Episode 2227 notes

NebraskaBlue’s Heather Rollins is a ICHRA Plan Specialist and in this, our second show on the topic of ICHRA, we open up the discussion with all the details on Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska‘s defined contribution medical plan and how it can help control costs, reduce administrative burden and still offer employees a lot more choice.

If you are a business owner, CEO/CFO, HR Director, or anyone in business or industry with cost concerns and/or a complex workforce, even if you have workers outside of Nebraska… you’ll find today’s show a must watch!

Even though the information concerns employers in Nebraska, I think it’s very helpful; to anyone in any location to identify and seek these amazing health benefits, plans and approaches.

Learn more: http://nebraskablue.com/getaquote

This is season 22, episode 27 of America’s Healthcare Advocate. I’m Cary Hall.

Need help or have something to share? Send me a message. Contact Cary Hall, America's Healthcare Advocate: https://www.americashealthcareadvocate.com/contact-us

For advertising options, email us at advertise@hianetwork.com

For in-show SageonRQ mentions, go to: SageonRQ.ai or https://app.sageonrq.ai/

Transcript for Episode 2227

Cary Hall

Hello, I'm Cary Hall, coming up on today’s show on America's Healthcare Advocate in studio with me, Heather Rollins from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska. We are going to be talking about the ICHRA plans. These are a brand new model, about two years out that are allowing employers to have defined contribution, reduce cost and offer more choices and better benefits to their employees.

00;00;21;08 - 00;00;26;05

Cary Hall

Stay tuned, listen and learn today on America's Healthcare Advocate.

00;00;26;07 - 00;00;47;19

Cary Hall

And now America's Healthcare Advocate, Cary Hall. Hello, America. Welcome to America's Healthcare Advocate show, broadcasting coast to coast across USA here on the HIA Radio Network. My producer today Mr. Dave Thiessen. Mr. Gardner Cowdrey in studio today. Also if you want to follow us on YouTube or the podcast please do so.

00;00;47;19 - 00;01;11;08

Cary Hall

It's America's Healthcare Advocate, easy to do 810,000. You have downloaded this show. Quite remarkable. Thank you to all of you out there in the audience that are doing that and all of you listening on terrestrial radio as well. In studio with me today, Heather Rollins and Blue Cross of Nebraska. This is our second show that we've done on ICHRA, and we're going to explain what that is here in just about one minute.

00;01;11;10 - 00;01;31;29

Cary Hall

But the point of this show is to explain to employers and brokers out there why this could be an option for you in terms of what you want to do with small group employers, specifically small group employers that are looking for something that is more stable and can do a better job for them. When you're looking at year one, two, and three.

00;01;31;29 - 00;01;39;22

Cary Hall

So let's just start, Heather, with what is ICHRA acronym I C H R A. What does that stand for?

00;01;39;26 - 00;01;44;15

Heather Rollins

Great great great question. First of all, thanks for having me back. Cary I want to say that first.

00;01;44;15 - 00;01;47;20

Cary Hall

How many years have we done? I don't even know, over the years now.

00;01;47;23 - 00;02;05;00

Heather Rollins

Several, anyway. Thank you so much for having me back. But now, what does ICHRA stand for? Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangement accounts and that is what an employer can take, you know, to do a defined contribution for their employees. And it's a good alternative to traditional group health insurance.

00;02;05;03 - 00;02;23;17

Cary Hall

Defined contribution piece is huge okay. Because it stabilizes the cost you know when you're running a business you pretty much know what your costs are going to be year to year. You may have a supplier that you anticipate is going to raise the cost of a particular thing you're buying, whatever the case may be.

00;02;23;17 - 00;02;42;18

Cary Hall

But the problem with the group market is that you don't know what it's going to be. Absolutely. Okay. And so employers are always doing this kind of a guessing game. And the brokers, because the brokers, the one they get to deliver that wonderful message of, hey, we need to talk about your premium increase for next year. Absolutely.

00;02;42;18 - 00;03;04;10

Cary Hall

And that's not, you know, having done this for 27 years, that's not exactly the message. You want to walk in and sit down with an employer and talk to you about what's going on, you know, just pick your poison. You know, that type of thing is not exactly what you're looking for. The difference here is this stabilizes, what you're doing and you're giving the employees a chance to pick what they want.

00;03;04;17 - 00;03;24;19

Heather Rollins

Absolutely, absolutely. What we've seen, and this is a great time right now that we're getting this message out because we're going into the fourth quarter. What happens in the fourth quarter? A majority of those employers are getting their renewal increases on that traditional group plan. And so what we've seen is that we've seen renewals up, you know, 20%, even up to 50% and 100%.

00;03;24;26 - 00;03;44;17

Heather Rollins

And although a ICHRA can be a great solution for any size employer group, we're starting to see that those smaller groups are getting hit very hard when it comes to those annual renewals. And so we're saying, hey, before you decide this is not a coverage that you want to offer for your employees, because what's important for employees is health care, right?

00;03;44;22 - 00;04;00;12

Heather Rollins

And so we don't want employers to feel like they have to just drop health care altogether. So before you do that, we're saying, hey, consider this as an alternative solution that can give you that budget stable stabilization, budget control, and still give your employees those additional choices.

00;04;00;13 - 00;04;06;17

Cary Hall

You don't even have to get to the point of frustration. We're like, well, we're going to have to eliminate health insurance, before you get there.

00;04;06;18 - 00;04;07;05

Heather Rollins

Correct.

00;04;07;05 - 00;04;31;14

Cary Hall

At least ask for get ahold of you. Ask for Heather Rollins over at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska and ask her, hey, can we just get a quote and see what this is going to look like? Can you put together a model for us so we know or the broker if the broker knows he's got ten cases coming in that are going to be in the fourth quarter, and he knows that the premium increases are going to be significantly high, hey, how about I do this ahead of time?

00;04;31;22 - 00;04;49;06

Cary Hall

So when I walk into the employer and I lay down that spreadsheet, I've got the ICHRA plan over here and say there is another way to do this. It might be a more sensible way for you to do this. So what we're really talking about here, more than anything else, is giving the brokers and the employers a path forward with stability.

00;04;49;06 - 00;04;49;16

Cary Hall

Right?

00;04;49;17 - 00;05;07;13

Heather Rollins

Absolutely. You know, again, three of the major points that we like to say it creates predictable cost for that employer. It gives your employees control over the plans that they want to pick. You know, you've been in this for a long time. Today. A lot of employers have to decide, okay, which plan do I want to offer my employees?

00;05;07;15 - 00;05;19;23

Heather Rollins

Whereas this changes that concept. It's a mind shift and so we're excited about it. It's similar to the introduction of 401Ks as well as HSAs. Right. We all remember when those were new to the market.

00;05;19;23 - 00;05;21;09

Cary Hall

Oh my God, we can't do that.

00;05;21;11 - 00;05;21;28

Heather Rollins

You know.

00;05;21;28 - 00;05;23;22

Cary Hall

And nobodys going to want an HSA.

00;05;23;23 - 00;05;33;23

Heather Rollins

Yes. Wrong right. So this is similar to those type of concepts. It's very new. It's in its infancy stage. But it's definitely something that brokers should pay attention to as well as employers.

00;05;33;26 - 00;05;58;06

Cary Hall

Well you go back to this a minute ago. You know, the employees get to make a choice. So people are working longer later in life. They're not retiring, you know, out of the gate at 50, 55 or 60, they're staying on. Well, for those people, if the employer is picking one plan or two plans and that's it for everybody, that size 44 overcoat does not always fit everybody.

00;05;58;08 - 00;06;26;04

Cary Hall

So the 30 year old employee with two kids and a wife, that's trying to get health insurance, doesn't need the same plan that the 55 year old, because the 55 year old hopefully doesn't have the kids at home anymore unless they are living in the basement. In today's world, but the point is, they're going to look at what that HSA plan and go, well, wait a minute, I can reduce my cost by X and put money in the bank and it's a tax deduction.

00;06;26;07 - 00;06;43;10

Cary Hall

And then I can go take it out in as tax free. Yeah I probably ought to look at that. But you're not going to have that choice if the employer is picking a plan that doesn't include that. Correct. Or if the plan you know, is going to cost more, based on a group structure versus if you do this on the ICHRA structure.

00;06;43;10 - 00;06;47;12

Cary Hall

So it really opens up a lot of doors for the employees, doesn't it?

00;06;47;14 - 00;07;11;01

Heather Rollins

Absolutely. If you think about those categories, you know, you have the young mom with three children. Her need for health care may be different from a 27 year old young male, right. He doesn't need as much health care similar to what you said, a 55 year old employee might need more coverage because they're going to the doctor more so this gives you a lot of flexibility, not only for that employer, but also that employee to just choose from different options.

00;07;11;07 - 00;07;16;03

Heather Rollins

And for us in the state of Nebraska, we have over 17 different plans that they can choose from.

00;07;16;10 - 00;07;39;03

Cary Hall

That's a lot! I saw that. I was doing show notes about 5:00 this morning, and I was going through this, I thought, is that really right? I thought maybe somebody made a typo, but that's amazing. If there's 17 different plans. Correct. So there's, that's quite a menu of choices out there that they can go for. And now do they pick a model inside that 17 Heather is that how it works.

00;07;39;04 - 00;07;48;07

Heather Rollins

Right. So the employer just says hey I'm going to give you this set amount of money, which is that defined contribution. And then those employees can choose from all of the different options that we have.

00;07;48;09 - 00;07;53;08

Cary Hall

The employees have 17 options to. Yes, that's a lot of choices.

00;07;53;10 - 00;07;56;02

Heather Rollins

Absolutely. But they have help with that though. They have help.

00;07;56;04 - 00;08;04;24

Cary Hall

But the beauty of that is that they have the choice and that's the really piece that. So if they want to reach out to you directly, how do they do that? Heather.

00;08;04;24 - 00;08;24;26

Heather Rollins

So they can reach out via email or they can reach out for our phone number, email is Heather Dot Rollins, and this is my personal email. Heather Dot Rollins at Nebraska blue.com. That's probably the easiest way to get ahold of me. We also have a dedicated phone number. I'm sorry, I'm pulling it up here now. (888) 391-8532 again.

00;08;24;26 - 00;08;34;26

Heather Rollins

That's (888) 391-8532. We also have a website if you want to get more information. It's nebraskablue.com/getaquote.

00;08;34;29 - 00;08;46;17

Cary Hall

There you go. If you want to just get that quote and take a look before we get to renewals. This could be a great way to do it. We'll be right back after the break. Now we're going to get into, what are the things that make it different than what you're doing now? We'll come back after a break.

00;08;46;17 - 00;09;03;15

Cary Hall

We'll talk about that and how that helps you make this work. We're talking to Heather Rollins from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska, and the topic is the ICHRA plans to give employers and employees better choices to stay right there. We'll be right back with more.

00;09;03;17 - 00;09;21;02

Cary Hall

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00;09;21;05 - 00;09;36;15

Cary Hall

Visit SageonRQ.ai, and get your report card today I'm Cary Hall. Now you know.

00;09;36;17 - 00;10;06;17

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 know if you're intrigued by that first segment, where we're talking about stabilized cost, employee choices, 17 plans, all of that. Reach out (888) 391-8532 or the website. This is really easy. nebraskablue.com/getaquote.

00;10;06;19 - 00;10;31;27

Cary Hall

You're not going to know if you don't try yet, so get a quote. Might make a lot of sense right now. And if you're a broker, you certainly want this in your toolbox when you're out talking to your clients, especially with fourth quarter right around the corner, as, Heather talked about in that previous segment. So let's go through, the hot point of what makes sense for brokers and for employers to look at this.

00;10;31;27 - 00;10;48;09

Cary Hall

So you're talking basically about three things here: predictable cost, employer gains control over spending and better employee experience with less HR burden. So why don't you kind of go through those Heather. And let's talk about what does that really mean when we're talking about how that gets implemented.

00;10;48;12 - 00;10;57;13

Heather Rollins

Yeah. So for us at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska, you know, you might have heard of different ICHRA platforms pop up all over the place. I think there's up to 50 now, maybe even.

00;10;57;13 - 00;11;04;05

Cary Hall

Two years ago nobody knew what that was. Didn't know whether it was a medical condition. It was a health insurance plan.

00;11;04;06 - 00;11;23;14

Heather Rollins

Exactly. So I say that to say this is something that's becoming very popular, for one. So it's definitely something that I will recommend brokers to get engaged with employers, you know, definitely learn more about this product. But for us at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska, we offer a plan that's called Personal Blue. That is our solution.

00;11;23;16 - 00;11;41;07

Heather Rollins

And the difference between Personal Blue and other platforms is that we're going to show you our Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans for one. Okay. And so for a lot of those employers who are a little hesitant about considering ICHRA because there are so many different options, we like to kind of slim that down and only show you Blue Cross plans.

00;11;41;12 - 00;11;59;20

Heather Rollins

And so if you're comfortable with the Blue Cross plan, let's say you have a Blue cross plan today and you want to keep that. You can do that with Personal Blue. Even if your employees live in other states, they can still shop Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans. So that along with the core message that we're offering, is that predictable costs.

00;11;59;21 - 00;12;20;17

Heather Rollins

So employers want to be able to say, hey, I want to be able to control my costs year over year, and you can do that with a ICHRA plan with the Personal Blue plan. And you can do that by setting a defined contribution. And so what that means is that for that employer, you're telling all of your employees, hey, I'm going to give you $600 per month for your insurance.

00;12;20;17 - 00;12;42;26

Heather Rollins

You pick and choose what plan you want to enroll in. So if there's a difference, or money left over from that $600, that employee will then have that money taken out on a payroll deduction, same way that you do with your traditional group plan. Right? So, Cary, if you're picking a group plan and your employer is offering a certain percentage of that, whatever's left will become coming out of your paycheck.

00;12;42;26 - 00;13;06;01

Heather Rollins

You know, by annually, monthly, however that's set up. So you can still do that through a Personal Blue plan. So that's that. The employer then can control that year over year. So there's no longer that okay, employer, you're getting a 20% renewal this year or you're getting a 50% renewal. Right. Instead that employer can say, okay, you're one I offered $600 year two

00;13;06;02 - 00;13;24;15

Heather Rollins

I might go up to 700 or $800. Year three I want to go up to $1,000. The employer is controlling what that contribution is. So no longer are the days that’s, okay, I have a sick group. Maybe somebody has had cancer or maybe somebody had a baby. You know, there's a number of things.

00;13;24;15 - 00;13;40;27

Cary Hall

Well, okay, so stop right there. Yeah. You see you get that mega claim. Correct. $500,000, a $1 million claim and you just blew up the whole group. Correct. You got 15 employees or 50 employees or even 60 employees, and you get hit with the number like that. That's going to hit that renewal.

00;13;40;29 - 00;13;41;15

Heather Rollins

Absolutely.

00;13;41;15 - 00;13;46;26

Cary Hall

On the other hand, if you're in this model where it's an individual plan, correct, it's not going to hit the wall.

00;13;46;26 - 00;13;48;13

Heather Rollins

It's not going to impact you that way.

00;13;48;18 - 00;14;08;22

Cary Hall

It's not going to actually it's not even going to impact the person that has the claim that way. It's very, very different than the way it works on the group model because everything is based on how the group performs for the year in terms of claims, the rest of it. This eliminates that whole discussion. Correct. And I think that gets missed by a lot of people.

00;14;08;22 - 00;14;10;09

Cary Hall

I think brokers even miss that.

00;14;10;11 - 00;14;36;08

Heather Rollins

Yes, the pool for the individual market is totally different from that group pool. And so that's why what we've seen over the last few years is that the individual market has been seeing a lot less renewal increases, as opposed to what that group renewal is seeing. So we've seen in the group renewals, you know, on average 15, 20, 25%, whereas the individual market on average, with the exception of 2026, more like 5 to 6%.

00;14;36;10 - 00;14;40;19

Heather Rollins

And so there is a correction going on now. So it's a little bit higher, more like the 9 to.

00;14;40;19 - 00;14;41;23

Cary Hall

10% range is.

00;14;41;25 - 00;14;42;27

Heather Rollins

Still a lot less.

00;14;43;00 - 00;14;43;28

Cary Hall

Not quite as good for a group.

00;14;43;28 - 00;14;44;25

Heather Rollins

Correct.

00;14;44;27 - 00;14;54;01

Cary Hall

That's a that's a very very different option. How does that play out. So they go they're basically doing an ACA plan. The individual picks an ACA. What about the subsidy piece.

00;14;54;07 - 00;15;16;23

Heather Rollins

So with the ICHRA plans depending on what that employer is contributing. So there is a breaking point. So if you have less than 50 employees you're not required to offer a certain amount of contribution. Right. And so if you have employees their incomes are still extremely low and your contribution doesn't deem affordable, they can still be eligible for a subsidy.

00;15;16;25 - 00;15;24;02

Heather Rollins

So, you know, one thing to think about is that if you have a a company and you have salary employees, maybe you have part time employees.

00;15;24;03 - 00;15;24;29

Cary Hall

That's where I was going.

00;15;24;29 - 00;15;35;22

Heather Rollins

Yes. You're part time employees may still qualify for the subsidy. Right. Whereas today on a traditional group plan, you know, those part time employees they have, they might not get access to that coverage.

00;15;35;24 - 00;15;55;12

Cary Hall

Might not even get access to the the plan. and if they do they're not going to be able to afford it. One of the big problems is for small group is. So the employer gives the employee 50% or 60% of the premium. But when the employee goes to put their children and their spouse on the plan, it blows up, correct? Because they can't afford another 12, $1,500 a month.

00;15;55;15 - 00;16;03;18

Cary Hall

I mean, basically you're looking people trying to make a mortgage payment for health insurance is what it turns out to be. This eliminates that whole discussion.

00;16;03;18 - 00;16;04;15

Heather Rollins

Correct? Correct. Okay.

00;16;04;16 - 00;16;27;07

Cary Hall

And and back to the part time thing. So now you maybe your business relies on part time employees. Correct? to a large degree. For whatever reason, whatever you're doing, maybe you're running a restaurant. Maybe it's a landscaping company. Whatever it is. Well, here you're going to be able to offer the part time employee real coverage. What does that mean for recruitment and retention?

00;16;27;12 - 00;16;58;05

Heather Rollins

It means that increases. Thank you. Yes, I had a group client that came on board earlier this year, same scenario. They were never able to offer insurance because they just, you know, it wasn't affordable. Well, now because there's flexibility and classing, an employer can class based on salary, part time, full time, hourly, location. So if you're an employer and you're saying, hey, I want to be able to offer my salaried managers at my restaurant health insurance, but my part time employees, they're seasonal.

00;16;58;05 - 00;17;10;08

Heather Rollins

They might not qualify for the insurance. You can do that under a ICHRA plan, but you can still also offer those individuals coverage as well. But you can kind of, strategize on how much you want to contribute for each level.

00;17;10;08 - 00;17;37;26

Cary Hall

But but there again, is an opportunity. I mean, you could if the guy down the road running the same restaurant, it's a chain restaurant and he's doing the same thing. Okay. You know, Texas Roadhouse I’ll just throw that out for an example. And the guy down the road that's got a Texas Roadhouse or a competing restaurant, whatever it is, isn't offering the waitress, waiters and waitresses, servers, the whole nine yards any kind of coverage because they can't.

00;17;37;28 - 00;17;41;18

Cary Hall

And now you're offering it? That could make a big difference for people.

00;17;41;22 - 00;17;51;16

Heather Rollins

Absolutely. Because with the ICHRA model you can offer coverage to not only your salaried but also your part timers and your seasonal. So definitely solutions that are available for all employers.

00;17;51;16 - 00;18;14;18

Cary Hall

Yeah. And that’s very different than what it has been in the past. If you want to learn more about this, it's really simple. The numbers (888) 391-8532. The website this is really easy. nebraskablue.com/getaquote. You want to get a quote go to the website. There it is.

00;18;14;18 - 00;18;33;01

Cary Hall

You're the broker I strongly suggest you take a look at this and put it in your portfolio for this quarter, because you're going to need it. We'll be right back after the break. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate broadcasting here on the HIA Radio Network. Coast to coast to coast USA. Don't forget to follow us on YouTube and that podcast.

00;18;33;06 - 00;18;36;17

Cary Hall

We'll be back.

00;18;36;20 - 00;19;09;09

Cary Hall

If you listened to our shows and our nationally syndicated radio broadcast, or you're one of the 830,000 people that download our podcast on YouTube. Maybe you're someone that would like to advertise with us or look into advertising. Reach out to us at advertise@hianetwork.com. That's advertise@hianetwork.com. We can help you like we've helped other sponsors for the last 22 years.

00;19;09;12 - 00;19;34;05

Cary Hall

Welcome back. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate show broadcasting coast to coast across the USA here on the HIA Radio Network. You know, the show we're doing on ICHRA today. We run this thing coast to coast. We're talking about Nebraska. And Heather Rollins works for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska. But this is an educational show for all you people across the country that may be looking at a plan like this or need to look at a plan like this.

00;19;34;05 - 00;19;52;28

Cary Hall

So what we're doing is we're explaining how this ICHRA plan works. And you might want to check with your brokers in whatever state you're in, wherever you may be, and see if there's an ICHRA plan being offered. A lot of Blue Cross plans are offering these now, so there's a lot of plans across the country offering them. And the idea here is to teach and explain.

00;19;52;28 - 00;20;16;22

Cary Hall

Also, we want the folks in Nebraska to know this is available and it's available right now. So, you know, it's one thing. First, we always say there's a segment on this show that typically runs at the end of one of the segments and says, separating fact from fiction. What does it mean? That's what we do here. So people may be listening to this and going, yeah, yeah, that sounds like yeah, I don't know about that.

00;20;16;26 - 00;20;36;05

Cary Hall

Yeah. Let's give them a real factual case study talking about real dollars and real savings and tell them what actually happened here with this manufacturing firm. We're going to call it ABC Manufacturing. We're protecting their identity here. But, why don't you walk us to. This is one of your clients. Heather, let's talk about this.

00;20;36;05 - 00;20;56;25

Heather Rollins

Absolutely. So, we've been in this market for about two years now. So this was one of our first clients that we brought on board for the Personal Blue option, ICHRA Personal Blue. And so, ABC Manufacturing, they had about 140 employees. And so their employer was looking for some cost savings. Of course, they I think they had about a 40% increase on their traditional renewal.

00;20;56;29 - 00;21;00;26

Cary Hall

Hold on they had about a 40% increase?

00;21;00;29 - 00;21;01;16

Heather Rollins

Yes.

00;21;01;17 - 00;21;03;10

Cary Hall

Well, that got his attention correct.

00;21;03;11 - 00;21;23;13

Heather Rollins

Correct. So the broker was looking for alternative options. And so we did a ICHRA analysis. And that's the thing that we do with all of our employees when you come on board. So let me go into what that is. So you send us a census. Depending on the size of your group, you also need to send us your salary information for your employees.

00;21;23;19 - 00;21;41;18

Heather Rollins

So that helps us to determine what is a good, affordable contribution that you, as the employer, should contribute to those employees to make sure that it's fair, make sure that they're not moving all of that cost over to the employee so that they can still have a great experience similar to what they do on the traditional group plan.

00;21;41;18 - 00;22;07;04

Heather Rollins

So we go through that whole process with you as the employer set expectations, prep you and your employers before or your employees before moving to this type of a plan. So we do that for you, show you the numbers. So for this particular group, their current group plan was about $1.8 million per year for the 140 employees. So when we did the ICHRA analysis, we said, hey, you can see some savings here.

00;22;07;04 - 00;22;23;23

Heather Rollins

We can make your contributions lower for you as the employer and your employees are still not paying more out of pocket, no more than what they were paying on their existing plan. With that, overall contributions went from 1.8 down to 1.4 million.

00;22;23;23 - 00;22;30;06

Cary Hall

Per year, so they picked up $400,000 to the bottom line by doing absolutely nothing other than put this plan.

00;22;30;07 - 00;22;52;03

Heather Rollins

Correct? Correct. So there was a savings, to be exact. It was about 400, approximately about $400,000 in savings. So over a three year period that ended up being about $1.5 million in savings over that three year stretch. Because we also do that in the analysis to show you you can control your budget year over year.

00;22;52;03 - 00;23;02;12

Heather Rollins

So if you're controlling your budget and you're deciding on how much you want to contribute year over year, we showed for this particular group they were going to have a savings of 1.5 in 3 years.

00;23;02;15 - 00;23;15;13

Cary Hall

$1.5 million just dropped to the bottom line. Yeah, for doing nothing but changing. Oh, and by the way, we gave each employee their own opportunity to pick the plan they want.

00;23;15;14 - 00;23;16;05

Heather Rollins

Correct.

00;23;16;07 - 00;23;27;13

Cary Hall

We didn't pick a plan and say there's two options here, one or the other and that's it for everybody. You said here you guys go pick the plan. You got 16 out there to choose from. There's bound to be something you like.

00;23;27;13 - 00;23;28;04

Heather Rollins

Absolutely.

00;23;28;06 - 00;23;28;21

Cary Hall

Okay.

00;23;28;21 - 00;23;35;16

Heather Rollins

And the additional thing with that would be 140 employees. There was this was across four different states. So.

00;23;35;16 - 00;23;49;10

Cary Hall

So these people were out of state as well. So even if there's not an ICHRA plan in your state, it doesn't matter because this is being offered through Blue Cross of Nebraska. And they have access to the same Blue Cross network, whatever the Blue Cross network in that state is.

00;23;49;10 - 00;24;15;02

Heather Rollins

So yeah, whatever. Available in that state. So if you're living in Iowa, we're showing you Iowa plans, of course, which are going to show you networks with your Iowa doctors. Right. I think in the traditional group plan, you know, PPOs became really big because they wanted to cover everything and everyone with this model. Now, you don't have to be too concerned about that because you're picking a plan that's in your state that's going to give you the best benefits based on your location.

00;24;15;08 - 00;24;27;26

Heather Rollins

So now you don't have to worry about, okay, trying to encompass everybody because you're in the state of Nebraska. They choose what plan they want in the state of Iowa or in the state of Texas. So they're choosing the best plan for them in that state.

00;24;27;28 - 00;24;51;12

Cary Hall

That's wonderful, because, I mean, you just took away a huge cost to the employer and also to the employees. So I have to believe that the employer looks this goes, wait a minute, I just saved $1.5 million over a three year period. What other things can I do if the employer is really smart, what other things can I do to improve my employee experience here?

00;24;51;12 - 00;25;10;08

Cary Hall

Absolutely. Okay, so now maybe you can offer dental and vision. Maybe you can offer short term disability. Why is that important? Well, if you've got a, let's say 50% of your workforce is female and you're going to offer short term disability, then you're going to pay for it's not very expensive, maybe ten, $15 a month, if that.

00;25;10;11 - 00;25;11;27

Cary Hall

They can have maternity coverage.

00;25;12;01 - 00;25;12;13

Heather Rollins

Correct.

00;25;12;14 - 00;25;31;28

Cary Hall

I remember doing this in southern Illinois with the. But we had about a 400 live case and the minute we put that in and it was 80% women, it would they were individual clinics, rural health clinics all over the state of Illinois. Well, it was huge. They were like, oh, we're covered now. When we get pregnant, we have coverage.

00;25;32;01 - 00;25;40;21

Cary Hall

I mean, things like that that solidify the workforce, which if you don't have good employees and a good workforce, you're toast.

00;25;40;23 - 00;26;06;01

Heather Rollins

Exactly. As I mentioned before, health care is huge. So not only is it medical health care, but it's dental. Now you can offer a dental policy. You can offer vision coverage, maybe even some voluntary benefits like Accidental Death, and the short term disabilities like you mentioned. But all of that is now available. So you can take that $400,000 that you’re saving and just still take a portion of that and add additional coverage for your employees.

00;26;06;03 - 00;26;24;13

Cary Hall

If you took $50,000 a year, hundred thousand dollars a year, and dump that back into employee benefits, you would have better employee retention. You would have an opportunity to attract a higher class. Because the second thing out of a potential employees, mouth when you're telling them what their benefits are going to be. First, one salary. What's the second one?

00;26;24;15 - 00;26;31;00

Cary Hall

What are the health insurance benefits here. You know, it's like you said, that's the second most important thing they got to know.

00;26;31;00 - 00;26;44;17

Heather Rollins

Exactly. Absolutely. And so it's a win win for that employer if he's able to not only save on his bottom line, but also save for their employees and give them better benefits. In addition to that, not only is it think about that HR department, right?

00;26;44;19 - 00;26;45;20

Cary Hall

Oh, this is big one.

00;26;45;21 - 00;26;52;26

Heather Rollins

Yes. You know, you think about the administrative burden of that HR department. You got a lot of employees that's going straight to the HR team.

00;26;53;03 - 00;26;55;06

Cary Hall

Where's the first place they go where there’s a claims issue?

00;26;55;13 - 00;27;10;25

Heather Rollins

They go to the HR department. Yes. And so with this type of a model we're also helping with that. We have, you know enrollers in 50 different states that will help them get enrolled into the best plan. So they're looking at their prescription drugs, they're looking at their doctors are providers, their pharmacies.

00;27;11;01 - 00;27;30;07

Heather Rollins

So they're going to walk them through that process to make sure they get enrolled in the right plan. So even though I'm saying, hey, there are 17 different options that can be overwhelming for an employee. But what we're seeing is we have a team that will help you go through that process step by step, individually, one on one, with each of your employees to make sure they get into the right plan.

00;27;30;07 - 00;27;31;03

Heather Rollins

That's best for them.

00;27;31;04 - 00;27;43;10

Cary Hall

Well, okay, so you just took that whole burden off of the employer to go out and explain all this, enroll them. And then if there is a problem with the claim or a provider, they can go right to.

00;27;43;10 - 00;27;43;24

Heather Rollins

Correct.

00;27;43;26 - 00;27;54;05

Cary Hall

It's a different model completely. And the burden doesn't fall back on the employer. Yes. Which again, you know that reduces the stress and the work that the HR department has to.

00;27;54;11 - 00;28;10;15

Cary Hall

And if it's a small shop, I mean, I think back to some of the group clients that we had years ago when we had the Benefits by Design, we had a lot of employers had ten, 15, 20, 30 employees. And guess who the HR director was? If it was a husband and wife, business that fell right on the wife.

00;28;10;16 - 00;28;13;03

Heather Rollins

Correct. And so now they don't have to worry about.

00;28;13;08 - 00;28;33;05

Cary Hall

It takes all that burden off of them. And that's a big deal because instead of working, you know, in the business, they're now working on the business. How do I scale my business, grow my business if I'm not bogged down with all of this that I have to deal with in every year, I have to go back to my employees and say, well, we're going to have to do some cost shifting this year.

00;28;33;07 - 00;28;42;26

Cary Hall

Your deductibles are going to go up. Our contributions are going to be a little less than they were overall. And your co-pays are going to be high. That is not a happy message to be delivering.

00;28;42;26 - 00;29;03;22

Heather Rollins

You're absolutely right. So with this product and this program, we're giving you a platform that's easy for employees to use. Brokers have access to see, employers have access to see. But we're creating some consistency. We're creating some predictability for them. And just reducing that overall hassle. And like you said, they have more time to focus on better things.

00;29;03;22 - 00;29;07;15

Heather Rollins

They have time to focus on their actual business and not the health care part.

00;29;07;19 - 00;29;21;12

Cary Hall

So what do they do when they're trying to figure out prescription Rx drug coverage? How does all that work if they have? Oh, is is is my GLP-1 going to be covered? How do they navigate that.

00;29;21;12 - 00;29;39;07

Heather Rollins

So our enrollers which they're appointed in all 50 states. And so regardless of where their location is, they get on a phone call, we can set up a 45 minute call with that individual and walk them step by step through that process. So they look up the directories and they make sure that they're getting coverage that they need and they're not left out.

00;29;39;09 - 00;30;03;11

Cary Hall

It's a white glove treatment. And it really makes a lot of sense. If you want to learn more about it. It's called Personal Blue. I strongly suggest you give them a call (888) 391-8532 or the website NebraskaBlue.com/getaquote. It's worth taking a look at. Don't wait until the renewal arrives to do it.

00;30;03;18 - 00;30;22;11

Cary Hall

Do it now so you have something to compare it to. You might find it might be a great option for you. Stay tuned. We'll be right back after the break. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate. Broadcasting coast to coast, accross the USA. Stay right there.

00;30;22;14 - 00;30;41;13

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 want to learn more about this Personal Blue product. You want to learn more about this ICHRA model and how it can work for you as an employer. Whether you're a large employer, small employer, I really urge you to go to the website.

00;30;41;13 - 00;31;07;09

Cary Hall

Just go up there, look around, see what you you'd be amazed what you're going to find. Okay NebraskaBlue.com/getaquote, NebraskaBlue.com/getaquote or just call them at (888) 391-8532. (888) 391-8532. Heather will get back to you. They will sit down. They will chat with you. Brokers. You really need to get behind this because this could make a big difference in your book of business.

00;31;07;09 - 00;31;26;08

Cary Hall

If you want something that you can walk into a potential client with that is different than what they're doing now. This is really different. So anybody in Nebraska, if you're paying attention to this, you really do need to take a look at this if you're a broker out there. All right. So let's go forward now with the, with the rest of what we're going to talk about here.

00;31;26;08 - 00;31;28;15

Cary Hall

Heather. Oh, I'll let you take off and run with it here.

00;31;28;19 - 00;31;48;16

Heather Rollins

Yes. I wanted to point out, like the employer profile, you know, so there's different type of employers that I see. That could be a good fit for this, right? The employer who is someone trying to control their budget? But you also have employers who want to give their employees the best benefits at the lowest cost. So that's one employer that you're thinking about.

00;31;48;18 - 00;32;08;00

Heather Rollins

But overall, you know, they're trying to control their cost year over year. And so some of the industries that we really focus on, you know, and this is just not all inclusive, you can include more. But some of the industries that we really highlight is the hospitality market, right. You know, restaurants maybe you have employees who are homecare health aides.

00;32;08;05 - 00;32;34;27

Heather Rollins

You know, that's another one that we see. Maybe it's a government agency and their budget is restricted on what they can spend year over year. So if you fall into one of those categories, especially even with like construction workers manufacturing, there's all of these different areas that would be a great fit for this type of product. So if you're one of those employers who fall under that classification, this is definitely something I would recommend that you take a look at and the process to get into that is very simple.

00;32;35;01 - 00;32;53;04

Heather Rollins

You know, you can contact me, reach out through our, website or even call us. I'm happy to help, but we simply just need a census. And depending on your size salary, if you're over 50, we take a look at all of your employees. If they have family coverage, you know, employers can still choose to cover at that tier as well.

00;32;53;11 - 00;33;06;22

Heather Rollins

We take a look at that and pretty much do that analysis for that employer to help them understand what it is that they're getting into. You know, this is a huge difference from your traditional group plan, but it can be a plan that's really a great fit for the right group.

00;33;06;22 - 00;33;18;23

Cary Hall

Doesn't feel like a huge difference. It's not I mean, it's a difference from the standpoint of how it's administered. Correct. But from the standpoint of what the employee receives his benefit, it's probably going to be better.

00;33;18;24 - 00;33;20;12

Heather Rollins

You know, but.

00;33;20;14 - 00;33;28;12

Cary Hall

It will just by virtue of the fact that they get to make their own choices and you're not telling them, hey, there's we made the decision. There's two plans. This is what it is.

00;33;28;12 - 00;33;46;25

Heather Rollins

Correct? Correct. And we just want to shift that mindset right, you know, and shift from that, traditional group plan and just seeing something else that can give them some more savings. But there's there's five big advantages, right. And I just want to make sure our employers are hearing this along with along with their brokers, five big advantages.

00;33;46;26 - 00;33;54;28

Heather Rollins

More budget control. That's number one. More choice for your employees. That's number two with help, mind you,

00;33;54;29 - 00;33;56;10

Cary Hall

a lot of help.

00;33;56;10 - 00;33;57;02

Cary Hall

White glove

00;33;57;08 - 00;34;17;04

Heather Rollins

Less paperwork for that HR department because we're taking all of that burden off of them. Flexible classing. So you know we mentioned this earlier, but if you have salaried employees versus part time versus full time, we can create a strategy with that employer to make sure we're giving them the best benefits at the lowest cost possible for them.

00;34;17;06 - 00;34;32;02

Heather Rollins

And then lastly, that seamless end to end experience, we want to make sure this is a great experience for not only that employer but as well as service employees. So we're going to walk you through those steps step by step. Set that expectation. And then it's a win win for everyone.

00;34;32;04 - 00;34;52;07

Cary Hall

Yeah. And the one on one piece of this is really important for the for the employer one on one with his employees to be able to say they're these people spend how much ever time they need with you to tell you exactly how this works. It takes the fear factor out of it. Correct. You're not going to say, well, we're not cut off for health insurance or got too expensive.

00;34;52;14 - 00;35;09;18

Cary Hall

No, we are going to offer health insurance, which is changing. The platform is really what it comes down to. When you think about it. That's really what you're what you're saying. You know, there's one piece of this, it probably, you know, we need to touch on quickly before we wrap this up today. There is a huge problem in the labor market.

00;35;09;18 - 00;35;31;16

Cary Hall

Right. And the problem is do our enough people do the jobs correct. There all right. What did I say the other day, in the construction industry alone, there's 4.5 million jobs out there that they can't fill. For real. Yeah. Well, maybe if you're that contractor. Okay, that is hiring drywallers or hiring painters or hiring landscapers or whatever it is, this might be a great answer.

00;35;31;21 - 00;35;35;27

Cary Hall

And you're offering coverage and your competitor down the road is not offering coverage.

00;35;35;27 - 00;35;48;19

Heather Rollins

Absolutely. And with that defined contribution, you know, we are not requiring you to have a certain contribution amount or have a certain participation amount. That's a big thing. Even if you have one employee, you can do a Personal Blue plan.

00;35;48;20 - 00;36;04;08

Cary Hall

Yeah. I knew I forgot about this, but that's part of the problem on the group side is in order to qualify under a group. Yeah. All right. How many lives. Well there's 50 people here. No no, no. How many people are going to enroll? 12. Well, is that enough to break the threshold to qualify? No.

00;36;04;16 - 00;36;12;29

Cary Hall

Well, then this isn't going to work. So the point that she's making here, it's important that Heather's saying is you don't have those issues. It eliminates all those hurdles.

00;36;12;29 - 00;36;23;05

Heather Rollins

Correct? Correct. As long as it's there, if you have one employee that you want to offer this coverage to, you can and you can decide what your contribution is going to be month over month, year over year.

00;36;23;12 - 00;36;44;08

Cary Hall

You know, we do these for a reason. And the idea is to help people understand a better way to deliver. You know, it's interesting. I saw a statistic the other day that said, 87% of the people in this country that have group health insurance plans with their employers are happy with the plan. That's a pretty good number. I don't think there's 87% of the people is country happy with almost anything.

00;36;44;12 - 00;37;10;10

Cary Hall

So. So if 87% are happy with the fact that they have employer health insurance, you think maybe that they would be happy with this? Yeah, they probably would, because it's going to give them better choices and better opportunities. It’s called Personal Blue. The phone number is (888) 391-8532 and the website NebraskaBlue.com/getaquote.

00;37;10;10 - 00;37;30;20

Cary Hall

Thank you Heather Rollins thanks. Great show today. Absolutely I think we educated a lot of folks okay. And if you're in Nebraska you've got a real opportunity here to take advantage of this. I strongly urge you to do so especially if you're a broker out there. Don't wait until the fourth quarter. You know, when all hell breaks loose out there with people.

00;37;30;27 - 00;37;50;16

Cary Hall

Yeah. And then you're all running to do to Heather and the team to get quotes and get it done. Get ahead of the curve. Now it's the time to do it. (888) 391-8532 give her a call. They'd be happy to help. Or the website NebraskaBlue.com/getaquote. Thank you very much for listening to America's Healthcare Advocate show today.

00;37;50;23 - 00;38;11;26

Cary Hall

Remember, friends, it's a funny thing about life. If you refuse to accept anything but the very best, you most often get it. And the one who follows the crowd, will usually get no further than the crowd. The one who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been. Thank you for listening to America's health care today, broadcasting coast to coast across USA.

00;38;11;27 - 00;38;17;00

Cary Hall

Goodbye America.

00;38;17;03 - 00;38;23;22

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