Changing Your Employee Benefits Strategy Can Save Costs & Lives

Being in the employee benefits industry, cancer is a common word that comes up across our captive insurance programs. Whether we’re looking at the claims data for a member company or across all our captives, cancer is typically highest in severity and frequency. Though it’s in my daily vocabulary at work, it was not something that I thought about too often outside of work.

That all changed a few years ago when my parents sat me down to tell me my mom had cancer.

Dealing With the Diagnosis

While my mom’s cancer journey started the day she found out, it really started a few months prior to that. My parents came over one evening, and my dad shared that things were going to “change” at his work. Maybe it’s a generational thing, but my parents have never been too excited about change. My dad went on to give more detail on these changes and explained that the biggest change was going to be around his health insurance premiums. Specifically, if he wanted to receive his health insurance at a lower cost, he and my mom would be required to receive an age-appropriate screening.

This piqued my interest, because it is often a strategy we see our employee benefits group captive members put in place to help control costs and improve the overall health of their population. He complained about this for a few more minutes but after hearing my perspective, he finally came around to the idea that this change might be a good thing.

Fast forward a few months, to the moment where my parents sat me down to share that the doctor found something in my mom’s screening – breast cancer. As you can imagine, a lot was going through my mind, and I was dealing with various emotions. One emotion felt odd but stood out to me – gratitude.

I was grateful that my mom went to the doctor when she did, and they caught the cancer early. I was grateful her prognosis was good, and the treatment plan was minimal. But mostly, I was grateful for the change at my dad’s company that encouraged her to get a mammogram.

Without this nudge, she could have gone untreated for months, even years, and cancer could have played a much bigger part in our lives.

Boldly Protect Your Employees

Within our captive programs, our members are actively engaged in managing the costs of their health plan, but more importantly, they are actively engaged in the health of their employees and families. Captive members have access to claims data that gives them the ability to make more strategic decisions that can drive down costs and directly impact their employee’s wellbeing.

From using their claims data to help close the gaps-in-care within their population to deploying a strategy that will provide tools and resources not available in the traditional market, our captive members can make changes, big or small, that can really make a difference to their company and in the lives of their most valuable asset – their people.

Own Your Insurance

Thankfully, my mom had a successful surgery and treatment and is now in remission. Our family is forever changed, because of one decision a company made to improve the health of their employees.

If you are interested in a change at your company and want to learn more about the strategies an employee benefits group captive can provide, reach out today to learn more!