Designing Braggable and Unique Benefits Programs with Emily Munroe, Global Head of Benefits & Wellness at Live Nation

Connect with Ben on LinkedIn

Recent Episodes from The Benefits Playbook

Creating a Safe Workplace Through Inclusivity, Benefits, and Education with Ben Greene, Public Speaker & LGBTQ+ Inclusion Consultant

This episode features an interview with Ben Greene. Ben is an international public speaker and LGBTQ+ inclusion consultant, as well as an author and an advocate for transgender youth. In 2019, he gave a successful TEDx Talk called “Where are you sitting?” and has since traveled the world speaking in different domains like HR conferences, DEI summits, and government agencies like NASA.

In this episode, Sasha and Ben discuss inclusion consulting, what carriers get wrong about member experience, and the platinum standard of inclusive healthcare.

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“The biggest thing would be really making sure that gender affirming care is covered by your benefits plan. Gender affirming care looks like things like top surgery and bottom surgery, which is what they're called colloquially. That's what I would consider the silver standard of gender affirming care coverage. The gold standard would include things like facial feminization surgery. It might include something like voice therapy. Also, for LGBTQ folks overall, different fertility options. Looking at something like IVF. Care that includes inclusive family-building or adoption coverage, and working that in with your parental leave as well. If we want to talk about the new platinum standard, something else that I hate that I have to recommend, but that is becoming increasingly important to both LGBTQ people overall, as well as parents of transgender young people, is relocation coverage.” – Ben Greene

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Episode Timestamps:

*(01:11): Ben’s background

*(05:56): Ben explains his role as an inclusion consultant

*(12:11): Do’s and don’ts of creating an inclusive workplace

*(16:38): Must-have benefits

*(22:25): What carriers get wrong about member experience

*(27:21): Ben’s advice for those looking to become an advocate

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Links:

Visit Ben’s website

Follow Ben on Instagram

Follow Ben on TikTok

Pre-order Ben’s book

PFLAG

Human Rights Campaign

GLSEN

GLMA

Connect with Emily on LinkedIn

enJanuary 30, 2024

Designing Braggable and Unique Benefits Programs with Emily Munroe, Global Head of Benefits & Wellness at Live Nation

In this episode, Sasha and Emily discuss must-have benefits, how to get buy-in from leaders, and creating braggable programs.

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Episode Timestamps:

*(01:20): Emily’s career journey

*(04:17): What Benefits & Wellness looks like at Live Nation

*(06:24): How Live Nation builds their benefits programs

*(13:19): How benefits leaders can get buy-in from other leaders

*(16:41): Emily explains Sober Nation

*(25:09): Benefits programs must-haves

*(32:30): Emily’s advice for those new to the industry

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Links:

Follow Live Nation on LinkedIn

Learn more about Live Nation

Connect with Serafina on LinkedIn

enJanuary 09, 2024

The Importance of Building an Inclusive Benefits Plan with Serafina Miller, Senior Principal Consultant at Mercer

This episode features an interview with Serafina Miller, Senior Principal Consultant at Mercer. Serafina has been in the industry for over two decades, specializing in group account management for multiple industries like banking, biotechnology, transportation, engineering firms, and law firms. At Mercer, Serafina partners with employers to ensure their employee benefits programs integrate with compensation strategies and business objectives, as well as aligning with the organizations’ DEI strategies.

In this episode, Sasha sits down with Serafina to discuss designing inclusive benefits plans, why self-funding is a win-win for finance and benefits teams, and the importance of provider alignment.

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“A lot of conversations in these last handful of years about provider alignment to the communities in which they serve, and really pushing insurance carriers to work on their provider diversity. Hiring more Black, Latine physicians, transgender physicians, non-binary physicians, because there are certain conversations that are much easier to have because there's an alignment of life experience. There's a believability factor that's built into that dynamic. It encourages more people to get more engaged in their healthcare. We're so focused on preventive care, if we have more diverse physicians, people will get more engaged in their preventive care and ideally live, the goal is longer, healthier, and therefore, happier lives.” – Serafina Miller

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Episode Timestamps:

*(00:32): Serafina dives into Mercer

*(05:54): What size groups are moving to self-funded

*(08:47): Ancillary and PTO trends in the benefits space

*(12:09): What family-building, fertility, and reproductive health benefits look like

*(18:00): Components of an inclusive benefits program

*(26:46): The importance of virtual care

*(28:56): Serafina’s advice for those new to the industry

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Links:

Connect with Michael on LinkedIn

enDecember 05, 2023

Building Benefits Connectivity Through Infrastructure with Michael Levin, Co-founder of Ideon

This episode features an interview with Michael Levin, Co-founder of Ideon, an infrastructure platform powering digital experiences in health insurance and employee benefits. Michael has over 20 years of experience driving innovation and bringing quality and choice to new markets. Prior to Ideon, he served as the Chief Operating Officer for Affiliates Risk Management Services (ARMS), where he recruited a new leadership team, transformed and upgraded financial operations and audit systems, and led business plan development. He also founded Media Sciences, Inc., bringing quality, value, and choice to the printer supply market.

In this episode, Sasha and Michael discuss building infrastructure in the benefits space, the importance of decision support tools, and the trend of same-day benefits.

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“There's so much that we can do around creating better member experience. We can get coverage in place in days, not weeks, so that you don't get to the doctor and have a coverage issue. Or if you were to leave a company and you need to avail yourself of COBRA, that it is seamless as opposed to a three week or four week set of challenges. You should be able to understand the differences in real language between plans and understand the tradeoffs of making an investment in one place versus another. There's so much we can do around education, around transparency, ‘Is this the right doctor based on their experience, their training, their outcomes for me?’ Transparency and pharmacy and costs associated with that. But, there's so many areas of the member journey that could be improved from enrollment all the way through, through using these products. The good news is there's a lot of really great companies led by really great founders who are passionate about solving these problems and they will be solved. There's a lot of activity happening, so this is being solved for today. All of us have a good reason to expect great outcomes over the coming years.” – Michael Levin

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Episode Timestamps:

*(00:57): Michael explains Ideon

*(06:40): The importance of infrastructure in the benefits space

*(13:52): The power of accurate provider data

*(19:10): Michael dives into decision support tools

*(23:53): How we can improve member experience

*(26:40): Michael shares his favorite healthcare story

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Links:

Connect with John on LinkedIn

enNovember 14, 2023

Self-Funding Isn’t Just for Large Groups with John Meister, Principal & Senior Vice President of Employee Benefits at Newfront

This episode features an interview with John Meister, Principal and Senior Vice President of Employee Benefits at Newfront. John provides top-tier consulting, creative strategies, and employee advocacy on behalf of his clients nationwide. Prior to Newfront, John spent five years leading Client Strategy and Execution at Woodruff Sawyer and held Employee Benefits roles at One Digital and Burnham Benefits.

In this episode, Sasha sits down with John to discuss transitioning to self-funded solutions, key components of a great member experience, and building point solutions into benefits programs.

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“When I talk with some companies that are unfamiliar with self-funding, really, they think it's just this totally apples and oranges approach. I try to just explain to them, ‘Hey, built into your premiums right now, we can take a look at what the insurance companies are doing for self-funding. They have stop loss built-in. They have their PBMs built-in. And there’s just layers of admin costs and profit built into each of these that then comprises your premium rate that you're getting charged.’ Just by trying to compare it to what they know right now, to then what it would be to self-funding, that also, I think, is usually a big light-bulb moment for a lot of clients. Just to feel like, ‘Oh, this isn't actually that much different than what I'm doing.’ It's just, ‘Hey, we're going to set the rates for what we say you should budget for. It's going to be that set number that you're used to.’ Conversations like that usually are the foundation to then go on.” – John Meister

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Episode Timestamps:

*(01:13): John explains Newfront

*(08:19): How John talks to his clients about moving to self-funded solutions

*(24:14): The key components of a great member experience for clients

*(28:49): John discusses point solutions and the difference it makes in benefits programs

*(31:51): John’s advice to those new to the industry

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Links:

Read Bapu’s book Random Acts of Medicine

enOctober 24, 2023

Designing Benefits for Employee Productivity and Retention with Dr. Bapu Jena, Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School

This episode features an interview with Dr. Bapu Jena, an economist, physician, and professor at Harvard Medical School. He bridges his professions to explore the economics of healthcare productivity and medical innovation. Bapu is also a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research and practices medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.

In this episode, Sasha and Bapu discuss his book Random Acts of Medicine, provider-level quality scoring, and designing employer-sponsored benefits.

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“If you're an employer and you're thinking about how to structure your benefits for your employees, you're going to think about which hospital systems you want them to have access to. You're going to think about what doctors’ groups or doctors’ practices you want them to have access to. Naturally, you're going to want to have information on what is the quality of those places. But then how do you measure quality? What we might say about a particular doctor in terms of their quality, might be a function of their actual skill and the true quality that they provide. It could also be a function of the resources that their practice has, or the types of patients that they see. If you want to know something about what is the true effect of seeing that particular doctor, you've got to sidestep all these thorny empirical problems.” – Dr. Bapu Jena

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Episode Timestamps:

*(01:09): How the fields of healthcare and economics correlate with each other

*(04:02): Bapu dives into his book Random Acts of Medicine

*(10:09): What provider-level quality scoring is and how it works

*(18:00): Bapu’s thoughts on employer-sponsored benefits

*(25:21): Good spend versus bad spend when building benefits plan designs

*(27:29): Challenges providers and payers will face as healthcare evolves

*(36:33): Bapu shares his favorite healthcare story

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Links:

Random Acts of Medicine Substack

Listen to Freakonomics MD Podcast

Connect with David on LinkedIn

enOctober 10, 2023

economics

health care policy

employee productivity

health insurance

employee retention

The Human Side of Health Benefits with David Duenas, Life Science Practice Leader at HUB International

This episode features an interview with David Duenas, Life Science Practice Leader at HUB International. HUB International is a leading full-service global insurance broker providing property and casualty, life and health, employee benefits, investment and risk management products and services. David has served the company for nearly 20 years in Consulting and the Life Sciences Practice space.

In this episode, Sasha and David discuss how to move to a self-funded solution, crafting a better member experience, and the value of human connection.

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“I think the biggest challenge that we face is the complexity of the healthcare system. And that's everyone in that, in the delivery of that benefit. Whether it's at the carrier level, the consulting level, the providers, the hospitals, and getting all of that to integrate and speak to one another for the benefit of the employee. That, I think, is really the biggest challenge. Our industry is probably one of the few that takes all of its complexity, all of those connection points – and they are many – and we just drop this on the lap of the employee or the participant, if you will, and we just hit them on the rear end and say, ‘Good luck.’ And the fluency of most employees is they don't interact with the health plan with any commonality. They're just not there on a daily basis, so it's foreign to them. And so, we could try and increase their fluency but also the delivery, so it makes it easier for them.”– David Duenas

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Episode Timestamps:

*(00:54): David’s answer to “Why do you do what you do?”

*(02:06): Challenges members are facing in the healthcare industry

*(04:06): Components of a best-in-class program

*(06:17): The directive David sees from the carrier industry

*(09:46): How David talks to clients about moving to a self-funded solution

*(16:31): How the hospital experience trickles down to employers

*(23:45): David shares a story from the early days of his career

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Links:

Email David

Connect with Lee on LinkedIn

enSeptember 26, 2023

TPA vs. ASO: Which Is Right For You? with Lee Lewis, CSO & GM Medical Solutions at Health Transformation Alliance

This episode features an interview with Lee Lewis, Chief Strategy Officer and General Manager of Medical Solutions for Health Transformation Alliance (HTA). At HTA, he spearheads efforts across 50 large employers and six million employees to transform healthcare, save lives, and save millions of dollars. Lee has spent his career advising Fortune 10 employers, insurance companies, medical associations, and the Departments of Justice and Labor.

In this episode, Sasha sits down with Lee to discuss the benefits of a TPA versus an ASO, virtual primary care, and putting trust back into healthcare.

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“If you are a huge employer, if you’re AT&T or Walmart, you have enough leverage that carriers will build systems in place that enable you to do creative things. The difference between a TPA and a carrier is, it's still remarkable but it's smaller. The gap is smaller. But, if you're a small employer, you don't have the buying power with any carrier anywhere. You're a rounding error to them. You're not going to get any type of flexibility or creativity supported. Whereas, if you work with an independent TPA, you can still access a lot of those things that might otherwise only be accessible for a huge employer. Secondly, getting data is really hard with large carriers. If you have a TPA, you have the chance to get your data like a large employer might, even though you're smaller.” – Lee Lewis

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Episode Timestamps:

*(01:09): Lee breaks down TPA versus major carrier options

*(04:53): Busting the myth that TPA is more complicated than ASO

*(10:39): The top 3 components of a best-in-class healthcare benefits program

*(22:05): Lee’s opinion on virtual primary care

*(28:27): Lee discusses self-funded versus fully insured

*(33:17): Lee shares his favorite healthcare story

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Links:

Listen to Broken Benefits Podcast

enSeptember 12, 2023

Trailer

Employee healthcare represents the second-largest investment for most U.S. businesses. As we all know, navigating the complexities of the system is no easy task. High costs, confusing experiences, and administrative burdens can make it challenging to make the most of healthcare investments.

On “The Benefits Playbook: Strategies for Self-Funded Health Plans”, we’ll provide the insights needed to take control of employee healthcare all while delivering ‌a great member experience.

Listen in to hear from experts in the field and learn how companies can overcome obstacles to find value in their healthcare plans. Plus, we’ll discuss how innovative businesses are changing the status quo and making it easier for their employees to understand and access healthcare.

Join Sasha Yamaguchi, Commercial Leader at Collective Health, and our guests and let us help you in creating a successful strategy for better employee healthcare. Tune in to “The Benefits Playbook”, where we’ll share the latest updates and strategies to maximize your healthcare investments.