America's Benefit Specialist July 2023

me a chance to get involved at the national level by recom mending I serve on HUPAC. Troy and I have had many con versations over the years and I treasure his friendship inside and outside of NABIP. Of course, I probably wouldn’t be where I am today without the opportunity Jim Stenger gave me in chairing HUPAC. Jim saw something in me and exposed me to further possibilities within the association. I’ve become friends with so many others but Cathy Cooper was instrumental in pushing me forward to run for secretary of NABIP in 2018. Since then, Eugene Starks and David Smith have become sounding boards. There are so many others I didn’t mention that I’ve met and become friends with along the way. This association is so much more than just legislative advocacy. The best part of NABIP is members working together on the common goal of making healthcare better in America. Tell us about your role at Prisma Strategies. What’s a normal day like? I founded Prisma Strategies in 2007. Those were stressful times as my wife, Brooke, and I had a two-month-old at home. My wife was the morning anchor for the NBC affiliate in Des Moines and she worked early mornings and I worked, well, late into the night. There were times when I was just going to bed when she was getting up. Looking back, I really don’t know how we did it. There had to be some divine intervention. Today, I suspect my day looks very similar to many in our industry: Nothing is normal. Every new day is a new normal. I guess if I could define or even had a normal day, I think I would be very leery that I missed or forgot something. The only constant in our industry is adjusting and overcoming. What we knew a decade ago is important but, if we haven’t changed, odds are our client list has. In our office, there’s really one main goal: Make sure our clients and prospects are getting the best we can give them every day. And the “best” must continuously get better. That begins with staying on top of legislative and regulatory variations and up to date on new and evolving markets and funding mechanisms that could and will help our clients meet their needs. I should add that NABIP has provided me with so many benefits over the years to become a better more knowledge able professional, and volunteering has connected me with others in the industry who have taught me a lot. For the money, it’s the best investment I’ve made. Do you specialize in certain types of plans or clients? I specialize in helping companies with employee benefit plans. When I started my company and had really nothing, if I was having coffee or lunch and heard the words “health insurance,” I said I could help—whether they were a small

group or a large group. In reality, I came into the industry with a background in large-group and self-funding. In my opinion, those are the most appealing to work on in a post ACA world because you can do more things that impact cost to the health plan and members. Saying that, in a world where more than 95% of all business is less than 50 employees, I certainly work in that space as well. Those clients need a different kind of assistance than larger, more sophisticated companies with entire benefits departments. Thankfully, markets have opened with level funding, where we can again engage in more than simply entering census data. What do you hope to accomplish this year under your leadership of NABIP? This is a question that really excites me but to narrow it down to one goal is nearly impossible, so I’ll answer with an industry objective and an internal association objective that are related. First, NABIP and the many chapters in our federation accomplish a lot. And nothing would happen without the hundreds of volunteers who give their time and effort to our association and industry working with our staff in Washington DC. Without each of our members doing the lifting at the local, state and national levels, we would not be in a position to impact healthcare. I’m in awe of the efforts from top to bottom. We continue to do great advocacy work in DC and state capitals across the country. We will always need to be de fensive in our efforts because it’s the nature of legislation and regulation. But the last I checked, you can’t win a game without scoring, so one of my top priorities will be to mount an offense. My goal is to improve our standing as THE leading or ganization for fixing the healthcare system. This will entail a multi-faceted approach with introducing legislation in Congress and a public-awakening campaign presenting the NABIP solutions. We must elevate our brand and take every opportunity to speak out (and speak loudly) about fixing “the system.” We’ve had opportunities in the past but the time is now to take the offensive. This begins with identifying the imperative list of priorities needed to put patients at the top of the pyramid—a patient’s healthcare bill or rights, so to speak. It continues by leading the charge for positive change with actionable solutions. In order to accomplish this, we need to bring our chap ters and members together in that effort, beginning with effective targeted communication in all directions within our association. That means sharing information and best prac tices from chapter to chapter and region to region, but also arming our members with information they can use in their specific practice area by providing professional-development opportunities and advocating in every market segment.

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