Industry Insights

I think that most people want to do a good job at work. We spend more time here than we do with our families or our hobbies, so it needs to mean something big as well. Doing a good job gives us satisfaction, and satisfied employees make a difference and help their companies prosper. But what really brings importance to those eight-plus hours a day is developing personal connections with co-workers and clients. That’s what drives excellence.

This morning as I drove in to work, it was 46 degrees on the thermometer, and this was really the first day that, to me, felt like fall had arrived. As underwriters, we’re currently experiencing a fifth season in the year. It’s called renewal season, and it comes a little earlier every year. This year, it started in late July and will go through New Year’s Eve.

All roads through a Stop Loss carrier lead to paying claims. Self-funded groups purchase our coverage so we can protect their finances from the impact of high-dollar claims, so with a Stop Loss contract in hand, they expect that their catastrophic claims will be paid. And as a responsive carrier that has applied exceptional underwriting practices to the groups we enroll, we have committed to having the right resources in place to deliver quick and accurate claims payment.

Yes, I went to Princeton for engineering. People often call attention to that if they’ve read my bio. It was – and is – a great spot for education, and the classes were tough. But a lot of places in life are, and the health care industry is no different. Right now, we’re in the advanced class.

Adding a reference-based pricing component to an employer’s health plan brings an element of clarity to benefit costs by determining, from the start, what is to be paid for medical services and procedures. It’s no surprise that reference-based pricing is a hot topic in the market today, especially when claims exceeding $1 million are more and more common. Reference-based pricing is part of a greater movement toward transparency, helping to establish some type of a standard for what is paid for medical care.