The Book of Russo: From the Desk of the CEO

The heat is on here in Boston with absolutely beautiful weather over the past few weeks with the same expected in the near future. This can also be said for the self-insured industry as a whole as well as what we have seen here at The Phia Group. The summer has not meant a slow down; in fact business is up across the board and interest from brokers, advisors, and employers is at levels I have never seen. So while it’s great news that so many people want to get in on this innovative market, the risk is that employers and others will jump in too quickly without truly understanding the risks involved with self-funding their employee benefit plans. Sure you can lower your costs by self-funding but you also expose yourself to catastrophic claims issues, high priced drug costs that you cannot control and stop loss issues that you had no idea existed. That’s why we are here for the industry – to ensure you can have your cake and eat it too. I hope you enjoy our summer newsletter as we have lots of great info to share. Happy reading!

Service Focus of the Quarter: Independent Consultation & Evaluation (ICE)

You need legal consultation to address regulatory compliance concerns, claim processing queries, and to collaborate on difficult administrative tasks. Having an experienced team of attorneys, compliance specialists, and industry experts on call is a must have. With The Phia Group's Independent Consultation and Evaluation ("ICE") service, unlimited access to The Phia Group's acclaimed team of legal consultants is yours for an affordable pre-paid, per employee per month (“PEPM”) subscription fee. Gone are the days of budgeting on the fly and dealing with mysterious "legal bills." With an ICE subscription fee, clients can preemptively budget for and share the cost of this invaluable resource - allowing The Phia Group and their clients to focus on what is really important - results.

For more information regarding ICE and The Phia Group's many other services, please visit our website or contact The Phia Group's Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Tim Callender by email at [email protected] or by phone at 781-535-5631.

New Services and Offerings:

Leave of Absence Review

Employers aren't paying attention to their health benefit plan documents. They alter their employee handbooks every year, or sometimes multiple times in a single year. They try to be generous, providing employees with the ability to take leaves of absence, and promising them extended health plan coverage when they take such leaves of absence. Little do they know that their plan documents expel participants from coverage after a fixed period of time if the employee isn't actively working. This means that - per the plan - that person exercising their right to a leave of absence has no health plan coverage. If the employer tries to provide coverage anyway, stop-loss isn't required to reimburse claims over the deductible.

We're seeing this conflict come up with startling frequency, and the time has come to end this problem once and for all. The Phia Group has added a Leave of Absence review to its already popular Gap-Free Analysis service. The Phia Group's team of plan document experts and attorneys will analyze the applicable plan document side-by-side with the employer's handbook and stop-loss policy, to ensure there are no gaps in coverage and that all are in compliance with applicable law.

Flagship Plan Document

Every self-funded plan deserves a "Best in Class" plan document, yet - delays in plan drafting cause many plans to administer old plans - or in some cases - no plan. Now there is no excuse for administering a self-funded program with an outdated plan document, or worse, no plan document at all.

The Phia Group has compiled decades of experience servicing various types of plans, and drafting various types of plan documents, to develop its Flagship Template. This plan document "checks all the boxes" when it comes to best practices, regarding everything from cost containment to compliance; offering robust yet effective coverage.

The Phia Group's Flagship Template is a condensed version of its industry acclaimed, fully customizable template. The Phia Group has taken its own plan document (complete with thousands of requisite customization queries), and created a nearly complete plan document - by pre-selecting what it deems to be the best provisions in every regard; applying best practices to create an almost-complete plan. All that remains is for the plan sponsor or its named administrator to fill in their biographical information, insert their selected schedule of benefits, eligibility criteria, and review the language already provided to request edits or revisions.

Our goal is to provide plans with plan documents that we think reflect best practices. The plan sponsor and its administrator no longer need to review countless options or fill in limitless blank spaces. The hard work has already been handled by The Phia Group. We don't want to see any more self-funded employers or plan administrators suffer penalties or face conflicts with their partners, due to an outdated or non-existent plan document. Now, with The Phia Group's Flagship Template, clients can enjoy speedy production of best-in-class plans, with minimal time or monetary investment.

For more information regarding any of The Phia Group’s services, please contact The Phia Group’s Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Tim Callender, by email at [email protected] or by phone at 781-535-5631.

Phia Group Case Study: Flagship Plan Document

Not long after The Phia Group introduced its Flagship Template offering as part of its Phia Document Management (PDM) service, one of our long-time clients approached us with an issue they were having. They had a new client prospect – the largest prospect the TPA had ever had, and indeed far larger than the average self-funded group. This particular group was coming from the fully-insured market, so it had never structured its own Plan Document before. As part of the RFP process, the TPA had provided the Plan Sponsor with a checklist from the TPA’s standard template, customized for use with the Phia Document Management software.

The TPA contacted our consulting and plan drafting team and relayed that this formerly-fully insured group was a bit uneasy about the number of variables in the checklist. Although the Plan Sponsor had not yet awarded the TPA its business, the Plan Sponsor indicated that it had absolutely no idea how to choose, for instance, which “illegal acts” or “workers compensation” exclusions it wanted, of the myriad of options within the standard checklist.

The Phia Group’s plan drafting team informed the TPA of the newfound existence of our Flagship Template, which is designed specifically to cut down variables by 75%, instead applying our best-practices approach to definitions and exclusions. The remaining variables are designed to be high-level options, rather than the nitty gritty that plan sponsors may not have the experience or interest to answer.

The TPA showed the Plan Sponsor the Flagship Template checklist, and the Plan Sponsor was pleased with the more manageable number of variables, and subsequently awarded the TPA its considerable block of business.

Fiduciary Burden of the Quarter: Prudent Management of Plan Assets

ERISA specifies that all Plan Administrators must be prudent with assets. That means avoiding waste, and securing savings whenever possible. Protecting plan assets, identifying fraud, overpayments, undue costs, as well as taking action to protect the plan, recoup lost funds, and identify savings opportunities, are being treated less like “good ideas” and more like “fiduciary duties.” In the meantime, the Department of Labor has begun to crack down on fiduciary violations more than ever.

As always, we urge TPAs and brokers to do their best to ensure that they, and their clients, are prudent with plan assets in every way possible! Please visit our website or contact The Phia Group's Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Tim Callender by email at [email protected] or by phone at 781-535-5631 to discuss this growing concern and steps you can take to maximize benefits and minimize costs.

Back to top ^
 

Phia Fit to Print:

• Employers Costs Outpace Salaries – America's Benefit Specialist, Page 28

• Money Inc. – “Affordable” Health Insurance Is Not “Affordable” Health Care

• Self-Insurers Publishing Corp. – Taking Health Care International - The Growing Trends of Importing Care and Exporting Patients

• Self-Insurers Publishing Corp. – Held Captive by Appeals

• Self-Insurers Publishing Corp. – Appealing to Reason

• Self-Insurers Publishing Corp. – Self-Funded Health Plan May Have a New Ally in the Fight against Specialty Drug Prices

Back to top ^

From the Blogosphere:

• The Rules of the Game are Still Changing. What is an Executive Order?

• Dear Stop-Loss: A Ballad. A blog that can be sung to the tune of “Gilligan’s Island.”

• You Are Not Going to Sue us, Are You? Claims from providers are “getting high.”

• Transparency – It’s Not Just for Ghosts. What about the costs of standard medical procedures?

To stay up to date on other industry news, please visit our blog.

Back to top ^

Webinars

Consulting Headlines – The Hottest Topics in Benefit Plan Administration

On July 13, 2017, The Phia Group will present “Consulting Headlines – The Hottest Topics in Benefit Plan Administration,” where our legal team will discuss how laws are changing, regulations are shifting, and benefit plans are scrambling to keep up.

Click HERE to Register!

On June 22, 2017, The Phia Group presented “A Network by any Other Name,” where we discussed various payment methodologies, and what a health plan needs to do to ensure that the Plan Document supports that methodology.

On May 16, 2017, The Phia Group presented “Decisions, Decisions: Which Plan Types Work Best for Which Groups, and Why,” where we went over some basic types of plans that can be chosen and some benefits and pitfalls of each.

On April 27, 2017, The Phia Group presented “The Double-Edged Sword of Discretion: How Even Great Plan Document Language Can Cause Gaps in Coverage,” where our legal team discussed discretion within Plan Documents and stop-loss policies, and how the two interact.

Back to top ^

Podcasts:

On June 22, 2017, The Phia Group presented “The Senate Unveils its Repeal & Replace Bill,” where Sr. Vice President and General Counsel Ron Peck and Attorney Brady Bizarro give their initial thoughts on the Better Care Reconciliation Act.

On June 19, 2017, The Phia Group presented “Plan Tales: The Good, Bad, and Really Bad,” where Adam Russo and Ron Peck interview two key members of The Phia Group’s consulting division – Vice President of Consulting, Attorney Jennifer McCormick, and Product Developer, Kristin Spath.

On June 5, 2017, The Phia Group presented “In the Land of the Blind,” where we discussed the assessment of the American Health Care Act (Version 2.0).

On May 22, 2017, The Phia Group presented “Healthcares? Alternative Provider Payment Programs,” where Adam Russo and Ron Peck discussed movements within the healthcare provider community.

On May 8, 2017, The Phia Group presented “The American Health Care Act,” where Adam Russo, Ron Peck, and Brady Bizarro discussed the American Health Care Act, which passed the House of Representatives on 05/04/2017.

On April 25, 2017, The Phia Group presented “An Employer Call to Action,” where our legal team discussed what employers can do to improve their health plan and plan performance.

Back to top ^

The Phia Group’s 2017 Charity

The Phia Group's 2017 charity is the Boys & Girls Club of Brockton.

The mission of The Boys & Girls Club is to nurture strong minds, healthy bodies, and community spirit through youth-driven quality programming in a safe and fun environment.

The Boys & Girls Club of Brockton (BGCB) was founded in 1990 to create a positive place for the youth of Brockton, Massachusetts. It immediately met a need in the community; in the first year alone, 500 youths, ages 8-18, signed up as club members. In the 25 years since, the club has expanded its scope exponentially by offering a mix of Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) nationally developed programs and activities unique to this club.

Since their founding, more than 20,000 Brockton youth have been welcomed through their doors. Currently, they serve more than 1,000 boys and girls ages 5-18 annually through academic year and summertime programming.

Phia's Wiffle Ball Game

On Saturday, June 24th, employees of the Phia Group participated in the 6th Annual John A. Waldron Wiffle Ball Tournament. The tournament honors the late John Waldron, a former member of the Brockton’s Planning Board and Democratic City Committee and a longtime booster for Brockton High School’s sports and clubs. Phia and the 36 teams competing helped raise over $16,000 for local charities, including the Boys and Girls Club of Brockton, TOPSoccer, Frederick Douglass Neighborhood Association, Brockton Hospital Cancer Walk, and more. For more information, visit the John Waldron Wiffleball Tournament website. 

Monthly Donations From Phia

The Phia Group invites its staff to donate various items for the benefit of The Boys and Girls Club of Brockton. For more information or to get involved, visit www.bgcbrockton.org.

Back to top ^

The Stacks

A Year Later . . . Montanile Remembered, Lessons Learned

By: Christopher M. Aguiar, Esq. – April 2017 – Self-Insurers Publishing Corp.

Things were going so well. In the game of subrogation cases being heard by the Supreme Court of the United States, self-funded benefit plans under the purview of ERISA were on a roll. First, it was Sereboff v. Mid Atlantic Medical Services, Inc., 547 U.S. 356 (2006), then U.S. Airways v. McCutchen, 133 S. Ct. 1537 (2013). Some even considered Great West Life & Annuity Ins. Co. v. Knudson, 534 U.S. 204 (2002) to have been unfairly viewed as a loss for the subrogation industry because despite a decision against Great West Life, it provided the blue print followed by Mid Atlantic Medical Services, Inc. to elicit the favorable decision that led to the recovery in Sereboff. As is the case in most games, momentum can be lost in the blink an eye.

Click here to read the rest of this article

Don’t Let Your LOAs Leave You DOA

By: Kelly E. Dempsey, Esq. – May 2017 – Self-Insurers Publishing Corp.
 

Imagine a scenario where an employer has a long-time reliable employee that suddenly has a stroke of bad luck and is diagnosed with stage four cancer after being relatively asymptomatic and having never been diagnosed with cancer previously. The employee works with a team of medical professionals to come up with a game plan for beating this terrible disease. The employee quickly begins what will hopefully be life-saving treatment as soon as a game plan is mapped out. The claims start rolling in and the treatment starts taking its toll. The employee starts missing an hour here and there for appointments – and then a few hours for appointments and sickness –and then full days of work during treatment. When the employee is at work, the employee struggles to perform normal job functions and the employee is now unable to work because the rigorous chemotherapy regiment.

Click here to read the rest of this article.

Air Ambulance: Heads in the Clouds

By: Jon A. Jablon, Esq. – June 2017 – Self-Insurers Publishing Corp.

Health plans, third-party administrators, brokers, consultants, and stop-loss carriers are a bit baffled by air ambulance fees. Many are outraged or appalled or disgusted as well – but it seems that the overwhelmingly common feeling is sheer confusion over how this type of billing is permissible.

Click here to read the rest of this article.

Back to top ^

Phia’s Q2 Speaking Events:

Adam Russo’s 2017 Speaking Engagements:

• 4/24/17 - Berkley Captive Symposium – Grand Cayman Islands
“The Best Gets Better – Getting the Most Out of Your Self-Funded Plan”

• 5/4/17 – Benefest – Westborough, MA
“Multiple Personalities – The Biggest Issues Impacting Plans & Employers, and Instances Where They are Their Own Worst Enemy”

• 5/22/17 – United Benefit Advisors (UBA) Spring Conference – Chicago, IL
“The Best Gets Better – Getting the Most Out of Your Self-Funded Plan”

• 6/27/17 – Leavitt Trustee Conference – Big Sky, MT
“The Best Gets Better – Getting the Most Out of Your Self-Funded Plan”

Ron Peck’s 2017 Speaking Engagements:

• 4/3/17 – Eastern Claims Conference (ECC) – Boston, MA
“The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: Understanding Reference Based Pricing in the Special Risk Market”

Tim Callender’s 2017 Speaking Engagements:
• 5/4/17 – BevCap Best Practice Workshop – Orlando, FL
“PACE & ICE with a brief political update on repeal and replace”

• 5/22/17 – Group Underwriters Association of America Annual Conference – Denver, CO
“The Future of Health Plans”

Jen McCormick's Speaking Engagements:
• 5/20/17 – United Benefit Advisors (UBA) Spring Conference – Chicago, IL
“Self-funding and Compliance Issues”

Brady Bizarro's 2017 Speaking Engagements:
• 5/4/17 – BevCap Best Practice Workshop 2017 – Orlando, FL
“Phia's PACE and ICE Services”

Phia’s Upcoming Speaking Events

Adam Russo’s Upcoming Speaking Engagements in 2017:

• 7/12/17 – Montana Captive Conference – Whitefish, MT
“High Performing Self-Insured Health Plans – The Key to Successful Stop-loss Captive Programs”

• 8/9/17 – NAHU Region 1 Meeting – Stamford, CT
“The Best gets Better: Getting the Most out of Your Self-Funded Plans”

Ron Peck’s Upcoming Speaking Engagements in 2017:

• 9/19/17 – CIC-DC 2017 Annual Conference – Washington, D.C.
“Cost Containment Strategies”

Tim Callender’s Upcoming Speaking Egnagements in 2017:

• 7/17/17 – Health Care Administrator’s Association TPA Summit – St. Louis, MO
“Conference Emcee”

Brady Bizarro’s Upcoming Speaking Engagements in 2017:

• 7/18/17 – HCAA TPA Summit 2017 – St. Louis, MO
“Ethics”

Back to top ^

Get to Know Our Employee of the Quarter:
Zachariah John

Congratulations to Zachariah John, the Phia Group’s Q2 2017 Employee of the Quarter!

“Zach constantly exhibits great customer service skills and work ethics, with quick responses and delivery on HelpDesk tickets, questions from other employees, and system enhancement builds. He is also incredibly friendly, and always has a great attitude. Even when something cannot be done as specifically desired by a user, Zach finds ways to meet their requirements through other available options and functionalities. He is a true subject matter expert, a great resource of knowledge, and a dedicated employee. There is no question; if Zach were not part of the Phia team, we would be nowhere near where we are now! His assistance and expertise is invaluable.”

Congratulations Zach and thank you for your many current and future contributions.

Back to top ^

Phia News

Babies

- Diaina Williams gave birth to Hannah on 4/19/2017

- Sabrina Centeio gave birth to Gia on 5/5/2017.

- Shannon Olson gave birth to Shelby Marie on 5/8/2017

- Lisamarie DeCristoforo gave birth to Kyrie on 6/20/2017

- Boris Senic’s wife gave birth to Matthew Ryan on 6/27/2017

Promotions

- Casey Balchunas was promoted from Claim Investigator to Claim Recovery Specialist III

- Lyneka Hubbert was promoted from Claim Recovery Specialist III to Case Analyst

New Hires

- Maria Sostre was hired as a Case Investigator

- Dante Tylerbest was hired as a Customer Service Representative

- Cori DeCristoforo was hired as a Customer Service Representative

- Elizabeth Pels was hired as a legal assistant

- Shaiti Alavala was hired as an IT Intern

- Robert Balchunas was hired as a PGC Intern

- Abigail Gatanti was hired as a PGC Intern

- Sandra Przychodzki was hired as a PGC Consultant

- Jess Watsky was hired as a PGC Consultant

- Francesca Russo was hired as a Legal Assistant

- Thadeous Washington was hired as a Plan Document Specialist

- Krishna Malyala was hired as an IT Data Architect

- Hannah Sedman was Hired as a Marketing Intern

- Nubian Gamble was hired as a Case Investigator

- Lennon Johnson III was hired as a Case Investigator

- Colin Patzer was hired as a Legal Assistant

- Jiyra Martinez was hired as a Case Analyst

Fun at Phia:

Phia’s Easter Egg Hunt

Phia's Backyard Barbeque

Back to top ^