It's fascinating to me that an industry currently fueled by an enormous amount of investment capital and riding a wave of cutting-edge technology can still feel so much like a grassroots movement. (Photo: Shutterstock)
Our industry is in the midst of massive transition. New disruptions bombard us every day, both from within the industry and without.
The recent SIIA conference in San Francisco offered a snapshot of the various ways in which solutions and strategies are rapidly developing to meet the challenges and obstacles that continue to arise.
As I sat in rooms packed to overflowing, I watched a sea of curious, energetic people striving to provide cheaper, better health care for employers and their employees. The most exciting part? I continually heard some version of "This is only the beginning."
BenefitsPRO editor-in-chief Paul Wilson marvels at the level of creativity and innovation in the benefits industry.Related: 'My job is finally fun again'
It's fascinating to me that an industry that sits squarely in the national spotlight, an industry currently fueled by an enormous amount of investment capital and riding a wave of cutting-edge technology, can still feel so much like a grassroots movement. Yet the excitement, optimism and curiosity is impossible to miss and often borders on missionary zeal. We've come a long way from the panic and disillusionment of just a few years ago.
Because the sessions at SIIA largely focused on the self-insured space, many discussions detailed the very leading edge of what's taking place in the industry. We're talking about true pioneers in the space. It's easy to get swept up in the excitement while hearing about the ways benefits and health care are being transformed before our eyes.
From navigation vendors who guide employers and employees through the complicated system, to value-based insurance design, reference-based pricing and other strategies that are starting to make marked differences in both costs and outcomes, there's a lot of progress being made.
Meanwhile, data and technology are shining a light into the darkest corners of what has long been an opaque and confusing industry. This is exposing major issues and providing info and guidance to help and incentivize Americans to make better health care decisions and reward providers to do things the right way.
While looking through the many pages of notes I took over the course of my time in San Francisco, one quote from Princeton's Uwe Reinhard stood out:
"To an economist, it is astonishing that Americans have been content for so long to allow an economic sector that has absorbed an increasing portion of their incomes to operate without any meaningful transparency. The question is how long this indifference can last. My answer is 'Not very long.'"
In many ways, this movement is just getting started; but make no mistake, the time is now.
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Paul Wilson
Paul Wilson is the editor-in-chief of BenefitsPRO Magazine and BenefitsPRO.com. He has covered the insurance industry for more than a decade, including stints at Retirement Advisor Magazine and ProducersWeb.
