Brokers and advisers: How to create a benefits shopping spree

Allowing employees to become true consumers of healthcare.

Transcription:

Eric Silverman (00:08):

Let us get started. We know it is been a long day. You just sat through an amazing couple sessions. The rest of the room had to take a bathroom break, totally get it. That means they are not coming back. That is okay too. it is the last session before the end of the day. If you were here earlier, I am still Eric Silverman. I have not changed yet. And this is my friend and partner in crime. Chris Wilpert founder and CEO of Group Benefit Solutions out of Tacoma, Washington area greater Seattle and Northern Northwest. And it is just he and I talking because it is, we are going to tell you some case studies. So I am a big marketing guy. It is all I sleep and eat and breathe and think about is marketing benefits is fun, but how can I use marketing in benefits? And years ago I started talking about the term shopping spree with my employer group clients and my broker partner friends like Chris Wilpert.

(01:11)

And it is been taken on a life of its own. So my goal today and Chris's goal today is to give you as an advisor or broker as an HR professional, a unique idea with a concept that is really the concept itself is decades old. It is how we package it and rename it. I am a big believer that words are powerful things. Word choice is paramount. So Let us talk about it. A shopping spree when it comes to benefits is a marketing term, certainly not legal promise you it is a marketing term for the technical definition of a defined contribution. So everybody can probably imagine and knows what a defined contribution is. You have a set dollar amount and you spend it, period. And a sentence I think That is a boring, awful, crazy stupid way to explain it. And employees, the actual true consumers of healthcare, they do not know what that means.

(02:11)

I mean, even if they are really, really educated and smart, they can kind of think about it, but they are not going to resonate. So I look at it as a shopping spree. So employees, instead of giving them a defined contribution, you are giving them a shopping spree of whatever dollar amount is set aside. I am going to talk about that in a minute and I am going to get Chris's input cuz he's the one implementing it with my help through his entire book of business of hundreds of employer groups. But the reality is from an attracting and retaining standpoint in this day and age, and really anytime does an employee quicker work want to work at a company where they have done five interviews for the day and they go home and tell their spouse about and they get to the benefits and the employee and the spouse says, we will talk about benefits.

(03:01)

What about when they talk about the company that has a shopping spree, right? Just think about shopping spree. Everybody who does not raise your hand if you would love to go on a shopping spree, right? Somebody gives you a credit card, you just go and buy whatever you want, right? Lines. I want blinds. There you go. Exactly. Inside joke, it is an amazing tool from a marketing perspective. What about the employers that they are looking at to work at potentially? And it is like, well they have the standard dental and vision and disability and accident and hospital and health insurance or whatever. It is just status quo. it is boring, right? So from a retention perspective, it is no different. Employee gets dissatisfied for some reason. They go start looking at jobs, they go on interviews and not a single employer out there is going to talk about a shopping spree yet. But the current employer they are at has a shopping spree.

(03:47)

So let us break it down. Let us say Chris here is the owner of Chris's Plumbing. They have 10 people, they have a thousand people, does not matter. He is been in business 30 years and I am the broker. And I say to Chris, right? I say, Chris, let me ask you a question. When you started your plumbing business, did you start the plumbing business as an expert in employee benefits? You literally started your plumbing business because you want to deal with insurance and employee benefits and insurance carriers and rates. Is that why you started your business? What's Chris say? No, no, come on, help me guys. it is the end of the day. And I say, okay, great, no problem. I noticed on your benefit repertoire here that you currently fund life insurance and dental and you partially fund vision and you partially fund disability and you make everything else voluntary or some combination of any of that.

(04:41)

Can you tell me a little bit why you do that, Chris? And for time's sake, Chris typically says in this situation almost every time, well my broker advised me that, great, you started the company 30 years ago, so you had a broker. Let me ask you a question. How many brokers have you had over the last 30 years? And they say, well you are my ninth, you are my 11th, you are my 15th, you are my 23rd, right? No offense, but a lot of companies go through brokers. They just hope and pray that the rates get better. And we all know it does not work that way typically. So I then say, okay, so some broker 30 years ago, 25 years ago, told you that you should just pay for dental envision because That is what everybody else is doing. Yeah, That is exactly right. Okay, great. You fired that broker, brought in a new broker six years later.

(05:25)

And did they tell you anything different? No, they just took over. The dental envision switched the carrier, the rate went up 5% and that was better than the 10% it was supposed to be. But they look good cuz they only got me down to 5%. And I say, okay, great. So you gave them a 5% pay raise on commission by increasing your rate, perfect. And then six years later you fired them, got another broker, what happened? Anything new? No, they just took over the exact same plan and told me to do the exact same thing that everybody in the industry because of benchmarking data, told me that everybody is still paying for this and doing that. Okay, great. Keeping up with the Joneses, perfect. Why not throw that entire nonsense status quo, old-fashioned model out the window? Why not take that spend? I do not care the spend dollar, I am going to use a number, right?

(06:10)

It means nothing could be less or more. Let us say your spend on dental, vision, disability, life accident, critical pet insurance, it does not matter. Whatever's employer funded, whatever money that is employer funded, right? Let us say that spend collectively is a 100K, okay, could be 10k, I do not care the number. Let us say it is a hundred K. What if I said as an employer we could just set it up as a shopping spree. Why do not we start making true consumers of healthcare? Why do not we instead of just assuming and hoping and praying that you are attracting and retaining is based on your employees, just you are assuming they want these products, you are assuming they value them, you are assuming they like them. You have no rhyme or reason other than brokers seven times ago told you that it was what everybody else does. Why do not you just be different? Why do not you take instead of a hundred grand, why do not you take 80 grand pocket, 20 grand, do something nice for all your employees on the side, but take 80 grand, 70 grand, 50 grand, does not matter.

(07:08)

Divide it up amongst the masses. Do you have a hundred people, 300 people? I do not care the number. Divide that money up to the point that you have everybody on a shopping spree, a defined contribution. And ultimately every employee use it or lose it has to use this benefit bank, this budget to put toward any benefit on the menu that they choose. That is not medical. We always treat medical separate. That is its own entity. it is the same money or it is better for you as the employer. Because as the employer, particularly if it was a hundred grand and you took it down to 80, you are now pocketing money. CFOs love it because it is predictable. You can project the rate's not changing even if the rate changes. Your spend as an employer stays the same unless you voluntarily decide to increase the benefit dollar amount of the shopping spree.

(08:01)

So think about it logically. Let us keep it really simple cuz the question I always get is, well, but everybody still wants dental. Great dental will be on the menu. They can still get dental, they can use the money for dental. They do not want dental. They can get vision. They do not want vision. They can get life. They do not want life. They can get disability accident, pet critical. It does not matter. Who are we as the broker and the business owners and the CFO and the HR department to define and dictate and play God with the employee's lives to tell them that they have to have this benefit, which is no different than any other benefit that any other company's already offering. Rather give them the opportunity to become an educated, true consumer of healthcare, which Let us just face facts. who is our end user? The employee who is actually what the consumer of healthcare that we are trying to educate.

(08:52)

And I tell you what you do. So in a use it or lose it type scenario. So there is a hundred employees, every employee gets their defined contribution, the shopping spree, budget, new hires included throughout the year. Those employees, they do not not use it. If they go over their budget allotment, it is payroll deducted, whatever the difference is, if they go under the budget, no big deal. They certainly do not get a paycheck boost, right? Simple, clean, easy. Nobody's having a pay increase. But here is where you break it down to the ridiculous, okay? So I'll have an employer and we just had this recently, Chris and I, with a group where the employer said, well geez, how much is it or what do you think it should be? And I just used an easy number. I said, it does not matter the number, we can come back to the number, but how about 28 cents an hour?

(09:42)

The employer said, that does not sound like a lot at all. I said, yeah, it is nothing. I said, if I am your top employee and you pull me into your office and say, Eric, great job. you are getting a raise, man. you are currently at $19 an hour, you are my best employee. you are now at $19 and 28 cents. Congratulations. Thank you. Please be loyal for the next decade. How many Erics in that employee situation are jumping off of rooftops screaming? They probably are. How many of them are yelling from the rooftops saying, I love my employer, they just gave me a 20 cents an hour raise how many? 0.0. it is insulting to tell them that they are getting a 28 cents an hour raise. So where can you spend 28 cents an hour as an employer and get an incredible bang for the buck where employees actually get excited? does not have to be 28 cents, but think about that. Anybody know what? 28 cents an hour equates? Help me anybody? it is $50 a month, 28 cents an hour, 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year is $50 a month. it is $600 a year. When the employer realizes 28 cents an hour is $50 a month is $600 a year.

(10:56)

it is the same math, but it is all perception, it is all marketing. So to the employer, I am saying just give them each, the equivalent, do not give 'em a pay raise, but it is the equivalent of 28 cents an hour raise to put on any benefit they want. it is 50 bucks to the employee when we are mass communicating via text message, slack, podcast, webinars, internal, whatever we are doing, it is not, Hey guys, use 28 cents an hour. it is not even, Hey, $50 a month, it is, Hey employees this year we are super excited and fired up. Here's the menu of benefits. we are giving everybody $600 a year to put toward your benefits. Pick and choose whatever you want. Click here to find out. Employees get super fired up and excited. 28 cents an hour, 14 cents. If it is $25, 57 cents. If it is a hundred dollars, we have clients doing two, $300 an hour a month. It does not matter the number, it is the marketing behind it and the perception you can do it in addition to a true traditional, old-fashioned employer funded dental, vision, life, disability.

(11:57)

You can make the shopping spree only for the enhanced benefits, accident, critical hospital, pet benefits, prepaid legal identity theft, any number of solutions in that hall. But again, it is the concept of bringing something new to your employer groups and as a human resource professional for those in the room, it is the idea of do something different that excites your employee base. We have done this with groups of multiple thousands. We have done this with groups all the way down to three or four people. Employees get excited about it. So Chris, I met you years ago and I know you immediately fell in love with me and I get it, but who wouldn't of course. But let me ask you, when I first explained this to you, right, probably in a similar fashion, why did you gravitate toward it? I mean, years ago you were new and upcoming, now you are a successful broker with many clients, but what did you like about it? What made sense to you?

Chris Wolpert (12:51):

Well, what made sense to me was I was doing the enrollment at the time in a similar way that you were and yet were not having the same amount of traction. And so one of the things that I noticed coming from that traditional kind of broker role where there is some kind of defined contribution for medical and typically most employers would cover a hundred percent of dental or vision a group life insurance. And that was pretty much it. That was what the standard was. So what I realized was it was like, look, we can sell a lot more different things, but we live in an age now where this is the remote control of our lives. So the point is there is that if you can order food and Uber, plan your vacation, I mean you can do so many things on your smartphone, why would not you be able to have the ability to curate your benefits to you specifically?

(13:49)

And so that is exciting for me was to say to an employer, Hey look, you are spending, Let us say if dental, vision, vision and group life insurance is roughly $50 per employee per month. So Let us just start from a very simple concept of saying, look, your employees get one chance per year to spend the boss's money and they are going to do it. So if you are going to offer them dental and vision and life insurance for free or no deduction for them, they are going to take it cuz that is their chance to spend your money. But they not, may not really care about dental vision or life insurance. They may want pet insurance, they may want some other line of coverage or some other benefit that they could allocate that money to. So the first thing we did was just simply go to our existing clients and say, Hey look, I know we have been doing it this way because that was the conventional thinking, but why do not we take that $50 and use that as the basis of the shopping spree and then let them decide what they want and Let us see what happens. And pretty much I think every case that the dental and certainly the vision enrollment went down because there was some people that were taking it again just to spend the boss's money for no other reason than, Hey, if you are going to offer this to me, I am going to take it. So

Eric Silverman (15:06):

Well, most times it is a census enrollment, it is employer funded, they do not need to sign anything. It is like, hey, you are just covered. So it is essentially, I am not saying it is a waste, but it is essentially could potentially be a waste of money.

Chris Wolpert (15:16):

But here's the other byproduct to that too, is when you do that, just like we do on health plans where you've got different classes of employees perhaps, right? Because you've got different divine contributions for a rank and file employee versus an executive or an owner, you can do the same thing with this strategy. So in this example, you do $50 for all your employees, but we have done this where we've had them allocate $300 for the executive an owner class. So those employees that they really, really want to stick around those people in the C-suite, maybe mid-level managers or whatever the case is, if you are spending $300 a month on them where they get to decide which lines of coverage are most important to them and their families, they become even that much stickier. So it really from that and really I think I will back up for a second.

(16:10)

So when we do health insurance strategy our mission is to modernize healthcare by eliminating employees out of pocket expenses while guiding them to the highest quality healthcare. So anything that helps us get towards the center of that bullseye, we can do that with some of these non-medical benefits cuz if it is that much easier for people to buy up the critical insurance and hospitalization and a number of these other things that complement the health plan already, in addition to the incentives we are providing. And that is really what I am getting at with this is that in order to influence human beings behavior, who were naturally inclined not to make any change, whatever that looks like, we are inclined to do the same thing over and over. If we can incentivize behavior where people are opting in for what they want in this age where we can have things curated on our phones to our specific needs and desires and those types of things, then why should not we be able to do that when it comes to our benefits, when it comes to a big key component of our compensation package where we are working. So

Eric Silverman (17:16):

One of the first cases Chris ever brought me a board to help him with is a few hundred person trucking company all over the Pacific Northwest. And it was one of the first times we have implemented, not the first time, but one of the first times he implemented it. I have been doing it for years. And it was interesting because what the hook was for the owner slash CFO or part owner, whatever it was was that he got a sample report from, I wanna say it was MetLife. it is not offensive to MetLife, it was Signal, it was the Cigna, yeah, yeah, nevermind. Cigna Dental.

Chris Wolpert (17:52):

Cigna Dental. They had less than 10% utilization

Eric Silverman (17:55):

Rate. It was 6%. Okay, I just remember because it was astonishing. It was employer funded dental. I remember the carrier, Cigna employer funded dental for 300 people and less than 6% of the population were using the dental. And everybody in this room always just assumes and everybody else that you survey, oh dental's the most important. Everybody needs in one's dental. Everybody uses dental really

Chris Wolpert (18:16):

Apparently not at this

Eric Silverman (18:16):

Group, 300 people and nobody really is using it. So I literally said that, I said that to the cfo, I said, it is not predictable. The rate keeps going up, not even using the plan and they keep raising your rate for heaven's sakes. And yet, so it is pure profit. I said, just take is a hundred thousand dollars spend just, and I think we ended up doing 60 or 70 grand. I said, just take, carve it out, save money, give that money to all your employees as a shopping spree for the 6% that want dental, they can get dental and for everybody else they can get whatever else is of value to them and their family. And it was a home run and it saved them a lot of money and employees win. It was just a win-win all around. I look at it from a perspective of if I am the business owner and I love and I do, I love Koch zero and I tell all my employees, I have a hundred employees, I tell them that, Hey, I love Coke Zero stocked in the fridge 24 7.

(19:13)

You can have it anytime you want it, it is yours. That is all That is there, but I am paying for it unlimited. It will always be there for you. But you do not like Coke zero and you do not drink soda, you only like water, you like flavored water, you like diet Coke, you are a Pepsi fan, you like Mountain Dew, right? You like iced tea, you like coffee, but I do not have any of that. I am giving you Coke zero because I think it is the best in the world and you need it and you want it and you value it. it is a dumb example, but how is that helping you? That is not an employee benefit that turns into a negative. It would be like going to a restaurant and telling them they all have to have steak subs because I like it and I am buying it. That is stupid. You would never do that.

(19:50)

If you are going to give them something, give them choice, give them opportunity. And if you are paying for it, just give them the budget again, you are going to go to a restaurant, I am going to say, Hey guys, you did great. Order whatever you want. I am buying. Okay. it is no different in benefits, at least it shouldn't be. That is the genesis of the shopping spree. And as Chris said, you can tear it out. We tear it out all the time for attracting and retaining purposes. So we carve it out for the management executive staff, the ownership group. They typically will get a higher amount of defined contribution shopping spree. We typically encourage employee employers to do it from day one. It does not have to match and mirror the 90 day or the 60 day for new hires. But again, That is more up to them and they use it as an attraction tool.

(20:35)

But here is the funny thing, we also encourage them to brag and promote and we help them brag and promote about their benefits to talk about how, hey, we want you here. We need you here. And after six months, your shopping spree jumps from $600 a year to $1,200 a year. The longer you hear, the better you are treated. Benefit wise, of course you are loyal, we are loyal and it promotes the ability for employees to grow in the company and rise to management rankings. Or you can do a based on seniority. Sometimes employers will say, well, just anybody who is here with two years or more, they get $300. Anybody less than two years, they get $50 or whatever the numbers are. And we give ideas, they give ideas and we come to a conclusion. We will time out for a second. Questions, thoughts, ideas? Anybody doing this? Anybody using the term shopping spree? Anybody doing a benefit bucket? Which there are shopping or a defined contribution when it comes to benefits that are typically, or a lot of times traditionally known as voluntary. I do not know. I hate the term voluntary cuz they are not so voluntary, particularly when there is an employer funded component. Questions, thoughts, ideas. Love it. Hate it. You tell me.

Chris Wolpert (21:42):

Well, I wanted to throw one more thing out there. Certainly anybody raise their hands and we will, we will answer some questions. But the other thing too is, and this came up a little bit in the last session, is when you are structuring plans, now you are typic. If you are structuring plans, is there anybody that when you are offering a plan to an employer, you just offer them one plan? Or do you typically offer maybe two or three plans? At this point? I see some nodding heads. So it is no different than in that case. Whereas you might set the benchmark of 80% of the lowest cost plan and then employees can buy up. it is the same kind of principle there that you are already doing on the medical side, which you can imply that to non-medical benefits as well. So it is not that far off of what you are probably already doing in many cases. That is all. That was my

Eric Silverman (22:31):

Final point. Quick tip as we start to wrap up here, questions just let me know if No, That is great too. Tip now, because you are going to have this question pop up. Employers will say well what if they do not want it? Can we just give the money? No. Defeats the entire purpose of offering benefits because one person you let out and you give the 50 bucks or a hundred bucks or $600 a year, whatever it is, all of a sudden and it is a wage. So then it is taxable. All of a sudden you have the entire company of 10 or a thousand who is lining up for it and then they are going to leave you a month later and their complaint will be, yeah, they have shitty benefits. That is because you let them use the money for something else. So it is use it or lose it.

(23:14)

They buy up. We find statistically, if you want percentages, we find statistically that more than 90% of the employees when given a dollar amount, whether it is $25 a month, whether it is 50 or a hundred, does not matter a number. Typically the employee matches it, believe it or not, they match it. They do not have to. It is there is no gun to their ed, but they match it. And also if they go under, it is very rare that they will go under by a lot. But if it is $50 a month and they go under by $3, they spend 47 bucks, it is great. they are not getting a $3 pay increase, just the same as if they spend 53 or 103. You will just, the employer would simply deduct the difference. Real simple, real straightforward. And again, I can't stress enough the predictable ability for a CFO to forecast using this model, which I promise when you explain it that way, CFO's light bulb goes off and they are like, I love it. Anything for castable and predictable CFO's in concept wise? There was one question here. I am going to come to you. I appreciate it. Yes, pat?

Audience Member 1 (24:13):

Yeah, I like the concept guys. I think it is really smart. One thing it made me think of is, I think dental insurance code, the thing that you were highlighting, do you have problems with carriers not giving you the rates that you want if you do not have at least a 50% subsidy?

Eric Silverman (24:29):

No. And here, so he is talking about participation requirements and the que, he said dental, but it applies to all the products, frankly for carriers that have minimums. And we do not tell you why. In my case it is to be selfish. it is because of the volume we do at the carriers. So I have substantial underwriting, but irrelevant. Completely irrelevant. And here's why. Because when you are getting the rates, to be honest, the carriers are not rating it as employer funded. they are rating it as employee funded, even though it is employer funded, define contribution, they are rating as an employee funded because then there is very little to no participation requirement. So yeah, in a perfect world, we do not live in a perfect world. We would love it to be rated as employer funded, but then it would always require 100% contribute and you are not going to have that in that scenario. Does that make any sense? No. So I am never worried about participation. Plus you have to, as a broker advisor, you have to know which carrier to go to, what carrier will be able to handle it. And That is my job to know that it is your job to know that, Chris, we do not know what his job is. Yes. Question in the back,

Audience Member 2 (25:37):

If you take the industry standard choice of benefits, whatever that is, this percentage to your percent there does, when you set it up, the way you set it up, do you see a substantial deviation from the industry standards?

Eric Silverman (25:52):

As far as what? Well,

Audience Member 2 (25:54):

I mean does everybody immediately go to pet cemetery insurance and get rid of a dental or...

Eric Silverman (26:01):

No? Oh yeah. 

Audience Member 2 (26:02):

Categories of choices remarkably change. Or are they not the same? Is this the psychological, I do not know, maybe you say trick, but it is kinda a psychological trick that gets people more engaged with the process.

Eric Silverman (26:11):

No, I mean the reality is as far as participation it really just runs the gamut. So if we do this concept with a group that really has tons of utilization and participation with dental as an example, then there're probably going to be a lot of people that continue to use that money now for dental. And they'll use some difference to buy up on something else. But in that situation, to be honest, That is where I would carve it out. So then as an advisor, we say to the employer, look, we ran the numbers, we did the math. If it is big enough, we'll get the data. Sometimes you can't get the data, but we will run the numbers and we will say, look, based on this, you love the idea of shopping spree. We would recommend you continue funding or partially funding the dental or the vision or completely give them a $50,000 life policy at no cost to them.

(26:58)

Keep doing that, but carve out and do something with the benefits that are currently just not being utilized well. So you can differentiate. So I do that often. We will put in a partially employer funded disability or fully funded, we will put in a fully funded life plan we will put in a partially or fully funded downland or vision. And then they'll put together, and it might be smaller, okay? But they will put together a smaller defined contribution shopping spree, 14 cents an hour, $25 a month, $300 a year for the enhanced benefits for accident critical hospital student loans, id theft pet benefits and all the prepaid legal you name. it is tons more. I am not even not remembering any of. Does that make any sense? Yeah. So it is case by case by case. No, it is not really truly cookie cutter.

Audience Member 2 (27:45):

Yeah. So at the end of the day, you are trying to engage the imagination that employees and get them involved and get them to realize they are getting a real benefit here.

Eric Silverman (27:55):

It is a true engagement tool. This strategy. Because That is the other thing. And I love what Adam said on the last session, right? it is 32 minutes to talk about benefits and it is a $20,000 expense, but it is six weeks to figure out the tv. they are going to buy on sale on Black Friday for $400 and they are going to stand in line to get $20 off if they do it at Best Buy versus target is ridiculous. it is absolutely insane. do not lie. Many of us in this room, no people or you are, you are the person who does it right. it is okay. it is just human nature. So the reality is when it comes to education, you need something sexy, something appealing, something sizzling, something, right? I sell the sizzle, not the steak. Well the sizzle is the shopping spree. How do you get a track? How do you get engagement for the benefit enrollment?

(28:38)

If you text message everybody and email and tell preach from the hilltops. Oh, when enrollment time, come on in. it is the same boring crap that everybody had before. Just tell me if you want. Nobody cares. Now you do not say it that way, but That is what they hear, I promise you. But if they get a message on Slack or teams or on text message or on the app of what or Adam's app as an example in Reify, right? it is fantastic. Here is the key. it is not going to say boring insurance would never say that, but it is not even going to be nicely worded benefits. Open enrollment. We have some appealing new, it is not going to say that. it is going to say, come in and click here to learn about your shopping spree. Everybody gets $600 a year use it or lose it. Let us go. it is time.

(29:17)

Let us go, Let us go pet benefits. When you highlight the thing that is appealing, that gains interest, it is a mandatory field on the enrollment system. So as an example, right? I work with they are here sponsoring upc, United Pet Care, right? Aaron Oaks, ceo, go talk to him. He is fantastic product's, amazing. Shameless plug, I like to help my friends. But here is the reality. If I put on the text message, pet benefits, people get excited to go enroll, whether they are going to buy pet insurance or not is absolutely irrelevant to me. Sorry. Here's the thing. they are going to, the first thing they are going to see in the enrollment platform, any platform is going to be medical. Then it is going to be followed by, in my opinion, here's how you do it. Then it is followed by medical. Here's the order I put it in on purpose. Medical accident, hospital critical things that people really do not seem to know about or care about.

(30:10)

Dental and vision and life or commodities that people already understand. Put those toward the end. do not put them right after medical. Everybody messes that up. Put it toward the end because they have to mandatorily, is that a word? Go through the system anyway. they are not going to stop the sy. They have to get there. Anyway, start with medical sandwiching. The stuff That is not so unquote fun or exciting, but that we know people will buy definition as night follows day, they are going to enroll, right? they are going to see rates, they are going to watch a little sample video, they are going to enroll. And the very last thing That is in the enrollment portal in this case is pet benefits. Because That is what engaged them to get there anyway. Right? So it is the last thing, right? Health insurance, dental, all that is the opening act of the concert. The concert, the headline was PET benefits. You go to the show to see the headliner, they are not going to leave early. Does that make any sense? Yeah. So I encourage you to change the order, which how you enroll and market the sizzle, which is that new product, that new exciting thing, the shopping spree or a specific type of benefit that you are bringing in.

(31:17)

Ed or Brian

Audience Member 3 (31:19):

we are past time.

Eric Silverman (31:20):

So I mean people can leave when they want.

Audience Member 3 (31:24):

Earlier you mentioned this is all separate from the medical,

Eric Silverman (31:29):

Right?

Audience Member 3 (31:30):

Can you walk me through, cause I have to imagine That is obviously a large chunk of the stake right there, budgetary perspective. Can you walk us through your opinion why you separated?

Eric Silverman (31:39):

Well Chris, you, you are the medical broker, you are an ED for your market.

Chris Wolpert (31:44):

Always it, it is typically medical, as we all know, medical is its own machine. it is its own beast. it is its own animal that needs to be addressed. So this is everything except medical is. So it is a completely separate defined contribution strategy, shopping spree. Then what we do for the medical. So the medical is going to be, it is again, That is going to be its own thing. And here is the other thing I find too is that when you, the, to go through a medical renewal, as we all know is a very daunting process. it is difficult for an employer. it is one of probably the things they hate the most. it is one of the things the employees hate the most. So decision fatigue sets in when they finally get to a point where they are like, okay, here is the plan that we are doing. Here is some maybe enhancements to within that plan, that plan design, here's our contributions, here's what we are going to do.

(32:31)

And then the last thing they want to do is then look at spreadsheets of dental options or vision or whatever else. So we make it really, really easy and just say, Hey look here is how the enrollment is going to go is we are going to allocate 50, a hundred dollars, whatever it might be for people to spend on non-medical benefits, however they say fit. So now we are taking that admin burden and we are taking that additional decision points that they would normally have to do and we are making it so much easier and more streamlined for them. And then the other thing that the employees, I thought you were going to touch on this just in your last few comments is at the end when they've gone through enrollment, they can see exactly what they are going to spend per pay period, including medical and anything else that they have enrolled in.

(33:16)

They are going to be able to get a figure and they are going to know exactly what is going to be coming out of their check at the end of the day. So That is an extremely important component too, cuz if they are wanting to stay under that threshold of $50 a month or whatever the, the shopping spray amount is great. If they do not necessarily care and now they are excited about all these different benefit offerings and they have, they are going to have an additional amount That is going to be deducted, then they are going to know what that amount is before they even hit submit and then see it start to come out on their next check after the renewal effective date

Eric Silverman (33:48):

Question,

Audience Member 4 (33:49):

Would you guys keep it open throughout the years, 500 year later enrollment? Did it beep, did it need whatever else was kinda an ancillary, most of that stuff's going to be obviously tied to the oe, but there is going to be lifestyle benefits throughout the year they have access to as the, does it make more sense for your employer to shut it off after thee or keep it open throughout the year? The you buy just plug.

Eric Silverman (34:15):

Sure.

Chris Wolpert (34:17):

Yeah. Well mean That is just a marketing thing. I mean we tell them $600 a year, but it is allocated on a monthly basis cuz the premiums, whatever the they are buying is. So it is going to remain the same. Unless I misunderstood the question.

Eric Silverman (34:30):

No, under, he is just saying if they do not use it at open enrollment, can they opt in or out, whatever. I mean in theory, sure, but we do not, honestly, I have never done it that way. I am not opposed to it if an employer wants to, but here is why. It just becomes burdensome administration wise. Employers just do not, they do not have the bandwidth. If it is eight people or 800, nobody wants to deal with changing invoices up and down and this, that, and whatever. So it is really just, here's the time. Open enrollment once a year, here is your money. Figure it out. Pick and choose. Talk to somebody on an on-demand call center. Do it self-serve on your own if you would like. No, whatever is best, but make your decision. you are in or you are out. Use it or lose it. Overage or underage, right? Whatever. But That is it. Now new hires get the same option. So new hires will get a message saying here, same thing. we are excited to have you aboard at the company. Your benefits are effective. X, Y, Z date. Click here to learn more. And do not forget, we are super fired up to give you $1,200 a year shopping spree used to any of these benefits on the menu blah, blah, blah. Right? So it is a constant perpetual just really just making those, the employees, the actual consumer of healthcare.

(35:42)

Any other questions? Yep.

Audience Member 5 (35:44):

Yeah I really like the idea. it is creative and great when there is an employee only giving $50 a month, That is very generous. When you have an employee plus family $50 a month like a dental payment...

Eric Silverman (35:57):

It's not going to go as far, right?

Audience Member 5 (35:58):

So will you do different tiers for employee plus dependence? Will you just exclude dental vision, things like that.

Eric Silverman (36:06):

I mean, you can be as creative as you want, but keep it simple, stupid. The reality is it is just flat number. So you are absolutely right. If an it is a single employee under the age of 30, they are probably going to get a lot more with that 50 or a hundred dollars a month or whatever. Obviously if it is an employee who is married with three kids and they want to, then it is not going to go as far. But again, like I said, statistically, it is the mental perception of my employers giving me X to use it to lose it. And statistically they match it and they do not even think about it and it is their choice.

Chris Wolpert (36:45):

Well, and even in that more traditional sense, or kind of the legacy line way of thinking about this, when they have the chance to spend the bosses money, a lot of times they would not be including a family or a spouse tier or something like that as well. They will pay for the employee only. So again, you are not taking anything away from anybody in that sense. That is true. If dental is super important to them, then great. They still have the same thing basically that they had before. And even if they have a family on it, stuff like that. Because there was still going to be some kind of deduction in most cases for those family tiers.

Eric Silverman (37:21):

So that is true. Yeah. If an employer pays for somebody to have 50 grand of life insurance and all their dental, it is typically not for all the family members. it is like you wanna buy up on a hundred percent on use. This is no different as a concept. Good. All right guys. Thanks everybody. I appreciate you coming in. If we are not connected on LinkedIn, Let us connect. And Adam said he is buying everybody drinks at the bar. We go.