Excerpts from Health Savings Accounts: Reaching Beyond Traditional Health Expenses

In this episode of the Expert Perspectives podcast, sponsored by WEX Health and hosted on BenefitsPRO, we’ll hear highlights from the October 3rd presentation titled, Health Savings Accounts: Reaching Beyond Traditional Health Expenses.

Your clients and employees spend a great deal of time and money worrying about health and wellness. In recent years, this includes a renewed focus on financial wellness. Providing clients with tools and strategies to help bend the cost curve as well as the best benefits possible is crucial to your success. Figuring out how HSAs can play a larger role may be a key way to do that.

Amy Evans, President at Colibri Insurance; Michael Thomas, author of multiple industry publications for National Underwriter and ALM; and Chris Byrd, Executive Vice President, Operations at WEX Health explore the role of HSAs, the latest trends, insight into what to expect in the coming years and common myths and misconceptions.

The full on-demand webcast can be found here: https://www.benefitspro.com/2019/09/12/health-savings-accounts-reaching-beyond-traditional-health-expenses/

Chris Byrd | Executive Vice President, Operations | WEX Health

 Chris Byrd, executive vice president of operations at WEX Health, is a top adviser on how healthcare policy and regulatory moves on Capitol Hill might impact consumers and has lent his expertise to media outlets such as The New York Times, CNBC, Forbes, The Hill and TheStreet and to leading industry trades such as PlanSponsor. He also is active in industry and government relations, and serves on the boards of the HSA Council, Employers Council on Flexible Compensation (ECFC), the Special Interest Group for IIAS Standards (SIGIS) Corporation and Coalition for Affordable Health Coverage. In 2000, Chris founded Evolution Benefits, an early iteration of WEX Health. Chris oversees WEX Health’s operations and service delivery, corporate development, M&A, legal, and industry and government relations efforts.

 Michael Thomas | Medical Policy Writer | Caresource

 Michael serves as an author and consultant as well as working in Medical Policy for a major healthcare and Medicaid provider. He has served as the Manager of Online Product Development and a Senior Editor with the National Underwriter Company, a division of ALM Media, as well as a consultant to the State of Ohio, Department of Medicaid and as a writer for “The Digital Broker Podcast”. In addition to co-authoring the Social Security & Medicare Facts and the Healthcare Reform Facts, Mike has been responsible for the editorial process and development of other healthcare and insurance publications including: Advisor’s Guide to Long Term Care 2nd Edition, and Health Savings Accounts Facts for The National Underwriter Company, as well as designing, implementing, and managing the NUPro Healthcare Reform online service. Mike has also authored numerous articles on healthcare reform, Social Security, Medicare, and Insurance issues. In addition, he has developed, hosted and taught webinars on Healthcare Reform and Social Security, including “The Affordable Care Act and the Employer Mandate”, “The Affordable Care Act and the Cadillac Tax – Use the Delay for Your Advantage!”, “How to Successfully Navigate the Latest Changes to the Affordable Care Act”, and “The Impact of Social Security on Retirement Plans”.

Prior to joining National Underwriter, Mike spent over twenty-five years with LexisNexis®, where he was responsible for the editorial content and new product development of new online and traditional legal products, including Health Law, Insurance Law, Social Security Law, Labor & Employment Law, Family Law, as well as other legal research tools. In addition, he worked as a Field Agent for Knights of Columbus Insurance specializing in life, health, disability income, long-term care insurance as well as annuity sales.

Mike has a Bachelor of Arts from Tufts University and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Dayton.

Amy Evans | President | Colibri Insurance

 Amy Evans is President of Colibri Insurance Services, a boutique health insurance agency that simplifies employee benefits for employers. She also uses her expertise in the health insurance industry and the health insurance broker market to consult on a variety of projects.

Prior to establishing her agency in 2015, Amy served as a Vice President in the Employee Benefits division of Leavitt Insurance Services of Los Angeles. She has sixteen years of experience in the insurance industry. Amy earned degrees in English and French from the University of San Francisco.

Amy is also the founder of AlignWomen, a powerful group of women who support each other personally and professionally by “Networking with Intention.” She is an active member of the National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU) and a regular contributor to insurance industry publications and was named as one of EBA’s “Top 10 Industry Trendsetters to Watch” in 2016. She is an enthusiastic speaker and social media user and you can find her engaging regularly on a variety of topics including legislative issues, agency management, social media strategies, mindset, communication and relationships.