Episode 8: Being a True Fiduciary with Mark Watson and Kent Thomas (Part 1)

00:00 Intro

00:40 In today’s episode

00:53 Mark Watson

01:14 Kent Thomas

01:34 What is a fiduciary?

02:55 Our story started in 2002

03:33 County Commissioners knew status quo didn’t work any longer

04:23 Consumer-driven healthcare was new at the time

04:54 Transparency was a new question? How do you know you are getting the real answers?

05:23 When your advisor is only giving you part of the picture, that is a problem.

06:08 Dissecting the financial picture of the plan became a problem because of missing info

06:44 2003, we implemented a CDHP, did away with copays, moderate deductibles, etc.

07:29 We actually looked at the impact on the employee’s bottom line

08:27 We made generic prescriptions available at no cost to employees

09:31 Generic penetration jumped immediately and paid for itself

10:24 Employee meetings brought success stories to the table

13:00 Cute story about retiree realizing $200 per month savings

14:00 2003, the first year of new strategies, yielded $1M in cost offsets to the plan

15:20 Understanding the financials is important but you have to work at getting the data

16:05 We’ve maintained a stable health plan since 2003

16:28 We stay within 1% of our annual projections

17:21 As long as you can “see” the math that goes into it

17:56 You’re always looking to “sharpen the pencil”

19:05 Shiny new objects…don’t be fooled by them, especially wellness plans

21:35 We kicked the tires on DPC for about a year and a half

22:38 Maybe we wouldn’t even have ever needed wellness programs if we hadn’t undervalued the primary care relationship in the first place

25:25 Eliminating barriers always leads to savings when the patient gains unlimited access to their doctor

26:33 Data is great but what are the “action steps”

28:12 Medical home model

29:49 This case study should become a model to the rest of the public entities that need to adhere to a fiduciary standard

30:44 Non=integrated silos are costing so much excess money

32:01 The data exchange, so long as it’s good data, is key

33:47 Join us next time! #letsfixhealthcare www.custombenefits.work