Five Benefits Administrator Priorities for Open Enrollment

  • September 21, 2018
  • Blog

This column originally appeared on HR Dive. Autumn is upon us. The air is cooler. The leaves are changing colors. Pumpkin versions of all of your favorite foods are in supermarkets. And for thousands of benefits administrators, it’s open enrollment season — the annual workplace ritual in which millions of employees select their 2018 health … Continue Reading

Rethinking the Employer/Payer Relationship

  • August 27, 2018
  • Blog

This column originally appeared on HR Dive. In his New York Times column on the roots of employer-based health insurance in the United States (a quick, essential read), researcher and pediatrician Aaron E. Carroll notes how competition for workers during WWII was the impetus for the modern-day employer-based system. Fearing a wage battle in a very tight … Continue Reading

HR Dive: Healthcare world watches as Amazon makes moves

The rapidity with which Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase have entered the healthcare industry is in part a response to frustrations — held by both employers and the general public — about inefficiencies in the U.S. healthcare system, sources previously told HR Dive. “Affordability is the issue,” Shandon Fowler, an analyst and principal of … Continue Reading

Employee Benefit Adviser: Is the Amazon purchase a bitter pill for brokers? Healthcare experts weigh in

Comments from Shandon Fowler: “It’s a very practical purchase in keeping with Amazon’s laser focus on customer needs. Having personalized prescriptions may lead to both healthier and more cost-effective outcomes for individuals, which is Amazon’s stock and trade. “It also appears to follow a pattern of recent moves showing a strong commitment to all demographic … Continue Reading

The Case for ‘Private Exchange 2.0’

This article was originally published with co-author George Kalogeropoulos, CEO of HealthSherpa, on LinkedIn. You’ll be hard-pressed to find somebody with ties to employer-based benefits who doesn’t have a visceral reaction to the term “private exchange.” Sadly, this reaction was largely earned over almost a decade of huge expectations but sometimes under-delivered or ahead-of-their-time options … Continue Reading

Why Employers Should Guide Non-Benefits-Eligible Employees to Public Sources of Health Coverage

  • March 21, 2018
  • Blog

This article was originally published with co-author George Kalogeropoulos, CEO of HealthSherpa, on LinkedIn. If ever there was a topic and industry that doesn’t benefit from binary thinking, it’s the U.S. healthcare system. Far too often, we find ourselves treating multifaceted issues as if there are only two available paths: employer vs. government; eligible vs. … Continue Reading

The Four C’s that Will Drive Success (or Failure) for the Amazon/Berkshire-Hathaway/JPMorganChase Partnership

  • February 28, 2018
  • Blog

Has it been surprising how much we’ve all talked about, and wanted to talk more about, the partnership between Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorganChase (ABJ for short) on healthcare? In a way, yes. Such wonkishness usually doesn’t capture the public interest with such staying power. Yet, when you have two guys who’ve been Richest Person … Continue Reading

HR Dive: Does Amazon alliance signal employers will finally get serious about healthcare costs?

But Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan have name recognition, most notably Amazon for its reputation as a disruptor, Fowler said. To most observers, it’s no surprise that big-name employers are now loudly demanding a space at the healthcare negotiation table. “For the past couple of decades, employers haven’t really used their leverage or they used … Continue Reading