Have you had your mind locked in, programed by the past markets and brokers?

Like, as they say, "all dead bodies rise to the surface one day." Well, yes, here we go, the truth of the Milwaukee, if not the Wisconsin health care marketplace, has risen, like a dead body, to the surface. A market dominated by systems, colluded agreements, and brokerage houses so dominated and controlled by the big carriers that what has died is the ability to be creative, innovative, and open minded to the point where "out of the box" thinkers and ideas, have been able to survive.

EMPLOYERS:

If you're an employer, ask yourself a few basic questions:

1) When's the last time you saw a proposal that wasn't representative of one of the large carriers in the market, commonly referred to as the BUCHA'S?

2) When is the last time someone talked to you about how the underwriting of these large carriers has changed over the last few years, especially since 2010-you know-ACA-Obama Care?

3) When is the last time someone ask this basic and intrinsic question: Are you too busy to explore and demand something else? Maybe Something better?

4) If you sit down and DRAW a picture of what your employee benefits program looks like in a visual display, what do you see? Do you see SILOS of benefits, finance, wellness, population management, analytics, BUT NOTHING is integrated? Do you see and ask, "Well, how can I tell what one has to do with the other, if NONE of the data that I'm looking at connects with the other pieces of data I'm looking at? How do I even guess at an ROI let alone a VOI?"

5) When was the last time you were willing to listen to: "Self-funding is no longer more risk than being fully insured." Has you're broker provided an underwriting exhibit for you in any renewal lately? How about a full transparency ledger that shows you: A) paid claims vs: incurred and lagged claims. B) Administrative fee breakdown by service and price, C) POOLING POINT (the point of claim risk you are responsible for EACH PARTICIPANT that is on your plan, D) the broker fee loads (commissions), E) the method used to forecast your renewal including the trending, the manual loads, and the total expense loads. ???

When I ask these questions, does "I have no idea what he's talking about run through your mind?" Or, "Hell no. I don't even know what an underwriting exhibit is, or a pooling point is, are those part of my contract?" Maybe it's time to think outside of the box.

6) If you're self funded, is your broker's response to the increases on your stop loss price continually, "Well, if we raise the stop loss position, we can save some money." Has anyone ever said, "NO, that's really a stupid idea. Let's do our own forecast, and develop using our own NET Claims trend line, where we see our claims going-where we see our budget at, and then consider, if look at the change in the aggregate expected claims, if changing our stop loss position, makes any sense or not? Let's take a look, a deep dive, at the data, and see what we might be able to do, to really impact claim cost-you know-prevent it maybe before it happens?"

7) Are you frustrated by your wellness plan because you, yourself, feel that it's working, but you can't derive any real meaningful data to tell you that it is-your cost still is increasing? Do you think, to yourself, "How in the world do I get my wellness plan and my benefits plan to be insync -you know-one works hand in hand with other to actually create a "healthy culture?" So, your CFO or CEO is constantly asking you, "Well you know, we're spending alot of money on this-do you still support spending the money-how and why?"

8) Has anyone discussed with you ways that are out side of the box to population manage your changing demographic? How to eliminate potential laser issues? How to reduce, perhaps to nothing, high RX claim risk?

EMPLOYER:

If any of the above strikes a cord with you, then it's time you did the following:

1) Be willing to throw out all of those Myths the market and your broker has taught you in the past-it's a new time.

2) How about giving your best employees, those most committed to their job and to being healthy, the BEST PLAN for the least money? Make sense?

3) How about integrating your Benefits Strategy with your Business Strategy, and creating A Culture By Design.

If this makes sense to you-Yes, there are answers. We've turned everything on it's head and think about using provisions in the ACA to YOUR advantage. Look For WellBen Dynamic Medical Home. It's the answer you've been looking for. Exclusively from The Starr Group. Thank I'm feeding you a line? Try me-call us. Greg