Shift Shapers Podcast

Ep #29: Want To Lower Costs? Focus On Quality, Not Cost – With Shane Wolverton

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This week on the ShiftShapers podcast, we are very excited to bring you a great conversation with Shane Wolverton, senior vice president of Corporate Development for Comparion Medical Analytics. Shane’s research shows that despite the constant historical focus on “cost”, the real opportunity to drive down medical spend is to focus on quality.

Drawing on 20 years of experience in the field, Shane discusses how benefits advisors can take what may seem to be a complicated tangle of measurements and create a simple, easy-to-understand system that engages employees and employers alike. Shane will explain why, in the final analysis, “Quality is cost.”

What You’ll Learn From This Episode:

  • Shane’s background.
  • Why there isn’t a “true north” when it comes to quality metrics.
  • The common quality measures advisors can look at.
  • How two hospitals in the same town can vary so much in quality, and what does that mean for total cost.
  • How advisors take can this complicated tangle of measurements and use them to create value for employers and employees.

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Ep #28: HIX 2.0: The Evolution of A More Personalized Benefits Experience – With Taylor Pechacek

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Private exchanges are evolving into a “version 2.0, Health Care As A Service” model. In this week’s interview, we chat with Taylor Pechacek of Maxwell Health, a company that had its beginnings in wellness. Today, the company is changing its focus and is helping to shape the employee experience by shifting the way employees can shape their personalized healthcare dynamic and elect and manage a much wider range of benefits in a year-round private exchange setting.

In today’s environment, employees want to to expand and personalize their benefits experience. Beyond access to their usual medical, vision, dental and possibly ancillary coverage, they want to select from things like childcare services, legal and identity theft plans, wearable activities, sleep monitoring and rewards programs.

I invited Taylor to discuss how benefit advisors can increase their value proposition and differentiate themselves from others with some of the new tools available. Listen in to learn how to harness this evolving trend and use it to bring a new conversation to your prospects and clients.

What You’ll Learn From This Episode:

  • Maxwell Health’s beginnings in the Wellness space.
  • How they are expanding what health care insurance is today.
  • What a “personalized health care dynamic” is.
  • How benefit advisors discuss this new model with prospects and clients.
  • Whether user experience is the new differentiator.
  • Why the benefits continuum is a 12-month a year process; not just an open-enrollment period process.

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Ep #27: Digital Health and Wellness Revolution – With Jonathan Anders

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Jonathan Anders, the Executive Vice President for Business and Corporate Development at HealthJibe, joins us on the program this week. HealthJibe is a tool for modern internet-connected devices that helps consumers stay on top of their well-being and physical health.

On this episode, Jonathan shares his insight into how internet-connected devices are going to start shaping the health and wellness profiles in the post-ACA world. Find out how consumers are currently using tools like HealthJibe to incorporate health risk management and prevention into their daily digital routines.

What You’ll Learn From This Episode:

  • What “The Internet of Things” is and why it matters in healthcare.
  • How our  digital routines and can be used to foster wellness.
  • Whether the devices like FitBit and Google’s contact lens glucometer are the way of the future for digital health and wellness.
  • The effects of PPACA  on the evolution of Web 2.0 devices and individualism in wellness.
  • Why brands like HealthJibe choose to focus on metabolic syndrome.

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Ep #26: Direct Pay Primary Care Model Gains Importance In The Post-ACA Environment- With Erika Bliss

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On this episode of ShiftShapers, we welcome Dr. Erika Bliss, President and CEO of Qliance, a Seattle-based pioneer in the Direct Pay Primary Care (DPPC) practice model. Established in 2006, Qliance is delivering impressive results by focusing on an on-demand primary care model. With the increased personal responsibility consumers face with today’s plan designs, DPPC is becoming increasingly significant in helping to keep patients healthy while helping them to manage out of pocket expenses.

I invited Erika to the program to share her journey within the healthcare system and the shifts that DPPC has shaped in the process. Unsatisfied with the traditional healthcare model after working a number of years as a primary care physician, Erika transitioned into a new, more efficient model.

Listen in as Erika explains how the Direct Primary Care model eliminates the co-pays and deductibles that are often a barrier to routine and preventive care while also increasing patient health and satisfaction.

What You’ll Learn From This Episode:

  • Erika’s background in healthcare.
  • What Direct Primary Care is.
  • How Qliance’s model works.
  • Whether the payers value managed care if they see the cost savings DPC practice models can deliver.
  • Whether it make sense to charge a co-pay for primary care.
  • Why the DPC model is more relevant in a post-ACA world.

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Ep #25: Back to the Sales Basics – With Nelson Griswold

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This week, it is a privilege to be speaking to a principal of Bottom Line Solutions, Nelson Griswold. Nelson is a prolific public speaker and columnist whose audiences know him as a thought leader and authority in the area of consultative selling. He is also the author of the industry best-seller book, Do or Die.

I invited Nelson to the program to talk about the shift that PPACA has brought and why going back to the basics of selling is the way to go. Don’t miss this episode’s advice from one of the leading sales authorities in the industry!

What You’ll Learn From This Episode:

  • Whether sales are made by presenting facts in a logical manner.
  • The psychology of buying.
  • How people usually listen.
  • Why more questions is not really the best approach to sales.
  • Do you really need 13 (or more) steps to sales success?
  • Nelson’s 4 steps to a successful sale where the client will even close themselves.

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Ep #24: Using Big Data as a Differentiator – With Mark Smith

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Today, we welcome the founder and CEO of miEdge.biz, Mark Smith, to ShapeShifters. The miEdge application is an affordable and easy to use service that combines an intuitive interface to a database and search engine of Department of Labor Health/Welfare Employee Benefits information.

I invited Mark to the show to discuss how data can be an effective prospecting and service tool while also serving as a differentiator for benefits advisors. Tune in to learn how the miEdge system helps level the playing field by making even the “average” benefits advisor a subject mater expert, able to tailor client solutions based on their unique datasets.

What You’ll Learn From This Episode:

  • What “Big Data” is and why it matters.
  • How data can be a differentiator for advisors.
  • How data can be used in prospecting.
  • Whether  this is accessible to the “average” advisor.
  • Why DOL datasets are not practical for the average person to use.
  • How advisors can use data to help clients.

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Ep #23: Keeping Medical Care Between a Patient and Doctor – With Gustav & Eric Hoyer

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This week we are speaking with Gustav and Eric Hoyer, brothers who have created a start up named after the ancient Roman physician Galen of Pergamon. Galen is a start-up organization whose goal is to empower individual consumers to find quality medical care within certain pricing restraints.

I invited Gustav and Eric to talk about how the shift in the delivery of healthcare (progressively less personal and compassionate), and how their model facilitates providers in granting substantial discounts to patients. Listen in to learn about this innovative way of healthcare delivery in the new environment of larger overall out-of-pocket costs.

What You’ll Learn From This Episode:

  • How a confusing and convoluted payment system with multiple players lent itself to a more simple, straightforward model for consumers.
  • How it helps patients to price shop.
  • What the range of price variation is in the marketplace today.
  • The company’s plans to create a nationwide footprint.
  • How benefit advisors have the price conversation with prospects and clients.
  • How brokerages might benefit from Galen’s service.

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Ep #22: It’s All About Millennials – With Gerry Herbison

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On this episode of the ShiftShapers Podcast, we are very pleased to be speaking with Dr. Gerry Herbison. Gerry is the Director of the Chartered Leadership Fellow designation and Assistant Professor of Management at The American College.

I invited Gerry to talk about his expertise in the management of, by and for Millennials. Tune in to learn about the generations shift that is happening in the insurance and benefits world and how we can shape environments that attract and retain this group of people.

What You’ll Learn From This Episode:

  • What is a Millennial?.
  • What makes Millennials so different that we need to think about them as a separate, distinct cohort.
  • What agencies need to do to attract this group.
  • How the recruitment discussion need to change.
  • How to create an environment where Millennials can flourish.
  • How this cohort prefers to communicate (more or less) and if they like working alone or in groups.

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Ep #21: Helping Clients Eliminate Billing Headaches – With Eric Raymond

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This week, we are talking to Eric Raymond, co-founder of BenefitVault. Reconciling and paying bills for benefit arrays with a multitude of carrier bills creates a huge hassle for employers and HR departments.  The post-ACA emphasis on voluntary and non-insurance benefits has exacerbated an already nettlesome problem.

BenefitVault shaped that shift into a simple and elegant solution that advisors can provide to alleviate this problem – and the objections that come from proposing a multi-carrier benefit array.

We invited Eric to talk about the trends that are changing the world of benefits and how BenefitVault was able to help advisors and their clients adjust to these changes.

What You’ll Learn From This Episode:

  • How PPACA has exacerbated a problem employers have struggled with for years.
  • How brokers position this service as a value-added program.
  • Why HR departments find this new service helpful.
  • How a simple, one-time change in payroll shapes a simpler and more elegant solution for carrier reconciliation and payment.

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Ep #20: Building Presentations That Inspire Action – With Meghan Dotter

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ShiftShapersCoverArtWe decided to change things up a bit this week and asked Meghan Dotter, founder of PorticoPR to share her expertise on how to “present better”, which is the tagline for her company, Portico PR.  A veteran of several high-profile communications and PR positions, she decided  to build her practice on the one thing most people find so difficult – the presentation.

With the increase in complexity in our industry, coupled with advisor’s need to provide more value in their client interactions, honing presentations skills is a must.  Tune in to learn how you can create presentations that resonate, build trust, inspire action and help you close sales.

What You’ll Learn From This Episode:

  • The challenges of creating presentation that cut through an ever-more
    complex environment.
  • The value of storyboarding as preparation for creating a presentation.
  • How clients learn, decide and remember.
  • Why newer presentation tools may be more impactful than the venerable PowerPoint.
  • Should you have a second deck when you present?
  • The importance of a little stagecraft during presentation.

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