Episode 2139 notes

Today we are talking with John Kuhlmann, Lauren Broyles and Josh Bowman from the Kuhlmann Group.

If you've ever wondered how your Association can get health benefits and how would that work? Or maybe you've got a large group plan and you'd like to figure out a better way to handle your health insurance benefits, that is our topic on this episode. Most importantly, listen and learn today, as we talk about how an association can actually offer health benefits, especially if you've got 1099 employees.

This is Ep 2139 of America's Healthcare Advocate.

To learn more about GigCare, the Kuhlmann Group and health benefits for 1099 workers as well as W2 employees: 314-494-7860 and visit https://kuhlmannfin.com

We’re discussing a better way to handle your health insurance benefits

And if you need help or have something to share, contact me Cary Hall, America's Healthcare Advocate at https://www.americashealthcareadvocate.com/contact-us

And let me know what's on your mind, issues you are dealing with, or other health, healthcare, and health insurance questions and concerns.

00;00;00;07 - 00;00;21;10

Cary Hall

Coming up in today's show, America's Healthcare Advocate, we're going to be talking with John Kuhlmann from Kuhlmann Group, as well as Lauren Broyles and Josh Banwart his associates that work at Kuhlmann Group, with them. If you've ever wondered how would my association get health benefits, how would that work? Or maybe you've got a large group plan and you'd like to figure out a better way to handle your health insurance benefits.

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Cary Hall

You can do that by talking with these folks. But most importantly, listen and learn. Today, as we talk about how an association could actually offer health benefits, especially if you've got 1099 employees.

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Announcer

And now America's Healthcare Advocate, Cary Hall.

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Cary Hall

Hello, America. Welcome to America's Healthcare Advocate show broadcasting coast to coast across USA here on the HIA Radio Network.

00;00;46;29 - 00;01;08;21

Cary Hall

My producers today, Mr. Garner Cowdery behind the microphones. And Mr. David Thiessen behind all the cameras. The man who post all these shows up on our podcast and YouTube channel, by the way, 608,000 views now, thanks to all of you out there in the listening audience. On the podcast channels, all 16 of them in our YouTube channel, and we have a new affiliate.

00;01;08;29 - 00;01;30;13

Cary Hall

We'll talk about that a little later on in the show if you have issues, if you have questions, if you need help with something, you can go to the website. AmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com. AmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com. Send me an email. Yes, I get a lot of them. But yes, I answer each and every one of them. So feel free to send me an email if you need any help with something. We're happy to help you.

00;01;30;16 - 00;01;46;28

Cary Hall

In studio with me again today. John Kuhlmann, CEO of Kuhlmann Group. And you brought a few associates today. All right. So we have Lauren Broyles, who is your vice president director of operations. And I have Josh Banwart, who is also a financial advisor with Kuhlmann Group. So welcome all three of you. Happy to have you here.

00;01;47;05 - 00;01;48;03

Cary Hall

You're an old pro at this

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John Kuhlmann

Thanks, Cary.

00;01;48;23 - 00;01;52;29

John Kuhlmann

Yeah, I’ve been doing it since 1991. So a long time ago when I started my firm.

00;01;52;29 - 00;02;09;00

Cary Hall

Yeah. So so let's talk a little bit about that because what you do is a little different, than what I see out there with a lot of brokers. What you do, you, you, I think you kind of, you kind of specialize in this association management, association health benefits and all. The other thing is you go with association management.

00;02;09;00 - 00;02;28;04

Cary Hall

So it's a different corridor. We're working with you, with the GigCare program, some of the programs on that for 1099 and self-employed. But let's talk about how you got into that and what you do there that makes you so different than everybody else. Because I've been doing this for 23 years and the first person I ever ran across it does this like you do.

00;02;28;06 - 00;02;50;04

John Kuhlmann

Thanks, Gary. So in, 2019, we started working with one of our clients, and, we, basically saved them $1.4 million just on their health insurance and another $120,000 on their ancillary coverages. And at the time, they were the with the 13th largest consulting firm in the country. And, they had been with them for years.

00;02;50;06 - 00;03;06;07

John Kuhlmann

And, the line that they gave them on every renewal was, well, medical trends running around 8 or 9%. So it's a fair increase. You should just take it. And they don't even really show the group out when they do. They don't really do an adequate job. And that's pretty much what we see on most groups that we work on.

00;03;06;09 - 00;03;25;26

John Kuhlmann

So, we don't take that approach. We actually go to market on every line of coverage with every carrier. And there's a big reason for that. There's a lot of value in the TPA’s that we go to. TPA stands for third party administrators, whereas you hear about the BUCA’s. Those are all the big publicly traded insurance companies.

00;03;25;26 - 00;03;45;26

John Kuhlmann

So their motivations are different than the than the TPAs. The TPAs are privately owned, and because they're privately owned, their whole focus and goal is to drive the most affordable health care with the best benefits possible to the members. So for this client, not only did we save him the 1.4 million on their health, 120,000 on their ancillary, but we also improved all those benefits.

00;03;45;28 - 00;04;03;04

John Kuhlmann

The next thing is, is that we after we did that, the CEO shared with us that he has an association. And at the time they had over 3000 dues paying members. Before we were in the picture, they had over 3000 dues band members. When we came into the picture, they had shrunk down to 850 dues paying members.

00;04;03;07 - 00;04;19;26

John Kuhlmann

So there's they were like, do you think you could do this for our customers and help them? Because it would create a lot of goodwill for our customers and help us help our customers. And, absolutely said absolutely. So we did that in about two and a half years later, they're back up to about 3500 dues paying members, which is tremendous growth for the association.

00;04;20;03 - 00;04;36;12

John Kuhlmann

We're not the only reason why that happened. Their executive director, was a big part of why that happened, too. But, with our programs and our that are very comprehensive, we helped basically do that and we in turn have also saved a lot of their clients five figures, on their benefits. Also.

00;04;36;15 - 00;04;53;20

Cary Hall

You know, if you're listening to this and you're wondering maybe you're a member of an association. Maybe you're just a member of an association, maybe you're a director, maybe you're a CEO. Or maybe you're someone thinking about what you want to do, and we'd like to have an association, but we'd like to talk about maybe we can do health benefits.

00;04;53;23 - 00;05;15;03

Cary Hall

Well, there are a lot of hoops you have to go through, and there are certain ways it has to be done that what you need is a knowledgeable expert. And that's what Kuhlmann Group is and that's what I'm listening to you. That's what you're demonstrating to the audience. That's why I wanted to do this show today. There is a lot of need in the marketplace right now, especially when we talk about the 1099 self-employed space.

00;05;15;03 - 00;05;32;17

Cary Hall

We'll get into that a little later in the show. But the idea of innovation, that's what Kuhlmann Group brings to this. And if you are in an association and you don't have benefits for health care. These are the folks you want to talk to because that's what they do. So talk about you've got a pretty long list of everything you do here.

00;05;32;17 - 00;05;52;13

Cary Hall

I was just doing show prep about 4:30 this morning. Was ramping up and I worked on this yesterday as well. But the point is, you know, I'm seeing everything on here from critical illness to financial advisory to payroll to individual voluntary benefits. And it goes down the list. I'm guessing, Lauren, you probably have a lot to do with how all that happens.

00;05;52;18 - 00;05;55;21

Cary Hall

Yeah, it actually does the work. If I had to guess.

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Lauren Broyles

Yeah. So I actually talk with a lot of the customers and to speak on the Association John was talking about. A lot of the members, they're little mom and pop shops. So this has brought a solution to those mom and pop shops where they don't know where to turn, where it might just be a husband-spouse group, and they need access to benefits.

00;06;14;27 - 00;06;24;26

Lauren Broyles

So this has been a huge, you know, basically solution to them to get needs met for their employees and put benefits in place.

00;06;24;29 - 00;06;32;05

Cary Hall

You know, so John, that's interesting. Lauren brings that up because the most underserved everybody wants to do the 500,000 life case.

00;06;32;08 - 00;06;33;00

John Kuhlmann

We want to do that too.

00;06;33;00 - 00;06;50;16

Cary Hall

Oh I know but it's the 1 to 50 that in this marketplace are getting killed with these huge increases. You've talked about this before that are coming across on the ACA type plans. All the rest of it. And as Lauren said, it's a mom and pop shop. Maybe they've got you know, I'm a 27 year recovering broker.

00;06;50;22 - 00;07;11;07

Cary Hall

Okay. Right. And I remember going into place that there be ten, 11, 12 employees and they're getting killed on cost. One of the things that you're doing with your association management is bringing them solutions like that. So talk a little bit about that. I know you're doing the GigCare program, consumer data respondents with the folks with our company of Population Science Management out of Nebraska.

00;07;11;14 - 00;07;18;07

Cary Hall

But talk about Lauren just mentioned that giving them access to something they can't find in the marketplace that you're doing. Right.

00;07;18;09 - 00;07;34;14

John Kuhlmann

So on all size groups, basically what we bring to the table is a full array of benefits. And on anything we do, we make sure that we check all of the options that any client could have for everything. So when you look at these smaller companies, many of them can't even afford to provide health insurance to their members.

00;07;34;19 - 00;07;51;17

John Kuhlmann

That's why we brought in the GigCare solution, the 1099. Right. You also get some employers will. What we found is a lot of employers are outsourcing their IT because the it doesn't want to be an employee. They want to work for other companies and help multiple companies. But some employers want to be able to cover those 1099 people.

00;07;51;17 - 00;08;13;08

John Kuhlmann

So we have two solutions for that. We have the GigCare, but we also have in particular one TPA that will literally allow you to cover 1099 people in addition to your regular W-2 people. It's really a wonderful program. It's probably the best health care program out there for groups. It's not probably it is. So we have a lot of groups that we've been able to put with them and literally not have the rates change in three years.

00;08;13;10 - 00;08;28;03

John Kuhlmann

And actually, we just had one of our larger groups with 600 employees and their third year of no increase. The rates actually went down in their third year and their benefits stayed the same. So it's really powerful stuff. In addition to that, they bring powerful solutions to the table for PBMs.

00;08;28;05 - 00;08;29;26

Cary Hall

Pharmacy Benefit Managers. Yes.

00;08;29;26 - 00;08;53;00

John Kuhlmann

Okay. So the prescription drug side of their plans basically they do some great innovative stuff on that, just like GigCare does on its pharmacy side for its individual members. They basically are able to get the drugs that are name brand drugs for individuals, high cost drugs, typically at no cost or low cost for the member. Whereas under if you're with one of the large insurance carriers, basically you're usually paying your out-of-pocket max for it.

00;08;53;03 - 00;09;12;26

Cary Hall

Yeah you are, that, you're coinsurance and maybe some the deductible depending on the plan. So when we come back from the break going to talk more about this. And then in the third segment we're going to talk about how Kuhlmann group actually offers financial planning help to a lot of members as well. And Josh will talk to you about that. If you want information, maybe you're curious about how did they do this?

00;09;12;26 - 00;09;35;08

Cary Hall

Or maybe you've got an association or co-op or whatever the case may be, and you're looking for a solution, or you'd like something that would help members like was just described by what John talked about. 314-494-7860, So anywhere in the country, they're happy to help you. We'll be right back after the break. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate broadcasting coast to coast across USA.

00;09;35;09 - 00;09;47;22

Cary Hall

Don't go anywhere. We've got more.

00;09;47;24 - 00;10;13;25

Cary Hall

Welcome back. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate Show broadcasting coast to coast across USA here on the HIA Radio Network. You can find out more about us by going to the website. All the information is up there. Shows are also posted there on all 16 podcast platforms, and our YouTube platform. I want to welcome our newest affiliate in the Ozark Mountains, KWPN, 1440AM and 105.1FM, in West Plains, Missouri.

00;10;13;28 - 00;10;33;01

Cary Hall

We want to thank Jim Lambert. He is the, station manager, putting us on the air and welcome them to the America's Healthcare Advocate family. We're happy to be on up in the mountains in the Ozarks. Thank you for joining America's Healthcare Advocate. John, let's talk a little bit more about what's interesting to me is that you guys look for solutions that other people just don't seem to take the time to look for.

00;10;33;06 - 00;10;48;12

Cary Hall

You made that comment about brokers. Brokers go in and show a spreadsheet and say pick the least evil on the spreadsheet, as opposed to, the way you're doing it, which is: Here are the problems. What are your needs and how do we find a solution?

00;10;48;12 - 00;11;10;07

John Kuhlmann

Right. So one of the things is, we have a true passion for what we do, and we outwork everybody. And we don't come back and tell any client ever. Hey, you just got a 10% increase in medical. Inflation's running around 9 to 10%. So you should just take it because it's fair. You'll never hear that from us. As a matter of fact even if our groups get a rate decrease on the renewal that that happens sometimes it's rare.

00;11;10;10 - 00;11;18;13

John Kuhlmann

You know, we still we still shop them out. And the reason for it, it's the second or third most expensive line item that any company has. And for a few companies, it might even be the most expensive.

00;11;18;13 - 00;11;19;23

Cary Hall

Yeah, absolutely.

00;11;19;25 - 00;11;37;28

John Kuhlmann

So we always make sure we do that. And we do that on every line of coverage. Because basically what we found is even on the ancillary, most brokers do what's best for them, not what's best for the client. Why I'm bringing that up is, as a consultant, we know that the health insurance drives the relationship between the client and the broker, the consultant.

00;11;38;01 - 00;12;01;05

John Kuhlmann

So unfortunately, for most folks, once they pick the health insurance, the broker just puts them with who usually is best for them. And we don't do that. We shop everybody on the ancillary like we do on the on the health insurance side. And then we also add in a Ben Admin system and, basically help the employees with an enrollment platform and we automate all that with the payroll so that there's less administrative work to do.

00;12;01;08 - 00;12;05;02

John Kuhlmann

Lauren. Lauren handles that for us with our clients on a regular basis.

00;12;05;05 - 00;12;18;27

Cary Hall

Talk about that, Lauren. How do you handle that? And I noticed when I was going to all the materials you're doing everything from payroll. We're going to talk about financial planning in the next segment. You know, all the other things that you do. Critical illness, Clever Rx. Tailored 1099 Contractors.

00;12;18;27 - 00;12;20;22

Cary Hall

Talk about how all that works.

00;12;20;24 - 00;12;52;14

Lauren Broyles

Yeah. So I handle the administration side. So I'm everywhere from the implementation to the service. So my job on customer service is to make your HR teams life easier. We service all size groups. So maybe your lack of an HR team. So I help make sure that everything streamlines from your payroll to the benefits to the carrier side. So, like John was speaking on, we still have some people that we come across that are still using paper enrollment forms to enroll their, employees at renewal time, which is just insane.

00;12;52;17 - 00;13;14;15

Lauren Broyles

There's so many solutions out there. We like to put in Ben Admin Systems. It makes the HR teams life easier because things are automatic. When you leave things up to paper or in a person's hands, there can be, you know, human error when that happens. So making it more streamlined. So it's on EDI connections eliminates errors that can occur.

00;13;14;16 - 00;13;33;20

Cary Hall

We had Kenny Delco on, a couple times and talked about what you're doing with NHRA, an association you're working with. National Hot Rod Association. Kenny has a saying that he does that’s part of the GigCare discussion. He said, “a company built for hard working Americans”. And you have a saying that “we're Main Street, we're not servicing Wall Street”.

00;13;33;24 - 00;13;34;16

Cary Hall

What does that mean?

00;13;34;16 - 00;13;46;20

John Kuhlmann

What? So we always, share with folks that we're all about Main Street, not about Wall Street. And what we mean by that is a lot of the bigger consulting firms, they literally are working with the big carriers

00;13;46;21 - 00;13;47;08

Cary Hall

The BUCA carriers.

00;13;47;08 - 00;13;57;24

John Kuhlmann

The BUCA carriers, most of them publicly traded. And like on prescription drugs, they, some of them even get cuts off all the prescription drugs that the member takes, when they're already overpaying.

00;13;57;24 - 00;14;15;23

John Kuhlmann

They're getting the rebates. So the a lot of the privately owned TPAs, third party administrators that we work with, they'll literally cut the, the rebates out of the plan and get the drug to the member, or either low cost or no cost helping the member also dramatically lowering the cost of the drug. You take a drug like Humera, it's about $8000 a month.

00;14;15;28 - 00;14;17;01

Cary Hall

Yep.

00;14;17;04 - 00;14;22;11

John Kuhlmann

A lot of the bigger carriers will tell you, though, that it'll only cost you 4500 to 5000 a month for the drug.

00;14;22;14 - 00;14;29;11

John Kuhlmann

And their right, if you go through them. Yeah. What they don't tell you is that they're getting a rebate of about $2,500 a month on that drug,

00;14;29;13 - 00;14;32;15

John Kuhlmann

Every month on every member on the drug.

00;14;32;18 - 00;14;45;29

John Kuhlmann

It's insane. So the TPAs we work with, they cut all that out, and they either get the rebate eliminated to lower the cost of the drug by the cost the rebate, or if the pharmaceutical company insists on paying the rebate, they put it back in the client's claim bucket typically.

00;14;46;02 - 00;15;04;19

Cary Hall

Or like Detego, when you work with our company, Detego Health, our TPA, we have our own program called Script Aid and we just import the stuff. Right. And if you're taking Humira and we're importing it, you're going to pay a lot less than what you're going to pay any of the major carriers, that's for sure. I don't think a lot of the public really understands this.

00;15;04;22 - 00;15;21;18

Cary Hall

And it's understandable. This is not. Look, health care is confusing as hell. Okay. Believe me. As I said, I've been doing this 27 years. It's not an easy topic for people to wrap their head around, but what you're hearing is when when you want to do something like this, you need an expert. And that's what these people are.

00;15;21;24 - 00;15;27;03

Cary Hall

And what you're talking about is solutions that are out of the box. Right. Okay. And they take work.

00;15;27;10 - 00;15;44;09

John Kuhlmann

Right. It's a lot of work. Yeah. But we put it in. Yeah. We just won a group of 100. And there was two other firms that we were up against and a new client for us. We picked them up. And their existing consultant had been with them for around 35 years.

00;15;44;11 - 00;15;45;20

Cary Hall

That's a long time.

00;15;45;20 - 00;16;02;28

John Kuhlmann

And we replaced them and, saved the group, basically well over six figures just on their medical. So we're going to be bringing other great solutions in to automate things and make them more efficient, improve things too. But we really do try to bring a whole package, approach to everything we do, but related to benefits.

00;16;02;28 - 00;16;25;22

John Kuhlmann

So another big area that we run into is people on their payroll. So we don't sell payroll, but we have some very good partners on that that are literally technology companies that do payroll. They dramatically lower the cost of the payroll, and they significantly improve and make it more automated. And then that ties back into the Ben Admin System that Lauren was talking about.

00;16;25;25 - 00;16;32;23

John Kuhlmann

To give you an idea, we have a group of 100, in the state of Washington just on their payroll. We saved them $480,000.

00;16;32;25 - 00;16;33;17

Cary Hall

That's insane.

00;16;33;17 - 00;16;42;29

John Kuhlmann

Yeah, we saved them close to another hundred thousand on their, medical. And then we saved them about 20 grand, maybe 25 grand on their 401K.

00;16;43;03 - 00;17;06;13

Cary Hall

Those are all the things that contribute to making a difference. And that and that is critically important. You know, unfortunately, in today's world, as you talked about, you know, the a lot of the big houses, the big the big brokers, the big insurance carriers, they don't look at things quite like that. Right. It's the medium small size broker in your case, you know, you're pretty large firm, but you're still taking to heart what needs to be done for the client.

00;17;06;13 - 00;17;13;18

John Kuhlmann

We're actually bringing to the table solutions that the big consulting firms can do, but typically don't do.

00;17;13;18 - 00;17;14;21

Cary Hall

They don't want to be bothered with it.

00;17;14;21 - 00;17;30;01

John Kuhlmann

I can't tell you how many groups of two and 3000 I know of that are with one of the big name box house consulting firms. They don't even shop the groups out. It's it's literally criminal that they're getting away with this. But people think they need them. They think they need an army. All they are doing is overpaying for all their benefits.

00;17;30;01 - 00;17;46;14

John Kuhlmann

They're harming their employees. They're not really meeting their fiduciary duty to protect them. With things like the prescription drugs, they're not shopping it out adequately, doing what they should do. So we bring all those solutions to the table. And I can just tell you that we normally get every group we quote on. Yeah. And I was saying I.

00;17;46;15 - 00;17;47;12

Cary Hall

Would imagine you do.

00;17;47;12 - 00;18;02;00

John Kuhlmann

And the thing I would say is it's all about the data. If you will give us the data we need. The other thing we don't do, we don't do what the big consulting firms do. We don't make you sign a contract saying that you'll go with us no matter what and pay us. We'll just do our work and you can choose to go with us or not.

00;18;02;00 - 00;18;05;16

John Kuhlmann

We live off the merits of our work, so. And we normally win every time.

00;18;05;18 - 00;18;26;07

Cary Hall

It's a great solution. If you want information, you're you're fascinated, you're intrigued. What you're hearing here, can they really make a difference. Well you’re not going to know if you don't reach out to them. So if you want to contact John 314-494-7860. 314-494-7860. So if you're on the podcast or looking on YouTube, the number, the website is across the bottom of the screen.

00;18;26;07 - 00;18;49;21

Cary Hall

You can look at that as well. We'll be right back after the break. We're going to get in the weeds a little bit now and talk about some of the other things that they do on the financial planning side and some of the others. Stay tuned. We'll be right back after the break here on America's Healthcare Advocate.

00;18;49;24 - 00;19;10;07

Cary Hall

Welcome back. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate Show broadcasting coast to coast here across the USA. If you want help or information, go to the website AmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com. Send me an email. I am happy to help you. My producer today, Mr. Garner Cowdrey, Mr. Dave Thiessen, doing a wonderful job as they always do. Broadcasting here out of our studios in Overland Park, Kansas.

00;19;10;12 - 00;19;33;05

Cary Hall

My guests in studio today. John Kuhlmann, the founder and CEO of Kuhlmann Group, Lauren Broyles he's the senior VP that does all the real work behind the scenes that John doesn't do. And that's adviser John Banwart, who's going to talk today about the financial advisor services they offer through Kuhlmann Group. So you know, people are listening to this and they're going, well, we were told “Associations” couldn't offer health benefits.

00;19;33;08 - 00;20;00;01

Cary Hall

They were told associations couldn't have health benefits. And there's that. I'm not saying that's not true, but there are there are ways to make this work, especially like talk about some of the associations. I mean, you've got over 750,000 people who are working with us on the GigCare program on right now, offered through PSM Nebraska are standalone and if they're willing to be a consumer data respondent, they have access to this large group plan.

00;20;00;03 - 00;20;05;16

Cary Hall

Talk about how people access that if they if they're like, what can we do that.

00;20;05;19 - 00;20;26;13

John Kuhlmann

Yeah. So the big thing is, is if you... Even if you have an association plan now, a group plan for your groups and associations, the problem with it typically is after the first year or two, what you typically see happen is the groups that are in it that are sick stay, and then the healthy groups leave because they can find insurance cheaper on their own.

00;20;26;13 - 00;20;27;16

Cary Hall

It’s called the death spiral.

00;20;27;17 - 00;20;45;03

John Kuhlmann

Yeah. And that's just very typical of what associations have happened. So we do things differently. And basically what we do is we bring in a solution like GigCare for the individuals that want to go on to the GigCare program, wonderful program. And then we also bring to the table group plans, but we broker that out.

00;20;45;03 - 00;21;04;19

John Kuhlmann

We consult with each group depending upon their size, on the health insurance and on the on the groups. And we broker that out with the different companies. And we check every company that's available in the market for where that group is located and headquartered. We also do it on all the ancillary coverages. We also provide financial advisory, including 401Ks and pensions.

00;21;04;22 - 00;21;21;12

John Kuhlmann

And one of the innovative things we do is we, have a PEP program when it's appropriate. And, we can show that to members, but we typically evaluate everything, even on that and all their options on the 401K to look at. And then Josh, we have Josh to work with on individual financial advisory and other things.

00;21;21;14 - 00;21;41;27

Cary Hall

So Josh, talk about what you do in your role here. In terms of financial advisor, we talked before the show and you're actually helping members. Let's say you've got a member of an association, he's turning 65 or 66 or she's turning 65, 66. They've had a 401K. They've got money sitting there now they're going to retire. What do I do with it?

00;21;41;27 - 00;21;54;25

Cary Hall

How do I invest it? This market's all over the place. Up 400 points one day down a thousand another. I know because I'm in it. So how do you handle that in addition to the 401Ks? Josh.

00;21;54;25 - 00;21;57;15

Josh Banwart

Yeah, absolutely. How do we retire and stay retired?

00;21;57;15 - 00;21;58;16

Cary Hall

Right. I like that's.

00;21;58;17 - 00;22;22;04

Josh Banwart

Kind of the key out there. Yeah. And generally we'll just assess a few key risks of running out of money. And how can we, make sure that, you know, that doesn't occur in your, your spend down? Also, there's often questions around estate and hand off, legacy. It's all complimentary to the 401K and the qualified plans and at Kuhlmann Group are just really trying to bring a collaborative, service right in into the mix.

00;22;22;04 - 00;22;45;12

Josh Banwart

We don't want to just be pigeonholed into one area. So, a lot of times it's it's just kind of assessing those key risks. One being inflation. How do we keep up? Generally the answer is the market. Yeah. That's uncomfortable. Right. So we place sometimes market based solutions. But then we've got to have some level of cash or guaranteed position that isn't going to be fluctuating in bad markets.

00;22;45;15 - 00;23;02;10

Josh Banwart

Generally the third one is the risk of a long term health care event. We say it's a flip of a coin 50/50, right? You or your spouse. And generally you're going to have something if you don't have a plan. The state has a plan for you. So we we generally like to have control as well. And then the last one is, is the one that makes everything else worse.

00;23;02;10 - 00;23;03;13

Josh Banwart

It's just longevity.

00;23;03;15 - 00;23;14;14

Cary Hall

So go to that long term care thing for a second. Because I'm gonna throw an interesting statistic at you. How many people in this country, lets see if any of you can answer this, have long term care insurance, give me a percentage.

00;23;14;22 - 00;23;16;02

Josh Banwart

I would guess less than 10%.

00;23;16;03 - 00;23;38;10

Cary Hall

It is less than 10%. You got 100% correct. Now I'm one of the ones that has had long term care since he was 45 years old. Okay. And and I, like Laurie and I still have that same plan in place. But the point is, and you touched on that, that if you don't have a long term care plan, you're going on Medicaid or you're eating into your estate to pay for long term care.

00;23;38;10 - 00;23;54;28

Cary Hall

So that's interesting that you touched on that. So talk a little bit about what are they looking at cost wise if they don't have a long term care plan to be in a halfway decent facility, not a medicaid facility where there's two people to a room, one shared television and a bathroom, they both get to share. That's a lot of fun, I'm sure.

00;23;55;00 - 00;24;03;22

Cary Hall

Okay. And the first thing you notice when you walk in the door is the smell of Pine-Sol. You know, you're in a medicaid facility. Talk about what it means to get into a decent private facility.

00;24;03;23 - 00;24;15;12

Josh Banwart

Yeah. So, I did a lot of studying on this. I actually pursued a credential specifically in long term care. And the reason is, is because it's a huge issue. There used to be a lot of companies in the space.

00;24;15;12 - 00;24;16;12

Cary Hall

There's not now.

00;24;16;12 - 00;24;36;09

Josh Banwart

Now there's about 11. And there's I certainly wouldn't sell all 11. Right. You know, when we when we step into that space. So you've got to be careful in evaluating that, and not overpaying. But there's, there's generally not to get too specific here, but there's generally three ways to solve it. One is you just take cash and put it on the sidelines, invest it, but it's protected.

00;24;36;11 - 00;24;53;17

Josh Banwart

That's the most expensive way. Right? Two would be some, some level of kind of basic long term care. You use it or lose it, you know, you pay for it. It's kind of like car insurance. We don't hope that we get in an accident. Right. But if we do, we're sure glad we have it. And the third is some sort of hybrid where we'll use.

00;24;53;20 - 00;24;56;06

Cary Hall

Life insurance to buy long term care.

00;24;56;08 - 00;25;01;27

Josh Banwart

And so what what the best option is, is generally dependent upon the individual, and their circumstance.

00;25;01;27 - 00;25;08;25

Cary Hall

But so give me an average cost that, you see for a decent long term care facility. But I'll tell you what my benefit is after you do that.

00;25;08;25 - 00;25;24;24

Josh Banwart

Yeah. So, so the average cost and depends on your state. Yeah. In the state of Missouri around Saint Louis is about $4,500 a month. That's right. And that's the average. Right. So if you have a more skilled nursing type facility, it's going to be well in excess of that memory care is, I think, maybe the most expensive it is.

00;25;25;01 - 00;25;25;20

Cary Hall

Yeah.

00;25;25;23 - 00;25;28;25

Josh Banwart

And and generally we'll see that close to ten grand a month.

00;25;28;25 - 00;25;45;25

Cary Hall

So my benefit right now is $300 a day and Lori’s is $300 a day, which wouldn't cover the cost of what he's talking about, it's gone up every year. It did not. Policy's gone up, but not every year. But the the benefit has held and and we're very fortunate to have it. And luckily I'm you know I'm if we're in enough we're in decent shape to it.

00;25;45;25 - 00;26;03;19

Cary Hall

If there's a difference we pay for it. The problem is it's less than 10%. What's interesting is, John, you're doing this as an association manager. How many people are there, do you think even know this is going to be an issue. Or they think here, oh, Medicare is going to pay for this. I don't have to pay.

00;26;03;21 - 00;26;26;18

John Kuhlmann

Most people, from my experience, don't they don't even think about it, though. Yeah. A lot of people don't even have a will. You know, one of the first things we talk to people about is basically, you know, do you have your state set up properly and just making sure that everything's proper, it's everything we do is really individualized to each customer, whether it be an individual, their needs, it's their individual needs.

00;26;26;18 - 00;26;42;16

John Kuhlmann

We want to make sure those are all covered properly. It's not peddling products or pushing stuff. It's about helping people doing the right thing. We do the same thing with the groups. It doesn't matter if you're a group of two or if you're a group of 5000. Anything in between. We're going to do that on everything we do, on every line of coverage, every every product or service.

00;26;42;16 - 00;27;02;24

Cary Hall

But you're able to if again, people are listening to this all over the country, they're they're watching me on the on the YouTube channel or on the podcast and they're going, well, we have an association, but we don't do any of that. And you gave that story earlier about membership declining and how when you turned it back around the associations have to be able to offer a reason for somebody to be there.

00;27;02;24 - 00;27;06;03

Cary Hall

Right? Right. And is that what you're helping them do?

00;27;06;04 - 00;27;25;24

John Kuhlmann

We drive that value? We're basically bringing, fortune 500 type benefits solutions, complete benefit solutions to small group and medium sized groups. Doesn't matter the size of your group. We're going to do all we can to provide the best value for all your benefits. Unlike they've ever seen before with any other firm. It's just we do.

00;27;25;24 - 00;27;27;13

Cary Hall

You’ve got a commitment to excellence and customer service.

00;27;27;15 - 00;27;32;07

John Kuhlmann

We have a passion for it. We truly care about our customers. I guess you could say we're old school.

00;27;32;09 - 00;27;33;07

Cary Hall

Yeah.

00;27;33;09 - 00;27;34;10

John Kuhlmann

We do what we say we're going to do.

00;27;34;10 - 00;27;38;02

Cary Hall

At 76 years of age that’s something. There's nothing wrong with old school folks.

00;27;38;07 - 00;27;39;27

John Kuhlmann

Well I’m 60. So I'm with you.

00;27;39;28 - 00;27;44;00

Cary Hall

You got a long way to go, pal. You're very young. And then we have these two over here.

00;27;44;03 - 00;27;44;26

John Kuhlmann

The youngsters?

00;27;44;29 - 00;28;01;18

Cary Hall

Very youngsters. Absolutely. If you want information, you want to reach out to John. You maybe you'd like to explore some of this. The way to do it is to give him a call. 314-494-7860. 314-494-7860. So there's a reason he's on here today is to educate you.

00;28;01;18 - 00;28;21;21

Cary Hall

That's why we do these shows to educate you on what you can do to help yourself. If you're in an association, you want to start an association, whatever the case may be, these people are experts and they're happy to help you. And if you're an employer with a small group or a large group, they're right there, okay? And they're offering solutions you're not going to find on a lot of the large carriers.

00;28;21;21 - 00;28;51;06

Cary Hall

So it's significantly different the way they do it. Once again, the phone number 314-494-7860. So when we come back from the break I'm going to talk about what do you do if you've got W-2 employees, but you've also got 1099 employees. We'll talk about that. Stay tuned. We'll be right back after the break here on America's Healthcare Advocate, broadcasting coast to coast across the USA.

00;28;51;09 - 00;29;12;20

Cary Hall

Welcome back. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate show broadcasting coast to coast across USA here on the HIA Radio Network. Got a question? Send me an email. AmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com. We're happy to answer all of them. And thanks to all of you in the listening audience. As I said in the opening monologue, 608,000 people viewing that podcast and on YouTube.

00;29;12;23 - 00;29;32;02

Cary Hall

It's kind of surprising. But we do thank all of you. In studio with me today John Kuhlmann of the Kuhlmann Group. Also Lauren Broyles, who is his vice president of operations, and Josh Banwart, who is a financial advisor. We're talking about how they deal with not only groups, but associations. Because they're uniquely positioned to help associations.

00;29;32;02 - 00;29;54;17

Cary Hall

He's got 750,000 people on the association plans right now. They're working with us over at Detego on the GigCare program through our Population Science Management platform. These are things they're doing that are innovative. You're not seeing it out there from other brokers. So let's just start with that. I've got a company. It's a trucking company. They’ve got 4000 drivers, 400 of those are 1099.

00;29;54;18 - 00;30;12;07

Cary Hall

They had no benefits for them because you can't put them on health insurance plans. Okay. Because they're 1099. They came to us, we put the GigCare plan in place. They put together a little bonus program to kind of offset the cost with their drivers based on the number of miles they drove. They were thrilled because all of a sudden the drivers had health benefits.

00;30;12;09 - 00;30;21;25

Cary Hall

Okay. Through the GigCare program. So talk about how you deal with companies that have a double sided payroll like 1099 W-2. John.

00;30;21;28 - 00;30;41;26

John Kuhlmann

So I would add that with the GigCare, not only do they have benefits, but they have quality benefits that are affordable. You know, we had our other podcast that we did about the NHRA and, Kenny Delco, our driver of the GigCare car. He, basically explained how one of his good friends, his ACA rates were going to go up to $2,700.

00;30;41;26 - 00;30;43;02

Cary Hall

I remember this, yeah.

00;30;43;02 - 00;31;07;28

John Kuhlmann

And, through GigCare, he can cover himself and his wife for $1,290 instead of $2,700 and really have quality, better program. So we have that available at the GigCare program. And we always look at that for every association to put it in place for them. Or if there's a company that has 1099 people that aren't covered, we look at adding that for them to drive that value to help their members out, because if they don't help them, some of them may have to leave to go elsewhere.

00;31;08;01 - 00;31;25;09

John Kuhlmann

I know from a lot of our clients, we have several trucking companies that they have trouble retaining their drivers because they're competing against Amazon and all the other big companies, so they have to offer those benefits. And that's where GigCare is a wonderful solution. If they do have W-2 and 1099 drivers, right. But that's any company that has that.

00;31;25;09 - 00;31;43;22

John Kuhlmann

We can do that for any company doesn't have to be trucking. But we also have a group carrier that well, it's a TPA. TPA stands for third party administrator and they will insure 1099 members. Now when you insure a 1099 member on a group plan, you cannot contribute towards the cost of their insurance to keep it separate.

00;31;43;22 - 00;32;02;09

John Kuhlmann

Right. Because you can't have that employee employer relationship. So the member will have to pay for the cost of their insurance, but they are just another class of employees within the group plan. It's very, very powerful, works really well. And typically that carrier, that TPA is really one of the best TPA's in the country. They offer great solutions.

00;32;02;09 - 00;32;13;03

John Kuhlmann

They do things to keep the cost of health care down. We have a lot of groups with them that are going on their third year, with no rate increase at all. And, one of the groups actually got a rate decrease in their third year.

00;32;13;04 - 00;32;14;10

Cary Hall

That's highly unusual.

00;32;14;12 - 00;32;24;11

John Kuhlmann

totally unusual, right? And we still shop them out. Right? Even though that they're getting that we still shop them out to make sure that they're getting the best value for the dollar, because health care is the second or third most expensive line item.

00;32;24;11 - 00;32;27;00

John Kuhlmann

Like I said, that any any company has.

00;32;27;05 - 00;32;38;05

Cary Hall

So Lauren, I was talking to somebody the other day and we were talking about customer service and he said, Cary, he said the word service has gone out of customer service. I know you guys, you get to handle all that.

00;32;38;05 - 00;32;39;16

Lauren Broyles

Yes.

00;32;39;19 - 00;32;51;19

Cary Hall

So talk about your approach to customer service, how it's different and how when some you know, it's not if it's when they have a claims problem because inevitably say a hospital codes a visit wrong.

00;32;51;19 - 00;32;57;27

Cary Hall

They do this, they do that. And then somebody gets a balance bill. So talk about how you deal with customer service issues Lauren.

00;32;58;01 - 00;33;17;07

Lauren Broyles

Absolutely. So we definitely pride ourselves in our customer service. If you're a business owner especially, you know, you're working 24/7 around the clock. When 5:00 hits, our phones don't stop ringing. So we're around the clock service. Because when you do have a problem and is an emergency, like you're saying with a claims problem, we answer, we don't.

00;33;17;07 - 00;33;19;01

Cary Hall

You're there to solve, help solve the problem.

00;33;19;01 - 00;33;30;12

Lauren Broyles

Yeah. When there is an emergency, we're here to help solve the problem. And we're here to help you get to the right person to solve your problem. So we're answering around the clock on the weekends. Believe it or not, that's amazing. Yes.

00;33;30;14 - 00;33;44;19

Cary Hall

Yeah. Try doing that at one of the major carriers, folks and see what you get, okay. Not going to happen. Not going to. That's one of the reasons why you are successful. What you do is because you've got people like Lauren. Exactly. For you there has to be personal care for these folks.

00;33;44;19 - 00;33;51;09

John Kuhlmann

Lauren is, she has the, work ethic of somebody who's 40 or 50 years old.

00;33;51;12 - 00;33;52;19

John Kuhlmann

She literally

00;33;52;19 - 00;33;53;19

Cary Hall

and she's only 19.

00;33;53;19 - 00;33;55;21

John Kuhlmann

She sure looks 19.

00;33;55;21 - 00;33;56;04

Lauren Broyles

00;33;56;04 - 00;33;57;00

Cary Hall

00;33;57;02 - 00;34;16;27

John Kuhlmann

She is absolutely amazing. And, one of the reasons why we just don't lose clients is because of our customer service. We have most of the clients that we've ever picked up from 36 years ago. And, keep them. And then the ones we add, we keep them to. The only time we really ever lose a client is when they get bought up by another company, typically, and the new owner comes in and just gives it to their guy.

00;34;17;03 - 00;34;21;22

John Kuhlmann

We just don't lose it normally on any type of issue. We've never had a customer service issue.

00;34;21;27 - 00;34;34;28

Cary Hall

So we're wrapping up here. We got another two minutes left on the show. What message you want to give to people that may be considering. Hey, I've got an association. We've got membership issues. We have no health benefits. What do you want to say to them?

00;34;35;01 - 00;34;58;17

John Kuhlmann

So we bring a complete, package of benefits to all the members, for everything that they, they may have from a need standpoint. And we literally look at everything tailored to their needs. Right? Unlike most associations, it'll just try to put it in like a group plan for groups. We literally look at group options, but they're the individual group options for each group, no matter the size, and same thing for individuals.

00;34;58;19 - 00;35;02;13

John Kuhlmann

And then we have Josh to help out with any type of advisory stuff too.

00;35;02;15 - 00;35;20;15

Josh Banwart

They're kind of one step above, the basic benefit would be the deferred compensation. Right. This is the conversation about attraction and retention. Those are both important pieces of key employees. And so how do we make sure somebody doesn't leave. And this is a whole thread to pull on. How do we make sure somebody doesn't leave.

00;35;20;15 - 00;35;28;15

Josh Banwart

But we also, don't give up equity or control in our company. What's what's that middle ground. And that's something that we're working a lot on, especially the Kuhlmann Group.

00;35;28;18 - 00;35;43;16

Cary Hall

That's how you keep good people. Yeah. You go through all the trouble to get somebody that’s really good. And the guy down the street says, hey, you know what? I'll give you 20% more if you come down here. When you lose those people. I mean, I just saw this morning the Berkshire Hathaway's losing one of the number one people.

00;35;43;23 - 00;35;48;18

Cary Hall

They're going over to Morgan Stanley. So even the big guys lose them.

00;35;48;19 - 00;36;07;29

John Kuhlmann

So what, we typically tell new groups when we start working with them is that, we usually can save them 20 to 35% off of their, health insurance premiums. So that's just that, the ancillary it's very common. It's about the same number. We can't guarantee it. Right. But that is typically the value that we drive.

00;36;08;02 - 00;36;21;17

John Kuhlmann

We do the same thing again on the ancillary. Usually we are driving better benefits at a substantial savings. Then we're easily able to keep those premiums level and flat. No matter what we're always going to do what we should do to keep your benefits as strong as we can for your group.

00;36;21;23 - 00;36;39;18

Cary Hall

You know, I don't put people on this show. I don't believe in, I don't put people and products on this show that I don't use or I don’t service. These people work with us at Detego. They are using our GigCare program through Population Science Management. They offer a host of other solutions. If you're in any way interested in what they can do.

00;36;39;18 - 00;36;54;23

Cary Hall

If you're an association, a small group, a large group, reach out to them and they would be happy to help. You can call John at 314-494-7860. 314-494-7860. Thank you all three of you for doing this. I have to do some more of these.

00;36;54;24 - 00;36;57;01

John Kuhlmann

sounds great Cary, thank you for having us.

00;36;57;04 - 00;37;14;01

Cary Hall

And now I leave you with this thought from Albert Einstein, the one who follows the crowd, they usually get no further than the crowd. The one who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been. Remember friends, the funny thing about life it's refused to accept anything but the very best. You most often get it.

00;37;14;04 - 00;37;19;29

Cary Hall

Thank you for listening to America's Healthcare Advocate Show. Broadcasting coast to coast across USA.

00;37;20;02 - 00;37;21;13

Cary Hall

Goodbye America.