The ShiftShapers Podcast

This week, we’re featuring an interview with Steve Cain, Principal and National Sales Leader at LTCI Partners, on the topic of the practice area that has completely redefined itself over the past few years – Long Term Care (LTC). On this episode of the ShiftShapers Podcast , we discuss why using statistics to market LTC is no longer the best method to use and what advisors should change in their a...

Should HSAs be thought of as more of a retirement than healthcare tool? We ask practitioner and author Michael Gerali that question and more on this week’s ShiftShapers Podcast. Michael Gerali is the managing principal at HR Solutions and has co-authored a fascinating book, What You Don’t Know About Retirement Will Hurt You! that explodes some of the myths and misconceptions around retirement and...

Being a fiduciary is a big responsibility that many clients don’t fully understand and oftentimes find challenging to carry out – especially in the small and middle market. We invited Adam Russo, CEO of the Phia Group, back for a return engagement on ShiftShapers .  With all of the news around the new DOL ruling and with the increased interest in self-funding, Adam explains what it means to be a f...

The most important sales tool you have forgotten might be the most important tool to remember – if you want to maximize the work you do for each client. This episode of ShiftShapers is a bit unorthodox. As you’re listening to it, you might want to download the Discovery Document by clicking this link , print it out, and follow along. John Stoner is the Founder and President of The Stoner Organizat...

On this episode of ShiftShapers, we’re pleased to welcome Meghan Dotter, Principal at Portico PR, back to the program to talk about some of the common mistakes people make when working on printed communications, websites, and presentations. Meghan shares her advice on how we can make all of our communication more relevant, interesting, and actionable. We also discuss the role emotion and authentic...

In previous ShiftShapers episodes, we’ve talked quite a bit about telemedicine and the role it plays in today’s benefits arena.  On this episode, we’re pleased to talk with Dr. Lena Cheng, the Vice President of Medical Affairs at Doctor on Demand, about how to increase employee engagement in telemedicine. How can benefit advisors help employers to understand the telemedicine value proposition and...

On this episode of ShiftShapers , we’re happy to welcome Scott Cantrell, Chief Marketing Strategist at Insurance Bottom Line. Drawing upon years of marketing experience, Scott has a keen sense of how to position ideas with different audiences.  He joins us to discuss something that everybody does, but not everyone does well – prospecting. Scott explains how our tactics often turn away potential cl...

Today on The ShiftShapers Podcast , the CEO of Healthiest You, and a serial entrepreneur with a rich background in our industry, Jim Prendergast, joins us to talk about the challenges of putting consumers in the center of their own health care. In this episode, Jim focuses on the current state of the telemedicine market segment and its promise for lowering costs and increasing patient satisfaction...

In this engaging conversation, we discuss how brokers can get started with life and the pros and cons of going it alone versus creating strategic partnerships. We also explore techniques advisors can use to approach prospects and clients, such as policy review and others. To gain more knowledge, Brian suggests leveraging wholesalers to gain both product and conceptual depth. We wrap up the convers...

According to a recent American Journal of Medicine study, 40% of the patients who requested second opinions on the initial diagnosis have received changes in their diagnosis and treatment. On this episode of ShiftShapers , we’re talking to Dr. Lewis Levy about a serious problem in today’s health care – inaccurate diagnosis. Dr. Levy is Senior Vice-President for Medical Affairs and Chief Quality Of...

This week, our subject matter expert is Julian Lago, co-founder and President of Benezon about how benefits advisors can help employees raise their “Healthcare IQ”. In light of recent reports that as many as three-fourths of employees don’t understand even basic benefits terminology, this offers yet another post-reform opportunity for adding value. Julian has spent the last five years working to u...

At the recent Ascend! conference in Nashville, we caught up with Russ Blakely, President of Russ Blakely & Associates. In the course of our conversation, it became apparent that Russ is doing a lot of the things “the right way,” and we decided to invite him to the program to talk about best practices. Russ is a great example of the things he’s doing in the benefits arena that you can likely le...

Our special guest on today’s episode of the ShiftShapers podcast is Al Lewis. Al is a serial entrepreneur, author, renaissance man, and the CEO of Quizzify. Quizzify is a health care education app that teaches employees how to buy and use healthcare (literally through fun and games), making them smarter consumers and, over time, spend less money on things that will not benefit them… or may even ha...

At the recent Ascend! conference in Nashville, we caught up with Rick Perryman, National Practice Leader for Trendshift. We discuss a wide range of subjects and spotlight the key data elements and themes that advisors need to be aware of to help clients manage their plans. Join us to discover why Rick believes that “transparency” is the new “throw away word” in the benefits arena and what “fiducia...

On this episode of ShiftShapers , we’re pleased to welcome  Jessica Waltman, Principal at Forward Health Consulting, back to the program. At the present time, Jessica is the only guest that comes on quarterly because the regulatory, legislative, and political world of Washington D.C. that she works in changes quite often. Jessica joins us to share her insights and unparalleled knowledge of what’s...

On this episode of Shiftshapers , we’re talking to Tom Harte, President of Landmark Benefits who shares some of the tools and techniques his agency uses to drive success with exceptional communication. As all agencies work to deliver value added services, Tom’s believes that being able to deliver real-time information across a wide range of topics helps to create and deepen client relationships. C...

Last week we talked to Samir Qamar, M.D., founder and CEO of MedLion and MedWand, about direct pay primary care and how it can be integrated into the solutions advisors offer to clients. On this episode of Shiftshapers Podcast , we continue our conversation with Dr. Qamar as he shares his latest offering that aims to take telemedicine to another level. We talk about a brand new device that Dr. Qam...

About a year ago on ShiftShapers , we talked about a subject that generated quite a bit of interest among our listeners – the field of direct pay primary care, or direct pay practices. On this episode, we’re honored to be speaking to one of the pioneers and disruptors in direct primary care (DPC), Samir Qamar, M.D. Samir is the founder and CEO of two companies, MedLion and MedWand. In this first o...

Today on The ShiftShapers Podcast , the founder and CEO of MiEdge, Mark Smith, returns to the show to continue our conversation about Big Data. In this episode, Mark focuses on the use of retirement plan data to create opportunities and deliver value to prospects and clients. Mark describes new ways that benefit advisors can easily visualize potential prospect relationships from massive amounts of...

This week, we are pleased to welcome Jennifer Borislow, the founding principal of Borislow Insurance in Massachusetts. She is an author, industry thought leader and past president of the Million Dollar Round Table. Borislow Insurance’s client-centric approach primarily focuses on employee benefits, using an innovative 7-discipline, 3-year model with specialized teams in each area to ensure the hig...

In this episode, we explore some of the most common questions advisors ask about self funding and discuss concerns ranging from minimum group size to tools and techniques. Our guest on this episode of ShiftShapers is Adam Russo, Esq., co-founder and CEO of The Phia Group, as well as the founding and managing partner at a law firm, Russo & Minchoff. He believes that, in light of the healthcare...

Today, we’re talking to Craig Lack, CEO of Premium Reduction Strategies. He is a best-selling author and nationally-recognized health care expert and an expert on self-funding who has appeared on ABC, CBS and FOX as well as in a number of national publications. Craig’s 25-year experience in the industry has given him a deep understanding of the challenges facing benefit advisors in a post-ACA worl...

Occasionally on ShiftShapers , we delve into different modes that advisors are using in order to help them market their ideas and their practice. Today, we’re covering one of those tools that’s becoming increasingly popular and more adopted by the industry with great success – video marketing. On this episode, we invited a subject matter expert, Bart Camarata, creator and host of BenefitAdvisor TV...

On this episode of Shiftshapers , we’re very excited to talk to Gary Robinson, Executive Vice-President of Business Development at HealthTap. Founded in 2010, HealthTap’s goal was to reinvent the way people all over the world take care of their health and wellbeing. While that is a classic B.H.A.G., the conversation we had with Gary makes it clear that things may be changing even more rapidly than...

One of the things that’s always at the forefront of everyone’s mind today, as well as an expectation from clients, is the ability to keep all of the appropriate communications secured. And it isn’t just good business – it is the law. Ari Gardner, the Director of Sharefile for Insurance at Citrix, is one of the foremost subject matter experts and we were pleased to have the opportunity to interview...