Self-Funded

Episode 7 of "Self-Funded w/ Spencer" with the hardest working person in employee benefits - Lester J. Morales, Founder and CEO of Next Impact!

Lester joined me on the podcast specifically to discuss the role of a General Agent (GA), and how their responsibility has morphed over time.

We have approached self-funding from many different insurance industry angles so far, but the most crucial vantage point is discussed in this episode with Tommy Fulmer - The EMPLOYER's perspective.  

Tommy is responsible for accounting and finance at The Delta Companies, who has been self-funded since 2012.  He discusses his experience budgeting for monthly claims fluctuations, projecting future plan costs, and the decision-making balance that has to be struck between finance and HR.

Courtney is a Sales Executive with ZERO, which focuses on reducing claims costs to a self-funded plan by directly contracting with providers and paying for procedures with predetermined, agreed-upon pricing bundles.  

An added benefit, and also where they got their name, is if a member of a health plan uses a contracted provider, they experience zero out of pocket costs themselves.

4 episodes in and I finally got to talk some stop loss again!  

Jeff Petty is the President of PACE Underwriters, a Dallas-based Managing General Underwriter (MGU ) of Stop Loss Insurance.  He joined me to discuss what an MGU does, and what specific role they play in the broader marketplace.  

Jeff has spent his entire career around stop loss, and is one of the few people that actually has an Insurance degree.   

He is also as big of Tool fan as I am, which may be the only topic I like to discuss more than Stop Loss!

Come for education on the Healthcare Navigation industry, and stay for a discussion on Alpacas!  

Dr. Eric Bricker is a physician, built a successful healthcare navigation company, and is the founder of AHealthcareZ, which focuses on creating education content around the healthcare industry.  

He has also written a book called "Healthcare Money Campfire Stories", and has his own podcast titled "How to Sell in Healthcare".  In short, Dr. Bricker is one of the most accomplished and passionate voices in the Healthcare space, and it was a pleasure to have him on the podcast!  

For my info about Dr. Bricker, see below.  

Website - https://www.ahealthcarez.com/

Youtube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8Hr...

Book - https://www.amazon.com/Healthcare-Mon...

In this episode we begin to drill down into the self-funded conversation to look at the individual moving parts.  

Today's component is the Third Party Administrator, also known as a "TPA".  

Jennifer Morgan of Collective Health joined me to discuss what a TPA is, and the pivotal role they play in coordinating a self-funded health plan.  

Jennifer brings a wealth of brokerage knowledge to the table as well.

This is the inaugural episode of Self-Funded with Spencer, where I am joined by the Practice Leader at Roach Howard Smith Barton (RHSB) Insurance, Dennis Fowler.  

Dennis helped me define Self-Funded for this and future episodes, and brings a decade of experience as a broker/consultant in the employee benefits space.  We discussed a wide range of topics around self-funding strategies, misconceptions in this space, as well as what he believes the future holds for our industry.