had COVID into...

In the 2021 Employee Health Trends report, Springbuk discovered the rate of telemedicine services per 1000 plan members had increased 12-fold over the previous year’s data, which was mostly prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Digging deeper into the data, Chris Gagen and the rest of the Springbuk analytics team found mental health accounted for more than 40 percent of those encounters. What has happen...

You might know Spencer Smith hosts a popular podcast around self-funded insurance. Or you may have seen his video series on stop-loss insurance, which has become standard curriculum for many people just starting in the industry.  But did you know Spencer loves heavy metal, which many people find shocking? Or that he once dabbled in stand-up comedy, where he occasionally bombed on stage, “which is...

Take a big idea, surround yourself with phenomenal people, and execute on an idea.  That’s how Rod Reasen, CEO Springbuk, assessed the success he’s witnessed in the five years since founding the health data analytics company. Rod believes benefits managers have a unique opportunity to take data from thousands of employers, use an analytics platform like Springbuk to apply rich health intelligence,...

Here in the middle of the “Great Resignation,” wellness programs play a huge role in attracting and retaining top employees. Courtney Schroeder, Well-being Strategy Consultant at WellRight , says the top question used to be “What is my bonus structure?” Now there’s been a shift back to “What is the culture?” Standards are higher for perks and benefits, and people expect greater flexibility than ev...

In today’s dynamic labor market, it often takes more than a competitive salary and a solid medical plan to attract and retain the best employees. U-Haul, one of the Healthiest 100 employers in the United States, understands that better than most companies.  Monique Harty, U-Haul’s Wellness Program Manager , explains that the 76-year-old do-it-yourself moving company views wellness as a holistic pr...

In this episode, we talk with Jason Nordby, who is a senior account executive and partner at M3 Insurance, specializing in employee benefits and coordinating ongoing service for clients to ensure that their coverage meets their needs. Jason is also M3’s director of employee benefits captive practice. In this role, he serves as a subject matter expert, strategist, and thought leader on health capti...

In today’s tight labor market, employers are struggling to identify the unique value proposition that they can offer to prospective employees as well as to retain current staff. For example, the importance of - and desire for - family benefits and mental health have risen dramatically over recent years. Another set of hot-button questions for HR leaders revolves around diversity, equity, and inclu...

In “Healthcare on the Rocks - Employee Benefits with a Twist,” we talk with employers, benefits advisors, technology innovators, and other experts in wellness, human resources, and healthcare. Our first guest is Scott McGohan, CEO of McGohan Brabender , one of the largest independent health insurance brokers in the Midwest with offices in Dayton, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis. Scott works...