Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Recruitment Retention Revenue: Insider Opportunities in Employee Benefits with Tanner Gardner

Episode Date: February 13, 2024

Welcome to another episode of the Radcast! Let’s dive deep into topics that matter most to businesses and individuals alike. In today's episode, we're joined by Tanner Gardner, an expert in innovative healthcare solutions, as we explore a groundbreaking program that is reshaping the landscape of employee benefits. Together, we'll unravel the complexities of this program, shedding light on its potential to not only transform healthcare access but also to drive revenue growth for employers. Stick around until the end for a special call to action, where you can learn more about how to implement this program in your own organization and start reaping its benefits today. Let's dive in!All about recruitment, retention, and revenue in 2024. Tanner provides an overview of the insurance industry and the focus of Innovative Health Insurance Advisors on ACA compliance and mitigating costs. (01:38)Introduction to the Encompassing Health program and its goal to address retention, recruitment, and cost concerns for businesses. (03:36)Overview of Section 125 and its role in providing pre-tax deductions for medical benefits, and Explanation of the Encompassing Health program's structure and benefits for employees. (5:00)Tanner highlights the significance of preventive care and the program's focus on proactive health measures and the rising importance of behavioral health services and the financial burden of traditional counseling services. (09:28)Introduction to virtual primary care and its role in providing convenient and cost-effective healthcare solutions. (11:30)Tanner emphasizes the importance of education and awareness about alternative healthcare options among employees. (13:08)Tanner shares his journey from Las Vegas to joining the family business and a discussion on the challenges and rewards of working in the insurance industry. (14:18)Tanner discusses the cultural barriers to accessing healthcare and the role of insurance in providing affordable healthcare options for diverse populations. (19:14)Reflections on the rewarding aspects of helping businesses and employees through innovative insurance solutions like the Encompassing Health program. (22:25)Exploring the revenue benefits for both employers and employees, focusing on the shift in prescription costs and potential tax savings through Section 125. (24:14)Overview of the implementation process for businesses, emphasizing the simplicity and education-focused approach. (29:20)Discussion on company qualifications and ideal timing for implementing the program, highlighting its flexibility and benefits regardless of industry or company size. (33:17)To learn more or to take advantage of the Encompassing Health Program visit https://www.ficasave.com/?referCode=ryanalford. If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE.  Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding.  Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. 

Just from our relationships in the insurance world, we actually got into the PPE industry. That industry was a complete sham. There's a lot of fluff in that industry to say the least. A lot of people saying, hey, I could sell you these masks, I could sell you these gloves. So that was a whole another rabbit hole. And then once that kind of died down summer 2020, I just really dove into insurance. And insurance is all about relationships. You're listening to The Radcast, a top 25 worldwide business podcast. If it's radical, we cover it. Here's your host, Ryan Alford.

What's up, guys? Welcome to the latest edition of The Radcast. This is Ryan Alford, your host. I'm pumped today. We used to say if it's radical, we'd cover it. I like the four R's, you know? Right. We were going to talk about the three R's, Tanner, but look at the four R's. We're still radical.

But I got Tanner Gardner here, VP of Business Development, Innovative Health Insurance Advisors. If you give me one more word to say, Tanner, I don't know if I can do it. It's a mouthful. Thanks for having me. Great to be here. It's been great getting to know you better. Yeah yeah and pumped that you're here in the studio absolutely you know one of our uh we've been getting a lot of guests a lot more guests in studio beautiful right south carolina come and visit south kakalaki it's a beautiful spot i've never

this is my ironically first time ever in south carolina it's a wonderful state beautiful you know good place to raise a family right right near the mountains near the coast right you know probably get some good oysters out here huh yeah really good that's awesome so uh it's fun man but glad you're here yeah likewise thanks and look we got a lot of business owners a lot of entrepreneurs yeah listen to the show and uh you know kidding with the four r's but we but i'm pumped to talk about the three r's right i think for any business owner and myself owning multiple business, when we started talking topics for the day, I was like, these are the key things.

Completely. You've got retention, recruitment, revenue. Yep. Three biggest things. I know today we wanted to get into, okay, it's 2024. Yeah. What are the trends? What are the things what are

ways that you guys yeah you know with your company but you being a leader in the field um and i know how respected your firm is you know we want to want to give value to the audience about things we're seeing you know how can business owners out there recruit better right retain better and grow their bottom line 100 let%. Let's just start there, man. What are you seeing? What's the climate in your field and in this space overall? Insurance in general is very interesting, right? And maybe it would be beneficial just to kind of give a lay of the land.

So at heart, we're a TPA, so third-party administrator of group health insurance plans. Our really main focus of business. It's something called ACA compliance or MEC plans. It's basically, hey, once you're a business owner, you have 50 employees. You need to offer what's called minimum essential coverage. If not, the IRS is going to come for you and you're going to get penalized. We don't want that, people. We do not want that.

So if you're not ACA compliance, get ACA compliant. So that's our bread and butter. That's what we're known for. We're the nation's largest provider of ACA-compliant plans, MEC plans across the United States. But everything we do just as a company is really trying to think outside of the box as far as health insurance goes. Think of ways to mitigate costs, help out with that retention recruitment, right? Because insurance in general, right, it's the one guarantee every year

that you know is going to go up. Hey, I just met with my broker. Sorry, you saw. Does it ever go down? Very rare. Only in some cases if you're if you're self-insured where that's a whole another but if you got any number of employees i just don't think it ever goes that ever goes down right and and for an employee right it's it's becoming

more and more unaffordable right because if i'm a i'm your regular employee making 15 20 bucks an hour right i could barely afford 600 bucks a month for a high deductible plan. And you talk about that high deductible plan, God forbid, I go to the hospital, that bankrupts people, right? And truly, I go into debt, right? Because any medical bills, even if I go to the ER, right? Hospitals, right? They also write the narrative. So when I go to the hospital, they're going to send me a bill for 20 grand for getting an x-ray, right? It's a joke. So everything we do is trying to, you know, mitigate that, change really the narrative and really shift the, you know, narrative how insurance

is typically driven and how it's typically modeled into a kind of new model. And that's kind of what sparked our Encompassing Health program. And, you know, the main basis behind the program and why we kind of came into this market is really just because COVID really impacted all of our clients, right? Especially 90% of our groups are those blue-collar industries, your construction, management, hospitality, nursing, agricultural, where even prior to COVID, as a business owner, they worked on tiny margins, right? And then post-COVID hit, they're like, oh, my gosh, I got to shut my doors down. I had no revenue for eight months. How can I reopen, reopen right and so that's kind of what sparked this program and basically what it is it's a it's a section 125 is is basically the the concept behind it section 125 it's been around since 1978 it's most commonly used tax in the united states every

business owner has it for you know their major medical pre-tax deduction 401ks. The byproduct of having a pre-tax deduction could potentially be a savings in FICA. It's kind of the byproduct of how that works. So with our encompassing health program, how it's structured is basically employees will get access to additional benefits for them and their entire family at no out-of-pocket cost. So there is a cost associated with the program. The cost is just taking kind of from the tax savings that's generated. But now employees will get access to products like a hospital indemnity plan, right? If, hey, God forbid, I do go to the hospital, now I'm going to get paid X amount for being fined, being admitted, being transported. They'll get access to also additional benefits for them and their entire family for stuff like a

virtual primary care to behavioral health. So these are all elements we can kind of dive into. But, yeah, it's been a really great story to tell because every business owner is looking for that solution to not only address that retention recruitment through benefits, but also have kind of the byproduct of potential savings for both employer and employee. And I'll say this. You know, I've owned, you know, I worked for others. I feel like I've always been an entrepreneur in some ways. But I worked for others 15 years.

I've owned multiple companies for six, seven years now. And it's – I don't know why it surprised me, but with recruitment and retention and how important insurance and how big – I knew it, so it's like I don't want to play like I was an idiot. But I think I was an idiot. But I think I was naive coming into it as a business owner. I started adding 5, 10, 15 employees. Okay, I knew insurance mattered. But the degrees, the levels, and the amount of options that can be there

and how it can make or break certain hires. Because if you want certain talent, you've got to offer the best benefits. 100%. I mean, and that might be like, no shit, Ryan,

like people listening, but, but when you're an entrepreneur and you're, you know, you're focused on a lot of things and you want to take care of people, right? You don't necessarily know all these things. I think that's why it's so important to have a great partner and insurance is on the back burner. Right. It's the last item that every business owner thinks about. Right.

Hey, I want to get my business model up and going. I want to get my revenue in. I want to set my policies and procedures. Oh, I do insurance. Oh, my gosh. How do I do that? Right. Insurance is very confusing. There's a lot of steps that goes involved with running it. And to your point, though, I think COVID really kind of exposed to all of us as Americans, right? People that lost their jobs. Hey, now I'm not going to go to employer if they're not offering insurance, right? That is a huge thing. It kind of goes in that mindset. Oh, I need, I need, I need as an employee. And I preach about, right? Employees in today's market, they are screaming prior to even getting hired saying, Hey, Ryan, if I can work for you, you better pay me the highest you could pay. And you better give me the best benefits. Yeah,

right. So that's kind of the story. And I think, you know, if, if employers are maybe naive and unaware of how important that is the beginning, yeah, I think they become aware of it pretty quickly, right? They're hiring the best talent talent they have to go through that process right i do think you know we all have insurance even those that you know employed and everyone in the room has insurance right i think we're naive to the ancillary things that can be added that are important right which go hand in hand with what we're talking about with the company help completely and i think because i don't think i don't think the average Joe knows because I think everybody complains and goes, my insurance doesn't cover enough.

Exactly. I know that, but I didn't know that maybe these other things are out there. Right. So it becomes a win-win for the employer and employee, the education that happens with these programs. Completely. And right to your point, all of us have that major medical card in our wallet that's just burning a hole, right?

We pay this premium every month and hey, God forbid something happens, then I'll go get a fix. When really, if you take a look at countries like Europe, Sweden, Italy, they have great healthcare systems because all their population are engaging in health at stage one

rather than waiting till stage four, then I need that major medical card, right? So for example, like, one of the elements in our program is employees will get access to a metabolic testing kit, right? So hey, prick your finger, send it back to your lab, it shows me, hey, maybe in my family, I my males have heart issues. So maybe at a stage one, I can do something that will prevent me from the time that I'm 60. And I have this huge claim puts me in bankrupt. I'm owing the hospital a bunch of stuff. I'm owing my insurance carrier a lot of money. Having stuff on the preactive approach is kind of the overall goal and mission of the program. Another big part of our program is we added behavioral health, right? This has been

the biggest hot topic in really the world post COVID, right? We've seen a giant increase in anxiety, depression, substance abuse. So we all know behavioral health counseling, it's expensive, right? It's typically not covered on your insurance policy and you're paying out of pocket anywhere from, you know, 200 to 500 bucks per session. So it can get really, really costly when you have a serious, you know, issue that you need to talk to someone. And so through our program, issue that you need to talk to someone. And so through our program, we have 24 hour, 365 therapists or counselors that employees and their families can access. So, hey, if I'm, we deal with this a lot with like a hospital organization. So maybe an employee, my patient just passed away and I'm really depressed, really sad. I want to talk with therapists. I can call

in, but maybe I'm just overall have anxiety, depression, substance abuse. And I want to talk to someone on a regular basis. They have behavioral health coaches that they can schedule unlimited amount of times. They don't pay any co-pay. And it's a huge value for, right, employees and their families. Yeah. I mean, that is big. But I'm going to back up for one second because you hit a hot topic for me. I literally, one of our clients, one of my good friends, and my doctor is Dr. Longevity.

Longevity doctor. And I got on my soapbox. We did a show several weeks back talking about how backwards the healthcare system that we get. Right. You know, we thank the doctor for curing things that should have been prevented already. Completely. That could have been prevented. 100%.

Because we have these things. We have medicine and technology and all this stuff at our fingertips but we're just always treating versus preventing and i mean and i know the doctors have always said oh they might say it they're good for you but it's but it's not i mean it's it goes to you know most doctors most people don't even go to internal medicine doctors they don't even look at their blood every year and what's even crazier so to that point that point, as we all know, right, if you're, so there's this study that, let's say you're taking four prescriptions, another part of our program that we're adding, some of those prescriptions are actually canceling out some of the other ones. So that's how, you

know, these people get hooked on these prescriptions. Hey, I need these five pills. Hey, but really, if you're taking prescription A with prescription C, that's canceling each other out. So you're really not even getting the benefit of that. So most of the time, employees don't even need it. And that lifestyle change, right, whether it be your diet, whether it be, you know, doing one of the aspects to engage in preventative care, that's where, you know, that stinking thinking in our country is really going to start to change. And that's the overall goal of health care, I think, is the long term. And look, I'm kind of like the anti-kumbaya guy like i'm just not i'm kind of like toughen up but i'll say this if you have healthy employees it's good for

business correct like then they're not taking off like doing health and wellness you know all those things right and so you know you want your employees to be happy and healthy correct because that's good for the bottom line ultimately because if they're sick all the time they're doing all the stuff that's treating instead of preventing correct so it makes a lot of sense that these programs get enacted but i just don't think the awareness is out there you're absolutely correct and and for example like everyone's familiar with telemedicine right hey call in i'll chat with the doctor everyone has telemedicine everyone pays a copay for that, I'll chat with the doctor, everyone has telemedicine, everyone pays a copay for that. So including our program is no copay. But bigger point is we added virtual primary care. So not a lot of people know, but right now about seven out

of nine primary care visits can be handled telephonically. So right when I go to my primary care doctor, I think he likes me, I think he cares about me, but I see him for like 10 minutes, right? And he's like, Oh, Tanner, you're fit, you're healthy. You're good. See you later. Right? That really could have been done virtually. Why do I need to go into the office, call out of work, take my kids out of school? Time is money. Exactly. Yeah, so being able to provide that benefit, virtual primary care to employees and their entire families, right now I'm not calling out of work. Now I can do it from the confines of my home, right? At the end of the day, going to the hospital nowadays, that's where sick people

go, right? Especially post-COVID, I don't want to go to the hospital i don't want to catch something and you know become even more sick than i already am yeah what what was the foundation of this program i know you talked about yeah the one 125 yeah yeah you know like but what what did all this come about yeah so section 125 all that section 125 really does is allow a business owner to put in a pre-tax deduction for medical benefits. You're 401k, HSA, major medical, et cetera. This program specifically really sparks from the Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act was what Obama put in place back in 2011. Really, the whole idea behind the Affordable Care Act was to have employees engage in preventative care.

That was kind of the goal and mission, right? Hey, you get an annual physical for free and some other, you know. They should have called me, Tanner. They needed a national television campaign for this shit. They did. Because nobody knows about it. They did a horrible job marketing it, right? They did a horrible job.

So back in 2015 is really what sparked this program in particular because the Affordable Care Act had an amendment to it that said you can now bill insurance companies for a wellness activity. So let's say I go to my doctor, right? And let's just say I'm doing my annual checkup. He says, Tanner, you're fit, you're healthy. But you know, it's a maybe it was in the fall, are you going to get your flu shot? Or what about I'm not old enough, but colonoscopies, maybe talk to me about a different disease prevention benefit. There's ultimately medical information all has CPT codes embedded within it. Even if you're just educating

you on a different topic, that that doctor is going to go bill your insurance company accordingly for. So that's kind of what sparked the premise behind all this is to have really employees understand, hey, preventive care is good. And hey, there's additional resources for you to receive that same care. Now through this program, right? It's just that, you know, getting that out to the market and having employees understand, where can I receive the same care now through this program, right? It's just that getting that out to the market and having employees understand, where can I receive this same care for a cheaper cost? I mean, is it possible? I'm a firm believer that things happen within organizations.

They're top-down or bottom-up. So do employees just not know about this? Do they not ever come and ask for these type things? Does it ever come from the ground swell up? Not typically because insurance is boring, and especially group health insurance, you never will see an ad on social media. You'll never see it on your TV.

Everything you do, all insurance-related stuff, is all about drugs. We've all seen the latest drugs. Oh, if you maybe consult your doctor two weeks before and talk to a professional about our drugs. Every commercial now is pretty much a drug. Some type of pharmacy that can change your life in a split of a second. So employees just aren't educated, frankly, on what they want. They're just really being told, hey, you want this, and this is what you're going to

pay, and this is how it's been for the last 60 years. Let's give our audience a little bit of perspective about innovative health insurance advisors. I want to really set the table, and for you, anyone listening is going,

this is a really impressive guy. I'm'm just saying man i mean you know your shit and but i think it's important to know like your background yeah background of the business yeah absolutely and you know like let's let's talk about that yeah i'll tell you kind of how i how i came to be yeah born and raised in las vegas nevada so vegas is a very very small town so i'm sure anyone that's watching this if you're from vegas you probably know me or my family or one of my friends or cousins, etc. What happens in Vegas, I don't always stay in Vegas, right? That is for sure. You did leave, right?

I did leave. So yeah, my mom, she's been in Vegas since the 70s. She was basically practically born there. Growing up, had a great time. I went to Faith Lutheran High School. It was one of the big football schools, kind of rival to Bishop Gorman. And then Vegas is very interesting because if you're Vegas, like I said, it's very, it's that small town feel. So if you stay in Vegas, it's kind of seen like, oh, you're staying in Vegas, really? Like, what are you going to,

what are you going to do? And so you got to get out of Vegas to make something. You got to get out. Yeah. So I was. So I was a big advocate for leaving your hometown. And so that's what my parents, they had no option. Hey, we'll pay for college, but you're not going to UNLV. You're not going to UNR. You're getting out of this state. So kudos to them. I've had an amazing upbringing.

And so kind of behind all this. So my father's the president and CEO of our company. So I always kind of tell people, insurance is kind of in my blood. My dad is the hardest worker I know. He's an amazing guy, great role model, really set the foundation for me and my siblings on what it looks like to work ethically and work hard and doing it in the right way. And so I went to Arizona State and then actually did door-to-door um sales um i sold door-to-door pest control back in 2017 2018 and the summer 2019 so i started if you can do door-to-door salesman you can do anything and i i completely i'm a huge advocate for door-to-door it it sucked and i loved

being in that suck right i i learned so much from knocking on those doors talking to 200 people and saying hey go kick rocks. Sorry, get off my porch. And being able to then learn, okay, how am I not selling anyone? Why are people telling me to kick rocks? And I looked at these other guys, these leaders, my mentors, and I was like, okay, I'm just going to copy exactly what they're doing. And really just built that skill. And then I was able to have someone's credit card that I just met within five minutes.

So having that power really was like, man, I can do it. Was that a Vegas trick? It might have been. I might have said, hey, if you play a little blackjack right now, I'll give you a little bit more. Yeah, you interned on David Copperfield. 100%.

Yeah, 100%. To be so door-to-door, man, you might as well have been doing magic. That is tough. 100%. You had to. To be so door-to-door, man, you might as well have been doing magic. 100%. That is tough. Yeah, it was tough. So I did that. Didn't really do super well my first year.

And then I recruited a team, kind of taught them how to sell my second year, sold them out in Austin, Texas. Yeah, I mean, it was hard as shit. I was working 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., working Monday through Saturday, walking like 15 miles a day. I mean, it was a it was a it was a hard working job. And then I always knew I was eventually because I built this foundation of sales right now. I know I was kind of thinking into my in my college career. I was like, Okay, what, what's the next step? Right? Where do I, you know, take this foundation of what I learned and put it into a really career. And so I always knew I was wanting to go into the family business of insurance because I know insurance is...

I love it because there's so many nuances to learn with insurance. And so I really dove into it fall of 2019. I started working with my dad and our business partners and learning, okay, what do we do? What is this ACA compliance? We had a San francisco specific product and then come spring 2020 coveted right so everything obviously went to a pause ironically i was actually in mexico um the day that nba shut down and so my mom my mom's full italian so she's very protective of her kids of her of her cubs she calls me she's like they're gonna shut the

borders you need to you need to get to amer right now. And so we were down in Rocky Point. It's about three hours, four hours south of Phoenix. And me and my buddy drove home and made it back. And then we were all kind of in this waiting period for those first two weeks of government shutting down. What is this? What's going on? We've never seen anything in our culture like this. So then just from our relationships in the insurance world, we actually got into the PPE industry. That industry was a complete sham.

There was a lot of fluff in that industry to say these. A lot of people saying, hey, I could sell you these masks. I could sell you these gloves. So that was a whole other rabbit hole. Then once that kind of died down, summer 2020, I just really dove into insurance. Insurance is all about relationships. Mainly what I do is build relationships with the brokerages. So your Aon, your USI hubs, Gallagher's, and this goes back to insurance, right? You could have the coolest, shiniest product on the street with insurance. But if

you don't have that relationship, you're not going to get the ear of the business owners. So right, it's more of, hey, you're a broker, you like me, I like you, I have a cool product. I think this could be a fit for your book of business. Let write a couple groups so that's kind of what what sparked it and then um kind of been you know not looking back since then i love it that's good man i think it's good perspective and you know i like the story of i mean not just the door-to-door sales but like you know you could have gone straight into probably the company business but you you know earned your keep got out there cut your teeth and kudos to my dad right i mean i'm i work very hard and i my dad's the hardest on me and as he should be my dad was i

mean from nebraska he played football at college he coached football univ he was my football coach you know growing up my entire life and i wanted my dad to be hard on me right he would yell at me he would throw footballs on my head during practice he would i have some crazy stories on that but i think from the perspective of my father, he never wants to have my perception of, oh, my son's only successful because of his name. So he really gave me nothing. I started really from the ground. He just kind of gave me the base work of how it's modeled. And kudos to him. And I'm very appreciative of how that's modeled. It's got to be rewarding, though. You know, it's...

When you know that you're helping people, like with, you know, with Encompassing Health, which we'll get back into, like these programs that don't have the awareness that they should, they have clear win-win-win-win situations. That's got to be rewarding, I would think. 100%, yeah, because it's a value to employees, right?

And I just always go back to if I take a look at employees and your regular employee, right? If they can 15, 20 bucks an hour, right? They need care. I mean, I had a company down in California. They are a big construction company. They do like drywall, staffing, et cetera. And most of their employees, right?

I'm sure you can imagine 99% Hispanic male. Most of their employees aren't on their corporate benefits. Most of these employees have zero coverage, right? So why do you think those cultures don't go to the hospital? Because they aren't, right? They're not, it's not affordable. It's out of the picture for them.

So being able to provide value in that scenario of, hey, you can go see your primary care. You can get access to behavioral health. My favorite part of this program, we added in this RX plan that basically has 2900 prescriptions at a $0 copay. So you think about, hey, my kid has an ear infection, right? I need to get amoxicillin prescribed to my CVS. I pay a 10 to a $50 copay typically to get that same prescription. Now through our program, it's just going through a different mode of filling that same prescription. It's the same bottle, you get it at your same prescription, now through our program, it's just going through a different mode of filling that same prescription.

It's the same bottle. You get it at your same pharmacy. You just now pay zero. Wow. It's huge. $2,900? $2,900. Good grief.

So it's all your generic prescriptions. So anything that would be typically covered, I think it's about 80 other prescriptions that would be covered under a primary care visit. And that's all under encompassing health. Correct. Wow. And so for that coverage applies to whether they have a base plan or not? Correct.

Yeah. Regardless of what they have going on, think of the encompassing health program as sort of like an AFLAC policy, right? Everyone knows AFLAC. And AFLAC, right, you can go out and vote on a hospital indemnity plan. You can get a critical illness. You can get a cancer policy. So whatever that AFLAC plan just kind of bolts on onto whatever you have going on for your traditional insurance. So all their traditional insurance,

major medical stays in play. This is just kind of a supplemental bolt on enhancement. Yep. I mean, I guess we're saving the best for last revenue. Yeah. I mean, this is where it gets sweet for the employer specifically and,

and the employee, because that's what, that's what blows my mind on this. Like you get all these benefits, you get all the prescriptions, you get all the preventative, and then there's a revenue component. 100%. Let's talk about it. So to begin with, the first kind of revenue aspect is the prescriptions, right?

So this is why when I'm talking with these employers, I ask you, okay, right now, are you self-funded? Meaning, are you really the one that's paying for all these insurance claims? Are you fully insured with your Bucca plan, Kaiser, et cetera? Regardless of what they say, the biggest cost of claim on any insurance claim pool are prescriptions, right? So if you think about it, the more prescriptions, utilization you have on said claim pool, higher risk and utilization renewal rates go on that, you know, fully insured now through this program i say okay mr employer right now you can get that employee can get that same bottle same

pill same prescription filled at the same pharmacy employee pay zero bigger picture really for you those claims are shifted right they're now not hitting off of the comes off of it and i tell the more elements we could have shifted off that self-insured or fully insured from the prescriptions is the biggest part but hey if i have Blue Cross telemedicine paying a $50 copay, I can get the same telemedicine I pay zero. Why wouldn't I use that? And now shifted off the claim. So that's a huge part. But then as far as the revenue aspect goes, so how this program functions, it functions based off a section 125. So maybe I'll start on the employee side. So the employees, by being on this program, could potentially see an increase in their take-home pay.

And the reason behind that is because they see two new line items. It's basically how they work. First is a pre-tax premium. So just like any other since 1978, all that does is reduce the taxable income of the employee. What's different, though, is what sparked with this program, that's why I mentioned back in 15 how the Affordable Care Act had that amendment to it. Now the employees will get access to a claim payment,

basically an indemnity claim payment for being engaged in medical care benefits. So employees need to engage in one aspect of the program per month to get this claim payment. And the result of having those two events results in a net increase in pay for the employee. That indemnity claim payment, it could be taxable to the employee, just like if I had an AFLAC policy, right?

And AFLAC pays me, say, 20 grand if I have a cancer plan. However, I'm claiming that as miscellaneous income is kind of the same way with all these kind of insurance indemnity programs. And then really just the byproduct for the employer, it truly functions just like any other Section 125 since 1978 by having this pre-tax that reduces the taxable income of the employee. That's how we reduce the FICA spend for the employer, and they could potentially save about $700 per employee per year. Wow. I mean, we can do the math. That adds up.

Yeah. I mean, hell, I mean, whether you've got 30 employees or 300, it's still a lot of math. And if you've got 1,000-plus employees, this starts to really make sense, right? 100%. Or it's like a no-brainer. Right. And that's where, I mean, I always, like, I'm always skeptical. Right.

You know, like, and my listeners wouldn't appreciate it if I didn't try to poke holes. But that's the thing. Like, we've been at this, and I'm familiar with the program. Yeah. And, I mean, every time it blows my mind how the wins stack up. And kind of just go on the background of that. So back in, as a TPA, let me frame it like this. So as a TPA, we get approached all the time, right?

People come to us as a vendor. Hey, I got a new insurance product. I know you guys Innovative Health, you guys have a big book, you partner with all these brokerages, open up your distribution, I got a cool shiny product, can you let me in? And so back in 2016, 2017, we actually got approached by a couple different vendors in this market. At that time, we just didn't feel comfortable enough to release a product because we didn't think the compliance was there. And this goes back to all we have at the end of the day is our name. We have a good name in the insurance market.

We build all of our products along compliance. And so that's why it took us a decent long time, honestly, to create this product because the IRS set guidelines for what they want to see with these types of programs. So we really basically built our program along the compliance guidelines that the IRS has, and that's kind of where we're at today. Tanner, that's what I'm saying. Win, win, win, win. So we know people are listening. They're going, wait a second. Like, number one, they're like running, you know,

to show notes going, or their broker going, how do I get this? Right. But let's talk through, I love giving people tangible value of, okay, what's this look like? I got 250 employees. I've checked all the boxes.

I've agreed to things. And you're onboarding me. What do we have to do? What are the hoops? How easy or difficult is this? What's the day in the life of this process? Yeah. So what's really nice about this program is that it's very different than your typical insurance. And the fact that this program really is just, it's sort of a payroll functionality. So all the data feed is really funneled through payroll. So it's really, I'll explain that. But basically, we hop on the phone with a business owner, say, hey, business owner,

this is how the program works. This is really in layman's terms, how it functions. By the end of it, every business owner sort of wants to see their analysis of what they could potentially be saving and what potentially their employees, you know, get from this program. So we kind of run a preliminary census. It's these kind of seven fields. I love the calculator, man. I'm just going to tell you, you plug it in. I know it's an kind of seven i love the calculator man i'm just gonna tell you you plug it in i know it's an estimate right still it's it's a it's a cool thing because

right as a business owner you can see okay this is where the rubber meets the road right ultimately is the juice worth the squeeze for me yep so once we get that yes for the employer we take a big approach to education and and really all the heavy lifting that goes involved with running this program so prior to us even going live we take typically three to six weeks before we go live to do this pre educational period. During this time, we'll basically set up two different silos of education that are kind of running together. The first is is really just making the automations within their payroll. So whether that be API, input files, payroll codes, deduction codes, etc. And that work is not upon the employer. It's really, hey, I work with PayCore, right? I'm going to connect my PayCore rep with my team and

off they go from there. That tech talk tech. I'm not a tech guy, so I don't know anything about all that. Second side, I think is the most vital aspect of the program is that we actually educate all their employees. So as you can imagine, right, this goes back to everything that we've been talking about. Employees don't know what they have access to. They barely even understand. If you think about it in the traditional sense, okay, I have a major medical, I have an open enrollment every year, two weeks, I got to be this insurance professional within these two weeks. And I think I picked the best plan for me, but I don't, I don't really know, right? I have no clue. And maybe I don't use all the stuff that's offered to me in that corporate plan. So during this time, we'll educate all their employees.

So, hey, your paycheck is going to look a little bit differently. You're going to see these two new line items, educate them on the tax side of things. Once that's done, really, we're educating them on the benefits. Hey, you now get access to virtual primary care for you and your entire family. You get access to behavioral health, virtual dermatology, RX program. So we show them how to utilize the benefits and that's really what takes the bulk of that three to six week time period just because right employees will have questions maybe they don't understand we got to re-educate

them host webinars phone calls emails text messages and that's kind of what creates that three to five weeks and then after that and it's really a program goes live and off they go but to the employee no added cost and potential up to three or four percent yeah raise yeah they just got a bump yeah the biggest misconception we get right when i say oh there's no out-of-pocket cause everyone will think it's free right by all means nothing in our world is ever free right there is one thousand percent of cost associated with it there's a cost of the insurance and there's an admin fee both of those costs are just generated from the tax savings so it's that's how it's at a no out-of-pocket cost per se but the net net is still additional savings for employer and all

these benefits for the employee correct and potentially increase in paycheck correct uh yeah i uh it's still like you know it's crazy to think that something like that's out there. It's out there, and so few people are aware of it, take advantage of it. Right. And that you guys have streamlined it, as reputable as you are, streamlining it into a program that takes all the guesswork out of it. 100%. I love it.

So if people are interested and they're trying to weigh, is there any potential roadblock? Like, is there certain companies that don't qualify? Is there any potential things that people need to think about from that side of it? There's nothing really from an employer's side that would disqualify them per se. Each client's different, right? So your potential saving could differ on your employee population, how much they're waging,

their merit of status, their exemptions claim. But really every industry, it works because there's no really guidelines. The only specific, so on FICA, there's a max FICA limit. So for anything, you could have savings in FICA up to the point you make 163,000.

So that once an employee reaches that mark, there's no savings to be had. So it's really not generated at that point. But if you're an employee making $17,000 to $163,000 or over that, then it's kind of a home run success. And so at worst, the savings might not be as high depending on the employee's employer. So you're saying, but the out-of-pocket cost still remains zero correct and the benefits are still outrageous correct yeah yeah i uh i'm out of holes to poke right when you start to weigh your options you're like man right that it just

kind of checks every box right especially from just a benefits perspective right i always go back to right the cost of insurance is so great, right? These employees are truly spending so much money. They're going into debt, truly, when they're going to the hospital. So being able to receive this care, having those claims shifted, I mean, it's a great story for both parts. Is there a time, you know, for a company where something like a decision like this makes sense or can it be implemented any time?

Yeah, any point. I like to do it outside of open enrollment. And the reason for that, right, open enrollment, I don't want to muddy the water, right? It's confusing. It's stressful. It's very busy during those two weeks. So I like to do it outside of traditional open enrollment.

Really, you know, we can start at any point though. Yeah. Win, win, win. Yeah. So I know we're going to have links but essentially they sign up yeah they get more information

they get on a call exactly with you or someone else yep at the company learn more and we start

rocking and rolling you got it easy enough hey guys you got to take advantage of this and look we're going to

have the links on my site rayandalford.com as well as on my social media channels for how you can get involved Tanner man

it's been great it's been fun thanks It's been fun. Thanks for having me. Hey, retention, revenue, and recruitment. All in one. Encompassing health. The three R's, and it's radical as hell. We appreciate you coming on.

Thanks, brother. Hey, guys, you know where to find us? Theradcast.com. Find all the highlight clips from today. All of the show notes, where you can get involved. You know where I'm at. I'm at Ryan Off. Find all the highlight clips from today, all of the show notes, where you get involved. You know where I'm at. I'm at Ryan Offord on all the platforms.

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