Welcome to HALO Talks! In this episode, host Pete Moore sits down with Tom Morrissey, founder of Solo Health Collective and a seasoned veteran in the health insurance world, to unpack the complex—and often misunderstood—landscape of healthcare for self-employed professionals. With a career spanning decades at Cigna and deep experience serving everyone from major corporations to solo entrepreneurs, Tom shares how he’s dedicated his life to helping small business owners and solopreneurs access quality, affordable health coverage.
Despite his success in the large-account space, Tom noticed an unmet need: Small and mid-sized businesses were often overlooked by health insurers and weren’t given access to innovative cost-saving or health improvement solutions that benefited the bigger corporations.
If you’re a personal trainer, group ex instructor, wellness coach, massage therapist, or any professional running your own business, this conversation is a game changer. Tom explains the differences between HMO and PPO plans, why traditional ACA ("Affordable Care Act") options can fall short for the self-employed, and how his company’s unique group plan model is designed to deliver robust coverage (including preventive care and nationwide access) with transparent pricing and minimal out-of-pocket surprises. Plus, hear about partnerships with organizations like the Freelancers Union, and learn how innovative features like HSAs can work for you—even covering perks like fitness classes.
On the healthcare issues facing entrepreneurs, Morrissey states, "We saw the growth. It depends on who you listen to, but estimates are that there'll be 90M solo business, owners by 2028. I want to say there's about 60M now. The guys and gals that own these businesses . . . I think, especially when they're young and healthy, are the ones that get screwed the most in healthcare. You know? All they really have access to is ACA plans."
Key themes discussed
- Challenges of health insurance for solopreneurs and self-employed.
- Differences between PPO and HMO health plans.
- Underwriting and rate-setting for solo business owners.
- Preventive care coverage and HSA/HSA usage changes.
- Brand trust versus new insurance providers like Solo Health Collective.
- Partnerships with organizations such as Freelancers Union.
- Long-term cost sustainability for healthier insurance collectives.
A few key takeaways:
1. Solo Health Plans Are Filling a Major Gap: Morrissey explains how traditional health insurance often overlooks solopreneurs and small business owners, especially in the HALO space. His company, Healthy Business Group via Solo Health Collective, is designed specifically to provide comprehensive PPO health plans to solo business owners—offering an alternative with more flexibility and better coverage than typical limited-network ACA and HMO options.
2. Key Plan Advantages-PPO Access and Maximum Out-of-Pocket Clarity: Unlike many ACA or HMO plans that limit provider networks and access, Solo Health Collective offers nationwide PPO plans, granting members broader access to healthcare providers. They also have a straightforward approach: After the deductible is met, there’s no coinsurance—meaning your deductible is the absolute maximum you’ll pay out-of-pocket for covered expenses (with all preventative care covered in full and not applied to the deductible).
3. Plans Are Designed for Solo Business Owners With Medical Underwriting: To qualify, you must have an EIN (Employer Identification Number) and be a business owner without employees. Members go through a quick, five-question medical underwriting process, which allows the plan to provide tailored age, and location-based rates—often significantly less expensive than standard individual policies, especially for young, healthy professionals.
4. HSAs and Innovative Usage for Wellness Are Embraced: The plan supports health savings accounts (HSAs), and Tom shared how, thanks to evolving IRS guidelines and technology, people can now use HSA funds for things like fitness classes and certain wellness purchases, expanding the value of pre-tax health dollars and encouraging preventive care and healthy lifestyles.
5. Long-Term Value and Stability Solo Health Collective is built on a self-insured, level-funded model supported by robust reinsurance (Odyssey A+ rated.) This allows the collective to stabilize costs and potentially keep renewal increases lower than the industry average—especially as it pools healthier, proactive members like those in the wellness and fitness industries. The long-term goal is to create a sustainable, affordable health insurance solution specifically for entrepr
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
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This is Pete Moore on Halo Talks NYC. I have the pleasure of bringing
(01:07):
on a fellow New Yorker hailing from Sag Harbor
while we're in New York City, Kyle Morrissey. We're gonna talk about
the health insurance paradigm for self employed professionals.
Obviously, we have a lot of those in our audience right here listening to this.
So we're gonna make you think differently and understand what your options are.
And, obviously, insuring yourself is one of the most
(01:30):
important things that you could do, for your business. You basically
are the key man or key woman in your business, and,
you know, being available as much as possible is, is your lifeline.
So, Tom, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me, Pete. So I
know you've dedicated your life to this. We're gonna talk about, you know, some
of the, some of the trials and tribulations of of health insurance
(01:52):
and how that whole ecosystem works that that you guys facilitate.
So you wanna just give a little background for our audience here on how you
got involved here in the first place and, why you've dedicated your life to,
to helping other people. Sure. Well, I started my
career, Pete, with Cigna Healthcare back in '85. I
spent twenty five years with them, just under twenty five years. Don't
(02:15):
hold that against me. But great training ground. I
sold in the middle market in New York. I was responsible
for, employer coverages from anywhere from
300 eligible lives. My my segment was 300 to
5,000 lives, but I did a lot of national accounts work as well.
And, that's when a broker or consultant
(02:37):
was, owned an owned an account that was in the national
account space, but I was I had the relationship. So got a lot
of exposure there. After spending so much time with
them, I had one foot out the door there for a couple years thinking about
doing something different. And the different was we started a
Healthy Business Group, fourteen years ago to
(02:59):
really play into the small to middle market firms.
I learned at Cigna that these firms were underserved.
None of the, you know, health improvement solutions,
none of the cost saving solutions that the national accounts were getting
exposed to were being given those opportunities down
market. Created a deal with Cigna. We wrote, like, 300 plus
(03:23):
accounts. That ended up getting morphed into Cigna, so Cigna ended
up doing it themselves after a while. So then what we did was
we we learned quickly that we needed to pivot,
and we looked at the solopreneur space. We
saw the growth. You know, it depends on who you listen to,
but estimates are that there'll be 90,000,000
(03:46):
solo business, owners by 2028. I wanna say
there's about 60,000,000 now. These are the guys these are the biz the business
owners, guys and gals that own these businesses, I think, especially when
they're young and healthy, are the ones that get screwed sorry. Pardon the expression,
but screwed the most in health care. You know? All they really have access
to is ACA plans. Most of those, especially
(04:09):
here in New York, are, you know, limited networks.
They're commercial networks where the businesses that buy them that are larger
buy the same health plans have a full health plan, but, you know, they water
them down. They they tend to have, like, 60% of the doctors that
they that they provide to the larger employers. So we decided to go
out and and, especially since a lot of the solopreneurs cannot
(04:32):
afford to be locked into locked in HMOs where they can only get
care in New York or Ohio or wherever. We wanted to
we're we wanted to create a health plan specifically for these folks that was
based on a PPO instead of an HMO model. Could you
explain to us the difference between a PPO and HMO?
Well, HMO Health Maintenance Organization, it's more
(04:55):
of a it's a group model. It's a it's a lock in model. It's
it's usually confined by the market they're in. So if you think about
New York, again, all the ACA plans except for maybe a
couple with Oxford PPO are all HMOs. They
are closed panels. They're,
generally speaking, discounted more. The doctors are
(05:17):
discounting their fees and services more than they do in a PPO. You know, PPO
is wide open. The PPO we operate is all states
across the country. And then and then what's the rationale
for when when you were doing your 300 person and
over company? Was this, you know, like, an
eighty twenty rule, if you will, of, like, you know, go get the bigger
(05:39):
deals, and we don't wanna really, you know, have to
support, you know, opportunities that or,
you know, or a lot of clients, but but less revenue per client. Was that
kind of the the threshold? That that was pretty much it. I mean, Cigna
has, three three major segments. So they did have a down
market under three hundred life segment, which is the one that when I
(06:01):
exited Cigna that I, ran it. And we
did really well with with the small to midsize
employers, say, 50 to 300. But under 50, that gets into
ACA. They didn't have a lot of opportunity there. And do
they cut the are they cutting down the network because they're
basically trying to, you know, have the lowest cost suppliers
(06:23):
there so your aggregate exposure on
usage is lower and they're basically taking some of the
higher cost potential claims, you know, out of the mix?
You're exactly right. It's only you're only keeping they thin these networks
down deliberately because they really only wanna keep the
the the docs that are gonna allow for lower fee schedules.
(06:45):
It's a it's a money saving technique. The carriers are making,
you know, enormous amounts of money on the exchanges,
and that's in part why. And and what you've
seen in the in the health and fitness category, do
you delineate between industry groups? Are you basically saying,
look, there's 60,000,000 people that are, you know, running their own LLC
(07:08):
or s corp Mhmm. And and any any of those
people are, you know, part of our market opportunity?
Or do you see anything in the health and fitness industry that says, hey.
Historically, the claims or the, you know, insurance
cost is lower because of what these people do, and maybe they, on average, take
better care of themselves? Well, sure. I mean, you're looking at preferred risk. When you're
(07:31):
looking at I mean, just imagine if you put up, let's call
it a hundred attorneys versus a hundred,
physical physical trainers, the health
quotient of the physical trainers is highly likely to be better
than, you know, a comparative group of attorneys, just as an
example. By the way, we do business with all of them. You know, we've
(07:53):
got quite a few attorneys on our plan, you know,
doctors, attorneys, all sorts of professionals, but we do
quite a quite a bit of, work in the in the health and wellness
space. And then would you take a look at, you have a
relationship with Aetna as of now? We don't.
Oh, okay. That was was that prior? We we had, yeah, we had
(08:15):
a once we sunset Cigna, we we worked with Aetna for a
bit, but we realized pretty quickly that this is where we
wanna be. The opportunity is immense. We've got a very unique
I wanna say the only organization doing it quite the way we
are as ourselves. And, you know, part part of
the, program is that the differentiator of of
(08:37):
Solo Health Collective is that this it's
sometimes it's easier for me to talk about what it's not. So we are not
an ACA individual health insurance plan. We're not on the
ACA. We're not off market because there's plenty of carriers
that are working off market for the same audience,
but we are not that. It's not like you're buying individual health
(09:00):
insurance. The key distinction is that with Solar Health Collective,
your business, it's a form of business insurance. Your business, you must have an
EIN number. If you don't have one, we can help you get one. But and
it's free, obviously. But the key differentiator
is that you need to have an EIN. Your business is joining. You're a
business owner without any employees, and you're joining our health plan
(09:23):
with your you and your family if you have one. And the other
distinction is that you go through a short form medical
underwriting. Takes about probably three to
five minutes to go through. We'll give you your quote with five quick
questions, date of birth, gender, home ZIP
code. You know, do you need, spousal coverage or,
(09:44):
partner coverage, and do you need your children on the plan? Then we're gonna give
you, what our quote would be for three different plan
designs, only varying by their deductible. Plans are exactly
the same, but there's three versions. We have a $2,500 deductible,
a $5,000 deductible, and then a $10,000 deductible.
And then another key part of the program is once you pass the
(10:08):
medical underwriting and you get the plan, there is no coinsurance. So
your deductible is your maximum out of pocket. So put
simply, we've got about, let's say,
45% of our population in each of the
2,505,000 deductibles, then about 10% of the
population's in 10,000. But that's your maximum out of pocket. So for the
(10:29):
person who buys a $2,500 deductible for their family,
as soon as the individual reaches 2,500, the plan pays a % of
covered expenses. And then on a family with a
$2,500 deductible, your maximum deductible is
5,000, and that is also your maximum out of pocket. So once you hit that
deductible, it's all a %. And I should mention,
(10:52):
all preventive care is covered in full. So we follow the
ACA guidelines of in preventive care measures that are recommended.
So it's exactly the same. We follow the same protocols that,
for covering preventive care in full, no deductible.
This is Pete Moore. I wanna let you in on a little secret. There's this
(11:13):
company called Promotion Vault, and what they do is they give out rewards
from retailers that allow you to incentivize your
members without having to do zero down and one month
free or giving away shakes or giving away t shirts. What
you wanna do is build a rewards program that lasts, that
people value, and that doesn't discount your own products and services.
(11:35):
So here's the deal. There's something called rewards vault. The rewards
vault is going to allow a member to set up their own profile.
They are going to answer questions. You are gonna get those answers. You're gonna be
able to target those members, and you're gonna reward them inside your
club, inside your spa, and outside of the club, and
outside of the spa to get them to become loyal, to get them
(11:58):
to pay their monthly dues, and to be rewarded
properly for the actions. A lot of companies are cutting back on rewards.
You shouldn't be. Promotion Vault's your answer. Trust me. This is
real.
Obviously, a lot of people are are taking their their
health as more of a self care type of plan. If I look at, like,
(12:20):
your $10,000 deductible, and I kind of view it as, like,
catastrophe insurance, and not necessarily you know, a lot of
people go to the doctor all the time. Like, I I I don't go unless
there's a serious issue. So when you say preventative care
is covered, what is what is preventative
care, you know, encompassed now? And what are some of the
(12:42):
material changes, you know, over time, whether that's fitness
classes, massage, acupuncture? Give us a list of
what what people have access to. It's really your it's really it's not
your acupuncture and all that stuff. It it should be, but it's not. And
it you know, one day, in terms of plan design flexibility, we
will get there. We're a relatively new health plan. I'll talk about that a little
(13:04):
bit later. But the for preventive care guidelines, it's really your
age and gender appropriate screenings. So it's your colonoscopy at a certain age,
it's your routine physical physical exam. We are going to pester
you on Solar Health Collective to make sure you're getting your all your
routine preventive care done so that we can spot
anything that might be coming up and take care of it before it happens. And
(13:26):
that doesn't go against your deductible? Correct.
Gotcha. And then what, what are some of the
success stories or, you know, savings that you've seen,
that you kinda, you know, latch onto and say, hey. This is the the
here's the, you know, cash, you know,
differential, not only you know, and also just the quality of care.
(13:49):
Well, because because the member is setting up, it's not a fully
insured plan. It's technically, it's a self insured business plan.
So we can underwrite very specific to age and gender.
We've got there's about a million rates that
for the variances on ZIP codes, gender, and and age.
So we have plans that are 2,500 and and
(14:12):
$5,000 deductibles. We've got a couple plans. People,
younger, males are, generally speaking, paying less
because of the pregnancy age factor. So male we've got some males
that are spending less than $300, sometimes less than $200
for a $5,000 deductible plan. And that's based on, like you
said, you're you you the three of us are older, but
(14:34):
the that young guy that's 26 years old that's not on his
parents' plan is, you know, really only gonna have
routine physical care. And then to your point, it's really sleep insurance. It's for
the catastrophic care. So, you know, we never
really highly recommend a a $10,000 deductible.
And that's not just because the person's young and doesn't have any claims,
(14:57):
but it it doesn't allow the individual to set up a health savings
account. So we prefer to have you go to the 2,500 or
5,000 so that you can this is a long term decision.
You see, it's a long term buy that you're making, and you can start
putting dollars away in a health savings account for when you're no longer
26, 20 seven, and you're 35, 40. And, you know, claims
(15:18):
might be coming. You might be an athlete. You might, you know, need a
you have a knee injury, whatever the case may be. You could have enough money
socked away in your HSA to cover your deductible for two and three
years once you're five, six years into the plan. So what's the
what's the maximum that you can put into an HSA? And can
you talk about how did this change in
(15:41):
the IRS, code? Or it seems like there's
been a loophole that's been opened where people can use their HSA,
FSA, you know, even, like, Duane Reade. I'll see it on, like, a
DoorDash checkout. You know, use your HSA, FSA card, or,
we work with a company called HigherDose. You can buy an infrared sauna blanket
Sure. With that. So has that materially
(16:04):
changed usage? Because I I understand it's, like, a hundred and
$50,000,000,000 that's kinda, like, accrued in these plans that are
not really being accessed accordingly. Yeah. You do know the difference
between FSA and HSA. Right? So FSA really
very different than HSA. FSA is you use it or lose
it. So you gotta spend those dollars in the year you're in. We
(16:26):
we recommend HSAs because we're running high deductible health plans. They're the way
to go. But you're right. They have opened up,
and and there's, you know, given the,
Internet and all the apps that are out there, give you an example.
I I I'm a big SoulCycle aficionado, if you will. Way,
man. I do a lot of SoulCycle. And bike right there. There you
(16:48):
go. Do you have the SoulCycle? Okay. Yeah, I do. I'm not bragging. I'm just
glad you're staying Well, hey, you're staying part of the cult. You're staying in good
health. Yeah. It is a bit of a cult, isn't it? But listen, I,
I found through the app on my phone that I could
work with SoulCycle to have, my SoulCycle classes
go through my h HSA. So when I buy, you know,
(17:11):
800 or $900 worth of classes, they're they're I'm paying for those
pretax. Yep. Yep. It's pretty wild the what's going on
in terms of, you know, what's legal to go against an
HSI. Yeah. These companies that are out there, you
know, one called, TrueMed that we've worked with, or
spoken to, one's called doctor b, which I think does the
(17:33):
HSA Yeah. Processing for SoulCycle,
and they give these letters of of medical necessity. Is there any
risk to that program, or is that, you know, pretty
much mainstream now? I think it's mainstream. I mean, I
did it. I I to be honest, I was kind of surprised, and you're
right about the organization, that does do it. But I
(17:56):
think they're legit. You know? It it could it be,
looked at as, like, you know, a loophole and maybe they they,
stop allowing it? But I don't think you're at any risk,
doing it in the year you're doing it. I think if anything, it would be
curtailed by regulation. They'd have to stipulate
that that type of, the classes like that
(18:18):
aren't covered. But, you know, in the spirit of keeping
people healthy so they don't hit the catastrophic side of health care, we're
all for it. Let's keep it going. It's it's wise use of money.
Yeah. So just explain to us, if I become
a member of of Solo, or if I become a member
of, you know, talk about Cigna or Aetna or Humana,
(18:41):
Is there any risk that I'm taking as a
patient or or a member, being part of one of
those larger brand networks, versus being part of
a, somewhat newer plan? Like, is there
any balance sheet risk or is there anything that would be a
differentiator or it's really just, hey. Look. We provide this plan. The money that
(19:03):
you pay in goes into effectively an escrow account, or you've got a a
back office provider that that's bonded in that? Just
explain to us. Well, the the key is that, it's all about the
reinsurance. So Solo, specifically,
we have partnered with a captive insurance company called Vault.
They Vault created this back in 02/2017,
(19:27):
working with the North Carolina insurance department's captive division. They got it
approved, allowing for solo business owners and
their families to take this form of business insurance. And
the way it's set up is it's not fully insured. You're you're setting yourself up
with what is deemed a self insured plan.
Don't wanna make sure we don't scare anybody off with that because it's that's
(19:50):
a technicality. It's self insured. It's called level funding.
So your entire rate is known as a level funded rate where if
you're paying, let's say, $500 a month for a single at the age
40, 40 five maybe, a portion of
that, call it 20%, I'm making these numbers up, but would go
towards administrative expenses, and the rest of it would go to
(20:12):
setting reserves and and going to the claim liability. And
so your that the dollars that are meant for claim
liability, you as a solo owner or as a solo member
are actually a pro rata owner in the captive. Okay.
So we're required through Vault and they
they they go through this every year where it's more than likely
(20:35):
in the history of Vault, they have always had a surplus at the end of
the year because they're underwriting it such that you're
the rates that go for the certain ages and genders
are created to cover expected claims plus
a corridor or a surplus liability, sort of
a safety net. And the idea is that every year, that would need to be
(20:58):
returned to the customer. Now it's not returned in terms of cash
dividends. Some of the larger employers, like back in the day at Cigna, wrote a
lot of level funded business where the surplus was returned in
part. Cigna would keep two thirds. The employer will get a third back.
This is a % returned, but it's a returned in the way
of rate increase mitigation or plan design enhancements.
(21:20):
It's not it's not dealt with in cash. But getting back to your original question
about risk, the the other important piece of this is
that the under the bulk captive, Odyssey Reinsurance
company out of Stamford, Connecticut, they're a plus rated on
Standard and Poor's and AM Best. They have the
risk for every dollar over the complete
(21:41):
exposure of the captive set at the rates that I just mentioned individually.
So we've never had we've never had an aggregate stop loss claim,
meaning the in the entire pool exceed
the claims exceeded the entire pool. That's never happened. There's been some
specific stop loss claim issues where a large claim, call it a
2 or $300,000 claim, that would pierce the individual
(22:04):
stop loss level, and then Odysee re kicks in and pays everything
over, in this case, a hundred and $50,000 of the claim. So if you have
a $250,000 claim, Vault pays $1.50,
Odyssey Reed picks up the other hundred. Gotcha. So,
hearken back to, SoulCycle for a minute. A lot of the
instructors there who, you know, I, used to follow them
(22:27):
around, pre COVID, wherever studio they were, they were at
Mantis was, was my go to. He
he he stipulated to me that, look, one of the reasons why, you know, I
stayed as a SoulCycle instructor and I signed that exclusivity,
was because they gave me benefits, and there's nowhere else I can get insurance
benefits. So from a from a standpoint of of a
(22:49):
group like SoulCycle, is that a target
for Solo? And then could they just add on to their
account, these instructors, or they basically
promote that we've got a relationship with Solo? We'll
pay your deductible, and you're basically like a direct
member, Or or how does that work? I wish that could work. But, no,
(23:11):
the the individual, like, all these instructors, more more than
likely, I I know a lot of them are doing sidebar stuff.
Right? They're physical they're trainers plus they're doing SoulCycle. So if they're
getting benefits through SoulCycle, SoulCycle is more or less going
out like an employer would in getting securing coverage
for eligible participants. They're probably funding some of the rules
(23:33):
where you have to fund at least 70% of the cost. Ours is the
business owner, that sole cycle instructor that maybe maybe they're in their
waiting period or maybe they're just not eligible based on hours. That
sole cycle instructor could set up a solo plan
using their EIN and their the business that they're running. X
y z. Got it. And you you did a deal recently with the Freelancers
(23:56):
Union. Is that correct? Yes. That's been tremendous.
Freelancers Union, we're really impressed with them. It took a good year.
We started Solo, late two thousand twenty four. So we
missed the January 1, big enrollment push
because we really didn't have our stuff together, if you will, until,
like, October, November '20 of '20 '3. So for
(24:18):
01/01/2024, we didn't write a ton of business, but we started talking to
organizations like Freelancers Union. We've got 600,000
members, all right in our wheelhouse. They're all independents.
Rafael Espinat, the director of Freelancers Union,
great guy. They they they do a phenomenal job with their
benefits package. They they're offering ACA plans. They
(24:41):
offer us, and they offer a company called Opolis, all three of which are kind
of worth exploring. But as an organization, they've
been an incredible, and I think it's an endorsement for us because they took a
little while to end up partnering with us after kicking the tires
pretty hard. You know, one of the things that we are up against is
brand. We don't you know, we're creating a brand from scratch, so that
(25:04):
takes a while. So we're gonna be relying on the, you know, 500 plus
businesses we wrote for January 1 to refer us to their friends and
families, business owners. We'll be relying on the freelancers
union to push us out further based on reputation. So
that all helps. But that's been a great partnership so far.
(25:24):
This is Pete Moore. Here's the last tip for you of the podcast.
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workouts. Higher dose, check it out. There's a
wholesale code, and we look forward to helping
you augment your products and services to meet the demands of your
members. And, hey, let's get people happy, healthy,
and sweaty, and the recovery should be just as good as the workout.
(26:35):
So so when you look at our, you know, halo sector, health active lifestyle
outdoors, you take a look at, you know, massage
therapists, acupuncturists, you know, personal trainers,
you know, all these, like, wellness coaches that are out there now that are are
that are basically, you know, independent operators. What are some of the
targets that we should be thinking about or someone listening to
(26:56):
this podcast saying, like, this is a vital part of
a cooperative or a union or a, you know,
collective that we have that that we need to provide
solo because this is one of the things that, you know, a lot of our
members, you know, that's probably one of their biggest stress points. Sure.
No doubt. Listen, I I I don't often get a chance
(27:20):
to talk about the long term play of solo. Usually, we're talking to
business owners in the year they're in. We're talking about the savings we're generating
for them on rates and premium and and design.
Design being important because that PPO, no boundaries
across the country internationally, no lifetime benefit
maximum, no annual maximum, and you're talking a full on plan.
(27:42):
But I think the biggest value proposition of what we're doing
today is the long term sustainable approach.
It's that we expect, and this was evidenced by what
Vault did for 01/01/2025 in terms of renewals.
The renewal indexes were far below what the industry averages
were both for larger employer paid stuff and ACA
(28:05):
plans. So what you're doing is you're buying in you're getting in,
you're filling out a health questionnaire. You're healthy today. You're passing. You don't have
any heart issues, organ issues, you're not on,
any of these ridiculously expensive drugs. So you're able to self
insure your plan, but then you're joining this collective.
And together, we're managing a risk of healthier
(28:29):
people that over time is going to index if at
in at inflation rates that are less than those that
aren't in the same boat, the the more catastrophic claimants.
Got it. So, so in in closing here, being an
entrepreneur, you know, being like, you know, a little over a year end,
knowing pretty soundly and cold the fact that this is somewhat of a
(28:51):
no brainer, decision. How do you manage your
own progress and and and and know that this is you're playing the
long game and that there's an education process that you're kinda
fighting through every day? It's a great question, and we are
learning. So, you know, we're a we're a eight person
organization right now with the intention certainly to grow
(29:14):
as we grow, but we've got a phenomenal team of people.
David had, mentioned it earlier. Service crew
is fantastic. And they are we did
600 plus consults with three or four people doing
all that work. We all pitched in in the December crunch time,
but, you know, getting the job done. And then what we've gotta get really
(29:37):
good at and we haven't even really started yet is getting to our
existing memberships to spread the word and to keep it going.
Because anybody that share any existing solo
member that shares that solo with somebody else, first of all, there'll be a
referral program. And secondly, they're helping
us scale, which again is gonna cut cost out of the equation for
(29:58):
them. Right. Well, we'll have all the info on real quick.
Pete, real quick. I just have to add, Thomas. For people listening to
this, I came across your company on Instagram.
Not normally something I would would, you know, put my own
health insurance into. And after speaking to Michael and
Christine and doing a good deal of research, it was, okay.
(30:21):
What's the catch? This is too good to be true. What's the catch? What's the
and and there was none. Right? So I I signed
on as as a business owner at EIN, and
it's potentially game changer for the trainers, the massage therapist,
etcetera, listening to this. And I I I I wanna do
everything we can to help you get the word out for sure. Listen.
(30:42):
That's very much appreciated. So, we'll do it together.
Absolutely. Alright, man. Well, welcome officially to the Halo sector. Thanks for doing
what you're doing, and, we'll try and bring this on, to our,
entire network in The US and, look forward to doing a,
update check with you guys, a year from now. Fantastic,
Pete. Thanks, David. Thanks, man. Much appreciated. Bye bye, guys. Go halo.
I am super excited to announce that we now have a formal partnership
with the prospect wizard. And when I say wizard, I
mean wizard. Obviously, you have a website. This
allows you to convert website traffic visitors
directly into leads. It's not just another chatbot, and it's not
AI, but it allows a visitor to call, text, or leave a
(00:22):
voice mail. Immediately goes to you, your sales team, or anyone else in the
club. Instantly. MIT shows a study that if you contact the
lead within ten minutes, chance of them converting goes up nine
times that of the average. We got the Atlanta clubs
on it, Vida Fitness, Gold's Gym, Mountainside,
City Fitness Philly, College Park. Become one
(00:44):
of the next halo companies to deploy the wizard. It's
easy to use. Go to the prospectwizard.com. Get
a free thirty day trial. Talk to my boy, Dave Gallon. He will get you
all set up and let the leads flow based on the
wizard. Go get them.
This is Pete Moore on Halo Talks NYC. I have the pleasure of bringing
(01:07):
on a fellow New Yorker hailing from Sag Harbor
while we're in New York City, Kyle Morrissey. We're gonna talk about
the health insurance paradigm for self employed professionals.
Obviously, we have a lot of those in our audience right here listening to this.
So we're gonna make you think differently and understand what your options are.
And, obviously, insuring yourself is one of the most
(01:30):
important things that you could do, for your business. You basically
are the key man or key woman in your business, and,
you know, being available as much as possible is, is your lifeline.
So, Tom, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me, Pete. So I
know you've dedicated your life to this. We're gonna talk about, you know, some
of the, some of the trials and tribulations of of health insurance
(01:52):
and how that whole ecosystem works that that you guys facilitate.
So you wanna just give a little background for our audience here on how you
got involved here in the first place and, why you've dedicated your life to,
to helping other people. Sure. Well, I started my
career, Pete, with Cigna Healthcare back in '85. I
spent twenty five years with them, just under twenty five years. Don't
(02:15):
hold that against me. But great training ground. I
sold in the middle market in New York. I was responsible
for, employer coverages from anywhere from
300 eligible lives. My my segment was 300 to
5,000 lives, but I did a lot of national accounts work as well.
And, that's when a broker or consultant
(02:37):
was, owned an owned an account that was in the national
account space, but I was I had the relationship. So got a lot
of exposure there. After spending so much time with
them, I had one foot out the door there for a couple years thinking about
doing something different. And the different was we started a
Healthy Business Group, fourteen years ago to
(02:59):
really play into the small to middle market firms.
I learned at Cigna that these firms were underserved.
None of the, you know, health improvement solutions,
none of the cost saving solutions that the national accounts were getting
exposed to were being given those opportunities down
market. Created a deal with Cigna. We wrote, like, 300 plus
(03:23):
accounts. That ended up getting morphed into Cigna, so Cigna ended
up doing it themselves after a while. So then what we did was
we we learned quickly that we needed to pivot,
and we looked at the solopreneur space. We
saw the growth. You know, it depends on who you listen to,
but estimates are that there'll be 90,000,000
(03:46):
solo business, owners by 2028. I wanna say
there's about 60,000,000 now. These are the guys these are the biz the business
owners, guys and gals that own these businesses, I think, especially when
they're young and healthy, are the ones that get screwed sorry. Pardon the expression,
but screwed the most in health care. You know? All they really have access
to is ACA plans. Most of those, especially
(04:09):
here in New York, are, you know, limited networks.
They're commercial networks where the businesses that buy them that are larger
buy the same health plans have a full health plan, but, you know, they water
them down. They they tend to have, like, 60% of the doctors that
they that they provide to the larger employers. So we decided to go
out and and, especially since a lot of the solopreneurs cannot
(04:32):
afford to be locked into locked in HMOs where they can only get
care in New York or Ohio or wherever. We wanted to
we're we wanted to create a health plan specifically for these folks that was
based on a PPO instead of an HMO model. Could you
explain to us the difference between a PPO and HMO?
Well, HMO Health Maintenance Organization, it's more
(04:55):
of a it's a group model. It's a it's a lock in model. It's
it's usually confined by the market they're in. So if you think about
New York, again, all the ACA plans except for maybe a
couple with Oxford PPO are all HMOs. They
are closed panels. They're,
generally speaking, discounted more. The doctors are
(05:17):
discounting their fees and services more than they do in a PPO. You know, PPO
is wide open. The PPO we operate is all states
across the country. And then and then what's the rationale
for when when you were doing your 300 person and
over company? Was this, you know, like, an
eighty twenty rule, if you will, of, like, you know, go get the bigger
(05:39):
deals, and we don't wanna really, you know, have to
support, you know, opportunities that or,
you know, or a lot of clients, but but less revenue per client. Was that
kind of the the threshold? That that was pretty much it. I mean, Cigna
has, three three major segments. So they did have a down
market under three hundred life segment, which is the one that when I
(06:01):
exited Cigna that I, ran it. And we
did really well with with the small to midsize
employers, say, 50 to 300. But under 50, that gets into
ACA. They didn't have a lot of opportunity there. And do
they cut the are they cutting down the network because they're
basically trying to, you know, have the lowest cost suppliers
(06:23):
there so your aggregate exposure on
usage is lower and they're basically taking some of the
higher cost potential claims, you know, out of the mix?
You're exactly right. It's only you're only keeping they thin these networks
down deliberately because they really only wanna keep the
the the docs that are gonna allow for lower fee schedules.
(06:45):
It's a it's a money saving technique. The carriers are making,
you know, enormous amounts of money on the exchanges,
and that's in part why. And and what you've
seen in the in the health and fitness category, do
you delineate between industry groups? Are you basically saying,
look, there's 60,000,000 people that are, you know, running their own LLC
(07:08):
or s corp Mhmm. And and any any of those
people are, you know, part of our market opportunity?
Or do you see anything in the health and fitness industry that says, hey.
Historically, the claims or the, you know, insurance
cost is lower because of what these people do, and maybe they, on average, take
better care of themselves? Well, sure. I mean, you're looking at preferred risk. When you're
(07:31):
looking at I mean, just imagine if you put up, let's call
it a hundred attorneys versus a hundred,
physical physical trainers, the health
quotient of the physical trainers is highly likely to be better
than, you know, a comparative group of attorneys, just as an
example. By the way, we do business with all of them. You know, we've
(07:53):
got quite a few attorneys on our plan, you know,
doctors, attorneys, all sorts of professionals, but we do
quite a quite a bit of, work in the in the health and wellness
space. And then would you take a look at, you have a
relationship with Aetna as of now? We don't.
Oh, okay. That was was that prior? We we had, yeah, we had
(08:15):
a once we sunset Cigna, we we worked with Aetna for a
bit, but we realized pretty quickly that this is where we
wanna be. The opportunity is immense. We've got a very unique
I wanna say the only organization doing it quite the way we
are as ourselves. And, you know, part part of
the, program is that the differentiator of of
(08:37):
Solo Health Collective is that this it's
sometimes it's easier for me to talk about what it's not. So we are not
an ACA individual health insurance plan. We're not on the
ACA. We're not off market because there's plenty of carriers
that are working off market for the same audience,
but we are not that. It's not like you're buying individual health
(09:00):
insurance. The key distinction is that with Solar Health Collective,
your business, it's a form of business insurance. Your business, you must have an
EIN number. If you don't have one, we can help you get one. But and
it's free, obviously. But the key differentiator
is that you need to have an EIN. Your business is joining. You're a
business owner without any employees, and you're joining our health plan
(09:23):
with your you and your family if you have one. And the other
distinction is that you go through a short form medical
underwriting. Takes about probably three to
five minutes to go through. We'll give you your quote with five quick
questions, date of birth, gender, home ZIP
code. You know, do you need, spousal coverage or,
(09:44):
partner coverage, and do you need your children on the plan? Then we're gonna give
you, what our quote would be for three different plan
designs, only varying by their deductible. Plans are exactly
the same, but there's three versions. We have a $2,500 deductible,
a $5,000 deductible, and then a $10,000 deductible.
And then another key part of the program is once you pass the
(10:08):
medical underwriting and you get the plan, there is no coinsurance. So
your deductible is your maximum out of pocket. So put
simply, we've got about, let's say,
45% of our population in each of the
2,505,000 deductibles, then about 10% of the
population's in 10,000. But that's your maximum out of pocket. So for the
(10:29):
person who buys a $2,500 deductible for their family,
as soon as the individual reaches 2,500, the plan pays a % of
covered expenses. And then on a family with a
$2,500 deductible, your maximum deductible is
5,000, and that is also your maximum out of pocket. So once you hit that
deductible, it's all a %. And I should mention,
(10:52):
all preventive care is covered in full. So we follow the
ACA guidelines of in preventive care measures that are recommended.
So it's exactly the same. We follow the same protocols that,
for covering preventive care in full, no deductible.
This is Pete Moore. I wanna let you in on a little secret. There's this
(11:13):
company called Promotion Vault, and what they do is they give out rewards
from retailers that allow you to incentivize your
members without having to do zero down and one month
free or giving away shakes or giving away t shirts. What
you wanna do is build a rewards program that lasts, that
people value, and that doesn't discount your own products and services.
(11:35):
So here's the deal. There's something called rewards vault. The rewards
vault is going to allow a member to set up their own profile.
They are going to answer questions. You are gonna get those answers. You're gonna be
able to target those members, and you're gonna reward them inside your
club, inside your spa, and outside of the club, and
outside of the spa to get them to become loyal, to get them
(11:58):
to pay their monthly dues, and to be rewarded
properly for the actions. A lot of companies are cutting back on rewards.
You shouldn't be. Promotion Vault's your answer. Trust me. This is
real.
Obviously, a lot of people are are taking their their
health as more of a self care type of plan. If I look at, like,
(12:20):
your $10,000 deductible, and I kind of view it as, like,
catastrophe insurance, and not necessarily you know, a lot of
people go to the doctor all the time. Like, I I I don't go unless
there's a serious issue. So when you say preventative care
is covered, what is what is preventative
care, you know, encompassed now? And what are some of the
(12:42):
material changes, you know, over time, whether that's fitness
classes, massage, acupuncture? Give us a list of
what what people have access to. It's really your it's really it's not
your acupuncture and all that stuff. It it should be, but it's not. And
it you know, one day, in terms of plan design flexibility, we
will get there. We're a relatively new health plan. I'll talk about that a little
(13:04):
bit later. But the for preventive care guidelines, it's really your
age and gender appropriate screenings. So it's your colonoscopy at a certain age,
it's your routine physical physical exam. We are going to pester
you on Solar Health Collective to make sure you're getting your all your
routine preventive care done so that we can spot
anything that might be coming up and take care of it before it happens. And
(13:26):
that doesn't go against your deductible? Correct.
Gotcha. And then what, what are some of the
success stories or, you know, savings that you've seen,
that you kinda, you know, latch onto and say, hey. This is the the
here's the, you know, cash, you know,
differential, not only you know, and also just the quality of care.
(13:49):
Well, because because the member is setting up, it's not a fully
insured plan. It's technically, it's a self insured business plan.
So we can underwrite very specific to age and gender.
We've got there's about a million rates that
for the variances on ZIP codes, gender, and and age.
So we have plans that are 2,500 and and
(14:12):
$5,000 deductibles. We've got a couple plans. People,
younger, males are, generally speaking, paying less
because of the pregnancy age factor. So male we've got some males
that are spending less than $300, sometimes less than $200
for a $5,000 deductible plan. And that's based on, like you
said, you're you you the three of us are older, but
(14:34):
the that young guy that's 26 years old that's not on his
parents' plan is, you know, really only gonna have
routine physical care. And then to your point, it's really sleep insurance. It's for
the catastrophic care. So, you know, we never
really highly recommend a a $10,000 deductible.
And that's not just because the person's young and doesn't have any claims,
(14:57):
but it it doesn't allow the individual to set up a health savings
account. So we prefer to have you go to the 2,500 or
5,000 so that you can this is a long term decision.
You see, it's a long term buy that you're making, and you can start
putting dollars away in a health savings account for when you're no longer
26, 20 seven, and you're 35, 40. And, you know, claims
(15:18):
might be coming. You might be an athlete. You might, you know, need a
you have a knee injury, whatever the case may be. You could have enough money
socked away in your HSA to cover your deductible for two and three
years once you're five, six years into the plan. So what's the
what's the maximum that you can put into an HSA? And can
you talk about how did this change in
(15:41):
the IRS, code? Or it seems like there's
been a loophole that's been opened where people can use their HSA,
FSA, you know, even, like, Duane Reade. I'll see it on, like, a
DoorDash checkout. You know, use your HSA, FSA card, or,
we work with a company called HigherDose. You can buy an infrared sauna blanket
Sure. With that. So has that materially
(16:04):
changed usage? Because I I understand it's, like, a hundred and
$50,000,000,000 that's kinda, like, accrued in these plans that are
not really being accessed accordingly. Yeah. You do know the difference
between FSA and HSA. Right? So FSA really
very different than HSA. FSA is you use it or lose
it. So you gotta spend those dollars in the year you're in. We
(16:26):
we recommend HSAs because we're running high deductible health plans. They're the way
to go. But you're right. They have opened up,
and and there's, you know, given the,
Internet and all the apps that are out there, give you an example.
I I I'm a big SoulCycle aficionado, if you will. Way,
man. I do a lot of SoulCycle. And bike right there. There you
(16:48):
go. Do you have the SoulCycle? Okay. Yeah, I do. I'm not bragging. I'm just
glad you're staying Well, hey, you're staying part of the cult. You're staying in good
health. Yeah. It is a bit of a cult, isn't it? But listen, I,
I found through the app on my phone that I could
work with SoulCycle to have, my SoulCycle classes
go through my h HSA. So when I buy, you know,
(17:11):
800 or $900 worth of classes, they're they're I'm paying for those
pretax. Yep. Yep. It's pretty wild the what's going on
in terms of, you know, what's legal to go against an
HSI. Yeah. These companies that are out there, you
know, one called, TrueMed that we've worked with, or
spoken to, one's called doctor b, which I think does the
(17:33):
HSA Yeah. Processing for SoulCycle,
and they give these letters of of medical necessity. Is there any
risk to that program, or is that, you know, pretty
much mainstream now? I think it's mainstream. I mean, I
did it. I I to be honest, I was kind of surprised, and you're
right about the organization, that does do it. But I
(17:56):
think they're legit. You know? It it could it be,
looked at as, like, you know, a loophole and maybe they they,
stop allowing it? But I don't think you're at any risk,
doing it in the year you're doing it. I think if anything, it would be
curtailed by regulation. They'd have to stipulate
that that type of, the classes like that
(18:18):
aren't covered. But, you know, in the spirit of keeping
people healthy so they don't hit the catastrophic side of health care, we're
all for it. Let's keep it going. It's it's wise use of money.
Yeah. So just explain to us, if I become
a member of of Solo, or if I become a member
of, you know, talk about Cigna or Aetna or Humana,
(18:41):
Is there any risk that I'm taking as a
patient or or a member, being part of one of
those larger brand networks, versus being part of
a, somewhat newer plan? Like, is there
any balance sheet risk or is there anything that would be a
differentiator or it's really just, hey. Look. We provide this plan. The money that
(19:03):
you pay in goes into effectively an escrow account, or you've got a a
back office provider that that's bonded in that? Just
explain to us. Well, the the key is that, it's all about the
reinsurance. So Solo, specifically,
we have partnered with a captive insurance company called Vault.
They Vault created this back in 02/2017,
(19:27):
working with the North Carolina insurance department's captive division. They got it
approved, allowing for solo business owners and
their families to take this form of business insurance. And
the way it's set up is it's not fully insured. You're you're setting yourself up
with what is deemed a self insured plan.
Don't wanna make sure we don't scare anybody off with that because it's that's
(19:50):
a technicality. It's self insured. It's called level funding.
So your entire rate is known as a level funded rate where if
you're paying, let's say, $500 a month for a single at the age
40, 40 five maybe, a portion of
that, call it 20%, I'm making these numbers up, but would go
towards administrative expenses, and the rest of it would go to
(20:12):
setting reserves and and going to the claim liability. And
so your that the dollars that are meant for claim
liability, you as a solo owner or as a solo member
are actually a pro rata owner in the captive. Okay.
So we're required through Vault and they
they they go through this every year where it's more than likely
(20:35):
in the history of Vault, they have always had a surplus at the end of
the year because they're underwriting it such that you're
the rates that go for the certain ages and genders
are created to cover expected claims plus
a corridor or a surplus liability, sort of
a safety net. And the idea is that every year, that would need to be
(20:58):
returned to the customer. Now it's not returned in terms of cash
dividends. Some of the larger employers, like back in the day at Cigna, wrote a
lot of level funded business where the surplus was returned in
part. Cigna would keep two thirds. The employer will get a third back.
This is a % returned, but it's a returned in the way
of rate increase mitigation or plan design enhancements.
(21:20):
It's not it's not dealt with in cash. But getting back to your original question
about risk, the the other important piece of this is
that the under the bulk captive, Odyssey Reinsurance
company out of Stamford, Connecticut, they're a plus rated on
Standard and Poor's and AM Best. They have the
risk for every dollar over the complete
(21:41):
exposure of the captive set at the rates that I just mentioned individually.
So we've never had we've never had an aggregate stop loss claim,
meaning the in the entire pool exceed
the claims exceeded the entire pool. That's never happened. There's been some
specific stop loss claim issues where a large claim, call it a
2 or $300,000 claim, that would pierce the individual
(22:04):
stop loss level, and then Odysee re kicks in and pays everything
over, in this case, a hundred and $50,000 of the claim. So if you have
a $250,000 claim, Vault pays $1.50,
Odyssey Reed picks up the other hundred. Gotcha. So,
hearken back to, SoulCycle for a minute. A lot of the
instructors there who, you know, I, used to follow them
(22:27):
around, pre COVID, wherever studio they were, they were at
Mantis was, was my go to. He
he he stipulated to me that, look, one of the reasons why, you know, I
stayed as a SoulCycle instructor and I signed that exclusivity,
was because they gave me benefits, and there's nowhere else I can get insurance
benefits. So from a from a standpoint of of a
(22:49):
group like SoulCycle, is that a target
for Solo? And then could they just add on to their
account, these instructors, or they basically
promote that we've got a relationship with Solo? We'll
pay your deductible, and you're basically like a direct
member, Or or how does that work? I wish that could work. But, no,
(23:11):
the the individual, like, all these instructors, more more than
likely, I I know a lot of them are doing sidebar stuff.
Right? They're physical they're trainers plus they're doing SoulCycle. So if they're
getting benefits through SoulCycle, SoulCycle is more or less going
out like an employer would in getting securing coverage
for eligible participants. They're probably funding some of the rules
(23:33):
where you have to fund at least 70% of the cost. Ours is the
business owner, that sole cycle instructor that maybe maybe they're in their
waiting period or maybe they're just not eligible based on hours. That
sole cycle instructor could set up a solo plan
using their EIN and their the business that they're running. X
y z. Got it. And you you did a deal recently with the Freelancers
(23:56):
Union. Is that correct? Yes. That's been tremendous.
Freelancers Union, we're really impressed with them. It took a good year.
We started Solo, late two thousand twenty four. So we
missed the January 1, big enrollment push
because we really didn't have our stuff together, if you will, until,
like, October, November '20 of '20 '3. So for
(24:18):
01/01/2024, we didn't write a ton of business, but we started talking to
organizations like Freelancers Union. We've got 600,000
members, all right in our wheelhouse. They're all independents.
Rafael Espinat, the director of Freelancers Union,
great guy. They they they do a phenomenal job with their
benefits package. They they're offering ACA plans. They
(24:41):
offer us, and they offer a company called Opolis, all three of which are kind
of worth exploring. But as an organization, they've
been an incredible, and I think it's an endorsement for us because they took a
little while to end up partnering with us after kicking the tires
pretty hard. You know, one of the things that we are up against is
brand. We don't you know, we're creating a brand from scratch, so that
(25:04):
takes a while. So we're gonna be relying on the, you know, 500 plus
businesses we wrote for January 1 to refer us to their friends and
families, business owners. We'll be relying on the freelancers
union to push us out further based on reputation. So
that all helps. But that's been a great partnership so far.
(25:24):
This is Pete Moore. Here's the last tip for you of the podcast.
We are partnered up with a company called Higher Dose. Higher Dose
dot com. They are the leader in workout
recovery products, infrared technology, LED
light masks, neck enhancers, and other
products such as PMF mats and sauna blankets.
(25:47):
If you have not gotten on the workout recovery train
yet, your time and your stop is now. You
gotta get these products in there before these workout recovery and spas
end up saturating your market, having your members walk out of the club
and going into one of their locations for $200 per
month where they're paying 39 to you. Let's become an
(26:09):
expert in workout recovery if we are already the authority in
workouts. Higher dose, check it out. There's a
wholesale code, and we look forward to helping
you augment your products and services to meet the demands of your
members. And, hey, let's get people happy, healthy,
and sweaty, and the recovery should be just as good as the workout.
(26:35):
So so when you look at our, you know, halo sector, health active lifestyle
outdoors, you take a look at, you know, massage
therapists, acupuncturists, you know, personal trainers,
you know, all these, like, wellness coaches that are out there now that are are
that are basically, you know, independent operators. What are some of the
targets that we should be thinking about or someone listening to
(26:56):
this podcast saying, like, this is a vital part of
a cooperative or a union or a, you know,
collective that we have that that we need to provide
solo because this is one of the things that, you know, a lot of our
members, you know, that's probably one of their biggest stress points. Sure.
No doubt. Listen, I I I don't often get a chance
(27:20):
to talk about the long term play of solo. Usually, we're talking to
business owners in the year they're in. We're talking about the savings we're generating
for them on rates and premium and and design.
Design being important because that PPO, no boundaries
across the country internationally, no lifetime benefit
maximum, no annual maximum, and you're talking a full on plan.
(27:42):
But I think the biggest value proposition of what we're doing
today is the long term sustainable approach.
It's that we expect, and this was evidenced by what
Vault did for 01/01/2025 in terms of renewals.
The renewal indexes were far below what the industry averages
were both for larger employer paid stuff and ACA
(28:05):
plans. So what you're doing is you're buying in you're getting in,
you're filling out a health questionnaire. You're healthy today. You're passing. You don't have
any heart issues, organ issues, you're not on,
any of these ridiculously expensive drugs. So you're able to self
insure your plan, but then you're joining this collective.
And together, we're managing a risk of healthier
(28:29):
people that over time is going to index if at
in at inflation rates that are less than those that
aren't in the same boat, the the more catastrophic claimants.
Got it. So, so in in closing here, being an
entrepreneur, you know, being like, you know, a little over a year end,
knowing pretty soundly and cold the fact that this is somewhat of a
(28:51):
no brainer, decision. How do you manage your
own progress and and and and know that this is you're playing the
long game and that there's an education process that you're kinda
fighting through every day? It's a great question, and we are
learning. So, you know, we're a we're a eight person
organization right now with the intention certainly to grow
(29:14):
as we grow, but we've got a phenomenal team of people.
David had, mentioned it earlier. Service crew
is fantastic. And they are we did
600 plus consults with three or four people doing
all that work. We all pitched in in the December crunch time,
but, you know, getting the job done. And then what we've gotta get really
(29:37):
good at and we haven't even really started yet is getting to our
existing memberships to spread the word and to keep it going.
Because anybody that share any existing solo
member that shares that solo with somebody else, first of all, there'll be a
referral program. And secondly, they're helping
us scale, which again is gonna cut cost out of the equation for
(29:58):
them. Right. Well, we'll have all the info on real quick.
Pete, real quick. I just have to add, Thomas. For people listening to
this, I came across your company on Instagram.
Not normally something I would would, you know, put my own
health insurance into. And after speaking to Michael and
Christine and doing a good deal of research, it was, okay.
(30:21):
What's the catch? This is too good to be true. What's the catch? What's the
and and there was none. Right? So I I signed
on as as a business owner at EIN, and
it's potentially game changer for the trainers, the massage therapist,
etcetera, listening to this. And I I I I wanna do
everything we can to help you get the word out for sure. Listen.
(30:42):
That's very much appreciated. So, we'll do it together.
Absolutely. Alright, man. Well, welcome officially to the Halo sector. Thanks for doing
what you're doing, and, we'll try and bring this on, to our,
entire network in The US and, look forward to doing a,
update check with you guys, a year from now. Fantastic,
Pete. Thanks, David. Thanks, man. Much appreciated. Bye bye, guys. Go halo.
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