What you need to know now about the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) - Shannon Kukulka and Nicole Belles

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 partner for employers seeking to offer better healthcare solutions to their employees. Holland's journey from a skiing accident to the inception of HealthJoy highlights the universal struggle with navigating healthcare options, underscoring the platform's mission to make quality care more accessible and understandable.

Key takeaways from the episode include:

• The inspiration behind HealthJoy rooted in personal experience, emphasizing the need for simplified healthcare navigation.
• HealthJoy's approach to cost containment and personalized healthcare guidance, aiming to deliver savings to employers and improve employee health outcomes.
• The significant impact of virtual care and telemedicine, especially highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic, and HealthJoy's adaptation to offer a comprehensive range of virtual healthcare services.
• Holland's perspective on current and emerging challenges within the healthcare industry, including pharmacy costs, high-cost claimants, and the obesity epidemic, and HealthJoy's commitment to addressing these issues through innovative solutions.
• The importance of a seamless user experience in healthcare platforms, combining digital efficiency with human support to meet the diverse needs of users.
• The need for a platform to deliver a healthcare cost containment strategy on the back of a challenging macroeconomic environment.

Stay in Touch!

• Connect with Justin Holland on LinkedIn
• Visit HealthJoy
• Learn more about Springbuk Activate
• Get the complete 2024 Employee Health Trends report and other related resources

Connect with our co-hosts Jennifer Jones and David Pittman 

Have feedback, questions, or suggestions for show ideas? Send them to us at podcast@springbuk.com.

Please rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform, and share it with your friends and colleagues. We appreciate you and thank you for listening!

Produced by David Pittman

Theme music: "Overboard" by Stay Outside

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 Analytics Advisor at Springbuk, and co-host Jennifer Jones, Population Health Practice Leader, explore the tangled web of drug pricing, unravel why your medicine costs keep going up, and discuss steps employers can take to reduce costs. Plus, we're not shying away from the weighty issue of obesity. Jennifer takes a deep dive into how it's impacting healthcare costs in ways you might not expect.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone involved in employee health benefits, offering actionable strategies and a comprehensive understanding of the current landscape.

What You Will Learn:

• The significant role of prescription drug pricing in increasing employer healthcare costs, with a particular focus on brand name and specialty drugs.
• Insights into the obesity epidemic and its direct and indirect impacts on healthcare spending and employee well-being.
• Strategies for employers to manage rising healthcare costs, including the adoption of generics, biosimilars, and comprehensive health programs.
• The importance of a data-driven approach to health benefits planning, leveraging insights from healthcare analytics to inform strategies.
• Emerging treatments and approaches for managing obesity, highlighting the role of GLP-1 agonists and the need for multifaceted treatment strategies.

Stay in Touch!

• Connect with Janet Young on LinkedIn
• Get the complete 2024 Employee Health Trends report and other related resources
• Connect with our co-hosts Jennifer Jones and David Pittman 

Have feedback, questions, or suggestions for show ideas? Send them to us at podcast@springbuk.com.

Please rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform, and share it with your friends and colleagues. We appreciate you and thank you for listening!

Produced by David Pittman

Theme music: "Overboard" by Stay Outside

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 explaining how those groups differ in their influence on overall healthcare spending. The conversation then turns to the diverse health conditions within these categories, underlining the critical need to grasp these differences for crafting impactful management strategies. 

You'll hear about innovative approaches like encouraging regular cancer screenings and leveraging Centers of Excellence for top-notch care and advice, particularly vital in the priciest categories dominated by facility expenses.

What You Will Learn:

• The segmentation of high-cost claimants in healthcare and their impact on total spending
• The importance of understanding the variation in health conditions across different cost categories
• Strategies for managing high-cost claims, including early cancer screenings and leveraging Centers of Excellence

Catch the full conversation.

• Connect with Janet Young on LinkedIn
• Get the complete 2024 Employee Health Trends report and other related resources
• Connect with our co-hosts Jennifer Jones and David Pittman 

Subscribe so you don’t miss an episode: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other popular podcast players. 

Have feedback, questions, or suggestions for show ideas? Send them to us at podcast@springbuk.com.

Please rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform, and share it with your friends and colleagues. We appreciate you and thank you for listening!

Produced by David Pittman

Theme music: "Overboard" by Stay Outside

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:

1. Digitally Native Benefits: Beam's success lies in being a native digital company, leveraging AI-powered underwriting and a wellness program to offer flexible and innovative benefits for small and medium-sized businesses. This digital approach differentiates Beam from traditional insurers and creates a memorable experience for employees.
2. Dental Wellness Program: Beam's unique dental wellness program gamifies dental care, allowing users to accumulate points by brushing their teeth with the connected Beam toothbrush. These points can be redeemed for various products and gift cards, promoting better dental health while engaging users passively.
3. The Future of Employee Benefits: Alex envisions a more integrated and comprehensive approach to employee benefits, where data-driven solutions unify various health-related coverages and experiences. He believes tech and entrepreneurial innovation will be the driving force behind this future.

The next time you brush your teeth, remember that you can make dental health more fun and rewarding with Beam!

Catch the full conversation.

• Connect with Alex Frommeyer on LinkedIn
• Visit Beam Benefits' website
• Connect with our co-hosts Jennifer Jones and Mike Pattengale 

Subscribe so you don’t miss an episode: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other popular podcast players. 

Have feedback, questions, or suggestions for show ideas? Send them to us at podcast@springbuk.com.

Please rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform, and share it with your friends and colleagues. We appreciate you and thank you for listening!

Produced by David Pittman

Theme music: "Overboard" by Stay Outside

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, unexpected, or infrequent expenses into affordable things."

Paytient's health payment accounts, unlike HSAs and FSAs, do not require employer or employee funding and do not perform credit checks on the account holders. Whorley emphasized that there's "no interest to the actual members" and "no credit check to the actual members." The goal is to enable more people to access healthcare and reduce financial stress around medical expenses.

Whorley said Paytient can be used with existing HSAs and FSAs to create more equitable access to healthcare, particularly for lower-income employees who may struggle with high-deductible health plans. Whorley explained that Paytient is a flexible product that can be tailored to the needs of different employers and their workforce demographics. This allows employers to ensure that their health plans are more accessible and equitable for all employees, regardless of their income level or job position.

Whorley also talked about how Paytient can help address deferred healthcare, which has been more prevalent since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. By providing individuals with a way to afford healthcare without incurring additional financial burden, Paytient aims to encourage more people to seek medical care when they need it, rather than delaying or avoiding treatment due to financial concerns.

Whorley acknowledged the need to address the root cause of high healthcare costs, but emphasized that Paytient offers a practical solution for individuals and employers in the meantime. He said, "As long as you have your phone, you have a way to pay for care," demonstrating how Paytient can help make healthcare more accessible and affordable for everyone.

Key Take-aways: 

• Paytient provides interest-free credit lines to help people afford healthcare expenses.
• Paytient can sit alongside HSAs and FSAs, making all benefits more effective.
• Deferred care is a pervasive issue that can be addressed by providing more affordable healthcare options.
• Paytient can be deployed at any time throughout the year for employers.
• Paytient recently closed a $40 million Series B funding round to support its growth plans.

• Connect with Brian Whorley on LinkedIn
• Visit Paytient’s website
• Connect with our co-hosts Jennifer Jones and Mike Pattengale 

Subscribe so you don’t miss an episode: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other popular podcast players. 

Have feedback, questions, or suggestions for show ideas? Send them to us at podcast@springbuk.com.

Please rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform, and share it with your friends and colleagues. We appreciate you and thank you for listening!

Produced by David Pittman

Theme music: "Overboard" by Stay Outside

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 that if employers are preparing a workforce for the future, they should be looking to develop people so they can take on ever-bigger projects and go into broader roles, some of which may not even be known yet. 

Robyn further says career development is probably the most important talent strategy today, one that offers a huge win for both the organization and the individual because the employer is building the bench that they want and they're meeting two significant needs for the employee: mastery and personal growth.

Catch the full conversation.

• Connect with Robyn Clark on LinkedIn
• Watch WinningWise’s webinar “Understanding Individual Needs: How Employee Needs Have Shifted Since the Pandemic”
• Get the complete 2023 Employee Health Trends report and other related resources
• Connect with our co-hosts Jennifer Jones and Mike Pattengale 
• Subscribe so you don’t miss an episode: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other popular podcast players. 

Have feedback, questions, or suggestions for show ideas? Send them to us at podcast@springbuk.com.

Please rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform, and share it with your friends and colleagues. We appreciate you and thank you for listening!

Produced by David Pittman

Theme music: "Overboard" by Stay Outside

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 deficiencies in our healthcare system related to cancer care:

• limited access
• inadequate communication
• inefficiency

She describes the respective underlying issues with Centers of Excellence and community-based oncologists, and then explains how PHM is applying an ”independence clinical excellence model” to address these deficiencies and challenges.

Catch the full conversation.

• Connect with Natalya Gertsik on LinkedIn
• Get the complete 2023 Employee Health Trends report and other related resources
• Connect with our co-hosts Jennifer Jones and Mike Pattengale 
• Subscribe so you don’t miss an episode: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other popular podcast players. 

Have feedback, questions, or suggestions for show ideas? Send them to us at podcast@springbuk.com.

Please rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform, and share it with your friends and colleagues. We appreciate you and thank you for listening!

Produced by David Pittman

Theme music: "Overboard" by Stay Outside

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 the full conversation.

• Connect with Janet Young on LinkedIn
• Get the complete 2023 Employee Health Trends report and other related resources
• Connect with our co-hosts Jennifer Jones and Mike Pattengale 
• Subscribe so you don’t miss an episode: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other popular podcast players. 

Have feedback, questions, or suggestions for show ideas? Send them to us at podcast@springbuk.com.

Please rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform, and share it with your friends and colleagues. We appreciate you and thank you for listening!

Produced by David Pittman

Theme music: "Overboard" by Stay Outside

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 trends that are reshaping employee healthcare. 

This episode’s featured guests are three of the analysts and authors of Springbuk's 2023 Employee Health Trends Report. Janet Young, M.D., lead clinical scientist; Chris Gagen, senior director of analytic and strategic consulting; and Jennifer Jones, MSM RD, enterprise employer practice leader.

Catch the full conversation.

• Connect with Janet Young and Chris Gagen on LinkedIn
• Get the complete 2023 Employee Health Trends report and other related resources
• Connect with our co-hosts Jennifer Jones and Mike Pattengale 
• Subscribe so you don’t miss an episode: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other popular podcast players. 

Have feedback, questions, or suggestions for show ideas? Send them to us at podcast@springbuk.com.

Please rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform, and share it with your friends and colleagues. We appreciate you and thank you for listening!

Produced by David Pittman

Theme music: "Overboard" by Stay Outside

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 our current healthcare system:

• Confusion: 50% of individuals struggle to understand their insurance
• Low engagement: 33% of individuals avoid medical care altogether
• Lack of access: >16,000 physician offices closed due to COVID
• High costs: 30% of healthcare spend is considered waste

He then explained how an EMO solution can help break down those barriers to simplify the healthcare experience, delivering access to 4000  of the top clinical specialists and subspecialists nationwide.

Listen to the full conversation.

• Connect with Josh Reimer on LinkedIn
• Visit Included Health
• Connect with our co-hosts Jennifer Jones and David Pittman 
• Subscribe so you don’t miss an episode: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other popular podcast players

Have feedback, questions, or suggestions for show ideas? Send them to us at podcast@springbuk.com.

Please rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform, and share it with your friends and colleagues. We appreciate you and thank you for listening!

Produced by David Pittman

Theme music: "Overboard" by Stay Outside