Highlights from the August 25 webcast “Catastrophic Risk Protection in a Post-Pandemic World.” This event featured, both from HM Insurance Group, Eric Berg, Sr. Vice President, Reinsurance, Partnerships and Operations; and Greg Sullivan, Sr. Vice President, Business Enablement.   The webcast can be found in its entirety on demand at https://www.benefitspro.com/2021/07/23/catastrophic-risk-protection-in-a-post-pandemic-world/  

BenefitsPRO-Perspectives podcast

Catastrophic Risk Protection in a Post-Pandemic World

Highlights from the August 4 webcast “Today’s Political Landscape & The Powerful Possibilities of HSAs.” This event featured Kevin McKechnie, Executive Director of Health Savings Account & Senior Vice President at the American Bankers Association, and Phil Mason, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer & Director Healthcare Services at UMB.

Excerpts from Today’s Political Landscape & The Powerful Possibilities of HSAs

Vision Care’s Role in Modernizing Benefits as Workplaces Change

Vision Care is Not Just Eye Health, it’s Overall Health

Helping Plan Participants Achieve the Dream of a Secure Retirement

Planning in the Age of Covid – and Under Possible Tax Proposals

In this episode of the Perspectives podcast, sponsored by Liberty Mutual and hosted on BenefitsPRO.com, we’ll hear highlights from the July 7th presentation titled, Voluntary Benefits: Why Pet Insurance is Trending & Your Clients Should Offer It.

Excerpts from webcast: Voluntary Benefits: Why Pet Insurance is Trending & Your Clients Should Offer It

Glidepaths and TDFs: Not All are Created Equally

Glidepaths and TDFs: Not all are created equally

In this episode of the Perspectives podcast, sponsored by Perky and hosted on BenefitsPRO.com, we’ll hear highlights from the June 15th presentation titled, How to Solve Benefits Communication Challenges.    A challenge benefits brokers continue to face is helping clients communicate effectively with their workforce regarding available benefits.  With in-person and remote workers, new and long-term employees, a simple communication tool can clarify what is available, increase usage and improve onboarding. Different decision support solutions can facilitate benefits utilization and address employee concerns.   Jim Prekop, CEO of PeopleStrategy, Shelby George, JD, CEBS, CEO of Perky, and Samantha Smith, Director of Marketing at Perky, address solutions to help tackle clients’ communication concerns.   The full on-demand webcast can be found here: https://www.benefitspro.com/2021/05/14/how-to-solve-benefits-communication-challenges/   Jim Prekop | CEO | PeopleStrategy Mr. Prekop, a senior growth-focused leader, has proven success delivering exceptional results in developing and executing business and product development strategies and sales. His role has a continued focus on Client Acquisition and New Markets growth. Shelby George, JD, CEBS | CEO | Perky Shelby is an employee benefits evangelist and believes that benefits like health insurance, retirement savings, and life insurance play an essential role in improving consumers’ financial security. As an ERISA attorney turned CEO, her passion is using that knowledge to create new tools and resources to help workers make the most of their paychecks. Samantha Smith | Director of Marketing | Perky Samantha is focused on increasing awareness and utilization of employee benefits through the use of decision support and will act as the session’s moderator

Excerpts from How to Solve Benefits Communication Challenges

According to Versant Health’s Lisa Hall and Kelly Wenrich, more employers are recognizing that offering vision benefits is a cost-effective way to reduce health-related absenteeism and health care premiums, while increasing productivity.   Providing a vision care plan to employees gives employers a “leg up on the competition” because it’s a benefit not yet commonplace in the recruitment process, says Kelly Wenrich, director of client management for Versant Health.   Wenrich also points out that when employees take care of their vision, they are healthier and more productive, which can benefit the company overall.    Encouraging employees and their families to have annual eye exams can be a relatively low-cost and minimally invasive way for them to gain a window into their overall health.    “A comprehensive eye exam is much more than reading an eye chart,” says Lisa Hall, Versant’s regional vice president of third party commercial sales. She adds that more than 25 chronic health conditions can be identified through an eye exam and that surprisingly, 20% of people diagnosed with diabetes first learned of their condition through a routine eye exam.   Both Wenrich and Hall say that offering a vision care benefit requires very little commitment from employers, both operationally and financially, yet it can be a key component for increasing employee satisfaction and loyalty.    Press play to hear more from Hall and Wenrich on ways to encourage vision care enrollment, its effect on pricing and network choice, and its role in early detection of chronic conditions.   

Reduce workplace absenteeism and health care premiums with vision coverage

In this episode of the Perspectives podcast, sponsored by Artemis Health and hosted on BenefitsPRO, we’ll hear highlights from the April 14th presentation titled, Create holistic benefits strategies: Tips for partnering with the C-Suite and HR. As businesses shift the way they view benefits in light of the past year, CFOs and other members of the C-suite continue to become more involved in benefits decision-making. This emerging trend is good news for advisors who are prepared to take advantage of it. Engaging with more decision makers presents opportunities for education and innovation, but also requires data and transparency to generate buy-in and create more impactful plans. The panelists — Steve Watson, CFO & CHRO at Trendbreakers; Kim Eckelbarger, Founder of Tropical Benefits; James Froschmayer, Director of Product Analytics at Artemis Health; and Paul Wilson, Editor-In-Chief of BenefitsPro — discuss why companies that have a more engaged C-suite tend to be more progressive in managing their benefits plans, as well as how to leverage benefits analytics to identify opportunities, and much more.  The full on-demand webcast can be found here: https://www.benefitspro.com/2021/03/10/partnering-with-the-c-suite-and-hr-to-create-holistic-benefits-strategies/ Steve Watson, CPA, SHRM-SCP |CFO & CHRO | Trendbreakers Steve Watson has a diverse background and a lot of titles that can be put after his name – CEO, CFO, CHRO, and CPA. It could be intimidating, until you meet him. Rather than riding the wave and seeking ever more important positions, Steve looks for ways to give back. He grew up on a sheep farm in Utah, earned his degree in business and international finance at BYU, got married, worked in accounting, and at the age of 26, moved to Brazil and took a job as finance director for a publicly traded company. Five years later, in 2009, he moved his growing family back to the U.S and took a position as a CFO at a mid-sized social work company in Phoenix, Arizona. It wasn’t long before they asked him to take on the role of Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO). All the different titles he wears could be confusing, but Steve has found a unique way to put them all together and complement each other. This is especially true in his role as CEO of TrendBreakers, a consulting business where his extensive knowledge and skills meet to help other companies break the trend of rising healthcare costs. He is also a nationally known speaker, hosts a podcast three times each week, is a married father of seven, and is bilingual in Portuguese. Kim Eckelbarger | Founder | Tropical Benefits Kim participated in the NextGen Benefits Mastermind Partnership, as well as Health Rosetta and serves as Founder & President of Tropical Benefits in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area.She has been profiled in Employee Benefit Adviser (EBA) magazine and was the cover story in their August 2018 edition. Kim was named “NextGen Benefits Adviser of the Year” at the 2019 ASCEND conference. Kim has been invited to share learned expertise at prestigious industry conferences, including the Workplace Benefits conference, the BenefitsPRO Broker Expo and the World Health Care Congress 2019. Kim is a co-author of the Amazon bestselling book, Breaking Through the Status Quo, which outlines some of the cutting-edge strategies she and other NextGen Benefits Advisers are using to control and lower healthcare costs.She is an early adopter of innovative strategies, including Healthcare Abroad, Direct Primary Care, Second Opinions, and RBP, and has implemented these employer solutions with successful outcomes. Her clients outcomes have been published in industry specific publications and the outcomes are accomplished with data and transparency. James Froschmayer | Director of Product Analytics | Artemis Health As a Director of Product Analytics, James Froschmayer works with product management, user experience, and health analytics experts to meet the needs of benefits teams today and anticipate their needs in the future. James is responsible for developing leading-edge analytic methodologies embedded within the Artemis reporting system. He also performs analyses and supports clients in the implementation of their integrated health, attendance and disability management programs. Having come from the consulting world, James has seen the landscape of employee benefits become increasingly complex. As an analytics expert, he helps self-insured employers to identify opportunities within their data to manage costs, improve program value, and boost employee health and well-being. James is passionate and committed to using industry best practices and technologies to improve the healthcare system from both the patient, provider, and payer perspectives. Paul Wilson | Editor-In-Chief | BenefitPro | Webcast Moderator Paul Wilson is the editor-in-chief of BenefitsPRO Magazine and BenefitsPRO.com. He has covered the insurance industry for more than a decade, including stints at Retirement Advisor Magazine and ProducersWeb.

Excerpts from Create holistic benefits strategies: Tips for partnering with the C-Suite and HR

Striking the right balance between tech and the human touch

Dr. Mark Ruchman and Lisa Hall of Versant Health discuss how vision care and coverage can impact key stages of advancement in childhood. Experts report that vision health is intricately linked to a child’s ability to learn and develop socially. “Simply, children can’t learn if they can’t see” says Dr. Mark Ruchman, Versant Health’s chief medical officer, but young children “don’t know what they don’t know.” While adults can sense a change in vision, younger children may simply cope due to a lack of understanding about what they are experiencing, he adds. Ruchman stresses that vision evaluations are a central component of comprehensive health care for children and can provide a wealth of wellness indicators. Annual eye exams can help evaluate vision and identify if a child is at the appropriate neurological and social stage for their age. In turn, the information can be shared with educators and pediatricians who work together for the benefit of the child, says Ruchman. The widespread introduction of remote learning over the past year has significantly increased screen time for many children and adults, says Lisa Hall, Versant Health’s regional vice president of third-party commercial sales. “Adults and kids spend most of their day in front of a computer, tablet or phone,” says Hall, which is significantly increasing eye strain issues. According to Hall, one in four school-aged children have vision problems that can affect learning and development. She says this is why vision experts recommend an eye exam at birth, 6 months old, 3-4 years old, just prior to entering kindergarten, and then every year following. “So much of society is based on visual learning,” adds Dr. Ruchman, “and children need to begin their formative years by seeing well.”   Press play to hear Dr. Ruchman and Lisa Hall further discuss the links between vision and childhood development, the nationwide “Vision to Learn” initiative and why it’s important to consider the employee’s entire family when determining vision plan coverage.

Children’s vision health is critical to their development

In this episode of the Perspectives podcast, sponsored by Carrot Fertility and hosted on BenefitsPRO.com, we’ll hear highlights from the March 16th presentation titled, Building an Inclusive Benefits Package for a Remote Workforce.

Excerpts from Building an inclusive benefits package for a remote workforce

Perspectives taps into BenefitsPRO's partners to provide leading insights on pressing topics shaping the industry. This podcast will feature news on the technology, regulations and best practices that are impacting today's benefits professional.

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