Making
cost control
a fair fight.
"For twenty years, I have been showing employers the best kept secrets to cut expenses, control risk, and unlock free cash flow."
"If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten."
The Benefits Department is a management consultancy boutique. Unlike conflicted group health insurance brokers, we make money when we save you money,
...and our results are guaranteed.
Over 150 million Americans are covered by group healthcare plans whose total employer spend will surpass $1 trillion annually in the coming years. For too long, CFOs, business owners, and P&L-savvy HR executives have resigned themselves to spend billions on healthcare in a way they’d never tolerate for any other area of their business.
Many are risk averse when it comes to pushing back on the big insurance monopolies, even after giving these organizations decades to find a viable solution. And nearly all employers are in the dark when it comes to understanding the data around the cost and quality of what they are buying.
It might be worth the expense if employees were enjoying superior health insurance programs that protected them financially in times of health challenges and helped them get healthier - and back to work quicker. But that’s far from the case. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey showed that 40% of Americans under 65 with health insurance have difficulty affording healthcare. And more than half of those having trouble skipped or delayed part of their treatment because of those difficulties — further compounding the problem.
real savings
Our proven supply-chain management strategies consistently and predictably reduce overall healthcare spend for qualifying businesses from 20-40%.
better benefits
Better quality healthcare benefits for less out-of-pocket creates an advantage for your entire organization through increased morale, productivity and retention.
A Fair fight
It’s important to note that we are aligned advisers, not brokers. In fact, we often work alongside brokers and get compensated based on savings.
Ready For An Unbroken Broker?
Too many brokers become overly cordial with the insurance carriers they are supposed to vet as your fiduciary partner. This creates a potentially conflicted transaction, which is prohibited under these ERISA-covered plans. So we work with small businesses to design and manage next generation benefit programs, including healthcare and ERISA-qualified pensions.
"The shame of it is, most employers don’t know they can manage their healthcare like any other supply-chain in their business. The insurance industry has conditioned us to think that their over-inflated products are the only option – and it’s simply not the case."
The agency is led by Michael Case Smith. Mike has spent his career challenging conflicts of interest on Wall Street and is now focused on similar issues in healthcare.
Mike began his career in the London and Los Angeles offices of TCW, a global pension advisor. In 1998 he joined Nobel Laureate Harry Markowitz and TCW colleagues in a series of ventures based on their patented financial technologies. In 2008, Smith and colleagues purchased a New York investment firm. After a fivefold growth in assets, the company was sold, and Smith moved to Florida with his growing family.
Smith is a graduate of UCLA, The University of Notre Dame, and studied at the London School of Economics.