Jared, Vanessa and Adam are joined by Steve Maike, Chief Pharmacy Officer for Remedy Analytics (part of the Brown & Brown team), and Alan Pannier, Vice President of Strategy with SmithRx. The team leads a discussion around strategies and best practices for employers to help confront the rising costs of pharmaceuticals for employers. Pharmacy cost increases are projected to be 9.8% with specialty drugs leading that trend, up almost 13.5% in 2023. The team covers strategies from highlighting biosimilars, gene therapy, navigational resources and recent legislation directly impacting employers on their pharmacy plans.

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Jared Bowcutt

Vanessa Longnecker

Adam Compton

Jared, Vanessa and Adam are joined by President and CEO of Brown & Brown, Powell Brown. The team explores employee benefits and how to attract and retain the best teammates from an executive viewpoint. Powell dives deeper into the importance of mental health (or brain health) and discusses the investment from the organization and how it can impact and support teammates and their families. The team also highlights a book called ‘The Comfort Crisis’ that speaks to getting ‘comfortable’ being ‘uncomfortable’. This is a great strategic look at employee benefits for anyone in an organization! 

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Jared Bowcutt

Vanessa Longnecker

Adam Compton

Jared, Vanessa and Adam are joined by Brown & Brown’s National Clinical Leader, Dr. Louise Short, MD, MSc, FACOEM and Andrea Grande R. PH, Principal within the Brown & Brown Pharmacy Team. The team leads a discussion around strategies and best practices for employers to help address obesity in the workplace. Obesity costs the U.S. Healthcare system $173 Billion per year and an obese employee costs employers twice the normal amount in medical, sick days, short-term disability and workers’ compensation claims. The team covers strategies from highlighting cultural factors, digital solutions to support employees, prevention and ways to tactically react to recent press regarding drug treatment of obesity. 

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Jared Bowcutt

Vanessa Longnecker

Adam Compton

Jared and Adam lead a discussion around strategies and best practices for employers on the heels of the Brown & Brown 2023 State of the Market being released.  The team digs into strategic considerations surrounding your medical and pharmacy plan, including big updates in the specialty drug and biosimilar marketplaces.  The team covers strategies from highlighting virtual primary care within the physical, mental & behavioral health space. Furthermore, strategies around increased advocacy in musculoskeletal cases, cancer care and many things fueling healthcare innovation in 2023. 

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Jared Bowcutt

Vanessa Longnecker

Adam Compton

Vanessa and Jared are joined by Business Group on Health CEO Ellen Kelsay! Ellen has an incredible resume in the health and welfare consulting space and now helps lead the charge with the Business Group on Health. Ellen tackles various topics, including Health Equity, access to quality health care, and ways to manage the most significant driver in health care costs, cancer. This engaging conversation will make you think and drive new discussions in your organization.

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Jared Bowcutt

Vanessa Longnecker

Adam Compton

Jared, Vanessa and Adam are joined by the Head of Government Relations for Sun Life, James Slotnick. After the recent mid-term elections, James looks at what employers can likely expect with future legislation. This includes many decisions at the state level, James looks at potential changes with paid leave, drug pricing and potential compliance challenges with the transparency laws. The team also explores recent legislation out of Massachusetts that applies a Loss Ratio to dental plans, that may create new discussions across the U.S. 

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Jared Bowcutt

Vanessa Longnecker

Adam Compton

Vanessa, Jared and Adam are joined by Population Health Consultants Kelly Polinksi and Abinue Fortingo. The team discusses caregiving and how employers can help support the different needs throughout their population. Abinue and Kelly tackle a plethora of topics including what is caregiving, the impact it has on mental health and strategies employers can adopt to help make this an ongoing discussion. The discussion also shifts into direct and indirect costs that align with absenteeism, productivity and overall benefits expense. This fast-paced discussion will make you think about your benefits program and drive new discussions in your organization. 

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Jared Bowcutt

Vanessa Longnecker

Adam Compton

Jared, Vanessa and Adam are joined by Wes Bryan, Vice President of PGT, a national leader on disability and executive disability plans. In a working world where 1 in 4 employees will become disabled over their career, protecting employees and their ability to protect their income at time of a disability is vitally important. The team expands into broader issues with general Group Long Term Disability (LTD) and builds into to help protect those that might fall outside standard limits. As that usually involves executives and C-Suite individuals, putting in the protections not only helps protect the individual but also the organization. Don’t let your disability plans ‘sit on the bench.’ Explore what you can do to help build a best-in-class disability offering.

Jared, Vanessa and Adam are joined by Julie Fernandez, Global HR Advisory Lead for herronpalmer (part of the Brown & Brown team), a leader in sourcing HR and employee benefit program administration systems. Julie focuses on a general outlook of the industry, why companies want better Human Capital Management and are transitioning to cloud-based and more advanced systems. Julie touches on five trends that may help bring momentum to the race to the cloud by companies between 1,000 and 20,000 employees. This fast-paced discussion will help motivate you to think about your current systems and what you can do as you work toward the future. 

Jared and Adam are joined by Gina Schreiber, Brown & Brown's Medicare Advocacy Leader, to discuss ways employers can help manage Medicare Advocacy for their organizations. With an employee over 65+ costing 3.5x that of an employee under the age of 65, understanding the risk to a health plan is essential. The team speaks with Gina about how employers can best deploy strategies and educate employees (and their families) about navigating the Medicare space. Spoiler alert...companies can WIN, and employees can WIN by saving money and time!

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Jared Bowcutt

Vanessa Longnecker

Adam Compton