December 19, 2025 • 37 mins
Today we are talking with John Kuhlmann, Lauren Broyles and Josh Bowman from the Kuhlmann Group.
If you've ever wondered how your Association can get health benefits and how would that work? Or maybe you've got a large group plan and you'd like to figure out a better way to handle your health insurance benefits, that is our topic on this episode. Most importantly, listen and learn today, as we talk about how an association can actually offer health benefits, especially if you've got 1099 employees.
This is Ep 2139 of America's Healthcare Advocate.
To learn more about GigCare, the Kuhlmann Group and health benefits for 1099 workers as well as W2 employees: 314-494-7860 and visit https://kuhlmannfin.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Coming up in today's show, America'sHealthcare Advocate,
we're going to be talkingwith John Kuhlmann
from Kuhlmann Group,as well as Lauren Broyles
and Josh Banwart his associatesthat work at Kuhlmann Group, with them.
If you've ever wondered
how would my associationget health benefits, how would that work?
Or maybe you've got a large group plan
and you'd like to figure out a better wayto handle your health insurance benefits.
(00:21):
You can do thatby talking with these folks.
But most importantly, listen and learn.
Today, as we talk about how an associationcould actually offer health benefits,
especially if you've got 1099 employees.
And now America's Healthcare Advocate,Cary Hall.
Hello, America.
Welcome to America's Healthcare Advocateshow broadcasting coast to coast
(00:43):
across USA here on the HIA Radio Network.
My producers today, Mr.
Garner Cowdery behind the microphones.
And Mr.David Thiessen behind all the cameras.
The man who post all these showsup on our podcast and YouTube channel,
by the way, 608,000 views now,
thanks to all of you out therein the listening audience.
(01:03):
On the podcast channels,all 16 of them in our YouTube channel,
and we have a new affiliate.
We'll talk about that a little lateron in the show if you have issues,
if you have questions, if you need helpwith something, you can go to the website.
AmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com.
AmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com.
Send me an email.
Yes, I get a lot of them.
But yes,I answer each and every one of them.
(01:26):
So feel free to send me an emailif you need any help with something.
We're happy to help you.
In studio with me again today.
John Kuhlmann, CEO of Kuhlmann Group.
And you brought a few associates today.All right.
So we have Lauren Broyles, who is yourvice president director of operations.
And I have Josh Banwart, who is alsoa financial advisor with Kuhlmann Group.
So welcomeall three of you. Happy to have you here.
(01:47):
You're an old pro at this Thanks, Cary.
Yeah, I’ve been doing it since 1991.
So a long time agowhen I started my firm. Yeah.
So so let's talk a little bit about thatbecause what you do is a little different,
than whatI see out there with a lot of brokers.
What you do, you, you,I think you kind of,
you kind of specialize in this associationmanagement,
association health benefits and all.
The other thing isyou go with association management.
(02:08):
So it's a different corridor.
We're working with you,with the GigCare program,
some of the programs on that for 1099and self-employed.
But let's talk about how you got into thatand what you do there
that makes you so differentthan everybody else.
Because I've been doing this for 23 yearsand the first person I ever ran across it
does this like you do. Thanks, Gary.
So in, 2019, we started
(02:31):
working with one of our clients, and,
we, basically saved them $1.4 millionjust on their health insurance
and another $120,000on their ancillary coverages.
And at the time,
they were the with the 13th largestconsulting firm in the country.
And, they had been with them for years.
And, the line that they gave them onevery renewal
(02:53):
was, well,medical trends running around 8 or 9%.
So it's a fair increase.
You should just take it.
And they don't even really showthe group out when they do.
They don't really do an adequate job.
And that's pretty much what we seeon most groups that we work on.
So, we don't take that approach.
We actually go to market onevery line of coverage with every carrier.
And there's a big reason for that.
(03:15):
There's a lot of value in the TPA’sthat we go to.
TPA stands for third party administrators,whereas you hear about the BUCA’s.
Those are all the big publicly tradedinsurance companies.
So their motivations are differentthan the than the TPAs.
The TPAs are privately owned,
and because they're privately owned,their whole focus and goal is to drive
(03:35):
the most affordable health care withthe best benefits possible to the members.
So for this client,
not only did we save himthe 1.4 million on their health,
120,000 on their ancillary,but we also improved all those benefits.
The next thing is, is that we after we didthat,
the CEO shared with usthat he has an association.
And at the time they had over3000 dues paying members.
(03:56):
Before we were in the picture,they had over 3000 dues band members.
When we came into the picture, they hadshrunk down to 850 dues paying members.
So there's they were like,do you think you could do this
for our customers and help them?
Because it would create a lot of goodwill
for our customersand help us help our customers.
And, absolutely said absolutely.
So we did that in about twoand a half years later,
they're back up to about 3500 duespaying members, which is tremendous
(04:18):
growth for the association.
We're not the only reasonwhy that happened.
Their executive director,was a big part of why that happened, too.
But, with our programsand our that are very comprehensive,
we helped basically do thatand we in turn have also saved
a lot of their clientsfive figures, on their benefits.
Also.
You know, if you're listening to thisand you're wondering
maybe you're a member of an association.
(04:40):
Maybe you're just a member ofan association, maybe you're a director,
maybe you're a CEO.
Or maybe you're someone thinkingabout what you want to do,
and we'd like to have an association,
but we'd like to talk aboutmaybe we can do health benefits.
Well, there are a lot of hoops you have togo through, and there are certain ways
it has to be done thatwhat you need is a knowledgeable expert.
(05:01):
And that's what Kuhlmann Group isand that's what I'm listening to you.
That'swhat you're demonstrating to the audience.
That's why I wanted to do this show today.
There is a lot of need in the marketplaceright now, especially
when we talk about the 1099 self-employedspace.
We'll get into thata little later in the show.
But the idea of innovation,that's what Kuhlmann Group brings to this.
And if you are in an association andyou don't have benefits for health care.
(05:26):
These are the folks you want to talk tobecause that's what they do.
So talk about you've got a pretty longlist of everything you do here.
I was just doing show prep about 4:30this morning.
Was ramping upand I worked on this yesterday as well.
But the point is, you know, I'm seeingeverything on here from critical illness
to financial advisory to payrollto individual voluntary benefits.
(05:47):
And it goes down the list.
I'm guessing, Lauren, you probably havea lot to do with how all that happens.
Yeah, it actually does the work.
If I had to guess. Yeah.
So I actually talkwith a lot of the customers
and to speak on the AssociationJohn was talking about.
A lot of
the members,they're little mom and pop shops.
So this has brought a solutionto those mom and pop shops
(06:09):
where they don't know where to turn,where it might
just be a husband-spouse group,and they need access to benefits.
So this has been a huge,you know, basically solution to them
to get needs met for their employeesand put benefits in place.
You know, so John, that's interesting.
Lauren brings that upbecause the most underserved
everybody wants to do the 500,000life case.
(06:32):
We want to do that too.
Oh I know but
it's the 1 to 50 that in
this marketplace are getting killedwith these huge increases.
You've talked about this before that arecoming across on the ACA type plans.
All the rest of it.
And as Lauren said, it'sa mom and pop shop.
Maybe they've got you know, I'm a 27 yearrecovering broker.
Okay. Right.
And I remember going into place
(06:52):
that there be ten, 11, 12 employeesand they're getting killed on cost.
One of the things that you're doingwith your association
managementis bringing them solutions like that.
So talk a little bit about that.
I know you're doing the GigCare program,consumer data respondents with the folks
with our company of PopulationScience Management out of Nebraska.
But talk about Laurenjust mentioned that giving them access
(07:14):
to something they can't findin the marketplace that you're doing.
Right.
So on all size groups,basically what we bring to
the table is a full array of benefits.
And on anything we do,we make sure that we check
all of the optionsthat any client could have for everything.
So when you look at these smallercompanies,
many of them can't even afford to providehealth insurance to their members.
(07:34):
That's why we broughtin the GigCare solution, the 1099.
Right.
You also get some employers will.
What we found isa lot of employers are outsourcing their
IT because theit doesn't want to be an employee.
They want to work for other companiesand help multiple companies.
But some employers want to be ableto cover those 1099 people.
So we have two solutions for that.
We have the GigCare, but we also have inparticular one TPA that will literally
(07:57):
allow you to cover 1099 people in additionto your regular W-2 people.
It's really a wonderful program.
It's probably the best health care programout there for groups.
It's not probably it is.
So we have a lot of groupsthat we've been able to put with them
and literally not have the rates changein three years.
And actually,we just had one of our larger groups
with 600 employeesand their third year of no increase.
(08:19):
The rates actually went downin their third year
and their benefits stayed the same.So it's really powerful stuff.
In addition to that, they bringpowerful solutions to the table for PBMs.
Pharmacy Benefit Managers. Yes. Okay.
So the prescriptiondrug side of their plans
basically they dosome great innovative stuff on that,
just like GigCare does on its pharmacyside for its individual members.
They basically are able to get the drugsthat are name brand drugs for individuals,
(08:43):
high cost drugs, typically at no costor low cost for the member.
Whereas under if you'rewith one of the large insurance carriers,
basically you're usually payingyour out-of-pocket max for it.
Yeah you are, that, you're coinsuranceand maybe some the deductible
depending on the plan.
So when we come back from the breakgoing to talk more about this.
And then in the third segmentwe're going to talk about how
(09:03):
Kuhlmann group actually offers financialplanning help to a lot of members as well.
And Josh will talk to you about that.
If you want information, maybe you'recurious about how did they do this?
Or maybe you've got an associationor co-op or whatever the case may be,
and you're looking for a solution,or you'd like something that would help
members like was just describedby what John talked about.
314-494-7860, So anywhere in the country,they're happy to help you.
(09:28):
We'll be right back after the break.
You're listening
to America's Healthcare Advocatebroadcasting coast to coast across USA.
Don't go anywhere. We've got more.
Welcome back.
(09:48):
You're listening to America'sHealthcare Advocate Show broadcasting
coast to coast across USA here on the HIARadio Network.
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(10:09):
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Thank you for joining America'sHealthcare Advocate.
John, let's talk a little bit more aboutwhat's interesting to me is that you guys
(10:29):
look for solutions that other people justdon't seem to take the time to look for.
You made that comment about brokers.
Brokers go in and show a spreadsheetand say pick the least evil
on the spreadsheet, as opposed to,
the way you're
doing it, which is (10:42):
Here are the problems.
What are your needsand how do we find a solution?
Right.
So one of the things is, we have a true
passion for what we do,and we outwork everybody.
And we don't come back and tell any clientever.
Hey, you just got a 10% increasein medical.
Inflation's running around 9 to 10%.
So you should just take itbecause it's fair.
(11:04):
You'll never hear that from us.
As a matter of fact
even if our groups get a rate decreaseon the renewal that that happens sometimes
it's rare. You know,we still we still shop them out.
And the reason for it, it'sthe second or third most expensive line
item that any company has.
And for a few companies,it might even be the most expensive.
Yeah, absolutely.
So we always make sure we do that.
And we do that on every line of coverage.
Because basically what we foundis even on the ancillary,
(11:25):
most brokers do what's best for them,not what's best for the client.
Why I'm bringing that upis, as a consultant, we know that
the health insurance drivesthe relationship between the client
and the broker, the consultant.
So unfortunately, for most folks,once they pick the health
insurance, the broker just puts themwith who usually is best for them.
And we don't do that.
(11:45):
We shop everybody on the ancillary likewe do on the on the health insurance side.
And then we also addin a Ben Admin system and,
basically help the employeeswith an enrollment platform
and we automate all that with the payrollso that there's less administrative
work to do. Lauren.
Lauren handles that for uswith our clients on a regular basis.
Talk about that, Lauren.How do you handle that?
(12:07):
And I noticedwhen I was going to all the materials
you're doing everything from payroll.
We're going to talk aboutfinancial planning in the next segment.
You know,all the other things that you do.
Critical illness, Clever Rx.
Tailored 1099 Contractors.
Talk about how all that works.
Yeah. So I handle the administration side.
So I'm everywherefrom the implementation to the service.
So my job on customer serviceis to make your HR teams life easier.
(12:31):
We service all size groups.
So maybe your lack of an HR team.
So I help make sure that everything
streamlines from your payrollto the benefits to the carrier side.
So, like John was speaking on,
we still have some peoplethat we come across that are still using
paper enrollment forms to enroll their,
employees at renewal time,which is just insane.
(12:52):
There's so many solutions out there.
We like to put in Ben Admin Systems.
It makes the HR teams life easierbecause things are automatic.
When you leave things up to paper or ina person's hands, there can be, you know,
human error when that happens.
So making it more streamlined.
So it's on EDI connectionseliminates errors that can occur.
(13:14):
We had Kenny Delco on, a couple timesand talked about
what you're doing with NHRA,an association you're working with.
National Hot Rod Association.
Kenny has a saying that he doesthat’s part of the GigCare discussion.
He said, “a company built for hardworking Americans”.
And you have a saying that “we're MainStreet, we're not servicing Wall Street”.
What does that mean? What?
(13:34):
So we always, share with folksthat we're all about Main Street,
not about Wall Street.
And what we mean by that is a lot ofthe bigger consulting firms,
they literally are workingwith the big carriers The BUCA carriers.
The BUCA carriers,most of them publicly traded.
And like on prescription drugs, they,some of them even get cuts
off all the prescription drugsthat the member takes,
(13:56):
when they're already overpaying.
They're getting the rebates.
So the a lot of the privately owned TPAs,third party administrators that we work
with, they'll literally cut the,the rebates out of the plan
and get the drug to the member,or either low cost or no cost helping
the member also dramatically loweringthe cost of the drug.
You take a drug like Humera,it's about $8000 a month. Yep.
(14:17):
A lot of the biggercarriers will tell you, though, that
it'll only costyou 4500 to 5000 a month for the drug.
And their right,if you go through them. Yeah.
What they don't tell you is thatthey're getting a rebate of about $2,500
a month on that drug, Every monthon every member on the drug.
It's insane.
So the TPAs we work with,they cut all that out, and they either get
(14:37):
the rebate eliminated
to lower the cost of the drug by the cost
the rebate, or if the pharmaceuticalcompany insists on paying the rebate,
they put it back in the client'sclaim bucket typically.
Or like Detego, when you workwith our company, Detego Health, our TPA,
we have our own program called Script Aidand we just import the stuff.
Right.
And if you're taking Humiraand we're importing it,
(14:57):
you're going to pay a lot lessthan what you're going to pay
any of the major carriers,that's for sure.
I don't think a lot of the publicreally understands this.
And it's understandable. This is not.
Look, health care is confusing as hell.
Okay. Believe me.
As I said, I've been doing this 27 years.
It's not an easy topic
for people to wrap their head around,but what you're hearing is
when when you want to do somethinglike this, you need an expert.
(15:20):
And that's what these people are.
And what you're talking about is solutionsthat are out of the box.
Right. Okay.
And they take work.
Right. It's a lot of work. Yeah.
But we put it in. Yeah.
We just won a group of 100.
And there was two other firms that we wereup against and a new client for us.
We picked them up.
And their existing consultanthad been with them for around 35 years.
(15:44):
That's a long time.
And we replaced them and, saved the group,
basically well over six figuresjust on their medical.
So we're going to be bringingother great solutions
in to automate things and make themmore efficient, improve things too.
But we really do try to bring a wholepackage, approach to everything we do,
but related to benefits.
So another big area that we run intois people on their payroll.
(16:07):
So we don't sell payroll,but we have some very good partners
on that that are literally technologycompanies that do payroll.
They dramatically lowerthe cost of the payroll,
and they significantly improveand make it more automated.
And then that ties back into the Ben AdminSystem that Lauren was talking about.
To give you an idea,we have a group of 100,
(16:27):
in the state of Washingtonjust on their payroll.
We saved them $480,000.
That's insane.
Yeah, we saved them close toanother hundred thousand on
their, medical.
And then we saved them about 20 grand,maybe 25 grand on their 401K.
Those are all the things that contributeto making a difference.
And that and that is critically important.
(16:47):
You know, unfortunately, in today's world,as you talked about, you know, the
a lot of the big houses, the big the bigbrokers, the big insurance carriers,
they don't look at thingsquite like that. Right.
It's the medium small size broker
in your case,you know, you're pretty large firm,
but you're still taking to heartwhat needs to be done for the client.
We're actually bringing to the table
(17:09):
solutions that the big consulting firmscan do, but typically don't do.
They don't want to be bothered with it.
I can't tell youhow many groups of two and 3000
I know of that are with one ofthe big name box house consulting firms.
They don't even shop the groups out.
It's it's literally criminalthat they're getting away with this.
But people think they need them.They think they need an army.
All they are doing is overpayingfor all their benefits.
(17:30):
They're harming their employees.
They're not really meetingtheir fiduciary duty to protect them.
With things like the prescription drugs,they're not shopping it out adequately,
doing what they should do.
So we bring all those solutionsto the table.
And I can just tell you thatwe normally get every group we quote on.
Yeah. And I was saying I.
Would imagine you do.
And the thing I would sayis it's all about the data.
If you will give us the data we need.
(17:51):
The other thing we don't do, we don't dowhat the big consulting firms do.
We don't make you sign a contractsaying that you'll go with us
no matter what and pay us.
We'll just do our workand you can choose to go with us or not.
We live off the merits of our work, so.
And we normally win every time.
It's a great solution.
If you want information, you'reyou're fascinated, you're intrigued.
What you're hearing here,can they really make a difference.
(18:11):
Well you’re not going to knowif you don't reach out to them.
So if you want to contact John314-494-7860.
314-494-7860.
So if you're on the podcastor looking on YouTube, the number,
the website is acrossthe bottom of the screen.
You can look at that as well.We'll be right back after the break.
We're going to get in the weedsa little bit now
and talk about some of the other thingsthat they do
(18:32):
on the financial planning sideand some of the others.
Stay tuned.
We'll be right back after the breakhere on America's Healthcare Advocate.
Welcome back.
You're listening to America'sHealthcare Advocate
(18:52):
Show broadcasting coastto coast here across the USA.
If you want help or information, go to thewebsite AmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com.
Send me an email. I am happy to help you.
My producer today, Mr.
Garner Cowdrey, Mr.
Dave Thiessen, doing a wonderful jobas they always do.
Broadcasting here out of our studiosin Overland Park, Kansas.
My guests in studio today.
John Kuhlmann, the founder and CEO ofKuhlmann Group, Lauren Broyles he's
(19:16):
the senior VP that does all the real workbehind the scenes that John doesn't do.
And that's adviser John Banwart,who's going to talk today
about the financial advisor servicesthey offer through Kuhlmann Group.
So you know, people are listening to thisand they're going, well,
we were told “Associations” couldn'toffer health benefits.
They were told associationscouldn't have health benefits.
(19:36):
And there's that.
I'm not saying that's not true,but there are there are ways
to make this work, especially liketalk about some of the associations.
I mean, you've got over 750,000 people
who are working with uson the GigCare program on right now,
offered through PSMNebraska are standalone and
if they're willing to be a consumer datarespondent, they have access to this large
(19:59):
group plan.
Talk about how people access that if theyif they're like, what can we do that.
Yeah. So the big thing is, is if you...
Even if you have an association plannow, a group plan for your groups
and associations, the problem with ittypically is after the first year or two,
what you typically see happenis the groups that are in it
(20:21):
that are sick stay,
and then the healthy groups leavebecause they can find insurance cheaper
on their own. It’scalled the death spiral. Yeah. And that's
just very typicalof what associations have happened.
So we do things differently.
And basically what we dois we bring in a solution like GigCare
for the individuals that want to go onto the GigCare program, wonderful program.
And then we also bring to the tablegroup plans, but we broker that out.
(20:45):
We consult with each groupdepending upon their size,
on the health insuranceand on the on the groups.
And we broker that outwith the different companies.
And we check every companythat's available in the market
for where that group is locatedand headquartered.
We also do iton all the ancillary coverages.
We also provide financial advisory,including 401Ks and pensions.
And one of the innovative thingswe do is we,
(21:07):
have a PEP program when it's appropriate.
And, we can show that to members,but we typically evaluate everything,
even on that and all their optionson the 401K to look at.
And then Josh,we have Josh to work with on
individual financial advisoryand other things.
So Josh, talkabout what you do in your role here.
In terms of financial advisor,we talked before the show
and you're actually helping members.
(21:29):
Let's say you've got a memberof an association, he's
turning 65 or 66 or she's turning 65, 66.
They've had a 401K.
They've got money sitting therenow they're going to retire.
What do I do with it?
How do I invest it?
This market's all over the place.
Up 400 pointsone day down a thousand another.
I know because I'm in it.
(21:50):
So how
do you handle that in additionto the 401Ks?
Josh. Yeah, absolutely.
How do we retire and stay retired? Right.
I like that's.Kind of the key out there. Yeah.
And generally we'll just assess a few keyrisks of running out of money.
And how can we,
make sure that, you know, that doesn'toccur in your, your spend down?
Also, there's often questionsaround estate and hand off, legacy.
(22:13):
It's all complimentary to the 401Kand the qualified plans
and at Kuhlmann Groupare just really trying
to bring a collaborative, serviceright in into the mix.
We don't want to just be pigeonholedinto one area.
So, a lot of times it's it'sjust kind of assessing those key risks.
One being inflation. How do we keep up?
Generally the answer is the market.
(22:33):
Yeah. That's uncomfortable. Right.
So we place sometimes marketbased solutions.
But then we've got to havesome level of cash or guaranteed position
that isn't going to be fluctuatingin bad markets.
Generally the third one is the riskof a long term health care event.
We say it's a flip of a coin 50/50, right?
You or your spouse.
And generally you're going to havesomething if you don't have a plan.
(22:54):
The state has a plan for you.
So we we generally liketo have control as well.
And then the last one is, is the onethat makes everything else worse.
It's just longevity.
So go to that longterm care thing for a second.
Because I'm gonna throwan interesting statistic at you.
How many people in this country, letssee if any of you can answer this,
have long term care insurance,give me a percentage.
(23:14):
I would guess less than 10%.
It is less than 10%. You got 100% correct.
Now I'm one of the ones that has had longterm care since he was 45 years old.
Okay.
And and I, like Laurieand I still have that same plan in place.
But the point is, and you touched on that,
that if you don't have a long term careplan, you're going on Medicaid
or you're eating into your estateto pay for long term care.
(23:38):
So that's interestingthat you touched on that.
So talk a little bit aboutwhat are they looking at cost wise
if they don't have a long term careplan to be in a halfway decent facility,
not a medicaid facilitywhere there's two people to a room,
one shared television and a bathroom,they both get to share.
That's a lot of fun, I'm sure.
Okay.
And the first thing you notice when youwalk in the door is the smell of Pine-Sol.
(23:58):
You know, you're in a medicaid facility.
Talk about what it meansto get into a decent private facility.
Yeah. So, I did a lot of studying on this.
I actually pursued a credentialspecifically in long term care.
And the reason is,is because it's a huge issue.
There used to be a lot of companiesin the space.
There's not now. Now there's about 11.
And there'sI certainly wouldn't sell all 11.
(24:19):
Right.
You know, when wewhen we step into that space.
So you've got to be carefulin evaluating that, and not overpaying.
But there's, there's generallynot to get too specific here,
but there's generally three waysto solve it.
One is you just take cashand put it on the sidelines, invest it,
but it's protected.
That's the most expensive way. Right?
Two would be some, some levelof kind of basic long term care.
(24:43):
You use it or lose it,you know, you pay for it.
It's kind of like car insurance.
We don't hopethat we get in an accident. Right.
But if we do, we're sure glad we have it.
And the third is some sort of hybridwhere we'll use.
Life insurance to buy long term care.
And so what what the best option is, isgenerally dependent upon the individual,
and their circumstance.
But so give me an average cost that, yousee for a decent long term care facility.
(25:06):
But I'll tell you what my benefit isafter you do that.
Yeah.
So, so the average costand depends on your state.
Yeah.
In the state of Missouri aroundSaint Louis is about $4,500 a month.
That's right.And that's the average. Right.
So if you have a more skillednursing type facility, it's going to be
well in excess of that memory care is,I think, maybe the most expensive it is.
Yeah.
And and generallywe'll see that close to ten grand a month.
(25:28):
So my benefit right now is $300 a dayand Lori’s is $300 a day,
which wouldn't cover the cost of what he'stalking about, it's gone up every year.
It did not. Policy's gone up,but not every year.
But the the benefit has heldand and we're very fortunate to have it.
And luckily I'm you know I'm if we're inenough we're in decent shape to it.
If there's a difference we pay for it.
The problem is it's less than 10%.
(25:49):
What's interesting is, John, you'redoing this as an association manager.
How many people are there, do you thinkeven know this is going to be an issue.
Or they think here, oh, Medicareis going to pay for this.
I don't have to pay.
Most people, from my experience, don't
they don't even think about it, though.Yeah.
A lot of people don't even have a will.
(26:10):
You know, one of the first things we talkto people about is basically, you know,
do you have your state set up properlyand just making sure that everything's
proper, it's everything we dois really individualized to each customer,
whether it be an individual,their needs, it's their individual needs.
We want to make sure those are all coveredproperly.
It's not peddling productsor pushing stuff.
(26:30):
It's about helping peopledoing the right thing.
We do the same thing with the groups.
It doesn't matter if you're a group of twoor if you're a group of 5000.
Anything in between.
We're going to do thaton everything we do,
on every line of coverage,every every product or service.
But you're able to if again,people are listening
to this all over the country,they're they're
watching me on the on the YouTube channelor on the podcast and they're going,
(26:50):
well, we have an association,but we don't do any of that.
And you gave that story earlier
about membership decliningand how when you turned it back around
the associations have to be able to offera reason for somebody to be there.
Right? Right.
And is that what you're helping them do?
We drive that value?
We're basically bringing,
fortune 500 type benefits solutions,
(27:12):
complete benefit solutionsto small group and medium sized groups.
Doesn't matter the size of your group.
We're going to do all we can to providethe best value for all your benefits.
Unlike they've ever seen beforewith any other firm.
It's just we do. You’ve got a commitmentto excellence and customer service.
We have a passion for it.
We truly care about our customers.
I guess you could say we're old school.
Yeah.
(27:33):
We do what we say we're going to do.
At 76 years of age that’s something.
There'snothing wrong with old school folks.
Well I’m 60. So I'm with you.
You got a long way to go, pal.
You're very young.And then we have these two over here.
The youngsters? Very youngsters.Absolutely.
If you want information,you want to reach out to John.
You maybe you'd like to exploresome of this.
The way to do it is to give him a call.
314-494-7860.
(27:55):
314-494-7860.
So there's a reason he's on heretoday is to educate you.
That's why we do these shows to educateyou on what you can do to help yourself.
If you're in an association,you want to start an association, whatever
the case may be, these people are expertsand they're happy to help you.
And if you're an employerwith a small group or a large group,
(28:16):
they're right there, okay?
And they're offering solutionsyou're not going to find
on a lot of the large carriers.
So it's significantly differentthe way they do it.
Once again, the phone number 314-494-7860.
So when we come back from the breakI'm going to talk about what do you do
if you've got W-2 employees,but you've also got 1099 employees.
We'll talk about that.
Stay tuned.
(28:37):
We'll be right back after the breakhere on America's Healthcare Advocate,
broadcasting coastto coast across the USA.
Welcome back.
You're listening to America's HealthcareAdvocate show broadcasting coast to coast
across USA here on the HIA Radio Network.
(28:59):
Got a question?
Send me an email.
AmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com.
We're happy to answer all of them.
And thanks to all of youin the listening audience.
As I said in the opening monologue,
608,000 people viewing that podcastand on YouTube.
It's kind of surprising.
But we do thank all of you.
In studio with me today JohnKuhlmann of the Kuhlmann Group.
Also Lauren Broyles, who is his vicepresident of operations, and Josh Banwart,
(29:23):
who is a financial advisor.
We're talking about how they dealwith not only groups, but associations.
Because they're uniquely positionedto help associations.
He's got 750,000people on the association plans right now.
They're working with us over at Detegoon the GigCare program
through our PopulationScience Management platform.
These are things they're doingthat are innovative.
(29:44):
You're not seeing it out therefrom other brokers.
So let's just start with that.
I've got a company.
It's a trucking company.
They’ve got 4000 drivers,400 of those are 1099.
They had no benefits for them because youcan't put them on health insurance plans.
Okay. Because they're 1099.
They came to us,we put the GigCare plan in place.
They put together a little bonus programto kind of offset
(30:06):
the cost with their driversbased on the number of miles they drove.
They were thrilled because all of a suddenthe drivers had health benefits.
Okay. Through the GigCare program.
So talk about how you deal with companies
that have a double sidedpayroll like 1099 W-2.
John.
So I would add that with the GigCare,not only do they have benefits,
but they havequality benefits that are affordable.
(30:28):
You know, we had
our other podcastthat we did about the NHRA
and, Kenny Delco,our driver of the GigCare car.
He, basically explainedhow one of his good friends,
his ACA rateswere going to go up to $2,700.
I remember this, yeah.
And, through GigCare, he can cover himselfand his wife for $1,290
instead of $2,700and really have quality, better program.
(30:51):
So we have that availableat the GigCare program.
And we always look at that
for every associationto put it in place for them.
Or if there's a companythat has 1099 people that aren't covered,
we look at adding that for themto drive that value
to help their members out,because if they don't help them,
some of themmay have to leave to go elsewhere.
I know from a lot of our clients,we have several trucking companies
that they have troubleretaining their drivers
(31:13):
because they're competing against Amazonand all the other big companies,
so they have to offer those benefits.
And that'swhere GigCare is a wonderful solution.
If they do have W-2 and 1099drivers, right.
But that's any company that has that.
We can do that for any companydoesn't have to be trucking.
But we also have a group carrierthat well, it's a TPA.
TPA stands for third party administratorand they will insure 1099 members.
(31:36):
Now when you insure a 1099 memberon a group plan,
you cannot contribute towards the costof their insurance to keep it
separate.
Right.
Because you can't have that employeeemployer relationship.
So the member will have to payfor the cost of their insurance, but
they are just another class of employeeswithin the group plan.
It's very,very powerful, works really well.
And typically that carrier,
(31:56):
that TPA is reallyone of the best TPA's in the country.
They offer great solutions.
They do things to keepthe cost of health care down.
We have a lot of groups with them
that are going on their third year,with no rate increase at all.
And, one of the groups actuallygot a rate decrease in their third year.
That's highly unusual.totally unusual, right?
And we still shop them out. Right?
(32:17):
Even though that they're getting thatwe still shop them out to make sure
that they're getting the best valuefor the dollar,
because health care is the second or thirdmost expensive line item.
Like I said, that any any company has.
So Lauren,
I was talking to somebody the other dayand we were talking about customer service
and he said, Cary, he said the wordservice has gone out of customer service.
I know you guys,you get to handle all that. Yes.
(32:39):
So talk about your approachto customer service, how it's different
and how when some you know, it'snot if it's when they have a claims
problem because inevitably saya hospital codes a visit wrong.
They do this, they do that.
And then somebody gets a balance bill.
So talk about how you deal with customerservice issues Lauren.
Absolutely.
So we definitely pride ourselvesin our customer service.
(33:01):
If you're a business owner especially,you know, you're working 24/7
around the clock.
When 5:00 hits,our phones don't stop ringing.
So we're around the clock service.
Because when you do have a problemand is an emergency, like you're saying
with a claims problem,we answer, we don't.
You're there to solve, helpsolve the problem.
Yeah.
When there is an emergency,we're here to help solve the problem.
(33:22):
And we're here to help you getto the right person to solve your problem.
So we're answering around the clockon the weekends.
Believe it or not, that's amazing.
Yes. Yeah.Try doing that at one of the major
carriers, folksand see what you get, okay.
Not going to happen. Not going to.
That's one of the reasonswhy you are successful.
What you do is because you've got peoplelike Lauren. Exactly.
For you there has to be personal carefor these folks.
(33:44):
Lauren is, she has the,
work ethic of somebody who's 40or 50 years old.
She literally and she's only 19.
She sure looks 19.
She is absolutely amazing.
And, one of the reasons why we just don't
lose clientsis because of our customer service.
We have most of the clients that we'veever picked up from 36 years ago.
(34:07):
And, keep them.
And then the ones we add, we keep them to.
The only time we really ever lose
a client is when they get bought upby another company, typically,
and the new owner comes inand just gives it to their guy.
We just don't lose itnormally on any type of issue.
We've never had a customer service issue.So we're wrapping up here.
We got another two minutesleft on the show.
What message you want to give to peoplethat may be considering.
(34:29):
Hey, I've got an association.
We've got membership issues.
We have no health benefits.What do you want to say to them?
So we bring a complete, packageof benefits to all the members,
for everything that they, they may havefrom a need standpoint.
And we literally look at everythingtailored to their needs.
Right?
Unlike most associations, it'll just tryto put it in like a group plan for groups.
(34:50):
We literally look at group options,but they're the individual group options
for each group, no matterthe size, and same thing for individuals.
And then we have Josh to help outwith any type of advisory stuff too.
They're kind of one step above,
the basic benefit would be the deferredcompensation.
Right.
This is the conversationabout attraction and retention.
(35:11):
Those are both importantpieces of key employees.
And so how do we make suresomebody doesn't leave.
And this is a whole thread to pull on.
How do we make suresomebody doesn't leave.
But we also, don't give up equityor control in our company.
What's what's that middle ground.
And that's something that we're workinga lot on, especially the Kuhlmann Group.
That's how you keep good people. Yeah.
You go through all the troubleto get somebody that’s really good.
(35:32):
And the guy down the street says, hey,you know what?
I'll give you 20% moreif you come down here.
When you lose those people.
I mean, I just saw this morningthe Berkshire
Hathaway's losingone of the number one people.
They're going over to Morgan Stanley.
So even the big guys lose them.
So what, we typically tell new groupswhen we start working with them is that,
(35:54):
we usually can save them 20
to 35% off of their, healthinsurance premiums.
So that's just that,the ancillary it's very common.
It's about the same number.We can't guarantee it. Right.
But that is typically the valuethat we drive.
We do the same thingagain on the ancillary.
Usually we are driving betterbenefits at a substantial savings.
Then we're easily ableto keep those premiums level and flat.
(36:17):
No matter what we're always going to do
what we should do to keep your benefitsas strong as we can for your group.
You know, I don't put people on this show.
I don't believe in,I don't put people and products
on this show that I don't useor I don’t service.
These people work with us at Detego.
They are using our GigCare programthrough Population Science Management.
They offer a host of other solutions.
If you're in any wayinterested in what they can do.
(36:39):
If you're an association, a small group,a large group,
reach out to themand they would be happy to help.
You can call John at 314-494-7860.
314-494-7860.
Thank you all three of you for doing this.
I have to do some more of these.
sounds great Cary,thank you for having us.
And now I leave you with this thought
from Albert Einstein,the one who follows the crowd,
(37:00):
they usually getno further than the crowd.
The one who walks alone is likely to findhimself in places no one has ever been.
Remember friends,the funny thing about life
it's refused to accept anythingbut the very best.
You most often get it.
Thank you for listening to America'sHealthcare Advocate Show.
Broadcasting coast to coast across USA.
Goodbye America.
Coming up in today's show, America'sHealthcare Advocate,
we're going to be talkingwith John Kuhlmann
from Kuhlmann Group,as well as Lauren Broyles
and Josh Banwart his associatesthat work at Kuhlmann Group, with them.
If you've ever wondered
how would my associationget health benefits, how would that work?
Or maybe you've got a large group plan
and you'd like to figure out a better wayto handle your health insurance benefits.
(00:21):
You can do thatby talking with these folks.
But most importantly, listen and learn.
Today, as we talk about how an associationcould actually offer health benefits,
especially if you've got 1099 employees.
And now America's Healthcare Advocate,Cary Hall.
Hello, America.
Welcome to America's Healthcare Advocateshow broadcasting coast to coast
(00:43):
across USA here on the HIA Radio Network.
My producers today, Mr.
Garner Cowdery behind the microphones.
And Mr.David Thiessen behind all the cameras.
The man who post all these showsup on our podcast and YouTube channel,
by the way, 608,000 views now,
thanks to all of you out therein the listening audience.
(01:03):
On the podcast channels,all 16 of them in our YouTube channel,
and we have a new affiliate.
We'll talk about that a little lateron in the show if you have issues,
if you have questions, if you need helpwith something, you can go to the website.
AmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com.
AmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com.
Send me an email.
Yes, I get a lot of them.
But yes,I answer each and every one of them.
(01:26):
So feel free to send me an emailif you need any help with something.
We're happy to help you.
In studio with me again today.
John Kuhlmann, CEO of Kuhlmann Group.
And you brought a few associates today.All right.
So we have Lauren Broyles, who is yourvice president director of operations.
And I have Josh Banwart, who is alsoa financial advisor with Kuhlmann Group.
So welcomeall three of you. Happy to have you here.
(01:47):
You're an old pro at this Thanks, Cary.
Yeah, I’ve been doing it since 1991.
So a long time agowhen I started my firm. Yeah.
So so let's talk a little bit about thatbecause what you do is a little different,
than whatI see out there with a lot of brokers.
What you do, you, you,I think you kind of,
you kind of specialize in this associationmanagement,
association health benefits and all.
The other thing isyou go with association management.
(02:08):
So it's a different corridor.
We're working with you,with the GigCare program,
some of the programs on that for 1099and self-employed.
But let's talk about how you got into thatand what you do there
that makes you so differentthan everybody else.
Because I've been doing this for 23 yearsand the first person I ever ran across it
does this like you do. Thanks, Gary.
So in, 2019, we started
(02:31):
working with one of our clients, and,
we, basically saved them $1.4 millionjust on their health insurance
and another $120,000on their ancillary coverages.
And at the time,
they were the with the 13th largestconsulting firm in the country.
And, they had been with them for years.
And, the line that they gave them onevery renewal
(02:53):
was, well,medical trends running around 8 or 9%.
So it's a fair increase.
You should just take it.
And they don't even really showthe group out when they do.
They don't really do an adequate job.
And that's pretty much what we seeon most groups that we work on.
So, we don't take that approach.
We actually go to market onevery line of coverage with every carrier.
And there's a big reason for that.
(03:15):
There's a lot of value in the TPA’sthat we go to.
TPA stands for third party administrators,whereas you hear about the BUCA’s.
Those are all the big publicly tradedinsurance companies.
So their motivations are differentthan the than the TPAs.
The TPAs are privately owned,
and because they're privately owned,their whole focus and goal is to drive
(03:35):
the most affordable health care withthe best benefits possible to the members.
So for this client,
not only did we save himthe 1.4 million on their health,
120,000 on their ancillary,but we also improved all those benefits.
The next thing is, is that we after we didthat,
the CEO shared with usthat he has an association.
And at the time they had over3000 dues paying members.
(03:56):
Before we were in the picture,they had over 3000 dues band members.
When we came into the picture, they hadshrunk down to 850 dues paying members.
So there's they were like,do you think you could do this
for our customers and help them?
Because it would create a lot of goodwill
for our customersand help us help our customers.
And, absolutely said absolutely.
So we did that in about twoand a half years later,
they're back up to about 3500 duespaying members, which is tremendous
(04:18):
growth for the association.
We're not the only reasonwhy that happened.
Their executive director,was a big part of why that happened, too.
But, with our programsand our that are very comprehensive,
we helped basically do thatand we in turn have also saved
a lot of their clientsfive figures, on their benefits.
Also.
You know, if you're listening to thisand you're wondering
maybe you're a member of an association.
(04:40):
Maybe you're just a member ofan association, maybe you're a director,
maybe you're a CEO.
Or maybe you're someone thinkingabout what you want to do,
and we'd like to have an association,
but we'd like to talk aboutmaybe we can do health benefits.
Well, there are a lot of hoops you have togo through, and there are certain ways
it has to be done thatwhat you need is a knowledgeable expert.
(05:01):
And that's what Kuhlmann Group isand that's what I'm listening to you.
That'swhat you're demonstrating to the audience.
That's why I wanted to do this show today.
There is a lot of need in the marketplaceright now, especially
when we talk about the 1099 self-employedspace.
We'll get into thata little later in the show.
But the idea of innovation,that's what Kuhlmann Group brings to this.
And if you are in an association andyou don't have benefits for health care.
(05:26):
These are the folks you want to talk tobecause that's what they do.
So talk about you've got a pretty longlist of everything you do here.
I was just doing show prep about 4:30this morning.
Was ramping upand I worked on this yesterday as well.
But the point is, you know, I'm seeingeverything on here from critical illness
to financial advisory to payrollto individual voluntary benefits.
(05:47):
And it goes down the list.
I'm guessing, Lauren, you probably havea lot to do with how all that happens.
Yeah, it actually does the work.
If I had to guess. Yeah.
So I actually talkwith a lot of the customers
and to speak on the AssociationJohn was talking about.
A lot of
the members,they're little mom and pop shops.
So this has brought a solutionto those mom and pop shops
(06:09):
where they don't know where to turn,where it might
just be a husband-spouse group,and they need access to benefits.
So this has been a huge,you know, basically solution to them
to get needs met for their employeesand put benefits in place.
You know, so John, that's interesting.
Lauren brings that upbecause the most underserved
everybody wants to do the 500,000life case.
(06:32):
We want to do that too.
Oh I know but
it's the 1 to 50 that in
this marketplace are getting killedwith these huge increases.
You've talked about this before that arecoming across on the ACA type plans.
All the rest of it.
And as Lauren said, it'sa mom and pop shop.
Maybe they've got you know, I'm a 27 yearrecovering broker.
Okay. Right.
And I remember going into place
(06:52):
that there be ten, 11, 12 employeesand they're getting killed on cost.
One of the things that you're doingwith your association
managementis bringing them solutions like that.
So talk a little bit about that.
I know you're doing the GigCare program,consumer data respondents with the folks
with our company of PopulationScience Management out of Nebraska.
But talk about Laurenjust mentioned that giving them access
(07:14):
to something they can't findin the marketplace that you're doing.
Right.
So on all size groups,basically what we bring to
the table is a full array of benefits.
And on anything we do,we make sure that we check
all of the optionsthat any client could have for everything.
So when you look at these smallercompanies,
many of them can't even afford to providehealth insurance to their members.
(07:34):
That's why we broughtin the GigCare solution, the 1099.
Right.
You also get some employers will.
What we found isa lot of employers are outsourcing their
IT because theit doesn't want to be an employee.
They want to work for other companiesand help multiple companies.
But some employers want to be ableto cover those 1099 people.
So we have two solutions for that.
We have the GigCare, but we also have inparticular one TPA that will literally
(07:57):
allow you to cover 1099 people in additionto your regular W-2 people.
It's really a wonderful program.
It's probably the best health care programout there for groups.
It's not probably it is.
So we have a lot of groupsthat we've been able to put with them
and literally not have the rates changein three years.
And actually,we just had one of our larger groups
with 600 employeesand their third year of no increase.
(08:19):
The rates actually went downin their third year
and their benefits stayed the same.So it's really powerful stuff.
In addition to that, they bringpowerful solutions to the table for PBMs.
Pharmacy Benefit Managers. Yes. Okay.
So the prescriptiondrug side of their plans
basically they dosome great innovative stuff on that,
just like GigCare does on its pharmacyside for its individual members.
They basically are able to get the drugsthat are name brand drugs for individuals,
(08:43):
high cost drugs, typically at no costor low cost for the member.
Whereas under if you'rewith one of the large insurance carriers,
basically you're usually payingyour out-of-pocket max for it.
Yeah you are, that, you're coinsuranceand maybe some the deductible
depending on the plan.
So when we come back from the breakgoing to talk more about this.
And then in the third segmentwe're going to talk about how
(09:03):
Kuhlmann group actually offers financialplanning help to a lot of members as well.
And Josh will talk to you about that.
If you want information, maybe you'recurious about how did they do this?
Or maybe you've got an associationor co-op or whatever the case may be,
and you're looking for a solution,or you'd like something that would help
members like was just describedby what John talked about.
314-494-7860, So anywhere in the country,they're happy to help you.
(09:28):
We'll be right back after the break.
You're listening
to America's Healthcare Advocatebroadcasting coast to coast across USA.
Don't go anywhere. We've got more.
Welcome back.
(09:48):
You're listening to America'sHealthcare Advocate Show broadcasting
coast to coast across USA here on the HIARadio Network.
You can find out more about usby going to the website.
All the information is up there.
Shows are also postedthere on all 16 podcast platforms,
and our YouTube platform.
I want to welcome our newest affiliatein the Ozark Mountains, KWPN,
(10:09):
1440AM and 105.1FM, in West Plains,Missouri.
We want to thank Jim Lambert.
He is the, station manager,putting us on the air
and welcome them to the America'sHealthcare Advocate family.
We're happy to be on up in the mountainsin the Ozarks.
Thank you for joining America'sHealthcare Advocate.
John, let's talk a little bit more aboutwhat's interesting to me is that you guys
(10:29):
look for solutions that other people justdon't seem to take the time to look for.
You made that comment about brokers.
Brokers go in and show a spreadsheetand say pick the least evil
on the spreadsheet, as opposed to,
the way you're
doing it, which is (10:42):
Here are the problems.
What are your needsand how do we find a solution?
Right.
So one of the things is, we have a true
passion for what we do,and we outwork everybody.
And we don't come back and tell any clientever.
Hey, you just got a 10% increasein medical.
Inflation's running around 9 to 10%.
So you should just take itbecause it's fair.
(11:04):
You'll never hear that from us.
As a matter of fact
even if our groups get a rate decreaseon the renewal that that happens sometimes
it's rare. You know,we still we still shop them out.
And the reason for it, it'sthe second or third most expensive line
item that any company has.
And for a few companies,it might even be the most expensive.
Yeah, absolutely.
So we always make sure we do that.
And we do that on every line of coverage.
Because basically what we foundis even on the ancillary,
(11:25):
most brokers do what's best for them,not what's best for the client.
Why I'm bringing that upis, as a consultant, we know that
the health insurance drivesthe relationship between the client
and the broker, the consultant.
So unfortunately, for most folks,once they pick the health
insurance, the broker just puts themwith who usually is best for them.
And we don't do that.
(11:45):
We shop everybody on the ancillary likewe do on the on the health insurance side.
And then we also addin a Ben Admin system and,
basically help the employeeswith an enrollment platform
and we automate all that with the payrollso that there's less administrative
work to do. Lauren.
Lauren handles that for uswith our clients on a regular basis.
Talk about that, Lauren.How do you handle that?
(12:07):
And I noticedwhen I was going to all the materials
you're doing everything from payroll.
We're going to talk aboutfinancial planning in the next segment.
You know,all the other things that you do.
Critical illness, Clever Rx.
Tailored 1099 Contractors.
Talk about how all that works.
Yeah. So I handle the administration side.
So I'm everywherefrom the implementation to the service.
So my job on customer serviceis to make your HR teams life easier.
(12:31):
We service all size groups.
So maybe your lack of an HR team.
So I help make sure that everything
streamlines from your payrollto the benefits to the carrier side.
So, like John was speaking on,
we still have some peoplethat we come across that are still using
paper enrollment forms to enroll their,
employees at renewal time,which is just insane.
(12:52):
There's so many solutions out there.
We like to put in Ben Admin Systems.
It makes the HR teams life easierbecause things are automatic.
When you leave things up to paper or ina person's hands, there can be, you know,
human error when that happens.
So making it more streamlined.
So it's on EDI connectionseliminates errors that can occur.
(13:14):
We had Kenny Delco on, a couple timesand talked about
what you're doing with NHRA,an association you're working with.
National Hot Rod Association.
Kenny has a saying that he doesthat’s part of the GigCare discussion.
He said, “a company built for hardworking Americans”.
And you have a saying that “we're MainStreet, we're not servicing Wall Street”.
What does that mean? What?
(13:34):
So we always, share with folksthat we're all about Main Street,
not about Wall Street.
And what we mean by that is a lot ofthe bigger consulting firms,
they literally are workingwith the big carriers The BUCA carriers.
The BUCA carriers,most of them publicly traded.
And like on prescription drugs, they,some of them even get cuts
off all the prescription drugsthat the member takes,
(13:56):
when they're already overpaying.
They're getting the rebates.
So the a lot of the privately owned TPAs,third party administrators that we work
with, they'll literally cut the,the rebates out of the plan
and get the drug to the member,or either low cost or no cost helping
the member also dramatically loweringthe cost of the drug.
You take a drug like Humera,it's about $8000 a month. Yep.
(14:17):
A lot of the biggercarriers will tell you, though, that
it'll only costyou 4500 to 5000 a month for the drug.
And their right,if you go through them. Yeah.
What they don't tell you is thatthey're getting a rebate of about $2,500
a month on that drug, Every monthon every member on the drug.
It's insane.
So the TPAs we work with,they cut all that out, and they either get
(14:37):
the rebate eliminated
to lower the cost of the drug by the cost
the rebate, or if the pharmaceuticalcompany insists on paying the rebate,
they put it back in the client'sclaim bucket typically.
Or like Detego, when you workwith our company, Detego Health, our TPA,
we have our own program called Script Aidand we just import the stuff.
Right.
And if you're taking Humiraand we're importing it,
(14:57):
you're going to pay a lot lessthan what you're going to pay
any of the major carriers,that's for sure.
I don't think a lot of the publicreally understands this.
And it's understandable. This is not.
Look, health care is confusing as hell.
Okay. Believe me.
As I said, I've been doing this 27 years.
It's not an easy topic
for people to wrap their head around,but what you're hearing is
when when you want to do somethinglike this, you need an expert.
(15:20):
And that's what these people are.
And what you're talking about is solutionsthat are out of the box.
Right. Okay.
And they take work.
Right. It's a lot of work. Yeah.
But we put it in. Yeah.
We just won a group of 100.
And there was two other firms that we wereup against and a new client for us.
We picked them up.
And their existing consultanthad been with them for around 35 years.
(15:44):
That's a long time.
And we replaced them and, saved the group,
basically well over six figuresjust on their medical.
So we're going to be bringingother great solutions
in to automate things and make themmore efficient, improve things too.
But we really do try to bring a wholepackage, approach to everything we do,
but related to benefits.
So another big area that we run intois people on their payroll.
(16:07):
So we don't sell payroll,but we have some very good partners
on that that are literally technologycompanies that do payroll.
They dramatically lowerthe cost of the payroll,
and they significantly improveand make it more automated.
And then that ties back into the Ben AdminSystem that Lauren was talking about.
To give you an idea,we have a group of 100,
(16:27):
in the state of Washingtonjust on their payroll.
We saved them $480,000.
That's insane.
Yeah, we saved them close toanother hundred thousand on
their, medical.
And then we saved them about 20 grand,maybe 25 grand on their 401K.
Those are all the things that contributeto making a difference.
And that and that is critically important.
(16:47):
You know, unfortunately, in today's world,as you talked about, you know, the
a lot of the big houses, the big the bigbrokers, the big insurance carriers,
they don't look at thingsquite like that. Right.
It's the medium small size broker
in your case,you know, you're pretty large firm,
but you're still taking to heartwhat needs to be done for the client.
We're actually bringing to the table
(17:09):
solutions that the big consulting firmscan do, but typically don't do.
They don't want to be bothered with it.
I can't tell youhow many groups of two and 3000
I know of that are with one ofthe big name box house consulting firms.
They don't even shop the groups out.
It's it's literally criminalthat they're getting away with this.
But people think they need them.They think they need an army.
All they are doing is overpayingfor all their benefits.
(17:30):
They're harming their employees.
They're not really meetingtheir fiduciary duty to protect them.
With things like the prescription drugs,they're not shopping it out adequately,
doing what they should do.
So we bring all those solutionsto the table.
And I can just tell you thatwe normally get every group we quote on.
Yeah. And I was saying I.
Would imagine you do.
And the thing I would sayis it's all about the data.
If you will give us the data we need.
(17:51):
The other thing we don't do, we don't dowhat the big consulting firms do.
We don't make you sign a contractsaying that you'll go with us
no matter what and pay us.
We'll just do our workand you can choose to go with us or not.
We live off the merits of our work, so.
And we normally win every time.
It's a great solution.
If you want information, you'reyou're fascinated, you're intrigued.
What you're hearing here,can they really make a difference.
(18:11):
Well you’re not going to knowif you don't reach out to them.
So if you want to contact John314-494-7860.
314-494-7860.
So if you're on the podcastor looking on YouTube, the number,
the website is acrossthe bottom of the screen.
You can look at that as well.We'll be right back after the break.
We're going to get in the weedsa little bit now
and talk about some of the other thingsthat they do
(18:32):
on the financial planning sideand some of the others.
Stay tuned.
We'll be right back after the breakhere on America's Healthcare Advocate.
Welcome back.
You're listening to America'sHealthcare Advocate
(18:52):
Show broadcasting coastto coast here across the USA.
If you want help or information, go to thewebsite AmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com.
Send me an email. I am happy to help you.
My producer today, Mr.
Garner Cowdrey, Mr.
Dave Thiessen, doing a wonderful jobas they always do.
Broadcasting here out of our studiosin Overland Park, Kansas.
My guests in studio today.
John Kuhlmann, the founder and CEO ofKuhlmann Group, Lauren Broyles he's
(19:16):
the senior VP that does all the real workbehind the scenes that John doesn't do.
And that's adviser John Banwart,who's going to talk today
about the financial advisor servicesthey offer through Kuhlmann Group.
So you know, people are listening to thisand they're going, well,
we were told “Associations” couldn'toffer health benefits.
They were told associationscouldn't have health benefits.
(19:36):
And there's that.
I'm not saying that's not true,but there are there are ways
to make this work, especially liketalk about some of the associations.
I mean, you've got over 750,000 people
who are working with uson the GigCare program on right now,
offered through PSMNebraska are standalone and
if they're willing to be a consumer datarespondent, they have access to this large
(19:59):
group plan.
Talk about how people access that if theyif they're like, what can we do that.
Yeah. So the big thing is, is if you...
Even if you have an association plannow, a group plan for your groups
and associations, the problem with ittypically is after the first year or two,
what you typically see happenis the groups that are in it
(20:21):
that are sick stay,
and then the healthy groups leavebecause they can find insurance cheaper
on their own. It’scalled the death spiral. Yeah. And that's
just very typicalof what associations have happened.
So we do things differently.
And basically what we dois we bring in a solution like GigCare
for the individuals that want to go onto the GigCare program, wonderful program.
And then we also bring to the tablegroup plans, but we broker that out.
(20:45):
We consult with each groupdepending upon their size,
on the health insuranceand on the on the groups.
And we broker that outwith the different companies.
And we check every companythat's available in the market
for where that group is locatedand headquartered.
We also do iton all the ancillary coverages.
We also provide financial advisory,including 401Ks and pensions.
And one of the innovative thingswe do is we,
(21:07):
have a PEP program when it's appropriate.
And, we can show that to members,but we typically evaluate everything,
even on that and all their optionson the 401K to look at.
And then Josh,we have Josh to work with on
individual financial advisoryand other things.
So Josh, talkabout what you do in your role here.
In terms of financial advisor,we talked before the show
and you're actually helping members.
(21:29):
Let's say you've got a memberof an association, he's
turning 65 or 66 or she's turning 65, 66.
They've had a 401K.
They've got money sitting therenow they're going to retire.
What do I do with it?
How do I invest it?
This market's all over the place.
Up 400 pointsone day down a thousand another.
I know because I'm in it.
(21:50):
So how
do you handle that in additionto the 401Ks?
Josh. Yeah, absolutely.
How do we retire and stay retired? Right.
I like that's.Kind of the key out there. Yeah.
And generally we'll just assess a few keyrisks of running out of money.
And how can we,
make sure that, you know, that doesn'toccur in your, your spend down?
Also, there's often questionsaround estate and hand off, legacy.
(22:13):
It's all complimentary to the 401Kand the qualified plans
and at Kuhlmann Groupare just really trying
to bring a collaborative, serviceright in into the mix.
We don't want to just be pigeonholedinto one area.
So, a lot of times it's it'sjust kind of assessing those key risks.
One being inflation. How do we keep up?
Generally the answer is the market.
(22:33):
Yeah. That's uncomfortable. Right.
So we place sometimes marketbased solutions.
But then we've got to havesome level of cash or guaranteed position
that isn't going to be fluctuatingin bad markets.
Generally the third one is the riskof a long term health care event.
We say it's a flip of a coin 50/50, right?
You or your spouse.
And generally you're going to havesomething if you don't have a plan.
(22:54):
The state has a plan for you.
So we we generally liketo have control as well.
And then the last one is, is the onethat makes everything else worse.
It's just longevity.
So go to that longterm care thing for a second.
Because I'm gonna throwan interesting statistic at you.
How many people in this country, letssee if any of you can answer this,
have long term care insurance,give me a percentage.
(23:14):
I would guess less than 10%.
It is less than 10%. You got 100% correct.
Now I'm one of the ones that has had longterm care since he was 45 years old.
Okay.
And and I, like Laurieand I still have that same plan in place.
But the point is, and you touched on that,
that if you don't have a long term careplan, you're going on Medicaid
or you're eating into your estateto pay for long term care.
(23:38):
So that's interestingthat you touched on that.
So talk a little bit aboutwhat are they looking at cost wise
if they don't have a long term careplan to be in a halfway decent facility,
not a medicaid facilitywhere there's two people to a room,
one shared television and a bathroom,they both get to share.
That's a lot of fun, I'm sure.
Okay.
And the first thing you notice when youwalk in the door is the smell of Pine-Sol.
(23:58):
You know, you're in a medicaid facility.
Talk about what it meansto get into a decent private facility.
Yeah. So, I did a lot of studying on this.
I actually pursued a credentialspecifically in long term care.
And the reason is,is because it's a huge issue.
There used to be a lot of companiesin the space.
There's not now. Now there's about 11.
And there'sI certainly wouldn't sell all 11.
(24:19):
Right.
You know, when wewhen we step into that space.
So you've got to be carefulin evaluating that, and not overpaying.
But there's, there's generallynot to get too specific here,
but there's generally three waysto solve it.
One is you just take cashand put it on the sidelines, invest it,
but it's protected.
That's the most expensive way. Right?
Two would be some, some levelof kind of basic long term care.
(24:43):
You use it or lose it,you know, you pay for it.
It's kind of like car insurance.
We don't hopethat we get in an accident. Right.
But if we do, we're sure glad we have it.
And the third is some sort of hybridwhere we'll use.
Life insurance to buy long term care.
And so what what the best option is, isgenerally dependent upon the individual,
and their circumstance.
But so give me an average cost that, yousee for a decent long term care facility.
(25:06):
But I'll tell you what my benefit isafter you do that.
Yeah.
So, so the average costand depends on your state.
Yeah.
In the state of Missouri aroundSaint Louis is about $4,500 a month.
That's right.And that's the average. Right.
So if you have a more skillednursing type facility, it's going to be
well in excess of that memory care is,I think, maybe the most expensive it is.
Yeah.
And and generallywe'll see that close to ten grand a month.
(25:28):
So my benefit right now is $300 a dayand Lori’s is $300 a day,
which wouldn't cover the cost of what he'stalking about, it's gone up every year.
It did not. Policy's gone up,but not every year.
But the the benefit has heldand and we're very fortunate to have it.
And luckily I'm you know I'm if we're inenough we're in decent shape to it.
If there's a difference we pay for it.
The problem is it's less than 10%.
(25:49):
What's interesting is, John, you'redoing this as an association manager.
How many people are there, do you thinkeven know this is going to be an issue.
Or they think here, oh, Medicareis going to pay for this.
I don't have to pay.
Most people, from my experience, don't
they don't even think about it, though.Yeah.
A lot of people don't even have a will.
(26:10):
You know, one of the first things we talkto people about is basically, you know,
do you have your state set up properlyand just making sure that everything's
proper, it's everything we dois really individualized to each customer,
whether it be an individual,their needs, it's their individual needs.
We want to make sure those are all coveredproperly.
It's not peddling productsor pushing stuff.
(26:30):
It's about helping peopledoing the right thing.
We do the same thing with the groups.
It doesn't matter if you're a group of twoor if you're a group of 5000.
Anything in between.
We're going to do thaton everything we do,
on every line of coverage,every every product or service.
But you're able to if again,people are listening
to this all over the country,they're they're
watching me on the on the YouTube channelor on the podcast and they're going,
(26:50):
well, we have an association,but we don't do any of that.
And you gave that story earlier
about membership decliningand how when you turned it back around
the associations have to be able to offera reason for somebody to be there.
Right? Right.
And is that what you're helping them do?
We drive that value?
We're basically bringing,
fortune 500 type benefits solutions,
(27:12):
complete benefit solutionsto small group and medium sized groups.
Doesn't matter the size of your group.
We're going to do all we can to providethe best value for all your benefits.
Unlike they've ever seen beforewith any other firm.
It's just we do. You’ve got a commitmentto excellence and customer service.
We have a passion for it.
We truly care about our customers.
I guess you could say we're old school.
Yeah.
(27:33):
We do what we say we're going to do.
At 76 years of age that’s something.
There'snothing wrong with old school folks.
Well I’m 60. So I'm with you.
You got a long way to go, pal.
You're very young.And then we have these two over here.
The youngsters? Very youngsters.Absolutely.
If you want information,you want to reach out to John.
You maybe you'd like to exploresome of this.
The way to do it is to give him a call.
314-494-7860.
(27:55):
314-494-7860.
So there's a reason he's on heretoday is to educate you.
That's why we do these shows to educateyou on what you can do to help yourself.
If you're in an association,you want to start an association, whatever
the case may be, these people are expertsand they're happy to help you.
And if you're an employerwith a small group or a large group,
(28:16):
they're right there, okay?
And they're offering solutionsyou're not going to find
on a lot of the large carriers.
So it's significantly differentthe way they do it.
Once again, the phone number 314-494-7860.
So when we come back from the breakI'm going to talk about what do you do
if you've got W-2 employees,but you've also got 1099 employees.
We'll talk about that.
Stay tuned.
(28:37):
We'll be right back after the breakhere on America's Healthcare Advocate,
broadcasting coastto coast across the USA.
Welcome back.
You're listening to America's HealthcareAdvocate show broadcasting coast to coast
across USA here on the HIA Radio Network.
(28:59):
Got a question?
Send me an email.
AmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com.
We're happy to answer all of them.
And thanks to all of youin the listening audience.
As I said in the opening monologue,
608,000 people viewing that podcastand on YouTube.
It's kind of surprising.
But we do thank all of you.
In studio with me today JohnKuhlmann of the Kuhlmann Group.
Also Lauren Broyles, who is his vicepresident of operations, and Josh Banwart,
(29:23):
who is a financial advisor.
We're talking about how they dealwith not only groups, but associations.
Because they're uniquely positionedto help associations.
He's got 750,000people on the association plans right now.
They're working with us over at Detegoon the GigCare program
through our PopulationScience Management platform.
These are things they're doingthat are innovative.
(29:44):
You're not seeing it out therefrom other brokers.
So let's just start with that.
I've got a company.
It's a trucking company.
They’ve got 4000 drivers,400 of those are 1099.
They had no benefits for them because youcan't put them on health insurance plans.
Okay. Because they're 1099.
They came to us,we put the GigCare plan in place.
They put together a little bonus programto kind of offset
(30:06):
the cost with their driversbased on the number of miles they drove.
They were thrilled because all of a suddenthe drivers had health benefits.
Okay. Through the GigCare program.
So talk about how you deal with companies
that have a double sidedpayroll like 1099 W-2.
John.
So I would add that with the GigCare,not only do they have benefits,
but they havequality benefits that are affordable.
(30:28):
You know, we had
our other podcastthat we did about the NHRA
and, Kenny Delco,our driver of the GigCare car.
He, basically explainedhow one of his good friends,
his ACA rateswere going to go up to $2,700.
I remember this, yeah.
And, through GigCare, he can cover himselfand his wife for $1,290
instead of $2,700and really have quality, better program.
(30:51):
So we have that availableat the GigCare program.
And we always look at that
for every associationto put it in place for them.
Or if there's a companythat has 1099 people that aren't covered,
we look at adding that for themto drive that value
to help their members out,because if they don't help them,
some of themmay have to leave to go elsewhere.
I know from a lot of our clients,we have several trucking companies
that they have troubleretaining their drivers
(31:13):
because they're competing against Amazonand all the other big companies,
so they have to offer those benefits.
And that'swhere GigCare is a wonderful solution.
If they do have W-2 and 1099drivers, right.
But that's any company that has that.
We can do that for any companydoesn't have to be trucking.
But we also have a group carrierthat well, it's a TPA.
TPA stands for third party administratorand they will insure 1099 members.
(31:36):
Now when you insure a 1099 memberon a group plan,
you cannot contribute towards the costof their insurance to keep it
separate.
Right.
Because you can't have that employeeemployer relationship.
So the member will have to payfor the cost of their insurance, but
they are just another class of employeeswithin the group plan.
It's very,very powerful, works really well.
And typically that carrier,
(31:56):
that TPA is reallyone of the best TPA's in the country.
They offer great solutions.
They do things to keepthe cost of health care down.
We have a lot of groups with them
that are going on their third year,with no rate increase at all.
And, one of the groups actuallygot a rate decrease in their third year.
That's highly unusual.totally unusual, right?
And we still shop them out. Right?
(32:17):
Even though that they're getting thatwe still shop them out to make sure
that they're getting the best valuefor the dollar,
because health care is the second or thirdmost expensive line item.
Like I said, that any any company has.
So Lauren,
I was talking to somebody the other dayand we were talking about customer service
and he said, Cary, he said the wordservice has gone out of customer service.
I know you guys,you get to handle all that. Yes.
(32:39):
So talk about your approachto customer service, how it's different
and how when some you know, it'snot if it's when they have a claims
problem because inevitably saya hospital codes a visit wrong.
They do this, they do that.
And then somebody gets a balance bill.
So talk about how you deal with customerservice issues Lauren.
Absolutely.
So we definitely pride ourselvesin our customer service.
(33:01):
If you're a business owner especially,you know, you're working 24/7
around the clock.
When 5:00 hits,our phones don't stop ringing.
So we're around the clock service.
Because when you do have a problemand is an emergency, like you're saying
with a claims problem,we answer, we don't.
You're there to solve, helpsolve the problem.
Yeah.
When there is an emergency,we're here to help solve the problem.
(33:22):
And we're here to help you getto the right person to solve your problem.
So we're answering around the clockon the weekends.
Believe it or not, that's amazing.
Yes. Yeah.Try doing that at one of the major
carriers, folksand see what you get, okay.
Not going to happen. Not going to.
That's one of the reasonswhy you are successful.
What you do is because you've got peoplelike Lauren. Exactly.
For you there has to be personal carefor these folks.
(33:44):
Lauren is, she has the,
work ethic of somebody who's 40or 50 years old.
She literally and she's only 19.
She sure looks 19.
She is absolutely amazing.
And, one of the reasons why we just don't
lose clientsis because of our customer service.
We have most of the clients that we'veever picked up from 36 years ago.
(34:07):
And, keep them.
And then the ones we add, we keep them to.
The only time we really ever lose
a client is when they get bought upby another company, typically,
and the new owner comes inand just gives it to their guy.
We just don't lose itnormally on any type of issue.
We've never had a customer service issue.So we're wrapping up here.
We got another two minutesleft on the show.
What message you want to give to peoplethat may be considering.
(34:29):
Hey, I've got an association.
We've got membership issues.
We have no health benefits.What do you want to say to them?
So we bring a complete, packageof benefits to all the members,
for everything that they, they may havefrom a need standpoint.
And we literally look at everythingtailored to their needs.
Right?
Unlike most associations, it'll just tryto put it in like a group plan for groups.
(34:50):
We literally look at group options,but they're the individual group options
for each group, no matterthe size, and same thing for individuals.
And then we have Josh to help outwith any type of advisory stuff too.
They're kind of one step above,
the basic benefit would be the deferredcompensation.
Right.
This is the conversationabout attraction and retention.
(35:11):
Those are both importantpieces of key employees.
And so how do we make suresomebody doesn't leave.
And this is a whole thread to pull on.
How do we make suresomebody doesn't leave.
But we also, don't give up equityor control in our company.
What's what's that middle ground.
And that's something that we're workinga lot on, especially the Kuhlmann Group.
That's how you keep good people. Yeah.
You go through all the troubleto get somebody that’s really good.
(35:32):
And the guy down the street says, hey,you know what?
I'll give you 20% moreif you come down here.
When you lose those people.
I mean, I just saw this morningthe Berkshire
Hathaway's losingone of the number one people.
They're going over to Morgan Stanley.
So even the big guys lose them.
So what, we typically tell new groupswhen we start working with them is that,
(35:54):
we usually can save them 20
to 35% off of their, healthinsurance premiums.
So that's just that,the ancillary it's very common.
It's about the same number.We can't guarantee it. Right.
But that is typically the valuethat we drive.
We do the same thingagain on the ancillary.
Usually we are driving betterbenefits at a substantial savings.
Then we're easily ableto keep those premiums level and flat.
(36:17):
No matter what we're always going to do
what we should do to keep your benefitsas strong as we can for your group.
You know, I don't put people on this show.
I don't believe in,I don't put people and products
on this show that I don't useor I don’t service.
These people work with us at Detego.
They are using our GigCare programthrough Population Science Management.
They offer a host of other solutions.
If you're in any wayinterested in what they can do.
(36:39):
If you're an association, a small group,a large group,
reach out to themand they would be happy to help.
You can call John at 314-494-7860.
314-494-7860.
Thank you all three of you for doing this.
I have to do some more of these.
sounds great Cary,thank you for having us.
And now I leave you with this thought
from Albert Einstein,the one who follows the crowd,
(37:00):
they usually getno further than the crowd.
The one who walks alone is likely to findhimself in places no one has ever been.
Remember friends,the funny thing about life
it's refused to accept anythingbut the very best.
You most often get it.
Thank you for listening to America'sHealthcare Advocate Show.
Broadcasting coast to coast across USA.
Goodbye America.
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