Where’s the innovation?

All hail Level Funding! What is it? It's a unique way for employers to finance their health insurance premiums. Not fully insured but also not completely self-funded either. A hybrid.

And if you define a 1994 product as new & innovative, then you can absolutely be one of the people who knowingly calls Level Funding new & innovative. Also, my grandmother phoned and wants to adopt you.

American Medical Systems (AMS) was a Wisconsin-based insurer who sold Level Funding in the 90s. They're gone now. Out of business. They wouldn't believe the marketing hype around their 30 year old product.

How about pass-through PBMs challenging spread-pricing PBMs. Is that concept new & innovative? About as much as my 2009 refrigerator.

Wellness; Disease Management; Provider quality; Network discounts. Are these cutting edge or old hat?

We're not suggesting innovation in Benefits dead. Maybe just a little over-hyped. I guess that's possibly what it takes for a broker's sales/mktg department to get a prospective employer client to attend a "free webinar" or blog (gasp!).

Let's talk facts. Healthcare cost more now. A lot more. It's one of the Top 3 most inflationary items in our country - along with college & childcare. No financing wizardry is going to outfox how much more you pay for something that just just went up 10% in price.

An old manager of mine, Les Kohn, used to tell me "the employer is ultimately going to pay their own way; healthy groups pay less than groups with big claims." And he's right. So while you might be able to "bend the curve" in certain areas, it's still largely a matter of the product that's purchased, and the employee demand for using that product.

To Les. While you might've flinched at me calling you old, consider this. Times have changed. Many things seem backward. So if they're calling insurers from the 90s young, then maybe that means you're really young.

Sincerely though. You're the best manager I ever had.