Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
iHeartMedia presents CEOs you should know. I am John Denkle,
founder and CEO of Thinkle Business Development and former president
publisher of the Baltimore Business Journal. This is iHeartRadio's CEOs
you should know and I'm here today with Ed Walker,
CEO of Armdicare, and welcome ahead and thanks.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
For being here. Hey, thanks for having me John, Yeah,
really looking.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Forward to our conversation. I thought it begin by just
maybe getting to know the organization a little bit, a
little bit about yourself. So for those who may not
be familiar, cand you tell us about our modicare.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Sure our Modicare we're located in Hunt Valley, Maryland, and
our business we're a managing general underwriter, so you know
what does that mean in layman's terms. Basically, we handle
everything from product development, marketing, sales and all service aspects
so including claim payment. Our business. In terms of our focus,
(00:57):
we're focused on providing supplemental health health insurance to the
employer market. And it's a little bit different than you know,
if you think about your primary health plan. We are
layering in on top of the primary plan, so all
the things that your base plan doesn't cover, as well
as some higher end expenses. We're typically covering those typically
(01:21):
offered as an expansion of benefits. It could be a
form of alternative compensation, or it could be just you know,
they've made some changes to a health plan and you
know there's some things that their current plan doesn't cover
that used to cover. So we'll work with the employer
and the broker to supplement Our programs are undwritten by
(01:41):
two great carriers A Rated. We're filed and approved in
forty seven states and we have eighty five employees here
and most of those employees are in Maryland, but we
do have salespeople throughout the country in certain geographic areas.
Got it.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Got thank you appreciate that. And what are like some
of the particular maybe products, offerings or you know, kind
of services you're offering to those customers.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah. So, you know ARMD has been around since two
thousand and four, and if we go back to like
kind of our legacy business, we were known as providing
supplemental programs to the c suite, right, So these were
typically you know, benefits that were provided to business owners,
(02:26):
maybe the business owner's family or you know with you know,
larger companies to the to the C suite. So you know,
our legacy product is called Ultimate Health. When we in
twenty seventeen, we were acquired by Serious Point and we
expanded our offerings to you know, other other expansion of
(02:51):
benefits in terms of going deeper within the organizations. Some
of the newer programs that that we've come out with
well Pack. So Well Packed is focused on uh mental
mental health and behavioral type services. So that's you know,
something that has become more prevalent today. So we've we've
(03:12):
created a program focused on that. And then we also
have a new product, KPI Health UH that's focused on
the large market and one of the programs significant part
of that program is executive physicals. So again it's we're
not in the primary market. We are supplementing. And again
it's it's it's to provide coverage in addition to what
(03:37):
the primary plan pays.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Got it, And it is a is a good candidate
still that kind of business owner c suite UH, kind
of VP level or is does you know this kind
of supplemental health insurance? You know, can any employer employer
carry this?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, it's we've expanded well beyond the C suite. I
mean typically in terms of we're sort of industry agnostic,
but in terms of like eligibility, it's typically three employees
that we would cover, so it doesn't necessarily have to
be it's not necessarily small employer. It could be a
(04:18):
large company and you know we're just we could be
providing down to three. But we also have you know,
mid sized companies where we may cover fifty one hundred
or even more employees. Got the and I mentioned it, Yeah,
an industry wide we I mean, we have a pretty
(04:41):
wide mix of clients across the board. It's their largest
are healthcare, financial services, retail, manufacturing. But again it's really
broad in terms of any type of any type of
employer is is eligible to the program.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Okay, great, I think appreciate sharing that. What would you
say kind of sets you apart from competitors?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Well, I mean really, I mean we're the market leader.
We've been around, you know, like I said, for uh
it's over well over twenty years. I'd say, you know,
our our key like competitive what makes this different is
our service. Our service is you know, it's one thing
(05:36):
to reimburse you know, there's nothing so nothing special about
reimbursing a claim. But it's really how we do it.
We want to make sure that our clients and their members,
their employees are using the program. So that's a little
bit different than like most insurance products, right if you
think about your experience, they don't want you to file acclaim,
(05:58):
et cetera. But we make we make there's a number
of conveniences that we make available to the customer to
make sure that they're they're getting value. So that's really
like one of the marquees of of all of our plans.
But we, like I said, the way that you know,
we started out c suite, but we've expanded our product
(06:22):
and we're very flexible in terms of what we can
do at various price points, even tailoring down to certain
you know, certain needs.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Gotcha, Okay, great, thank you, And you mentioned that you
guys are you know, celebrating over over twenty years. How
did you come to lead the organization?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Well, you know, I was with Trans America the Agon
companies for many years and I met the founders of
Harmodicare back in two thousand and four and they had
piloted the program in I believe it was Illinois and
they were looking to expand, so I met them I liked.
(07:03):
I liked something different. I liked the idea back then
of like usability of the program and client engagement. I think,
you know, that's something that is you know, common to
hear today, but but back then it was a little
bit like on the cutting edge, especially with insurance. So
we became their carrier in two thousand and fourteen, and
(07:28):
I'd always had a good relationship with the founding partners.
They had approached me the business had grown, you know,
they were looking to kind of take it to the
next level potentially, you know, do a transaction. So I
came in as the president. You know, That's how I
started a great career at trans America. I had the
opportunity to run large businesses. Then I was able to
(07:51):
come to a privately held company, and really it was
it was really an eye opener in some respect being
part of a large company. It takes a long time
to get things done. When I came here, like decisions
were done, like by the end of the day. It
was like incredible the speed in which we could execute
(08:14):
That's great. Yeah, and how has how just has the
organization evolved? You know since you took over as the
you sort of went through a change. I mean, we
had the ACA Obamacare, which sort of sort of leveled
the standardized the primary health insurance landscape. So a lot
(08:36):
of the competitors that were in this market, they they
were also providing primary. You couldn't do both, so you
couldn't be in the supplemental space and also primary. So
we had some competitors who were exiting. So up until
about two thousand and fourteen fifteen, the growth of the
company was largely through what I would call replacement or acquisition.
(08:59):
We were we were acquiring like like a block of
business and then putting it on our program. I came
in as the president and you know, we had we
had sort of like gobbled up the competitors and now
it was time to grow organically. So I was brought in.
That's part of my background when I was with with
(09:20):
trans America to drive organic businesses. So, you know, a
couple of things we did is we you know, we
bolstered what was already a good lead generation platform. We
created an inbound sales desk that that was new. We
created a preferred business partner program and focused on certain regions.
(09:43):
And then we were acquired in twenty seventeen, So that
created more opportunities where like I said earlier, we expanded
our product offering from you know, just C suite to
target employees and then all along the way, you know,
just thatocus on the member experience. You know, our NPS
has consistently been over seventy, which is you know places,
(10:08):
you know, seventy doesn't sound great if you're in you know,
in school, but in the NPS world, like Amazon is
at seven, over seventy, so we're sort of in that
category for insurance. And then we to top it all up,
you know, we managed through a lot of market macro
issues with the pandemic while still growing.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yeah, yeah, and a lot of I mean you mentioned
MPs the net promoter score, you know, how how when
did you guys start you know, participating in that and
is that part of your culture? You know, I know
maybe some of our audiences might not be familiar with
what the net Promoter score is, but yeah, could you.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Talk about that a little bit. Yeah, yeah, we started,
we started to measure NPS. NPS is basically what you do.
It's a very simple question that you ask your clients
or members, and it's question would you would you would
you recommend us to you know, family or friend? Right,
(11:06):
So it's it kind of means like as as a client,
you're getting the highest level of service. So basically it's
on a one to ten scale. It's pretty hard to
get like you know, promoter is like a nine to
ten and then there's a detractor, right, So if you
think about an eight and eight's not bad and eight
(11:28):
is in the middle, so you know, to get a
to get a seventy, you're getting a lot of nines
and tens some clients. We started it primarily as an
annual survey with clients, and then we started to do
member interaction, so with every transaction we would ask the
same question. So we have the annual which is sort
(11:51):
of a point in time, but we also have like
throughout every day, you know, we're getting transactions we're asking,
you know, would they recommend us? So that gives us
a nice trend to compare to the to the annual. Yeah,
and it is part of our ingrained in our culture.
Well that's great.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Yeah, I appreciate you explain that Thatt Promoter Score or
MPs hasn't come up a lot of in our conversations
with with other you know, CEOs and companies, so and
I know a lot of companies use that in that
promoter score to you know, gauge their success and client
success and things like that. So I appreciate you going
over that. And I know we talk a little bit
(12:30):
about leadership already, which I love to do on the show.
What how did you describe your leadership style?
Speaker 2 (12:36):
You know, I guess from like a you know, generic
leadership definition, I'd say I'm a situational style, you know.
And what I mean by that is, like, you know,
there there are certain situations and the way the reason
I say that is, I think it depends like kind
of what's going on around you. You know, if you
take a situation like the pandemic, you know, we had
(12:58):
to we had clients who were impacted, you know, the
phones ringing, you know, we had to make we had
to make somebody had to say this is what we're
going to do, and we're going to do it now,
you know. And I so in that situation, you know,
I had to be sort of maybe it's a bit
of an authoritarian, but you know, listening to folks and
making the decision. You know, that's sort of an extreme, uh,
(13:21):
circumstance or situation. But there's others where you know, we
may have maybe we're developing a new product idea, and
you know, we I have a group of employees that say, hey,
this is a concept that we want to take forward.
Like great, go run with it. And you know we've
done that with one of our new programs called execut
(13:42):
Care that's focused on you know, the micro employer segment.
So again, I think it's situational depending on what's going
on around you.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Yeah, yeah, I really like that. Actually, you know, I
hear a lot about you know, collaboration and transparency and
you know, things like that, But I like this situational
because there are you know, you want to be as
collaborative as much as possible and obviously get you know,
people's ideas and feedback, and at at some point or
(14:12):
at a certain time, and depending on the situation, you
need to make a decision, you know. You know, So
I like, I like, I like that. That's that's good.
That's good to I appreciate you sharing that. I wanted
to bring up resilience because you know, it seems to
be the buzzword these days. Everybody's talk about resilience, how
does what you know or what does resilience mean to
you and and how do you feel you demonstrate that
(14:34):
leading your team.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
It's a good question and probably what I'll do. Let
me tell you a story. I was a I did
endurance sports for many many years. I was a triathlete,
did the con iron Man back in twenty fifteen. And
I think one of the things that's like where where
this is sort of similar, is you have to be
(14:56):
as as as prepared as I was to you know,
did all my training. You know, you prepare everything, you
sort of you know, imagine how you're going to go
through this race that's you know, over ten hours, there's
always something that that's that's going to go wrong, right,
(15:17):
So to me, resilient is like you have to you
have to sort of embrace that changes out there. Right.
We don't live in a linear world, you know, And
I can plan. I can have the best plan for
this company, but there are things that are going to
be outside my control and we're going to need to change.
So like in that race, you know, you may be going,
(15:39):
you know, great, and then all of a sudden you're
feeling terrible and you realize, hey, I need to make
a change here or or you know, I'm not going
to finish, but you know, so you have to you
have to recognize that change is out there. But you
also have to feel confident that like the things that
(16:00):
like you're you're prepared. You have to find some positive right.
You have to take stock in the fact that, like
you know, you put your time in, you you have experience,
and then you just have to keep marching towards your goal.
You know, it might be I just need to in
that race, you know what, I need to walk right now,
(16:22):
you need to slow down, but I'm going to keep going.
I'm going to keep moving forward and then you know,
when I feel better, I'm going to start running again.
So I think those are to me are the three
things with resilience. One is just you know changes, change
always happens, it always occurs. Two is, you know you
(16:43):
have to you have to think positive about you know, yourself,
your organization. You know that you've been through you know,
you've got a lot of experiences that you can draw on.
Also like draw on others' experiences. You know what else
have they gone through? And working together? And then the
third is just you know, keep moving forward, like you know,
(17:04):
you just got to keep moving as and as slow
as it might be, just you know, keep moving forward
and then you know, you adapt to the change and
then you you move forward.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
That's great, that's great advice, the great analogy too. I
appreciate you sharing all that. I did also want to
touch on real quick artificial intelligence, like you know are there?
You know, I talk to a lot of business owners
and CEOs about how they're trying to adapt to AI,
whether it's through bots or you know, chat ept or
(17:37):
you know other other things. Where do you see that
in in your industry? And are you guys doing anything
from a artificial intelligence standpoint?
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Yeah? Good, it's a good question. I mean I get uh,
I could I don't know, at least three or four
emails a day on the topic. My son's involved and
he has an generative ad business. Yeah, And but I
(18:09):
like for us, we're sort of looking at it from like, uh,
you know, you know the agent AI, right, what kind
of agent could we deploy to a process?
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (18:22):
And so that's how we're looking at it. I think
it it opens the door on on a number of
things for us. Uh. And you know, so right now
I think we're looking at AI from an operational standpoint, like,
are there some things that like if we create you know,
(18:43):
an agent X that maybe it you know we we
always ask for like the employer's base plan, Well, an
AI agent could get that, could could get that? Yeah,
would be a significant change for us. So you know
those when I look at it, it's more like, are
(19:05):
there sort of like mundane processes that you know where
we could use it? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Yeah, I think that's the kind of very similar to
what I've been hearing too. You know, are there are
there just basic data data entry, you know, things that
you know someone is doing right now that can be
automated and have those folks a little do more meaningful work.
And you know, so I imagine there's obviously, being in
(19:32):
the industry, there's a lot of data, there, a lot
of content. So I imagine down the road there will
be some really good opportunities to you know, to run
run more efficiently and productive and stuff. So I appreciate that,
all right, So, so what gets you excited about the
future of our manicare I mean?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Yeah, I mean our business. I mean it's a great
it's a great business. I mean I've had I've been
fortunate to have worked for two really great companies. You know,
in amoditare We're small, the people are great, and I
you know, I'm sort of at a point in my career.
I'm I'm almost sixty, so I I do spend a
(20:11):
lot of my time now on thinking more about like,
you know, succession issues we we have. We've brought some
new folks into our executive team, and I think that's
sort of like what really kind of jazzes me up.
You know. You know, I've done a lot in my career.
I've seen a lot. You know, I think you sort
(20:33):
of success in plan maybe once or twice. Uh and
and so I think it's worked, you know, creating the
next the next leadership team and and then you know,
it's great to see other employees that are engaged in
the company. You know, we have a great culture. You know,
(20:55):
we we work hard and we celebrate frequently. So that's
uh that that's really what kind of you know keeps
me getting up in the morning and coming in is
you know, setting up the next uh uh team uh
and and in group of employees to be successful in
the future.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Yeah, that's great, that's great. So on the other side,
what what keeps up at night?
Speaker 2 (21:24):
I mean it's it's kind of interesting that like our
business renews at at a very high rate. I mean
we're renewing like ninety five percent of our clients, and
and that goes back to that, like we want our
program to be used, like so we are you know,
(21:44):
we measure those types of things like are we like
we see a client's not engaged with the program. We're
reaching out to them, you know, are you using the card?
Are you using you know, the portal? You know, we
want them to use it. So what keeps me up
is really the uh, you know, we've had since since
(22:06):
our acquisition. You know, we've had consistent quarters of meeting
or beating our targets. So I just I don't want
the thing that keeps me up is you know, stagnating
because of our success. So you know, as I look forward,
you know, this year and probably in the twenty six, like,
(22:28):
I think it's time for us to kind of initiate
some transformation. I won't go through them because we're still
baking them, but you know, there's a couple of transformational
themes that we're going to be putting in play for
our twenty twenty sixth strategy. So I just want to
make sure you know we we we keep our we
(22:51):
stay hungry, and part of that is getting you know,
getting some new folks in that have you know, new ideas,
are passionate about business and and and want to want
it to continue to be successful. Got it? Got it? Great?
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Appreciate you sharing that. All right, Well, we'll kind of
to wrap things up. Is there anything else you'd like
our listeners to know about you and our modicare.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Well? I mean, I think you know from our standpoint
from our modicare you know, if if you've got a
company you know or or are inquisitive about, like hey,
I heard this, do you cover this? You know, maybe
you might have some specialty thing that especially care that
you you need or your your your your loved ones,
(23:38):
need you know, give us a call. You know, we're
really focused on you know, our clients, our employer clients.
You know, they're really entrusting us to take care of
their greatest assets, which which is their key people. So
if you have interest, you know, I'm sure I'll leave
(24:00):
you know my contact information. You know, we work with
benefit brokers around the country, so we can work if
you have a broker that you work with, Chances are
if they're here in Maryland, you know we we work
with them, or even beyond Maryland. We're nationwide obviously, but
we work through brokers as well.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
So okay, great, And what's the what's the best way
for our audience to find more information about Armdicare.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Yeah, I would visit our website dubdubdub dot armodicare dot com.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Awesome, Well, thank you so much. It was great to
get to talk to you and learn a little bit
more about you and about armadicare and how you are
helping your clients. So I really appreciate your time. And yeah,
thanks for thanks for being on the show.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Great, thanks again, John, appreciate it. This has been iHeartMedia CEOs.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
You should know
iHeartMedia presents CEOs you should know. I am John Denkle,
founder and CEO of Thinkle Business Development and former president
publisher of the Baltimore Business Journal. This is iHeartRadio's CEOs
you should know and I'm here today with Ed Walker,
CEO of Armdicare, and welcome ahead and thanks.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
For being here. Hey, thanks for having me John, Yeah,
really looking.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Forward to our conversation. I thought it begin by just
maybe getting to know the organization a little bit, a
little bit about yourself. So for those who may not
be familiar, cand you tell us about our modicare.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Sure our Modicare we're located in Hunt Valley, Maryland, and
our business we're a managing general underwriter, so you know
what does that mean in layman's terms. Basically, we handle
everything from product development, marketing, sales and all service aspects
so including claim payment. Our business. In terms of our focus,
(00:57):
we're focused on providing supplemental health health insurance to the
employer market. And it's a little bit different than you know,
if you think about your primary health plan. We are
layering in on top of the primary plan, so all
the things that your base plan doesn't cover, as well
as some higher end expenses. We're typically covering those typically
(01:21):
offered as an expansion of benefits. It could be a
form of alternative compensation, or it could be just you know,
they've made some changes to a health plan and you
know there's some things that their current plan doesn't cover
that used to cover. So we'll work with the employer
and the broker to supplement Our programs are undwritten by
(01:41):
two great carriers A Rated. We're filed and approved in
forty seven states and we have eighty five employees here
and most of those employees are in Maryland, but we
do have salespeople throughout the country in certain geographic areas.
Got it.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Got thank you appreciate that. And what are like some
of the particular maybe products, offerings or you know, kind
of services you're offering to those customers.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah. So, you know ARMD has been around since two
thousand and four, and if we go back to like
kind of our legacy business, we were known as providing
supplemental programs to the c suite, right, So these were
typically you know, benefits that were provided to business owners,
(02:26):
maybe the business owner's family or you know with you know,
larger companies to the to the C suite. So you know,
our legacy product is called Ultimate Health. When we in
twenty seventeen, we were acquired by Serious Point and we
expanded our offerings to you know, other other expansion of
(02:51):
benefits in terms of going deeper within the organizations. Some
of the newer programs that that we've come out with
well Pack. So Well Packed is focused on uh mental
mental health and behavioral type services. So that's you know,
something that has become more prevalent today. So we've we've
(03:12):
created a program focused on that. And then we also
have a new product, KPI Health UH that's focused on
the large market and one of the programs significant part
of that program is executive physicals. So again it's we're
not in the primary market. We are supplementing. And again
it's it's it's to provide coverage in addition to what
(03:37):
the primary plan pays.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Got it, And it is a is a good candidate
still that kind of business owner c suite UH, kind
of VP level or is does you know this kind
of supplemental health insurance? You know, can any employer employer
carry this?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, it's we've expanded well beyond the C suite. I
mean typically in terms of we're sort of industry agnostic,
but in terms of like eligibility, it's typically three employees
that we would cover, so it doesn't necessarily have to
be it's not necessarily small employer. It could be a
(04:18):
large company and you know we're just we could be
providing down to three. But we also have you know,
mid sized companies where we may cover fifty one hundred
or even more employees. Got the and I mentioned it, Yeah,
an industry wide we I mean, we have a pretty
(04:41):
wide mix of clients across the board. It's their largest
are healthcare, financial services, retail, manufacturing. But again it's really
broad in terms of any type of any type of
employer is is eligible to the program.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Okay, great, I think appreciate sharing that. What would you
say kind of sets you apart from competitors?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Well, I mean really, I mean we're the market leader.
We've been around, you know, like I said, for uh
it's over well over twenty years. I'd say, you know,
our our key like competitive what makes this different is
our service. Our service is you know, it's one thing
(05:36):
to reimburse you know, there's nothing so nothing special about
reimbursing a claim. But it's really how we do it.
We want to make sure that our clients and their members,
their employees are using the program. So that's a little
bit different than like most insurance products, right if you
think about your experience, they don't want you to file acclaim,
(05:58):
et cetera. But we make we make there's a number
of conveniences that we make available to the customer to
make sure that they're they're getting value. So that's really
like one of the marquees of of all of our plans.
But we, like I said, the way that you know,
we started out c suite, but we've expanded our product
(06:22):
and we're very flexible in terms of what we can
do at various price points, even tailoring down to certain
you know, certain needs.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Gotcha, Okay, great, thank you, And you mentioned that you
guys are you know, celebrating over over twenty years. How
did you come to lead the organization?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Well, you know, I was with Trans America the Agon
companies for many years and I met the founders of
Harmodicare back in two thousand and four and they had
piloted the program in I believe it was Illinois and
they were looking to expand, so I met them I liked.
(07:03):
I liked something different. I liked the idea back then
of like usability of the program and client engagement. I think,
you know, that's something that is you know, common to
hear today, but but back then it was a little
bit like on the cutting edge, especially with insurance. So
we became their carrier in two thousand and fourteen, and
(07:28):
I'd always had a good relationship with the founding partners.
They had approached me the business had grown, you know,
they were looking to kind of take it to the
next level potentially, you know, do a transaction. So I
came in as the president. You know, That's how I
started a great career at trans America. I had the
opportunity to run large businesses. Then I was able to
(07:51):
come to a privately held company, and really it was
it was really an eye opener in some respect being
part of a large company. It takes a long time
to get things done. When I came here, like decisions
were done, like by the end of the day. It
was like incredible the speed in which we could execute
(08:14):
That's great. Yeah, and how has how just has the
organization evolved? You know since you took over as the
you sort of went through a change. I mean, we
had the ACA Obamacare, which sort of sort of leveled
the standardized the primary health insurance landscape. So a lot
(08:36):
of the competitors that were in this market, they they
were also providing primary. You couldn't do both, so you
couldn't be in the supplemental space and also primary. So
we had some competitors who were exiting. So up until
about two thousand and fourteen fifteen, the growth of the
company was largely through what I would call replacement or acquisition.
(08:59):
We were we were acquiring like like a block of
business and then putting it on our program. I came
in as the president and you know, we had we
had sort of like gobbled up the competitors and now
it was time to grow organically. So I was brought in.
That's part of my background when I was with with
(09:20):
trans America to drive organic businesses. So, you know, a
couple of things we did is we you know, we
bolstered what was already a good lead generation platform. We
created an inbound sales desk that that was new. We
created a preferred business partner program and focused on certain regions.
(09:43):
And then we were acquired in twenty seventeen, So that
created more opportunities where like I said earlier, we expanded
our product offering from you know, just C suite to
target employees and then all along the way, you know,
just thatocus on the member experience. You know, our NPS
has consistently been over seventy, which is you know places,
(10:08):
you know, seventy doesn't sound great if you're in you know,
in school, but in the NPS world, like Amazon is
at seven, over seventy, so we're sort of in that
category for insurance. And then we to top it all up,
you know, we managed through a lot of market macro
issues with the pandemic while still growing.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yeah, yeah, and a lot of I mean you mentioned
MPs the net promoter score, you know, how how when
did you guys start you know, participating in that and
is that part of your culture? You know, I know
maybe some of our audiences might not be familiar with
what the net Promoter score is, but yeah, could you.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Talk about that a little bit. Yeah, yeah, we started,
we started to measure NPS. NPS is basically what you do.
It's a very simple question that you ask your clients
or members, and it's question would you would you would
you recommend us to you know, family or friend? Right,
(11:06):
So it's it kind of means like as as a client,
you're getting the highest level of service. So basically it's
on a one to ten scale. It's pretty hard to
get like you know, promoter is like a nine to
ten and then there's a detractor, right, So if you
think about an eight and eight's not bad and eight
(11:28):
is in the middle, so you know, to get a
to get a seventy, you're getting a lot of nines
and tens some clients. We started it primarily as an
annual survey with clients, and then we started to do
member interaction, so with every transaction we would ask the
same question. So we have the annual which is sort
(11:51):
of a point in time, but we also have like
throughout every day, you know, we're getting transactions we're asking,
you know, would they recommend us? So that gives us
a nice trend to compare to the to the annual. Yeah,
and it is part of our ingrained in our culture.
Well that's great.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Yeah, I appreciate you explain that Thatt Promoter Score or
MPs hasn't come up a lot of in our conversations
with with other you know, CEOs and companies, so and
I know a lot of companies use that in that
promoter score to you know, gauge their success and client
success and things like that. So I appreciate you going
over that. And I know we talk a little bit
(12:30):
about leadership already, which I love to do on the show.
What how did you describe your leadership style?
Speaker 2 (12:36):
You know, I guess from like a you know, generic
leadership definition, I'd say I'm a situational style, you know.
And what I mean by that is, like, you know,
there there are certain situations and the way the reason
I say that is, I think it depends like kind
of what's going on around you. You know, if you
take a situation like the pandemic, you know, we had
(12:58):
to we had clients who were impacted, you know, the
phones ringing, you know, we had to make we had
to make somebody had to say this is what we're
going to do, and we're going to do it now,
you know. And I so in that situation, you know,
I had to be sort of maybe it's a bit
of an authoritarian, but you know, listening to folks and
making the decision. You know, that's sort of an extreme, uh,
(13:21):
circumstance or situation. But there's others where you know, we
may have maybe we're developing a new product idea, and
you know, we I have a group of employees that say, hey,
this is a concept that we want to take forward.
Like great, go run with it. And you know we've
done that with one of our new programs called execut
(13:42):
Care that's focused on you know, the micro employer segment.
So again, I think it's situational depending on what's going
on around you.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Yeah, yeah, I really like that. Actually, you know, I
hear a lot about you know, collaboration and transparency and
you know, things like that, But I like this situational
because there are you know, you want to be as
collaborative as much as possible and obviously get you know,
people's ideas and feedback, and at at some point or
(14:12):
at a certain time, and depending on the situation, you
need to make a decision, you know. You know, So
I like, I like, I like that. That's that's good.
That's good to I appreciate you sharing that. I wanted
to bring up resilience because you know, it seems to
be the buzzword these days. Everybody's talk about resilience, how
does what you know or what does resilience mean to
you and and how do you feel you demonstrate that
(14:34):
leading your team.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
It's a good question and probably what I'll do. Let
me tell you a story. I was a I did
endurance sports for many many years. I was a triathlete,
did the con iron Man back in twenty fifteen. And
I think one of the things that's like where where
this is sort of similar, is you have to be
(14:56):
as as as prepared as I was to you know,
did all my training. You know, you prepare everything, you
sort of you know, imagine how you're going to go
through this race that's you know, over ten hours, there's
always something that that's that's going to go wrong, right,
(15:17):
So to me, resilient is like you have to you
have to sort of embrace that changes out there. Right.
We don't live in a linear world, you know, And
I can plan. I can have the best plan for
this company, but there are things that are going to
be outside my control and we're going to need to change.
So like in that race, you know, you may be going,
(15:39):
you know, great, and then all of a sudden you're
feeling terrible and you realize, hey, I need to make
a change here or or you know, I'm not going
to finish, but you know, so you have to you
have to recognize that change is out there. But you
also have to feel confident that like the things that
(16:00):
like you're you're prepared. You have to find some positive right.
You have to take stock in the fact that, like
you know, you put your time in, you you have experience,
and then you just have to keep marching towards your goal.
You know, it might be I just need to in
that race, you know what, I need to walk right now,
(16:22):
you need to slow down, but I'm going to keep going.
I'm going to keep moving forward and then you know,
when I feel better, I'm going to start running again.
So I think those are to me are the three
things with resilience. One is just you know changes, change
always happens, it always occurs. Two is, you know you
(16:43):
have to you have to think positive about you know, yourself,
your organization. You know that you've been through you know,
you've got a lot of experiences that you can draw on.
Also like draw on others' experiences. You know what else
have they gone through? And working together? And then the
third is just you know, keep moving forward, like you know,
(17:04):
you just got to keep moving as and as slow
as it might be, just you know, keep moving forward
and then you know, you adapt to the change and
then you you move forward.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
That's great, that's great advice, the great analogy too. I
appreciate you sharing all that. I did also want to
touch on real quick artificial intelligence, like you know are there?
You know, I talk to a lot of business owners
and CEOs about how they're trying to adapt to AI,
whether it's through bots or you know, chat ept or
(17:37):
you know other other things. Where do you see that
in in your industry? And are you guys doing anything
from a artificial intelligence standpoint?
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Yeah? Good, it's a good question. I mean I get uh,
I could I don't know, at least three or four
emails a day on the topic. My son's involved and
he has an generative ad business. Yeah, And but I
(18:09):
like for us, we're sort of looking at it from like, uh,
you know, you know the agent AI, right, what kind
of agent could we deploy to a process?
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (18:22):
And so that's how we're looking at it. I think
it it opens the door on on a number of
things for us. Uh. And you know, so right now
I think we're looking at AI from an operational standpoint, like,
are there some things that like if we create you know,
(18:43):
an agent X that maybe it you know we we
always ask for like the employer's base plan, Well, an
AI agent could get that, could could get that? Yeah,
would be a significant change for us. So you know
those when I look at it, it's more like, are
(19:05):
there sort of like mundane processes that you know where
we could use it? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Yeah, I think that's the kind of very similar to
what I've been hearing too. You know, are there are
there just basic data data entry, you know, things that
you know someone is doing right now that can be
automated and have those folks a little do more meaningful work.
And you know, so I imagine there's obviously, being in
(19:32):
the industry, there's a lot of data, there, a lot
of content. So I imagine down the road there will
be some really good opportunities to you know, to run
run more efficiently and productive and stuff. So I appreciate that,
all right, So, so what gets you excited about the
future of our manicare I mean?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Yeah, I mean our business. I mean it's a great
it's a great business. I mean I've had I've been
fortunate to have worked for two really great companies. You know,
in amoditare We're small, the people are great, and I
you know, I'm sort of at a point in my career.
I'm I'm almost sixty, so I I do spend a
(20:11):
lot of my time now on thinking more about like,
you know, succession issues we we have. We've brought some
new folks into our executive team, and I think that's
sort of like what really kind of jazzes me up.
You know. You know, I've done a lot in my career.
I've seen a lot. You know, I think you sort
(20:33):
of success in plan maybe once or twice. Uh and
and so I think it's worked, you know, creating the
next the next leadership team and and then you know,
it's great to see other employees that are engaged in
the company. You know, we have a great culture. You know,
(20:55):
we we work hard and we celebrate frequently. So that's
uh that that's really what kind of you know keeps
me getting up in the morning and coming in is
you know, setting up the next uh uh team uh
and and in group of employees to be successful in
the future.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Yeah, that's great, that's great. So on the other side,
what what keeps up at night?
Speaker 2 (21:24):
I mean it's it's kind of interesting that like our
business renews at at a very high rate. I mean
we're renewing like ninety five percent of our clients, and
and that goes back to that, like we want our
program to be used, like so we are you know,
(21:44):
we measure those types of things like are we like
we see a client's not engaged with the program. We're
reaching out to them, you know, are you using the card?
Are you using you know, the portal? You know, we
want them to use it. So what keeps me up
is really the uh, you know, we've had since since
(22:06):
our acquisition. You know, we've had consistent quarters of meeting
or beating our targets. So I just I don't want
the thing that keeps me up is you know, stagnating
because of our success. So you know, as I look forward,
you know, this year and probably in the twenty six, like,
(22:28):
I think it's time for us to kind of initiate
some transformation. I won't go through them because we're still
baking them, but you know, there's a couple of transformational
themes that we're going to be putting in play for
our twenty twenty sixth strategy. So I just want to
make sure you know we we we keep our we
(22:51):
stay hungry, and part of that is getting you know,
getting some new folks in that have you know, new ideas,
are passionate about business and and and want to want
it to continue to be successful. Got it? Got it? Great?
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Appreciate you sharing that. All right, Well, we'll kind of
to wrap things up. Is there anything else you'd like
our listeners to know about you and our modicare.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Well? I mean, I think you know from our standpoint
from our modicare you know, if if you've got a
company you know or or are inquisitive about, like hey,
I heard this, do you cover this? You know, maybe
you might have some specialty thing that especially care that
you you need or your your your your loved ones,
(23:38):
need you know, give us a call. You know, we're
really focused on you know, our clients, our employer clients.
You know, they're really entrusting us to take care of
their greatest assets, which which is their key people. So
if you have interest, you know, I'm sure I'll leave
(24:00):
you know my contact information. You know, we work with
benefit brokers around the country, so we can work if
you have a broker that you work with, Chances are
if they're here in Maryland, you know we we work
with them, or even beyond Maryland. We're nationwide obviously, but
we work through brokers as well.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
So okay, great, And what's the what's the best way
for our audience to find more information about Armdicare.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Yeah, I would visit our website dubdubdub dot armodicare dot com.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Awesome, Well, thank you so much. It was great to
get to talk to you and learn a little bit
more about you and about armadicare and how you are
helping your clients. So I really appreciate your time. And yeah,
thanks for thanks for being on the show.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Great, thanks again, John, appreciate it. This has been iHeartMedia CEOs.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
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