Welcome everyone to the Becker Health care podcast
series. I'm Mariah Muhammad, Writer, and moderator with
Becky Healthcare, and Thrilled Have with me today,
Drew Thompson, Head of Sales of North well
direct. Drew is very nice to have you
on the podcast today. To get a start
would you mind please introducing yourself and selling
us a bit about your background.
North Sure. Thanks for having me Really excited
to to speak with you today.
I'm drew Thompson, the head of sales at
at North Direct that been with North Director
for about
3 years has been in the employer sponsored
healthcare space for over 15
started my career at United healthcare,
in the new business sales capacities, and then
I spent some time at a third party
administrator, a boutique, Tpa where I led the
New York office. So it's been a nice
view of the healthcare landscape and working at
a large
national insurance carrier, a small
Tpa and now on the North direct side,
as part of the healthcare care delivery system.
Wonderful. Thank you so much for giving us
that background. So
with what you're doing right now, what are
the biggest issues you're following in health care
this year?
Sure. So, you know, North 12 direct, we
are a direct to employer
network.
We tried to self insured employers. In the
small to bid market space and typically working
with employers between 105000
and when we go all the way upstream
to jumbo employers will offer them our,
provider network in the New York Metro region
through
various Tpa partners. But, 1 of the biggest
things that we're seeing right now now is
year over year, double digit
increases on a fully insured basis. And even
some self insured, you know, groups that with
stop loss they're seeing excessive increases from the
traditional
carrier model. So we're working with employers in
that hundred to 5000
space. They are really stressed with, you know,
Hr teams that are not like a jumble
and employer that are fully blown out and
are analyzing,
you know, their costs on a on a
weekly and and monthly basis where
these employer groups are
really really
relying on their consultant broker partners partners to
advise them on what the best solutions for
their
organization and they're just struggling year over year
with
a 10:12 percent increase because health care trend
is is
that is what it is on a plain
insured basis. So what we try to do
is we're trying to
provide different alternatives in the marketplace with power
direct to employer approach with our,
network of over 31000
providers,
with contracted rates that are
significantly
low as traditional carriers including United Sign and
Ae, where we can bring that
regional network and and wrap with a national
carrier or a network for any
members that are living outside the have kids
in college gone of the new
region, but also
access inside of our region as well.
Wonderful. Wonderful. Thank you so much for giving
us that insight.
Is there anything that you are most excited
about or anything that's making you nervous, whether
it's something that you're working on personally or
anything else that you're seeing in the news?
Yes. Mean, I think what we're doing here
at North world Direct is obviously very exciting.
I think in general across the market,
employers are starting to look at alternative ways
to access their health care,
because they're faced with these double digit increases
every year and their you know, being
subject to looking at their renewal options from
the traditional carriers and just seems a lot
of the same year over year for them.
So, they're starting to explore
like, our offering a direct to employer relationship.
They're starting to
explore captive models where they and group their
risk with other employers on a self funded
basis. They're starting to look at reference based
option. So what we're seeing in the market
across the country is that employers
in that mid market space where
historically they've been conservative. They've been told where
moving to a self insured
plan for a 500 life group is too
risky.
They're they're peeling back the curtain on that.
They're realizing that it is not. There are
programs in place with reins insurance and stop
loss that takes all the risk off a
table from my organization instead of, you know,
lining the the pockets of the big insurance
carriers on a fully insured basis, the they
can move self funded, and they can pay
their claims as they're incurred and protect all
of the downside risk of a a large
claim
or the overall liability
of the company through stop loss and reins.
So we're really excited to seeing market shift
best especially in the New York Metro region
where
this market is typically
80 percent fully insured and 20 percent self
insured,
where you go in the middle of the
country and you're seeing the exact opposite employers
in those areas in that mid market space
are 80 percent self insured and 20 percent
fully insured. So
exciting to see that the market, the consultants
and brokers are really starting to talk about
self insurance as the path forward for
employers in that mid market space.
Yeah. Yeah. That definitely does seem very exciting.
And, Drew, before I let you go, the
last time I really want to ask you
is
your opinion, what of the most effective healthcare
care leaders need in order to be successful
in the next 2 to 3 years.
I think, you know, leaders whether you're
In a healthcare leader at an organization
in a in a Hr capacity and C
suite capacity or even
a consultant or a broker you have to
challenge the status quo. Right? Where we've been
in this hamster wheel of of buying insurance
from, you know, the big insurance carriers for
the last 30 years.
Look at different alternatives,
being be open to creative ideas.
And if you are in that Hr suite,
if if you go into a renewal meeting
and you're seeing all the same, you should
be challenging,
you should be asking what else is out
there, what else can I do to?
You know, avoid this cost trend that year
over year never seems to go the other
way or never seems to to stay flat.
So really challenge that and,
you know, make sure that you're offering
a health care plan that is broad in
coverage for your employees, but also is is
monitoring the bottom the bottom line And, Now,
I would end that with...
It is very interesting in the space that
we work in day in a day out
that for an employer.
Health care, the benefit offering that you're offering
your employees is probably the second to third
largest line item in in your business. Right?
Know, payroll 1
rent and and or at least could be
2 with active could be exchanged with your
health care plan. So 2 or 3 could
be, the rent or mortgage on the buildings
that you own or your healthcare benefits and
from our perspective, it's 1 of the least
amount of it's 1 of the things that
has the least amount of time and focus
that's put on it from the C suite
at these organizations, but it's 1 of the
biggest cost drivers of an organization year over
year. So my suggestion for the leaders at
organizations really dive in and understand what's driving
the cost of your employee benefit plan plan
because there are ways to to bring those
costs down and there are ways to make
sure that you are are chart a course
for the future we're sustainable for your organization.
The Wonderful. Thank you so much for his
final thoughts, Drew. This has definitely been. In
a we're a discussion. So, again I wanna
thank you so much for coming on Becker
health care. I'm gonna look forward to connecting
with you soon.
Thanks so much for and appreciate the time.