For Your Benefits

Virtual care helps people access the resources and guidance they need to be their happiest and healthiest selves. In this episode, Amanda Haeffner, VP of Client Services for SentryHealth talks with Lee Monroe, Manager of Finance and Administration for Georgia Bankers Association Insurance Trust (GBAIT), about the importance of good health and wellbeing at work and why GBAIT offers virtual care to its members.

Today's employees have come to expect that they'll be taken care of by their employers. That means solid benefits and positive opportunities to improve their health. We talk with Lauren Perry, SVP of NCBA about the importance of good health and wellbeing in the workplace and how virtual care can meet the needs of employees in an affordable, yet high-quality way.

Discover how to be the first line of defense against high employee healthcare costs with guest Emma Fox, Partner and COO of E Powered Benefits.

In this episode of For Your Benefits, Katharine Manning, President of Blackbird DC and author of The Empathetic Workplace, shares five ways trauma-informed leaders can ease employee anxiety. 

With virtual care, people are empowered to get the help they need when they need it most, reducing the risk of more acute (and more costly) care. Whether they're seeking mental health support, chronic condition care, or health and wellbeing coaching, trained experts are just a few clicks away. In this episode we chat with Jackson McConnell, Chairman and CEO of Pinnacle Financial Corporation, about how virtual care has proven necessary for improving the health and wellbeing of his employees.

As healthcare costs continue to rise, employers are looking for innovative ways to reduce spending without sacrificing quality. Reference based pricing (RBP) is an alternative to more traditional, carrier-based plans favored by many self-insured employers for its cost containment value. In this episode, RPB experts Ed Dillabough and Scott Crawford dive into what reference based pricing is, how it works, and why a value-based benefit design payment model like this can drive better outcomes and lower costs for employers and their employees.

Offering a robust benefits package is a terrific way to increase employee retention, expand recruitment efforts, and show employees that they are valued. With the competition for talent remaining fierce in 2023, Scot and Kate Grooms discuss the top emerging benefit trends that can act as powerful differentiators for businesses that would like to maintain a competitive edge.

Many chronic conditions are often preventable and even manageable through simple lifestyle changes. Employers are in a unique position to help employees combat these conditions through benefits that focus on whole-person care. In this episode, Sherree Telford will be discussing chronic conditions and how they are a growing concern for employers.

Empathy is a key component of leadership — especially when it comes to benefits and compensation. After all, if you can't understand why employees value certain benefits or how they react to changes, then you won't be able to make informed decisions about the programs that impact them most. In this episode, Ben Conner shares with us why it's key to put empathy at the core of benefit choices, and why he believes that it should start by prioritizing compassion in leadership.

Employers want to offer their employees the best possible health benefits but don't want to overpay. How can benefits advisors help their clients make healthcare more affordable and accessible to employees while still being mindful of cost? In this episode, Chris Wolpert discusses why educating and engaging employees is important to combating rising health care costs.

As health care costs continue to rise, benefit advisors and employers face major challenges when it comes to providing high-quality, affordable employee health benefits. In this episode we discuss some of these challenges and offer cost-saving strategies.

The FTC recently launched an investigation into PBMs regarding their role in increasing prescription drug prices. In this episode, we talk with Catherine Hall, RN, Director of Prescription Drug Management for SentryHealth about the inquiry and how benefits advisors can protect their clients from bad PBM practices.

Hear Coley Williams, LMFT, Director of Mental Health at Wellview, discuss our current mental health crisis and what employers and others should be doing to support employees and their families.

Employers are under enormous pressure to control medical costs for themselves and their employees. As a result, one of the top priorities for self-funded employers should be to reduce prescription drug expenses. In this episode of For Your Benefits, we talk with Catherine Hall, Director of SentryHealth's Prescription Drug Management Program, about the effect of rising drug costs and what employers and consumers can do to control spending.

In this episode of For Your Benefits, SentryHealth Vice President Ed Dillabough, and Al Lewis, CEO of Quizzify, discuss how benefits advisors and employers can help employees find the best medical specialists using comprehensive data and clinical expertise.

Imagine a workplace where each person feels that they're bringing their best selves to work each day. They leave the workday feeling supported, inspired, and heard. But is this happening? In this episode, we talk with Dr. Rosie Ward, about how to rehumanize the workplace in a world that is rapidly becoming more complex with disruptions being the norm. Do employees feel comfortable taking risks and expressing themselves without fear of embarrassment or retribution? Will discuss the five key re-humanizing principles that thriving organizations are using to help future proof your organization

For many employees, self-care is often seen as a luxury reserved for days off of work. However, self-care needs to be a part of an ongoing effort for better physical, social, and emotional health. Leadership trainer Jason Lauritsen talks with us about why self-care in the workplace is vital to both employees, managers, and organizations as a whole.

Leaders are in a unique position to lead by example and to promote workplace health. In this episode, we talk with Laura Putnam, Founder and CEO of Motion Infusion, about how workplace health and wellbeing are important and the unique role that managers play in empowering employees to feel better.

A top priority for organizations is to attract and retain top employees. And with a highly competitive market, companies cannot afford high turnover. In this episode, we talk with Allison Holzer, Co-CEO and Chief Innovations Officer of InspireCorps about why business leaders need to have a coaching mindset in order to cultivate talent.

Company culture can affect many aspects of an organization, including satisfaction, recruitment, retention, and productivity. In this episode, Brad Shuck, EdD, a recognized thought-leader in employee engagement and leadership, shares his extensive research on the value of high employee engagement and how corporate leaders can (and should) build and sustain a strong company culture.

Chronic condition management is imperative when it comes to supporting those living with a chronic illness like cancer or diabetes. In this episode of For Your Benefits, SentryHealth's VP of Client Experience, Denise St. Pierre discusses her personal cancer journey with her oncologist, Dr. Sanjay Juneja, also known as ‘TheOncDoc.' Together they share how education and prevention combined with an integrative approach to health care was key to a successful remission.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are important to a positive workplace. In this episode, we talk with Dr. Victoria Mattingly about what employers can do to foster workplace inclusion through allyship and measurement.

No longer are employees trying to balance their personal and professional lives. Instead, they are looking to employers to help them be a whole person in and out of work. In this episode, we talk with Michael Dickerson about why work/life integration is the new approach to engaging employees.

In the second episode of our two part-series, we continue our conversation with Kristin Meschler and Cary Seager of Assured Partners about the Ten Core Keys to Health and Productivity. They talk how culture can affect employer wellbeing efforts, why it's important to communicate the company's business goals to leadership, how to align safety initiatives with the wellbeing program, and how to encourage employers to use analytics to drive strategy and outcomes.

In this first episode of our two-part series, we talk with Kristin Meschler and Cary Seager with Assured Partners about the Ten Core Keys of Health and Productivity to ensure strategic and sustainable wellbeing initiatives are being met. In this episode, they share their insights on how to build a health and wellbeing culture that drives long-term engagement. They also discuss the importance of having an operating plan, communication strategy, and assigned roles to drive success.

Having good data analytics is not only just about measuring the performance of your health and wellbeing solution, it can also affect program experience for both employers and their employees. Matt Doctrow, SentryHealth SVP of Analytics, discusses how using analytics can create positive outcomes, ROI, and VOI through better personalization.

There is a strong connection between a person's happiness and health. Overall wellbeing can be greatly impacted by how a person feels, as well as how they live and work. Amy Blansit, Ph.D., discusses how social, economic, and environmental factors can impact an individual's health and what effect that has in the workplace.

In the second episode in our series about the employer's role in health and wellbeing, we continue our chat with engagement strategist Jan Oldendburg. She discusses the regulatory changes that are contributing to such a changing marketplace and offers hot tips for employers on how to best help their employees manage their health care. Oldenburg also talks about which health benefits approaches work best and which may not be as successful for employers.

Within the past several years, the share of the cost of health care for people and their families has steadily increased. As a result, they now behave like traditional consumers when it comes to health care choices, goals, and expectations. In addition, the increased availability of digital tools has raised expectations about convenience, choice, and transparency in health care. Employees are looking for accessible, high-quality advice and support in obtaining medically sound, cost-effective, and high-quality health care. In this episode, we chat with engagement strategist Jan Oldendburg, about the nature of the changes driving consumerization in health care. She also discusses how to recognize emerging employee expectations and needs.

Upon the onset of COVID-19, many employees were forced to work remotely. As we begin to come out of this public health emergency, it's estimated that 25-30% of all American workers will continue to work from home permanently. While remote working offers a number of benefits to both employees and employers, it can be challenging for leadership to effectively support remote workers. In this episode of "For Your Benefits," Kim Scott, LMFT, will discuss this new way of working and will share ways to help remote employees feel connected and engaged.

Matt Hodes, from SentryHealth program partner, OneDrop, discusses how the health care landscape transformed from in-person to virtual care overnight and how employers can take this as an opportunity to better support employees.

With health care costs continuing to rise, employers are seeking strategies to help improve workforce health as a means to better manage these increases. During this episode, we chat with Colleen Hekkanen, LCSW, CCM, VP of Healthcare Operations with MAPHealth, about the importance of taking an integrative approach to employee health. We discuss what comprises an integrative approach, how it differs from holistic care, and how it can be used to reduce stress among employees. Colleen also offers tips on how employers can take an integrative approach to improve engagement and wellbeing for increased productivity, retention, and better controlled health care costs.

During this episode, Richard Goldstein, MD, MHCM, SentryHealth co-founder, Chief Medical Officer for Northeast Medical Group and VP of Yale New Haven Health System, talks about the importance of having a chronic disease management program in the workplace. He discusses how these types of programs can help employers control costs and how COVID-19 has changed how we view the management of chronic conditions.

During this episode, Worksite Wellness Council of Louisville Board Directors Alex Alsup and Matt Schwartz share their insights into the value of a healthy workplace. They discuss how health and wellbeing programs are changing the face of worksite wellness and what employers can do to support their employees

Matt Doctrow turned a job analyzing equipment usage for the U.S. Army's special operation command into a career leading health care companies on the journey to operationalize their data. Now, as Senior Vice President of analytics for SentryHealth, he helps to solve health problems for people before they actually happen.

Jennifer Hunter, Founder & CEO at Emvitals, a SentryHealth partner, discusses why supporting employee emotional health is critical to sustaining trust and engagement throughout this pandemic.

In this segment, we chat with Amanda Evans, Chief Marketing Officer at SentryHealth about proactive employee outreach and engagement. It seems like everyone is searching for the secret sauce of how to encourage program participation and achieve meaningful action. And for good reason. She discusses how to ensure that engagement is meaningful to the employees and the importance of shifting away from traditional incentives towards lower cost, higher value options.

Hear from SentryHeath's COO, Steve Sablan, as he explains why employers should move away from “one-size-fits-all” wellbeing programs and take advantage of solutions that employ cutting-edge analytics to intelligently identify individual risks and needs. We'll cover the importance of data in health and wellbeing as well as the key components of a hyper-personalized, data-driven experience.

Thanks for checking out For Your Benefits from SentryHealth! Over the next few segments, we'll talk with SentryHealth leaders about emerging trends in wellbeing management, including how new technology, intelligent data analytics, and proactive employee outreach is redefining health and wellness. On this segment, Kevin Porter, CEO of SentryHealth, discusses one of the most important trends in employee health and wellbeing – digital programs. Employees expect immediate access to their benefits, now more than ever. Kevin discusses how the need has evolved from traditional wellness programs into total wellbeing, and the benefits for both employers and employees.

ForYourBenefits. Get the latest employee health and wellness news, trends, tips, and guides from SentryHealth. Interested in the latest trends in employee health & wellness? Want to be sure that you're offering the best well-being benefits to your team? Well that's just the kinds of things we'll be discussing in our monthly podcast, For Your Benefits. Our goal is to help HR professionals, benefits brokers, and anyone else interested in employee benefits to stay on the cutting edge of what's happening in the world of employee health and wellness. SentryHealth, a leading employee wellness solution provider, we'll talk to some of the best people in the business about the latest trends in well-being programs, innovative solutions that are redefining employee health & wellness, ways to improve employee engagement in these programs, and so much more. Make sure you visit the SentryHealth website for all our latest podcasts and be sure to subscribe so you don't miss anything.