Benefits roundup: New offerings, new tools, new moves

This roundup of new benefits offerings, as well as tools to enhance benefits packages, offers a glimpse into how the employee health benefits industry is changing – and how brokers can help companies customize plans tailored to  their employees’ needs.

New benefits offerings

Game-changing brand: RosenHealth, a new trailblazing health care brand, officially launched in Orlando, Florida. RosenHealth aims to help companies develop customized health care solutions that are innovative, forward-thinking, and cost-effective. For years, Rosen Hotels & Resorts has provided quality and convenient health care to its associates, who have no deductibles or co-insurance, and a prescription plan that provides over 90% of all medications, including brand and specialty drugs, at no cost. Additionally, the maximum hospital stay cost is only $750, and after the second visit, the cost to the patient is zero. Now, RosenHealth aims to help organizations of all sizes do the same.

Mental health guides: Grokker, a corporate wellbeing solution serving global employers including Delta Airlines and CVS Health, has launched its newest product, Grokker Guides, which offers an evidence-based, accessible digital mental health solution for the workplace designed to help employees build resilience in the face of common mental health challenges including stress and anxiety. Grokker Guides are 30-day cohorts run by licensed clinical psychologists where the expert helps members evaluate and tackle specific mental health issues in a fully-guided experience. Grokker Guides combine live sessions with a proprietary “three-steps a day” program and the power of community to give every participant measurable relief.

Virtual, holistic care: Everest Insurance enhanced its growing Accident and Health portfolio with the launch of a Fixed Indemnity Insurance product designed to fill the growing gap among companies and association groups in need of affordable and customizable non-ACA health insurance to protect against accident and sickness. “Everest is responding to rapidly growing market demand for tailored, cost-effective solutions, including virtual care offerings, which help employers and associations meet today’s modern health care needs and make holistic care more accessible,” said Shawn Austin, Everest Senior Vice President and Head of Accident and Health for North America. The company also announced its relationship with Goodpath, which provides employer groups and associations with access to virtual, holistic care for chronic conditions, and access to multidisciplinary care including dedicated health coaches via the GoodpathDirect app to improve health outcomes.

New tools brokers can use

Lead gen tool: Judy Diamond Associates, a data technology platform that offers analysis tools for the retirement and employee benefits industry, now has a brand new innovative lead generation tool for brokers and carriers: The Small Group Markets database for employee benefits brokers and insurance carriers. Subscribers of the online platform will be able to access critical information on active businesses, including key contact info for plan decision-makers, company address, telephone, estimated revenue, and more. Customers can further refine their results by filtering on geography, employee longevity, and estimated years in business. “Over my 20 years in the employee benefits prospecting industry, ‘how do I find small groups?’ is probably the question I’ve been asked most often,” said Eric Ryles, Vice President of Customer Solutions at Judy Diamond Associates. Up until now, the small (2-99) employee segment has been difficult to parse for independent brokers, carriers, and others in the industry because they do not file ERISA paperwork.

AI added to employee experience: Empyrean, the company committed to building better corporate cultures through benefits, has announced the launch of enhanced benefits technologies as well as an in-house content and strategy service to create a more connected experience for employees and their benefits. “Empyrean is already known for its powerful platform for ben-admin, and this is just the next evolution of our commitment to innovating the technologies and services that help employers elevate benefits in the employee experience,” said Rich Wolfe, CEO of Empyrean. Unlike other benefit administration experiences, the app and desktop solutions provide seamless and consistent user experiences. The enhanced technologies also integrate new approaches to AI that are more personalized and human-centric. Empyrean’s conversational AI chat has been enhanced to now include automated tasks, enabling immediate and accurate responses to employee queries and requests. Empyrean is announcing a new creative communications and content service — The Experience Lab — to provide support for multi-media campaigns, educational content development and related collateral.

Industry moves

Industry veteran’s new role: Michael Yaschik has joined employee benefits consulting firm Strategic Benefits Advisors as a senior benefits consultant providing strategic advisory services and administrative guidance to pension, 401(k) and health and welfare (H&W) plan sponsors. Yaschik joins from global professional services firm Aon, where he spent 24 years as a senior project manager on the pension administration team. Before that, he was a benefits analyst for Atlanta-based pulp and paper company Georgia Pacific.

Rebranding move: Trustmark Health Benefits is now Luminare Health, following its acquisition in October 2022 by Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC). Luminare Health is a third-party administrator that designs and administers custom health plans for self-funded employers that help manage costs through innovative solutions, information transparency, and member-centric support. Luminare Health also supports clients’ strategic growth goals through white-labeled benefits administration solutions for insurance carriers, brokers, health systems, and plan sponsors. “Our name may be new, but we’ve been experts in self-funding for over 50 years,” says Nancy Eckrich, Chief Executive Officer of Luminare Health.

Moving across Michigan:  NFP, a leading property and casualty broker, benefits consultant, wealth manager and retirement plan advisor, today announced it has acquired Flynn Benefits Group, a  Michigan-based, multi-discipline insurance and financial services company that specializes in providing the medical profession with an array of products and services, including executive benefits and group and individual health benefits.  “We’re very excited to welcome Mike Flynn, Pat Flynn and their team to NFP,” said Dan Cornwell, managing director for NFP in Michigan. “Adding Flynn creates an opportunity for NFP to further scale our benefits presence in the Detroit metro area and across Michigan.”