Speaker 1: 0:00

Connecting with customers is table stakes, but adding a streamlined enrollment process, increasing engagement and finding the best point solutions, that's the winning hand. The question is how do you do that? We'll find out on this episode of Shift Shapers.

Speaker 2: 0:18

Change either energizes or paralyzes. The choice is yours. This is the Shift Shapers podcast, bringing the employee benefits industry interviews with individuals and companies who are shaping the industry shifts. And now here's your host, david Saltzman.

Speaker 1: 0:39

And to help us answer that, we have invited Sally Pace, ceo at Connect Healthcare Collaboration. Welcome, sally, thanks for being here.

Speaker 3: 0:47

Thanks for having me on, david, I'm excited.

Speaker 1: 0:49

It's our pleasure. So we usually ask people about their background. How do you get to be doing what you're doing? Because for most of us in this business, it's not a straight line. So what's your backstory? How do you find yourself doing this kind of crazy work?

Speaker 3: 1:00

Absolutely Well. First, the simple answer is I've been married into it for 28 years. The professional side of it is that I didn't dream of being in the employee benefits industry. Healthcare insurance lump them all together. When I was in college, I was an English major and I loved the written word and the spoken word. Those of you that know me know how much I do love to talk and I have made a career over the course of my career, working for companies like HGTV, autozone, fhn Financial one of you know in the fixed income capital markets arena, being put in positions where if I could put something into a term that I could understand, then anyone could. If I could put something into a term that I could understand, then anyone could. That came most clear right out of the gate at HGTV, because at the time it was the fastest growing cable network in the United States actually in the world and I loved all of the design projects that were shown. So naturally, I was put in charge of helping communicate the building and remodeling projects.

Speaker 1: 2:06

Of course.

Speaker 3: 2:07

Got to live out what I've learned. But the other side of it is having been married to a benefits consultant for 28 years next month.

Speaker 1: 2:14

Congratulations.

Speaker 3: 2:15

Thank you To the same person too.

Speaker 1: 2:17

Well, that's important.

Speaker 3: 2:19

That's right that I've seen you know this shift, if you will in this emergence of all these great solutions that are transparent, that are niche, that are really doing wonderful things, and there was an opportunity there to help them share their story, build their brand and drive employee engagement.

Speaker 1: 2:42

It really is and that's key. And you know our practices are different, although we both we work in different ends of the same kind of marketing on more message or more execution but it's incredibly important, especially if you want to stand out and because there's lots of folks out there applying the trade these days. So if you had to focus in on, like one major problem when you started, what was that problem that you set out to solve?

Speaker 3: 3:06

Well, it is solely everything we do is about ultimately driving employee engagement, and so that is our laser focus across all our business lines.

Speaker 1: 3:17

So how do you do that? I mean, it's as plans have gotten more complex and employees have gotten more for lack of a nicer term fed up with medical insurance especially. How do you do that? What's the kind of things that you look for? What should other people be kind of keying in on?

Speaker 3: 3:34

Well, you know, we've seen over the past let's call it five years kind of pre-pandemic this surge, and then certainly post-pandemic, this reliance on AI and platforms and digital tools, and those are wonderful, but at the end of the day, particularly the people that need the most help within a plan need a person to hold their hand, and so we've built a couple of business lines around that and I'd love to tell you a little bit about. You know how we do that in different areas. You know when we think about these point solutions that are in the marketplace and you know this just like I do. You've got these really well-intentioned say, a clinician that has decided they're going to build some fabulous platform or product that is going to help solve a health care need.

Speaker 3: 4:30

They're not often enlightened on the fact that you just don't go straight to an employer and sell your thing and it gets plugged in and then the employer tells all their employees how wonderful they are. You typically have to bring the consultant into the conversation early on. They're helping make those decisions, and so that's a two-step sales process and then, once you get plugged in, that's just the beginning. From there you've got to create powerful messaging visuals, explainer videos that really help drive the engagement, because, to your point, employees are so overwhelmed with everything, life in general. But at the end of the day, we know that old marketing principle, the rule of seven once somebody starts to see something multiple times, they start to understand that it is something that they need to pay attention to, and so that's one. And then, like I said, we use people to drive the marketing messages. We have two different types of advocacy clinical advocacy and benefits advocacy.

Speaker 3: 5:36

So, as those imply, either using clinicians- to help deliver the message, coupled with marketing tactics, or we use exceptional concierge, high-tech people to help educate and explain and walk someone through the process of this thing that's been made available to them that's the best thing since sliced bread but they don't understand how to use.

Speaker 1: 5:57

Why is having somebody to hold your hand important?

Speaker 3: 6:01

Well, there are three statistics that are also kind of our North Star, if you will, at changing, not moving towards, and that is there was a recent study that was released, and 68% of participating employers reported that they feel that benefits are underutilized by their employees. Couple that with the fact that only 12% of the US adult population is healthcare literate. And then the third stat the saddest of all is that medical billing is one of the primary causes of personal bankruptcy in our country. So you've got employers that are offering great things to people that don't understand them, and even if they did, or don't know that they're available, and even if they did, wouldn't know necessarily how to use them, and it's bankrupting everybody, employers and employees alike. And so and you and I both you know we love, we love written word, we love, you know, we love language, and those are great. But the people again that need the most help feel typically sick, scared, alone and borderline broke, and they need a friend. And so we deliver that.

Speaker 1: 7:16

And that's. You know we're having, as you are, I'm sure, a lot of conversations around. I mean I'm having them in my practice, I'm sure you are About AI and what role AI can play. And you mean I'm having them in my practice, I'm sure you are about AI and what role AI can play, and you know what we're telling people is that AI is great but at least at the moment, it doesn't have a lot of situational awareness, it's not personalized, so it comes off, it can come off as being inauthentic, and the one thing it can't do that you deal in and that we help clients with is strategy. You know, if you, if you give it an email, that you wrote that. That is basically you know, chuck, you, farley, I don't ever want to talk to you again until I make it nice. It will do that, but I think you're right, that human part of it is really important. Do you find that once employees kind of start getting used to the fact that they've got somebody to help their hand, they engage more and they're more compliant?

Speaker 3: 8:06

Oh, absolutely Absolutely. I mean, you think, if your child has just been diagnosed with some rare disease, first of all you're probably not going to call an 800 number to get information. Or you may go to the World Wide Web, but you're not going to call the.

Speaker 3: 8:22

you know the back of your insurance cards 800 number and ask to speak, but again, by marrying marketing principles with clinical outreach for our team. When we're plugged in, you've already seen the face of the person that is assigned to you. You know them, you've heard their voice, you've watched their explainer video on what you know what a balance bill is or how to navigate preferred versus non-preferred drugs at the pharmacy, and so you trust them and we say trust equals influence. And so when somebody calls, you say trust equals influence. And so when somebody calls you, because we do use. So, going back to AI, it's a tremendous resource for data, data warehousing, data collection. When you're able to identify people that need help and then call them and say I'm here for you, I can help you. And here's how. And when you go to the doctor next week, here are the 10 things you need to ask. Go to the doctor next week. Here are the 10 things.

Speaker 1: 9:18

You need to ask who doesn't want that. There's a lot of talk since we're on the AI subject for a little while and then we'll move on there's a lot of talk about agentic AIs, where when somebody calls into whatever number they've got on their card or in the app or whatever they're using to contact, they're actually talking to a bot, and some of them have gotten scary good. Do you see the replacement, at some point, of human beings in the process? Do you think that there will always be a desire for human beings to connect with other human beings?

Speaker 3: 9:52

Well, I hope that there is never a world that we live in where humans don't want to connect with other humans. And you know, really, david, what you're describing is that reactive approach. Something has happened and I need to go somewhere, and that's drastically different than the principles we hold to be true, and that is I called you first, I reached out to you first. If you call me, you're calling me back, but that's not. We don't live by that. We're not waiting for people to call in Now, do they? Sure, sometimes. But the people that we work with and the groups that we work with, we're calling you. Once you, you know, once you join the team, we're one of the first calls you receive to say welcome aboard. And let me walk you through all of this.

Speaker 1: 10:36

That's huge and because people oftentimes, even if they have resources and somebody hasn't reached out to them, they're not comfortable. They're not sure exactly, gee, if I call this number, what's going to happen and whatnot. So you're making friends before you need them.

Speaker 3: 10:50

Exactly.

Speaker 1: 10:51

I know you also help with enrollment and trying to make that process easier. There are loads of again systems out there to do that, but there aren't loads of humans who really understand it. What are the things that, if you're looking to help enroll a group, what are the things that an advisor should be looking for?

Speaker 3: 11:11

Well. So, first and foremost, I'll go, I'm going to continue to go back and beat my communication, educational marketing communications drum, and that is if all you're walking in there with is an open enrollment guide or some. I mean, some of these groups are only doing summary plan design these days, but you know you're just doing a guide. You will never you have missed the mark in spades before you even got off the start line. It requires a thoughtful year-long communication plan so that, again, this rule of seven that employees are able to see, understand, learn about things well before they need them.

Speaker 3: 11:54

So the other is and there's nothing wrong with this, but just in transparency, how we're different than carrier call banks, for example. Well, clearly, they're typically there, but on behalf of one of the carriers as opposed to for our team, we explain, or spend just as much time explaining the medical plan and talking through. You know, do you have a teenager that's going to? I guess these days it's a preteen that needs braces in a couple of years. And how do we plan for that, as it is selling a voluntary product? So that's another big for a broker, understanding that you have an opportunity to really educate people on how to be good stewards of not only their own money but the plan's money. And that may sound crass and capitalistic, but employers need that right now. They need you to be their partner in helping them watch the bottom line. So that starts with educating and driving engagement appropriately through their population.

Speaker 1: 13:02

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Speaker 1: 13:48

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Speaker 1: 14:25

Want to take your game to the next level? Visit benapowerai or schedule a demo at info at benapowercom. Find your power with Benapower. And now back to our conversation. I'm an old TPA, so I've kind of always had this fiduciary mindset, but most people don't, and certainly plans don't. But with the lawsuits that have been floating around the last couple of years and are becoming more prevalent, it's really a plan in a self-funded environment. It's a plan's fiduciary responsibility to make sure that their employees are using the tools and understand them and thereby make good use of the plan's assets and resources. Have you had a pickup in interest about that based on those kinds of new fiduciary conversations?

Speaker 3: 15:17

Yes, yes and no, I mean. Thankfully, the kinds of groups that are attracted to us are the ones that truly care about helping their people understand their plan. You know, I still think that we're just on the cutting edge of this fiduciary discussion, even though it's been around for quite some time. I feel like we're just starting to see, in the self-funded space, employers really clicking. That oh wait, that means me, that means I'm responsible, and so I do hope and expect that over the course of the next couple of years, that, yes, that will play into it. But you know, over the past few years, for us it has been these employers that are self-funded that need help guiding their people.

Speaker 1: 16:05

I know one of the things that you also help advisors with for their clients is kind of sorting through this myriad of point solutions. How do you do that, what kind of challenges are you seeing and how do you help resolve those?

Speaker 3: 16:16

Well, thank you for asking, because that's one of our newest offerings and that came through the pandemic.

Speaker 3: 16:25

We saw, as we were helping build brand for different solutions, that there was this gaping opportunity and it allowed us to build a platform called the Granite List. And the Granite List does for the Point Solution Arena what OpenTable might do for restaurants or TripAdvisor, for hotels, backed with a community focus or an engagement community platform. And we did that because, again, drawing from my personal experience being married to a benefits consultant, seeing that they are inundated with hundreds of emails every week from every solution out there trying to get their attention and they're supposed to be selling and they're supposed to know what the next best thing is that's coming out, but it's impossible and they simply don't have the bandwidth to take every demo call that comes their way. And so we built the Granite List to allow the solutions that were entering the marketplace that maybe didn't have the big budgets of, you know, an Optum, another PBM that's coming out, to level that playing field and put them in front of the buyers during what we call point of interest meaning.

Speaker 3: 17:45

I'm a benefits consultant, I'm curious about what PBMs are out there. I can go to the old Google box and peck away and go to all their pages, or I can go to a consolidated platform that allows me to search and source the ones that might be best for this particular group. So we built that to really kind of shorten the curve of learning. But we also, because of who we are, decided that it had to have an educational component, and so we produce a tremendous amount of content on behalf of the solutions that are part of the Granite List to help educate benefits leaders on what they need to know now and what's next.

Speaker 1: 18:30

That's huge. So if I'm a point solution, I come to you and I say I want to be part of this. You do an assessment and try to figure out what's necessary in order to take their solution. Speak and translate it into English that mere morals will understand.

Speaker 3: 18:44

We do offer that. But if you're a solution, you don't even have to come to me. You just go to thegranitlistcom and if you're confident in what you're doing and you feel like you don't need any additional help, you can create a profile for no charge on the site. So the site is free to use. Now we do have marketing packages where we allow for extra support and help with messaging and whatnot, but at base level it is open to anyone, not the employee I you want to clarify. It's not designed for. This is the one thing. That isn't. It's intended to drive employee engagement ultimately. But here this is a platform built primarily for the benefits leader benefits, consultant, hr world.

Speaker 1: 19:31

And we'll put a link to that in the show notes so that if you want to reach out and you want to learn more about it, you know you'll know where to do that. We've got a couple of minutes left as we kind of wrap up. Where do you see things going in the next couple of years? I mean there's been a ton of change, especially, arguably, since ACA, but it seems like that rate of change is just increasing. For advisors, what do you see coming down the pike? What does the landscape look like from?

Speaker 3: 19:59

where you and your company sit.

Speaker 3: 20:00

Well, there are two buzzwords that I'll continue to ride the train on transparency and personalization.

Speaker 3: 20:08

Now, when I say transparency not just price, certainly price transparency, transparency in how to use the thing I mean. I think that that's part of why we've gotten to this mess and where we are today is that health care is confusing to the average American, and so there's not a transparent way to access and use it, and so we are so proud to be playing a role in that and helping point solutions become more transparent, help with driving employee engagement. Personalization that's the other wonderful thing about especially the self-funded space is that there is this opportunity to bring in I'm not advocating for this, but you could bring in 40 different point solutions if you wanted, based on your population's need, and we've never been able you know, never has there been a time in our country where plans could be designed that way, and so, really. But to get there, you have to understand who the people are that you're trying to serve, and so that continual look at high touch personalization, I believe, will be a driver continue to be a driver for employee engagement across all spectrums of our industry.

Speaker 1: 21:21

There's still a tremendous amount of work to do, because that stat that you quoted earlier about only 12% of Americans are healthcare literate. That comes from our friends at the Kaiser Family Foundation and that number hasn't changed, in good grief. I can't remember how long Yep and I've been at this a long, long time Three or four years, it's.

Speaker 3: 21:36

I can't remember how long Yep and I've been at this a long, long time, three or four years.

Speaker 1: 21:38

I can tell you which groups the gray hairs are. So kudos to you for doing this. Sally Pace, CEO at Connect Healthcare Collaboration. Sally, thanks so much for a really interesting conversation.

Speaker 3: 21:50

Well, David, I appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Speaker 1: 21:58

I want to give a quick shout out to our sponsor and our producer, Hatcher Media. Hey, if you need podcast production or professional graphic design, Josh Hatcher is the expert to contact For more information. Visit him at hatchermedianet. That's H-A-T-C-H-E-R medianet.

Speaker 2: 22:16

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