March 11, 2025 • 50 mins
This episode of 'Risky Benefits' features Laura Nolan, Director of Public Sector Sales at Humana, who shares her 25 years of experience in the industry to discuss key trends in dental and vision insurance. She talks about the impact of employer group benefits on public sector employees, such as teachers and city workers, and highlights the importance of preventative care and on-site services. Laura also shares personal insights about her wellness goals and underscores the benefits of AI in healthcare for improving efficiency and early diagnosis. The conversation sheds light on how robust benefits plans are crucial for employee recruitment and retention in both public and private sectors.
To listen in and subscribe to more episodes, visit our website: fbmc.com/podcast.
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Episode Transcript
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Risky Benefits Intro (00:03):
Hey, thank you for listening in to
risky benefits a podcast thatinforms you on all things
benefits We've got a sayingaround here Benefits isn't your
main business It's ours
Laura Nolan (00:16):
Hey everyone, thank you for listening to risky
benefits and welcome to thisweek's episode.
Our guest today is Laura Nolan,Director of Public Sector Sales
at Uvana.
Laura has been in the industryfor over 25 years.
Holding several leadership,talent management and sales
roles.
And today, she's going to helpus unpack some of the key trends
(00:37):
in dental and vision insurance,as well as the impact employer
group benefits have on publicsector employees, specifically
to include teachers.
Bus drivers, city workers, youname it.
As we all know, these are thepeople who keep our communities
running and their health isessential to the work that they
do.
We're really thrilled to haveLaura on today to talk through
(00:59):
her insights on a variety ofwellness topics.
From, let's see, the convenienceof on site dental and vision
services, to the importance ofpreventative care.
We will explore how theseofferings can enhance employee
well being and ultimatelyproductivity.
So, Laura, so nice to have you.
Thanks for coming on.
(01:20):
If you don't mind, let's juststart with you maybe introducing
yourself and telling thelisteners a little bit about
you.
And I don't know, maybe just getinto some things that you're
passionate about, kind of whyyou're doing what you're doing.
Sure.
Thanks for having me thismorning.
It's great to be on thispodcast.
I'm excited and yeah, I've beendoing this a long time.
So I have been in the businessfor over 25 years, 22 at Humana.
(01:43):
Humana is a really fantasticorganization and Humana's been
around for Well over 50 yearsspecializing in group benefits.
I would say part of what I'mpassionate about is really
helping and caring for thepopulation.
I'm, I'm in the public sector,so I, I live and work in my
community.
I'm passionate about Florida,our school board, the education
(02:05):
for our children.
And Humana really allows me tohelp improve the lives of those
that are on our benefit plans.
So making sure that people arehappy and healthy and working in
the public sector so they cangive back to us and serve our
community our families, ourgrandparents, our children and
make sure that we're also safeand thriving across Florida and
(02:29):
the entire Southeast.
That's cool I was just thinkinglike what might be kind of a fun
way to help people just Connectwith Laura and so like whenever
I ask people, how did you getinto the insurance industry?
I get some of the funniestanswers.
Because it's never, it's neverlike, I was in school, and I
(02:51):
just woke up, and I was like, Iwant to be in insurance.
So I'm just curious, what gotyou into insurance?
So I was here at, Florida StateUniversity.
Go Nels! Graduating andthinking, I don't want to go
back home and live with myparents, right?
That's what every child isthinking after this life of
(03:13):
independence.
And so I started, interviewingfor job opportunities, when I
was graduating tech was a bigboom.
I thought, Oh, I want to go intech sales.
I do happen to have, family inthe business.
So my dad was a consultant formany years.
And he looked up all theseopportunities in the industry
and said, Hey, I want you to gointerview over here and over
(03:35):
here, you know?
and so once he brought some ofthose to me, I started
interviewing and the companythat hired me, offered me.
a company car and at the time Iwas driving my parents like 10
year old hand me down four doorsedan that was definitely not
cool for a college graduate andthey also said and to entertain
(03:57):
and to take you know brokers orpartners out you can have a
corporate credit card and I'lltell you what my eyes were just
like What?
Okay I mean, this is the job forme.
I knew I could be out and about,not sitting in an office,
talking to people, and justthink about that as a college
graduate.
You know, they're going to giveyou a car and a corporate credit
(04:19):
card and you hit the streets So,that kind of, you know,
excitement and opportunity iswhat got me in.
Probably couldn't even spellinsurance.
At that point, but they did sendme to a group school, so I had
to go away for a month, theytell you all the ins and outs,
make sure you're licensed, trainyou on, presentation skills and
things like that, then theystuck me out in the field.
(04:41):
I feel like that, like such abig difference from, you know,
sales in different industries.
A lot of people are, flying andthey're all over the country,
but like it, especially inFlorida, if you have kind of a
job within Florida.
It's such a big state, and itreally is just easier sometimes
to drive.
So you do see, a lot ofcompanies that say, like
(05:01):
driving, you're gonna drive,drive, drive, drive, drive,
drive, drive.
Right?
And I think, like, that, is kindof the interesting, it's a
different dynamic in Florida,and working in Florida, than,
say, some of the other states.
But yeah, I could see that,like, as a person coming out of
college, being like, alright,this is a new world, let's
explore.
And what was the car?
I did not really care at all, Ijust wanted, I'd never had a new
(05:34):
car in my life, so, yeah Verycool.
So if you weren't in EmployeeBenefits and Sales, what do you
think you'd be doing?
The answer is probably differentnow than back then after all
this year, the years ofexperience and everything, I
probably would love to be amentor, a coach, a motivational
(05:58):
speaker.
I can see that.
That's what I'd really like todo, and I love to coach and help
others, so that would be apassion of mine.
Very cool That's awesome.
Awesome So.
We're in February now, what'sstill kicking off the year.
People are kind of settinghealth and wellness goals,
whether it's better eating,exercising more, just taking
(06:20):
better care of themselves.
I know, me personally, like,I've been cold plunging since, I
don't know, a couple months now.
And it's kind of, I toldDaniella this morning, it's kind
of waning because the pool'sgetting, like, It's not as cold.
It's still cold enough to takeyour breath.
Yeah.
But I, now I'm staying in forthree minutes instead of one
(06:41):
minute, which I could only doone minute because it was in,
like, the forties.
But there was snow on theground.
Now it's in, like, the Call it5860 and it's just so I'm like
really quickly realizing thatoh, by the way, we live in
Florida So soon I'm gonna haveto either get a cold plunge or
like take a cold shower But it'snice.
Yeah, so like that's one of mythings I guess, you know, maybe
(07:05):
talk to us about Your personalwellness goals you have this
year and and kind of health andwellness in general Sure.
Well, I have done the coldplunge a few times.
It's tough.
It is tough.
It is not something I've beenable to fit in my regular
routine.
Although I do love the infraredlight saunas.
Do you?
So that I am really getting intoand trying to build in.
(07:29):
I would say my overarchingwellness goal for this year is
to strengthen relationships.
That's what's really gonna helpme improve my health overall.
And so I do love.
I love to work out and exercise.
Maybe my answer would have beenif, if, I had any skills, a
professional athlete, but Idon't like that could be my
athlete career.
(07:50):
I just like to do it, but, soI've been working on that and
I've been doing, like groupworkouts, going to, community
yoga, and then my neighborhoodhas started a group.
Where we're doing it at sunriseat a friend's house On Tuesday
mornings at 6 a.
m.
Where we're just all gettingtogether.
Everyone has a cup of coffeeAfterwards and we're just like
(08:12):
supporting each other And makingsure that I do it Also with my
family.
So everything I do with Myfamily.
My daughter is now in college atFSU.
So she's my health and workoutpartner.
She was my tennis partner overthe summer.
She did, you know, classes withme.
So just making sure to reallyIntegrate physical activity with
(08:37):
that community and yes.
Yeah, absolutely.
And Laura, you're inJacksonville?
Yes.
Okay, so when you're describing,for those that are listening,
when you're describing like amorning yoga session with the
sunrise, like you're right thereon the east coast, sun's rising
over the ocean.
Are you doing it on the beach orare you just at a friend's
(08:57):
house?
Doing it on the water.
Oh, amazing.
I was guessing, but that ispretty cool.
Cool.
That's awesome.
Okay.
We need to come over and likejust have a week with Laura and
do all of her workout routinesand all of her community.
Yes.
Sounds great.
Perfect.
Come on.
Anytime.
So from an industry perspective,how do you see employers
supporting their teams inprioritizing health and
(09:19):
wellness, especially in thepublic sector?
Yeah, so it's a priority.
We know that people are alwaystalking budget cuts and
financial and grants and publicsector, making sure they have
enough funding, even to staff,you know, their, their
community, whether it be apublic entity or a school board.
(09:39):
and so I think benefits overall,having a really robust benefits
plan is critical to recruitmentand retention.
And, while medical is a corefocus group benefits like dental
vision, life and disability areall absolute necessities.
I don't think that you can leaveany of that out in the public
(10:00):
sector because this is what'sgoing to.
help improve their healthoverall, you know, their oral
health, their ocular health,everything that goes along with
that, but also protect themfinancially.
We know that the public sector,you know, the average incomes
tend to be lower than in theprivate sector, so they need
that protection from havingbenefits like that.
(10:22):
Okay.
Well, talk to us about some ofthe health trends as it relates
to, say, dental revision dentallot lot there's so many and it
really does correlate a lotwith, you know, kind of medical
care too.
So what you see in the dental,and vision world, at dental,
especially we have launchedteledentistry.
(10:43):
It became popular.
I think the tipping point wasprobably during those COVID
years when all the dentists shutdown their offices and people
needed care.
But also it really is important.
It's important that they haveaccess to care in our rural
communities, and then afterhours and weekends, because
unlike medical, you don't haveurgent care or emergency room
(11:05):
dental care.
So, if people don't have accessto care, they will go to a
traditional emergency room.
for a dental issue.
And so it's really importantthat, you know, Humana
incorporates teledentistry andthey make it accessible.
It's right through the mobileapp.
So you can just click andconnect, to a teledentist and
that's just one of the trendswe're seeing.
(11:27):
That is interesting.
I, so I've never tried somethinglike that before and I'm kind of
in my head, I'm like, I wonderhow that works or like what
they.
Yeah.
So do you have an example ofsomething that they could help
with?
Sure.
Oftentimes it's going to be likean oral infection, right?
And that is something that'sabsolutely going to keep an
(11:49):
employee out of work.
The pain that you can have withan oral infection can be.
Almost debilitating, right?
Where people can't even move.
And so, they are likely to go toan emergency room if they can't
get a dentist, you know, througha virtual access.
And then most of the time thatdentist is going to immediately
(12:10):
give them a prescription, right?
start to heal that oral pain.
And then coordinate to make surethey can get back into their
traditional dentist.
So it's not a substitute for,it's not encouraging them to
leave their family, dentist.
It's just making sure they'recared for in that time of
emergency.
Yeah, that's cool.
Well, I did, I, you know, thebig thing is when I think about
(12:33):
dental or even visionprocedures, a lot of times if
you're going in, yes, there'sobviously the standard.
Visits and you pre schedulethose, but like when you have an
issue issue, maybe I have IDon't know something happens in
it and to your point.
I'm having pain.
I don't know what's going on Itstinks to be all right No, I
(12:55):
have to try to schedule anappointment and get in and I
can't yeah to just at least youcould call and say Hey, what do
you think is going on?
You know what I'm saying?
So I could definitely See thevalue in that.
Talk to, what does it look likeon the vision side?
So on the vision, access to careis also really critical and what
companies like Humana are doingis we're bringing that care on
(13:17):
site to our public sectoremployers and What that looks
like is really pretty cool.
You've seen traditionalcompanies.
They'll say, oh, we're having ahealth and wellness fair And
we're doing a vision screening.
Well, that's great.
A lot of times that visionscreening is just telling them
Hey, maybe you've never wornglasses You should, you know,
you should book an appointmentwith an eye doctor.
But what we do is we take it tothe next step and we actually
(13:40):
bring a full sight.
Full vision exam and an opticalstore so all of the glasses and
frames that you want to choosefrom Can be right there on site
to one of our public sectorclient at the actual support.
Yes yeah, and then people gettheir glass or their
prescription They can ordertheir glasses and have them
(14:01):
right back delivered right backto their office.
That's pretty cool.
That's really neat.
Yeah.
Yeah And it just keeps people atwork, and they don't have to
take time off, and you know,that type of thing, so it's
great.
I noticed, like, in the notes,you had put a note about just
using AI within the process of,early detection.
Like, talk to us about that,like, you know, obviously we
(14:23):
learn a lot about, like, wherethe world's going with AI, with
chat GPT, and all these otherversions of, functionality,
like, for example, You know,radiologist and, using AI to
kind of look for, things thatmaybe a radiologist wouldn't
detect, right?
In an MRI as an example, how areyou seeing that kind of in the
dental and the vision realm?
(14:44):
So we really see it more on theback end with claims.
Our goal is to make sure thatour providers are happy.
And so it's been something thatHumana has always had that.
strength, having a nationalnetwork.
We don't want to just have highnumbers of Dentists or eye
doctors, we want to make surethat we have the right ones in
(15:06):
our network and that they'rehappy with us, so we retain
them.
And so most of our claims arewhat you call auto adjudicated,
where somebody goes in and theyare at the dentist or they're
getting their eye exam andeverything is automatically
processed so it's a very highspeed of pay back to that
provider.
AI is helping us.
(15:27):
Let's increase that even greaterso that they're immediately paid
those claims are processed.
We're using that technology tomake sure things are coded
appropriately.
We can pay and faster pay forall of our providers.
Okay.
And then the other note we hadwas on like kids.
I guess it sounds like the datais starting to show that kids
are becoming likenearsightedness is becoming more
(15:50):
of a thing.
And I think you guys were doingsomething in that realm as well.
Yeah, so, so kid eye health, isreally important.
I can speak for my own.
I, was one of those children, ifyou've ever seen me.
Did you have them with a wraparound?
I had a patch on one eye.
Oh, yeah.
And I had glasses since I wastwo years old.
Okay.
(16:10):
So I'm very passionate about it.
And then, you know, recently wehad our Olympian, the, and I I
can't remember his name, butthe, um uh, The gentleman that
is so famous now because when hetakes off his glasses, he's
almost blind and you know, is itthe palm horse, the gymnast, the
pommel horse guy?
We'll, to Google his name, buthe's, he's I think, helped us in
(16:33):
the industry create moreawareness as well.
Oh yeah.
C0006 (16:37):
there's there's
Laura Nolan (16:38):
looking it up, keep going.
Oh, I cannot think of his name.
But I will tell you, so there'sa couple things when it comes to
children's eye health.
First, being passionate aboutschool systems.
if the children are notdiagnosed early and they do not
have their glasses in theschools, they are probably, it's
probably really, detrimental totheir learning abilities which
(16:59):
we see all the time.
So, that's critical, is makingsure children have access and
can get their eye exam andafford glasses.
But then under our plans, weprovide to make sure that The
frames and the lenses are reallylightweight.
We all have children here and weknow they're running around and
(17:20):
playing sports.
And so we want to make sure,that the, lens wear and
everything that they have islight and easy and can't be
damaged or broken.
So part of that is also built inthe polycarbonate lenses to our
plans.
And then what, did you find hisname?
Yeah, it's Stephen, I'm gonnatotally destroy it.
Oh yes, his last name.
Stephen Nidorasek.
(17:45):
I don't know, but it's Steven.
Yes.
Steven.
Steve.
Steve.
Steve is He's such a, he's agreat guy.
And then he was on Dancing withthe Stars and he's, you know I'm
gonna have to like find him andpop him up and then.
Yeah.
Yeah.
there is another thing that's,Humana, make sure to build an
audience.
(18:05):
All of our plans, because I willsay from a vision perspective,
there are hundreds of diseasesthat can be diagnosed through
the eye.
So, brain tumors, diabetes,glaucoma, just to name a few.
Just based on what's going onwith your eyes Yeah once your
your, eye doctor looks into youreyes, they can see and I have a
(18:27):
really good friend who's also myeye doctor and she says, I ask
her these things, just being inthe industry, she says, I've had
a couple scary moments where Iimmediately will send people to
a hospital because she knows,they had no idea she looks in
their eyes and she knows thatthey have something very serious
going on.
Yeah, it's interesting, youdon't generally You wouldn't
(18:50):
think that there's that, yeah.
It's like I, know that like if Ihave an abscessed tooth and I
don't do something about it, itcan create something that's
catastrophic.
But then you don't think about,hey, this is just me looking in
your eyes creates and I, can seeindications of other health.
It, becomes part of thepreventative maintenance.
Wow.
That is cool.
(19:11):
Super cool.
Yeah, and diabetes is a big partof that so that's one thing I
would say and and a greatbenefit and why is every
employer needs to have a visionplan is because Having this type
of preventive in here or earlydiagnosis of other diseases that
aren't even related to the eyeCan also help lower Medical
(19:33):
costs.
Yeah.
And we include a diabetic riderfor anybody who has type 1 or
type 2 diabetes where additionalservices additional in depth
screenings, multiple routine eyeexams are all covered at a
hundred percent.
To make sure that they are inthere and you know a diabetic
absolutely could lose theireyesight if their diabetes and
(19:57):
their, you know, eye health isleft untreated.
Yeah I always think about And Isaw kind of some of your
comments in your notes, evenabout like law enforcement,
emergency services, people whereI guess in certain circumstances
they may not want glasses, theymay prefer LASIK or some kind of
procedure, but Obviously theireye health is exceptionally
(20:17):
important to what they doEspecially driving heavy
equipment and you know, I'm surethere's a lot of liability there
And they're probably having togo through the exams on a
regular basis.
Yeah, I would think Yes,absolutely.
I mean, you think about any lawenforcement, fire, all of them,
you want to make sure that theyare getting their regular exams
(20:38):
and their prescription is up todate, right?
So they're getting new lensesevery year, not just kind of
sticking with those old lenses.
And then teachers, you know,it's really important.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
If I'm a student, I'm like, no,I want teachers to have bad
eyesight lot and I'm going tosit in the back of the class.
(20:59):
And not see me taking a nap backhere.
The less they see, the better.
younger nap on your phone.
It's not a calculator.
Like When you talk about youngerelementary school kids, they
probably don't even know.
Yeah.
That's, that's, that's like howlike, you know, they're, they're
(21:20):
born with, you know, not greateyesight and then they're just
growing up that way and then allof a sudden you put'em in a
classroom setting and they can'tsee the board and they're like,
is it supposed to look likethat?
I don't know.
You know, or they just strugglein class and knows why.
Yeah.
I think a lot of times, likeI've, even with the kids, like
I've had conversations where I,I'm, I'm curious.
'cause if they're struggling ina class and like, Hey, where do
(21:41):
you sit?
Do you sit up front?
Do you sit in the back?
If you sit in the back, like,are you having, or they'll be
like, man, I just keep gettingheadaches.
And I'm like, what's going onwith your eyes?
Like, are you able to see okay?
And they're, first thing,they're like, what do you mean
Well, if your eyes are strainingall the time, you're gonna get
headaches and you start to askthese kind of questions But it
would probably get vetted out.
(22:02):
Yeah, obviously it would getvetted out if you're because we
all remember, right?
It looks like Yeah, you seebetter with this one?
Or this one?
And it's like lens, lens, lens,lens, lens, right?
Yeah, and you got the liketriangular letters And actually
Madison at a young age gotdiagnosed with astigmatism and
before they knew the letters Soit was like shapes and it's like
(22:23):
as a young child, like theymight not even know like what
and some of them I'm like, Idon't know what that is.
Like, what are you trying toshow me?
But it's, it is interestingbecause you just don't really
know.
And, for her, she, doesn't wearglasses today, but I'm always
asking her like, Hey, do, canyou see the board?
Like, are you having issues?
But yeah, I think it's it'sinteresting.
We, we don't talk about likeproductivity.
(22:47):
We talk about health, when wetalk about insurance, we often
talk about the cost of it.
Right.
Right?
But like, I feel like as asociety, what we don't focus on
is, absenteeism as much.
Yes.
It's, it's like, yeah, there'salso, there's a cost to it, but
there's also a cost to, like,people not being able to go to
work.
Absolutely.
And then, like, history, ifyou're a teacher and you don't
show up to work, we now have tohire a substitute teacher.
(23:09):
And like, there's a cost,there's an actual impact to the
business.
And then, people are, and thestudents learn, and or like if
you're buying a product andpeople are absent and there's an
additional cost, now the priceof the product goes up, right,
which is a part of inflation.
So, it's like, a heightenedawareness around if you're doing
(23:30):
your dental stuff and yourvision stuff.
on a regular basis and gettingit checked, you're less likely
to have that issue that keepsyou out of work.
Because something happens.
Which happens.
I mean, it happens.
So, I guess, we don't talk aboutthat a lot, but I mean, that is
one of the benefits here of, ofkind of managing and maintaining
(23:51):
your health and wellness fromthat perspective.
It is, and it's so critical.
So what we do and our teams dois make sure that we encourage
utilization of our plans.
And us in the industry, we kindof think, ooh, a lot of times
we're sitting in meetings andwe're like, ooh, you have too
many utilizers or it's too high.
But, you know, I talked aboutteledentistry.
(24:11):
The other thing that we do onour dental plans is oftentimes
we include a third cleaning.
Which everyone's used to twocleanings a year, but we go
ahead and include a thirdcleaning with no medical
prequalifiers So we've seen someother companies say well if
you're expectant It's reallyimportant that you have you
expect a mother important thatyou have a third cleaning or
(24:32):
maybe if you have anothercondition But you need to get
your doctor to approve it beforeit's covered Yeah, at Humana, we
waive all of that just becausewe want to make sure it's
accessible Accessible to themembers and then we'll actually
bring dentists on site as wellSo we will go and have a full
Dentist set up at an employerpublic or private employer where
(24:55):
they can come on site do thecleanings Especially if it's
that third cleaning they caneven do fillings You name it and
that really helps to make surethat people are using the plan
Just making it easy to do theright thing.
Yeah, it's kind of so this isNot similar, but similar.
One of the most convenientthings that, I worked at a place
(25:16):
of employment back in the day,and there was a, like, when you
walk into work, there was a guysitting there with a scheduler.
And he'd be like, hey, you wantus to wash your car while you're
at work?
And it's like, I can just giveyou my keys, get on the list,
and when I come out to my carit's gonna be, beautiful and
clean after my day of work?
I'm like, heck yeah.
You know what I mean?
And at that point, if he told meit was, 50 bucks, I'd be like,
(25:38):
okay.
Convenience factor.
Right.
So, to your point, when it'seven more important, right, it's
my health, and I only have to dothat, it's not, like if it's
three times a year, or two timesa year, it's totally worth your
time to do that, save the extrascheduling, getting out of work,
even think about, like, my wife,trying to get to the dentist,
(25:59):
and she, we have three kids.
Okay, If I'm here right nowrecording this podcast and she's
taking the kids and droppingthem off and whatnot, then it's
like, when does she schedulethat?
Because between that and pick upand then sports and everything
else that's going on, it becomesvery hard to find that time.
So if she drops the kids andthen starts her work You know
(26:24):
what I mean?
And or if I'm now here and assoon as I'm done, so definitely
just being able to walk out andbe like, I'm going to get a
dental.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
It becomes a high, I think thatbecomes a big value.
It taps into my next question,right?
Which is, and I guess this ispart and parcel to how Dental
(26:44):
and vision insurance is evolvingwithin the industry and this is
more of a policy kind ofprocedure Evolution where you
guys are deciding to cover athird Visit right?
Yes.
What other things are you seeingtrends that you're seeing as far
as the evolution in dentistryand vision insurance?
Well, definitely wellnessadditional screenings, like oral
(27:05):
cancer screenings.
We are seeing a lot of peopleask for fluoride later.
They used to kind of only dofluoride until age 7, and people
are asking to have it,additionally, almost like a cash
pay dentist are saying, well,you can do additional screenings
beyond the age 8.
of H7, and so we've made someadjustments there, and then we
(27:27):
have a plan that's a DHMO, andwe've added, services like teeth
whitening, right?
It's cosmetic, but people wantto have access, and it's very
popular these days, and so we'regoing to be able to, use and
leverage our network to providethat to, to them under a co pay
or a discount on our plans.
Okay that's cool.
(27:48):
So, we talked a little bit aboutthis, but, sometimes it gets
overlooked how closely thedental and vision can tie to
your overall health and wellbeing.
And I know you mentioned the,the eyes and being able to track
things through there.
Is there anything else that youwant to mention on that?
Well, certainly from an oralhealth, you know, we talked a
lot about vision, oral health.
I think, you know, you mentionedit, if you have something going
(28:09):
on or if you have periodontaldisease, that can lead to heart
disease.
It's, you know, there's a directcorrelation and it's a whole,
your body is holistic, right?
So it's everything that you'redoing.
If you are not taking care ofyour teeth and you have
infection or disease in there,it's going to, you know, run
throughout your entire body andcause additional issues.
(28:31):
And so that's really why it isso important to get those
cleanings and to take care ofthe issues you have.
One of the number one reasonswhy people don't take care of
their oral health issues is thecost or the fact that they've
hit their annual maximum.
So on dental plans people mayhave a 1, 000 annual max and if
(28:56):
they have a Some major surfacesthat can be covered and then
their dental coverage is over,right?
Everything beyond that.
So what we've done is we'vecreated a unique solution to
that called the Extended Max.
It extends beyond your annualmaximum, so you never go without
coverage.
If you hit your example, that1000 max, but maybe you need
(29:20):
some deep periodontal cleaningsmaybe you need a root canal
implants, you know, majorservices, we will continue to
extend your service and give youa 30 percent benefit above and
beyond that annual max.
for the life of your plan.
And that's a really great way tokeep people healthy, to make
(29:41):
sure that they don't say, Oh,I've hit my max in August, I'm
gonna wait until January to getthis root canal and sit there in
pain or having it deteriorate.
It makes me wonder why there'snot so, there's health and
wellness dollars, right?
And it's like, I almost feellike the wellness dollars.
(30:05):
People apply wellness dollars togo to the gym but I have no way
of really knowing that peoplewent to the gym.
I know we use trackers, we tryto figure out ways, but in my
head I'm like, wouldn't you wantto use those wellness dollars
for people going to the dentistand going to vision?
Doing preventative care, yeah.
Because essentially, vision anddental visits are preventative
care, right?
(30:26):
So the tie back is, take like,okay, Somebody flosses their
teeth, right?
And their gums start bleeding.
Okay, so You also have plaque inyour mouth, right?
And then you think about well,what is plaque in The arterial
system.
It's like what causes a strokeand or a heart attack.
So clearly there's preventativecomponents to brushing your
(30:50):
teeth all the time not havingyour gums To where they're gum
disease and they're bleedinglike that.
And so you can kind of see theseconnections to your overall
health and say things that couldbecome catastrophic down the
road.
All right so then if I'mactively utilizing my plan for
(31:10):
dental and vision, why wouldn'tthere be a wellness credit on my
medical plan as an example?
versus somebody who's not.
Because you would think that I'mbeing more preventative in my
overall maintenance and care.
It is interesting to me as Ikind of process through like the
A, the importance of, just goingin and getting the procedure
done, obviously be helping mefund it through insurance, and
(31:32):
it, and then I guess like Istart to think about like the
connection to the wellnesscredits and or to the behavior,
like the fortification of thebehavior within the employer's
plan to say Hey, we need to likeencourage people who are doing
this over people who aren'tdoing it.
Yeah.
You know?
Well, and, and like you said, Ithink when you think wellness,
you think, Exercise and evenannual physicals or mental
(31:55):
health is a big thing thesedays, which is great But you
don't automatically think dentaland vision, but that is two main
things that are, you know Youabsolutely should.
Yes, yeah, and we, you know, wedo that.
I know for myself under ourwellness plan.
We are rewarded it.
They want to make sure you'regetting that routine checkup,
your oral exam, your eye exam.
(32:16):
But you're just talkingwearables.
I know we're all reallypassionate about wellness here.
There's one, tool that Humanahas partnered with a company
called Truth Brush, and you'regonna love it.
Truth Brush.
You're gonna love it.
And I'm probably Geez! There's alot of people out there in the
world that don't want that.
Well, I'll tell you, you all areprobably gonna have to You're
(32:37):
gonna have to I'm gonna have tosend you four of them for a
while.
I wanna hear this.
It is for children.
Yes, please.
And it's a wearable device.
Not wearable.
You attach it to their tooth.
And it has an app based trackerthat will show you, are they
getting all the corridors oftheir teeth?
Or how about their teeth at all?
(32:58):
At all! Why are you pretendinglike you're just missing a spot?
My three year old's just likesucking on the toothbrush.
I'm like, you have to brush yourteeth.
I'm not gonna name names.
I'm not gonna name names, but Iwas talking to somebody last
month, and literally, he looksat me and he's like, yeah, I
just, I shame the kid.
And I was like, what do youmean?
And he's like, well, as soon asthey walk down, I'm like, your
(33:18):
mouth smells like a cat box.
And I was like, so I was saying,what?
And he's like, yeah.
And then I'm like, get back upthere and brush those teeth,
please.
Yeah, you don't even have toknow because you know.
Well, the best part is, is he'slike, oh, yeah.
He's like, Rick, if I don't sayit, they're gonna go to school
and somebody's gonna think it orsay it.
Yeah, right.
It better come from you.
You didn't mean so, and Istarted laughing.
(33:39):
And now I'm just imagining himhaving this toothbrush and like
looking on his app and he'slike, Truth brush.
Truth brush.
Back upstairs, you know what Imean?
I saw, you only got those fromupstairs.
away It's so funny.
That's great.
Golly, kids can't get away withanything now.
No.
Oh my goodness.
Oh, this is funny.
(34:00):
That's awesome.
But then again, I think about,like, the kids who, they have,
like, these requirements fortheir sports now to, like, run
and literally, I talked to mygirls the other day, and they're
like Yeah, my friends just standin the house, and they just
stand in one place and do likethis, and it gives you the
points.
And I was like, That totallydefeats the purpose.
(34:20):
You know, like that is not,that's not winning.
You're not, you know what Imean?
It's like, you're going like,you know, I might as well put it
on the dog.
You know what I mean?
Now I'm imagining somebody witha tooth pulled out.
The dog imagining things dog dogalso did all my wellness steps,
all the things.
Oh my gosh, this is cool.
But that's fun, that's cool.
I've actually seen, like, I wasjust Like high blood pressure
(34:44):
and things like that.
It is pretty cool, some of thewearables that are coming out
for that.
And just the, the compatibilityback to an app And then even
like if you have an AppleiPhone, they now pull the data
from multiple apps and kind ofaccrue it into one location.
So like I use MyFitnessPal totrack what I eat, right?
And then I have the whoop that Iwear for my It's my wearable for
(35:09):
like general biometrics, heartrate variability, resting heart
rate, workouts, all that,calorie tracking.
Sleep.
Sleep.
And then like, and then I have ascale that like takes my body
fat percentage and does all thatstuff.
Well, so that's three differentthings I just described to you.
But Apple pulls all of that intoone.
(35:29):
And so it kind of, it'sinteresting, it tracks like all
of it.
And then it's got the decibelreadings for sound now.
It's, I mean.
Where the market's going on thisstuff is pretty cool.
So it is interesting to thinkabout that being integrated into
vision and dental.
You know, it makes me wonder atwhat point I keep, like, the
Super Bowl commercials I sawfor, like, the meta glasses.
(35:52):
Yes, yeah.
And I'm like, I wonder when theycome out with glasses that are
Behind camera, he's wearing themright now.
Yeah, are you?
Yeah.
So I'm kind of curious, like,when are the glasses gonna
Imagine if they could have,something that's looking at your
eyes too.
Yeah.
Right?
Because at some point.
And like, measuring, you know.
Yes.
Yeah.
Eye health.
Because at some point, if I, ifthe glasses aren't gonna like,
(36:13):
know what I'm looking at to,they'd have to have a camera
looking out and a camera lookingat my eye.
They're probably doing italready.
You need to look at this.
Right?
And so when the camera startslooking at my eye, at that
point, you could put some kindof, biometric, something to, for
eye health.
I mean, it, what, my point is.
Eye health.
(36:33):
It's really going to beinteresting to see where this
stuff goes.
Yeah, I agree.
And you mentioned even, hearing.
So that's a benefit that weoffer with our dental and
vision.
And it's a, Hearing test, it's aprogram called Audicus, which is
all virtual, so that's somethingalso people tend to neglect, or
they just think, I'm just tuningpeople out, I don't know if I
(36:55):
have any hearing loss oranything.
To your point, that's a slowdecline over time.
Yes.
So that's the boiling frog, youwouldn't necessarily know.
Most people don't know, andthey, especially the younger you
are, you just don't check thatout.
You know, it's something thatyou don't pay attention to, but
also the younger we are the moreyears we've used headphones or
exposed to loud noises andthings like that, and so that
(37:19):
can all be detrimental to yourhearing health, and so that's,
it's a nice benefit that wepartner with Audicus to provide
all of our members discounts.
to check that out and also gethearing aids if they need them.
I, you know, it's interestinghow that stuff happens.
I worked as a managementconsultant in a lot of different
(37:39):
fields, but specifically oil andenergy.
You got individuals that arebanging hammers, and in the
moment when you're banging ahammer, or doing something loud,
you guys know the feeling ofgoing to a concert, right?
And then you leave the concertand you're like, man, I can't
hear well.
Like, you almost can't hear wellat all That detriment over the
long term is significant, but alot of times it's not that
(38:02):
feeling of I just went to aconcert, right?
You're banging on it, nothinghappens, and then you move on.
And that's what makes it hardbecause there's no immediate
consequence, right?
So then you're like, ah, it'sfine, it didn't do anything, and
then they keep doing it.
And to your point, it's like nottill years later that that
decline starts to happen.
And the best way I know to tellsomebody to like test that, just
(38:24):
Just so you know, if you,there's things on like YouTube
or on social media wheresomebody will be like, all
right, listen to this sound playand get one of your children and
bring them up next to you.
They'll start it at one rangeand then they move it to a, and
it keeps going and at some pointI can't hear it any longer and
my son's like, I can hear it.
(38:45):
And I'm like, oh my gosh, like,I totally cannot hear that.
Wow.
And so that is just adescriptive example of like what
you're ultimately saying.
You know that tri that thingthat was like, the blue dress or
the black dress or whatever fromyears ago?
Yeah.
But it's like people see itdifferently.
Yes.
I saw it blue.
But I would have never knownthat somebody would see it
(39:06):
differently and tell it was likea thing But it's the same thing
like what you're saying youdon't know that you're not
hearing it until someone tellsyou or you're not seeing it
properly You're not seeing theboard.
It's not supposed to look blurryor whatever it is, you know You
just don't know.
The AirPod Pro now has a test soApple phones You can put your
AirPod Pro and go into a quietspace and it will do a full
(39:29):
hearing test for you That isThat's crazy.
I love that.
Yeah.
I think that's what these toolsshould do.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
you know, why wouldn't youintegrate that stuff?
I had questions on here that Ifeel like we've kind of covered.
Like I was going to talk aboutpublic sector employers,
teachers, firefighters, cityworkers, and specifically how
dental and vision help keep themhealthy and performing at their
(39:51):
best.
You, access to utilization, Ifeel like we talked about a lot
of that, preventative care.
And, job demands.
I feel like we talked about alot of that.
Maybe, Kyla, just kind of getinto Yeah, and, and I think we
covered this a little bit.
There's probably more to besaid.
Uh, when employees have solidbenefits in place, what kind of
(40:11):
impact do you see in theproductivity and the job
satisfaction?
I mean, that, uh, and I, I thinkI mentioned it before, In the
public sector, it's just socritical because public sector
employees are there for thebenefits in the long haul.
We see a much higher retentionof employees there.
(40:31):
And they're, they're there notnecessarily for the salary, but
for all of the benefits and theretirement there.
So it's important because theyare such legacy employees and
they have so much more tenurethan in the private sector that
you keep them healthy becausethey're likely to be on your
plan not just 5 years and go toanother employer but 50 years
(40:56):
or, you know, 30, 50 years untilthey officially retire from that
public entity.
And so it, it's like owning themfor a lifetime and so making
sure that they are as healthyand their overall health and
wellness is top priority iscritical because it's critical.
To keep, keeping them proactiveat work, but then also the
(41:16):
financials of all of thebenefits and the plans, you
know, and then you know what'sinteresting about, like, what
you're saying?
I'm thinking about this throughthe lens of the private sector,
and if I'm private sector,listening to what somebody's
saying the value is, and howit's perceived in the public
sector, I would almost sum it upby, like, saying something like
(41:37):
this, It's like Okay, we allagree that people generally have
a tendency to want to workwithin the public sector.
If you move past like the desireto serve and what those other
like cultural components and youjust say Some of the value
perceived is higher benefits.
They understand the pay is alittle lower, but you get, more
(41:58):
rich benefits.
It would also be fair to saythat there are a lot of dual
income families where one of thespouses works for, say,
government and the other is inthe private sector, but they're
using the benefits.
absolutely.
Because it's a lot cheaper.
Right?
But it's also, not only is itmore cost effective, it's like
(42:19):
better benefits.
Yes.
So that's a net benefit and gainto the family.
So if I'm a private sectoremployer hearing this, what I'm
actually hearing is people arewilling to take a career that,
that offers better benefits overhigher salary.
Yep.
And so, okay.
Then if I say, okay, I'm goingto fight for competitive
salaries because I have towithin my space.
(42:41):
But if I have additional marginand I'm trying to figure out,
like, what's the best strategyfor recruiting and retaining
employees, clearly, by enrichingthose benefit plans, that will
help.
Because we've got a wholesegment of people that will take
a job for that.
Yeah.
Right?
that then lets me kind of lookat that from a private sector
(43:04):
standpoint and basically saythis is how important the
benefits packages truly are inretaining and recruiting,
employees and, maybe just letthat speak for like why you need
to prioritize that in yourthinking and in your strategy
making for your for your plansas a, as a private sector
employer.
(43:24):
Yeah, and in private sector,you're absolutely right,
because, there's so much privatesector competing with the public
sector.
For example, in Florida.
Charter schools, privateschools, Catholic, Christian
schools, all the differentschools, they are competing for
that same teacher populationbase, but most of them in the
(43:46):
private sector don't offer thatfull retirement, you know, the
Florida State retirement thatthe teachers do in the public.
So they need to further enhancetheir benefits and, you know,
make sure that they have notonly a comprehensive package,
but in many cases, a betterpackage than in the public
systems and the private, privatecompanies are also having to be
(44:07):
more flexible at work, you know,flexible with time off or
volunteer time off, things likethat to make sure that they can
recruit against public entities.
To be competitive.
It makes sense.
Looking ahead, Laura, what doyou think the future holds for
dental and vision benefits?
Feel free to specify public,private, whatever sectors of the
(44:30):
market Any predictions on howthese benefits are going to kind
of continue to evolve from wherewe are right now Yeah, so I, you
know, I'll say this is, thiswill be the, the Laura comment,
just, you know, from my, my ownthoughts.
I think that those type benefitswill be more influenced by
social and social behaviors, andsocial media.
(44:54):
I've seen a lot of that trend inthe oral health, but also from a
vision perspective.
But oral, you see a lot ofpeople talking about teeth
whitening and veneers.
And I've even seen people, youknow, a big trend and it's
probably more on Tik Tok, butputting, you know, diamond bling
on their teeth and things likethat So it's going to be
(45:17):
interesting Those are not, youknow, A lot of that, that's all
cosmetic and not medicallynecessary, but I'm, I'm
wondering if there will be aconversion at some point.
Like we've already added teethwhitening to some of our plans
and having that benefit.
Will some of those influencethose services?
And then from a visionperspective, I think we're going
(45:38):
to see a lot continuing toevolve in the wearables, your
frames and the styles.
Everybody wants their own styleand then accessibility.
So, I mean, we have.
Five of our providers are onlineProviders you want to just go
online and order your contactsor you want to go online and get
a new pair of Ray Bans You cantry them on virtually and have
(46:00):
them shipped directly to yourhouse We'll see more and more of
that.
I think it's pretty cool Well,this has been so fun, so a
couple like last fun questions,what is your go to productivity
hack?
Oh my goodness.
Uh uh well, listen, I love AI SoAI, I am with it all the way.
(46:23):
I use it every day I thinkpeople are missing out if
they're not using AI, it doesn'tmatter if it's for my own travel
plans, organizations Excelspreadsheet tracking, or if it's
just writing memos and doingmarketing.
AI is my productivity hack forsure.
And what is one book or, podcastthat you'd recommend to our
(46:46):
listeners?
Aside from ours, obviously.
multiple multiple Yes,absolutely.
This is my, number one.
I, so I'm in multiple book clubsright now.
We do have a book club at work.
I have my own.
I actually have two personalbook clubs I'm in.
I'm an avid reader, but more soI'm an avid listener because I'm
on the road a lot.
And so I would say, I love theapps and the tools that will
(47:09):
summarize.
It's the top, trending businessbooks or historical books and it
will give like all the keypoints and the highlights and
that, that's probably myfavorite thing, but I'm, I use
Audible, I use Libby, so I getall my, Free books from the
public library becauseoftentimes I'm reading two books
(47:30):
at once.
Okay, this is totally off topic,but I have a question for you on
Libby.
My mom and I were talking aboutthis the other day.
Why is there a wait for avirtual book?
Like, I don't understand.
It's not like it's a librarybook that you're checking out.
Like, it's, an audible book.
I don't understand.
I mean, it's like they're justbuilding demand.
Yeah, I have five on wait lists.
(47:50):
Yeah.
Right now in my Libby app andthat's all I do is I put them in
because it'll say two weeksthrough.
I think it's the licensing.
Yeah.
So that's.
Meaning like they can onlydistribute so many at a given
time.
And it'll tell you, it'll say wehave two on waitlist, we only
have ten copies of this.
It's audible.
It's like, you know, it's audio.
How interesting is that?
(48:11):
Yeah.
My mom and I were talking aboutit.
She was like, I'm waiting forthis book.
I've been waiting two months.
She was like, I don't know whyI'm waiting so long.
That's a really good question.
I never even You know, normallythe ones I get, I just get them.
I haven't encountered that somuch On Libby?
Well, I don't use Libby.
I use Audible.
You're paying, yeah, but you'repaying for it.
Yeah, Libby is like a library, avirtual library.
(48:31):
Oh, okay, okay.
And it is connected to your ownlibrary card.
So, I know, you know, I'm DuvalCounty.
I didn't understand that.
I'm glad you shared that.
I'll have to look that up.
Oh, it's great, because I alsosubscribe to Audible, but I
don't want, I read so much.
I don't want to pay 100 inbooks, so I have both apps.
That's a great idea.
(48:53):
Whoa.
Okay.
know know to know Learnsomething new Boom.
Knowledge bomb dropped.
to to know That's pretty cool.
Uh, Laura, at the end of thesewe always kind of reserve this
final question.
And it's just for you.
It's, is there anything elseyou'd like our listeners to know
I, you know, I would say thoselistening that I am a resource.
(49:15):
I'm here.
So if anyone hears something or,you know, take something from
this podcast today and they wantto do a deeper dive or just have
a general question, that's whatI'm here to be as a resource to
anyone, not, not just futureclients or current clients, but
just to help others.
Well, thank you.
I'm really grateful for youcoming in today.
(49:36):
Thank you to the listeners.
If you have any questions,please contact us or look for
information on our homepage atwww.
fbmc.
com.
And, just know that you canlearn more about the work Laura
is doing at Humana.
Laura, just real quick as a plugfor you, like, where can they
find you?
What's the best way?
Okay, so, www humana.com.
(49:59):
Okay.
H-U-M-A-N a.com.
Certainly.
And my email for anyone whowants it is l nolan, NOLA
n@humana.com.
And certainly follow me onLinkedIn as well.
I was gonna say they couldprobably look, look you up on
LinkedIn.
Yeah, absolutely.
well thank you to everybody andremember you can find us and
subscribe on any podcast app.
(50:20):
Thanks and have a great day.
Hey, thank you for listening in to
risky benefits a podcast thatinforms you on all things
benefits We've got a sayingaround here Benefits isn't your
main business It's ours
Laura Nolan (00:16):
Hey everyone, thank you for listening to risky
benefits and welcome to thisweek's episode.
Our guest today is Laura Nolan,Director of Public Sector Sales
at Uvana.
Laura has been in the industryfor over 25 years.
Holding several leadership,talent management and sales
roles.
And today, she's going to helpus unpack some of the key trends
(00:37):
in dental and vision insurance,as well as the impact employer
group benefits have on publicsector employees, specifically
to include teachers.
Bus drivers, city workers, youname it.
As we all know, these are thepeople who keep our communities
running and their health isessential to the work that they
do.
We're really thrilled to haveLaura on today to talk through
(00:59):
her insights on a variety ofwellness topics.
From, let's see, the convenienceof on site dental and vision
services, to the importance ofpreventative care.
We will explore how theseofferings can enhance employee
well being and ultimatelyproductivity.
So, Laura, so nice to have you.
Thanks for coming on.
(01:20):
If you don't mind, let's juststart with you maybe introducing
yourself and telling thelisteners a little bit about
you.
And I don't know, maybe just getinto some things that you're
passionate about, kind of whyyou're doing what you're doing.
Sure.
Thanks for having me thismorning.
It's great to be on thispodcast.
I'm excited and yeah, I've beendoing this a long time.
So I have been in the businessfor over 25 years, 22 at Humana.
(01:43):
Humana is a really fantasticorganization and Humana's been
around for Well over 50 yearsspecializing in group benefits.
I would say part of what I'mpassionate about is really
helping and caring for thepopulation.
I'm, I'm in the public sector,so I, I live and work in my
community.
I'm passionate about Florida,our school board, the education
(02:05):
for our children.
And Humana really allows me tohelp improve the lives of those
that are on our benefit plans.
So making sure that people arehappy and healthy and working in
the public sector so they cangive back to us and serve our
community our families, ourgrandparents, our children and
make sure that we're also safeand thriving across Florida and
(02:29):
the entire Southeast.
That's cool I was just thinkinglike what might be kind of a fun
way to help people just Connectwith Laura and so like whenever
I ask people, how did you getinto the insurance industry?
I get some of the funniestanswers.
Because it's never, it's neverlike, I was in school, and I
(02:51):
just woke up, and I was like, Iwant to be in insurance.
So I'm just curious, what gotyou into insurance?
So I was here at, Florida StateUniversity.
Go Nels! Graduating andthinking, I don't want to go
back home and live with myparents, right?
That's what every child isthinking after this life of
(03:13):
independence.
And so I started, interviewingfor job opportunities, when I
was graduating tech was a bigboom.
I thought, Oh, I want to go intech sales.
I do happen to have, family inthe business.
So my dad was a consultant formany years.
And he looked up all theseopportunities in the industry
and said, Hey, I want you to gointerview over here and over
(03:35):
here, you know?
and so once he brought some ofthose to me, I started
interviewing and the companythat hired me, offered me.
a company car and at the time Iwas driving my parents like 10
year old hand me down four doorsedan that was definitely not
cool for a college graduate andthey also said and to entertain
(03:57):
and to take you know brokers orpartners out you can have a
corporate credit card and I'lltell you what my eyes were just
like What?
Okay I mean, this is the job forme.
I knew I could be out and about,not sitting in an office,
talking to people, and justthink about that as a college
graduate.
You know, they're going to giveyou a car and a corporate credit
(04:19):
card and you hit the streets So,that kind of, you know,
excitement and opportunity iswhat got me in.
Probably couldn't even spellinsurance.
At that point, but they did sendme to a group school, so I had
to go away for a month, theytell you all the ins and outs,
make sure you're licensed, trainyou on, presentation skills and
things like that, then theystuck me out in the field.
(04:41):
I feel like that, like such abig difference from, you know,
sales in different industries.
A lot of people are, flying andthey're all over the country,
but like it, especially inFlorida, if you have kind of a
job within Florida.
It's such a big state, and itreally is just easier sometimes
to drive.
So you do see, a lot ofcompanies that say, like
(05:01):
driving, you're gonna drive,drive, drive, drive, drive,
drive, drive.
Right?
And I think, like, that, is kindof the interesting, it's a
different dynamic in Florida,and working in Florida, than,
say, some of the other states.
But yeah, I could see that,like, as a person coming out of
college, being like, alright,this is a new world, let's
explore.
And what was the car?
I did not really care at all, Ijust wanted, I'd never had a new
(05:34):
car in my life, so, yeah Verycool.
So if you weren't in EmployeeBenefits and Sales, what do you
think you'd be doing?
The answer is probably differentnow than back then after all
this year, the years ofexperience and everything, I
probably would love to be amentor, a coach, a motivational
(05:58):
speaker.
I can see that.
That's what I'd really like todo, and I love to coach and help
others, so that would be apassion of mine.
Very cool That's awesome.
Awesome So.
We're in February now, what'sstill kicking off the year.
People are kind of settinghealth and wellness goals,
whether it's better eating,exercising more, just taking
(06:20):
better care of themselves.
I know, me personally, like,I've been cold plunging since, I
don't know, a couple months now.
And it's kind of, I toldDaniella this morning, it's kind
of waning because the pool'sgetting, like, It's not as cold.
It's still cold enough to takeyour breath.
Yeah.
But I, now I'm staying in forthree minutes instead of one
(06:41):
minute, which I could only doone minute because it was in,
like, the forties.
But there was snow on theground.
Now it's in, like, the Call it5860 and it's just so I'm like
really quickly realizing thatoh, by the way, we live in
Florida So soon I'm gonna haveto either get a cold plunge or
like take a cold shower But it'snice.
Yeah, so like that's one of mythings I guess, you know, maybe
(07:05):
talk to us about Your personalwellness goals you have this
year and and kind of health andwellness in general Sure.
Well, I have done the coldplunge a few times.
It's tough.
It is tough.
It is not something I've beenable to fit in my regular
routine.
Although I do love the infraredlight saunas.
Do you?
So that I am really getting intoand trying to build in.
(07:29):
I would say my overarchingwellness goal for this year is
to strengthen relationships.
That's what's really gonna helpme improve my health overall.
And so I do love.
I love to work out and exercise.
Maybe my answer would have beenif, if, I had any skills, a
professional athlete, but Idon't like that could be my
athlete career.
(07:50):
I just like to do it, but, soI've been working on that and
I've been doing, like groupworkouts, going to, community
yoga, and then my neighborhoodhas started a group.
Where we're doing it at sunriseat a friend's house On Tuesday
mornings at 6 a.
m.
Where we're just all gettingtogether.
Everyone has a cup of coffeeAfterwards and we're just like
(08:12):
supporting each other And makingsure that I do it Also with my
family.
So everything I do with Myfamily.
My daughter is now in college atFSU.
So she's my health and workoutpartner.
She was my tennis partner overthe summer.
She did, you know, classes withme.
So just making sure to reallyIntegrate physical activity with
(08:37):
that community and yes.
Yeah, absolutely.
And Laura, you're inJacksonville?
Yes.
Okay, so when you're describing,for those that are listening,
when you're describing like amorning yoga session with the
sunrise, like you're right thereon the east coast, sun's rising
over the ocean.
Are you doing it on the beach orare you just at a friend's
(08:57):
house?
Doing it on the water.
Oh, amazing.
I was guessing, but that ispretty cool.
Cool.
That's awesome.
Okay.
We need to come over and likejust have a week with Laura and
do all of her workout routinesand all of her community.
Yes.
Sounds great.
Perfect.
Come on.
Anytime.
So from an industry perspective,how do you see employers
supporting their teams inprioritizing health and
(09:19):
wellness, especially in thepublic sector?
Yeah, so it's a priority.
We know that people are alwaystalking budget cuts and
financial and grants and publicsector, making sure they have
enough funding, even to staff,you know, their, their
community, whether it be apublic entity or a school board.
(09:39):
and so I think benefits overall,having a really robust benefits
plan is critical to recruitmentand retention.
And, while medical is a corefocus group benefits like dental
vision, life and disability areall absolute necessities.
I don't think that you can leaveany of that out in the public
(10:00):
sector because this is what'sgoing to.
help improve their healthoverall, you know, their oral
health, their ocular health,everything that goes along with
that, but also protect themfinancially.
We know that the public sector,you know, the average incomes
tend to be lower than in theprivate sector, so they need
that protection from havingbenefits like that.
(10:22):
Okay.
Well, talk to us about some ofthe health trends as it relates
to, say, dental revision dentallot lot there's so many and it
really does correlate a lotwith, you know, kind of medical
care too.
So what you see in the dental,and vision world, at dental,
especially we have launchedteledentistry.
(10:43):
It became popular.
I think the tipping point wasprobably during those COVID
years when all the dentists shutdown their offices and people
needed care.
But also it really is important.
It's important that they haveaccess to care in our rural
communities, and then afterhours and weekends, because
unlike medical, you don't haveurgent care or emergency room
(11:05):
dental care.
So, if people don't have accessto care, they will go to a
traditional emergency room.
for a dental issue.
And so it's really importantthat, you know, Humana
incorporates teledentistry andthey make it accessible.
It's right through the mobileapp.
So you can just click andconnect, to a teledentist and
that's just one of the trendswe're seeing.
(11:27):
That is interesting.
I, so I've never tried somethinglike that before and I'm kind of
in my head, I'm like, I wonderhow that works or like what
they.
Yeah.
So do you have an example ofsomething that they could help
with?
Sure.
Oftentimes it's going to be likean oral infection, right?
And that is something that'sabsolutely going to keep an
(11:49):
employee out of work.
The pain that you can have withan oral infection can be.
Almost debilitating, right?
Where people can't even move.
And so, they are likely to go toan emergency room if they can't
get a dentist, you know, througha virtual access.
And then most of the time thatdentist is going to immediately
(12:10):
give them a prescription, right?
start to heal that oral pain.
And then coordinate to make surethey can get back into their
traditional dentist.
So it's not a substitute for,it's not encouraging them to
leave their family, dentist.
It's just making sure they'recared for in that time of
emergency.
Yeah, that's cool.
Well, I did, I, you know, thebig thing is when I think about
(12:33):
dental or even visionprocedures, a lot of times if
you're going in, yes, there'sobviously the standard.
Visits and you pre schedulethose, but like when you have an
issue issue, maybe I have IDon't know something happens in
it and to your point.
I'm having pain.
I don't know what's going on Itstinks to be all right No, I
(12:55):
have to try to schedule anappointment and get in and I
can't yeah to just at least youcould call and say Hey, what do
you think is going on?
You know what I'm saying?
So I could definitely See thevalue in that.
Talk to, what does it look likeon the vision side?
So on the vision, access to careis also really critical and what
companies like Humana are doingis we're bringing that care on
(13:17):
site to our public sectoremployers and What that looks
like is really pretty cool.
You've seen traditionalcompanies.
They'll say, oh, we're having ahealth and wellness fair And
we're doing a vision screening.
Well, that's great.
A lot of times that visionscreening is just telling them
Hey, maybe you've never wornglasses You should, you know,
you should book an appointmentwith an eye doctor.
But what we do is we take it tothe next step and we actually
(13:40):
bring a full sight.
Full vision exam and an opticalstore so all of the glasses and
frames that you want to choosefrom Can be right there on site
to one of our public sectorclient at the actual support.
Yes yeah, and then people gettheir glass or their
prescription They can ordertheir glasses and have them
(14:01):
right back delivered right backto their office.
That's pretty cool.
That's really neat.
Yeah.
Yeah And it just keeps people atwork, and they don't have to
take time off, and you know,that type of thing, so it's
great.
I noticed, like, in the notes,you had put a note about just
using AI within the process of,early detection.
Like, talk to us about that,like, you know, obviously we
(14:23):
learn a lot about, like, wherethe world's going with AI, with
chat GPT, and all these otherversions of, functionality,
like, for example, You know,radiologist and, using AI to
kind of look for, things thatmaybe a radiologist wouldn't
detect, right?
In an MRI as an example, how areyou seeing that kind of in the
dental and the vision realm?
(14:44):
So we really see it more on theback end with claims.
Our goal is to make sure thatour providers are happy.
And so it's been something thatHumana has always had that.
strength, having a nationalnetwork.
We don't want to just have highnumbers of Dentists or eye
doctors, we want to make surethat we have the right ones in
(15:06):
our network and that they'rehappy with us, so we retain
them.
And so most of our claims arewhat you call auto adjudicated,
where somebody goes in and theyare at the dentist or they're
getting their eye exam andeverything is automatically
processed so it's a very highspeed of pay back to that
provider.
AI is helping us.
(15:27):
Let's increase that even greaterso that they're immediately paid
those claims are processed.
We're using that technology tomake sure things are coded
appropriately.
We can pay and faster pay forall of our providers.
Okay.
And then the other note we hadwas on like kids.
I guess it sounds like the datais starting to show that kids
are becoming likenearsightedness is becoming more
(15:50):
of a thing.
And I think you guys were doingsomething in that realm as well.
Yeah, so, so kid eye health, isreally important.
I can speak for my own.
I, was one of those children, ifyou've ever seen me.
Did you have them with a wraparound?
I had a patch on one eye.
Oh, yeah.
And I had glasses since I wastwo years old.
Okay.
(16:10):
So I'm very passionate about it.
And then, you know, recently wehad our Olympian, the, and I I
can't remember his name, butthe, um uh, The gentleman that
is so famous now because when hetakes off his glasses, he's
almost blind and you know, is itthe palm horse, the gymnast, the
pommel horse guy?
We'll, to Google his name, buthe's, he's I think, helped us in
(16:33):
the industry create moreawareness as well.
Oh yeah.
C0006 (16:37):
there's there's
Laura Nolan (16:38):
looking it up, keep going.
Oh, I cannot think of his name.
But I will tell you, so there'sa couple things when it comes to
children's eye health.
First, being passionate aboutschool systems.
if the children are notdiagnosed early and they do not
have their glasses in theschools, they are probably, it's
probably really, detrimental totheir learning abilities which
(16:59):
we see all the time.
So, that's critical, is makingsure children have access and
can get their eye exam andafford glasses.
But then under our plans, weprovide to make sure that The
frames and the lenses are reallylightweight.
We all have children here and weknow they're running around and
(17:20):
playing sports.
And so we want to make sure,that the, lens wear and
everything that they have islight and easy and can't be
damaged or broken.
So part of that is also built inthe polycarbonate lenses to our
plans.
And then what, did you find hisname?
Yeah, it's Stephen, I'm gonnatotally destroy it.
Oh yes, his last name.
Stephen Nidorasek.
(17:45):
I don't know, but it's Steven.
Yes.
Steven.
Steve.
Steve.
Steve is He's such a, he's agreat guy.
And then he was on Dancing withthe Stars and he's, you know I'm
gonna have to like find him andpop him up and then.
Yeah.
Yeah.
there is another thing that's,Humana, make sure to build an
audience.
(18:05):
All of our plans, because I willsay from a vision perspective,
there are hundreds of diseasesthat can be diagnosed through
the eye.
So, brain tumors, diabetes,glaucoma, just to name a few.
Just based on what's going onwith your eyes Yeah once your
your, eye doctor looks into youreyes, they can see and I have a
(18:27):
really good friend who's also myeye doctor and she says, I ask
her these things, just being inthe industry, she says, I've had
a couple scary moments where Iimmediately will send people to
a hospital because she knows,they had no idea she looks in
their eyes and she knows thatthey have something very serious
going on.
Yeah, it's interesting, youdon't generally You wouldn't
(18:50):
think that there's that, yeah.
It's like I, know that like if Ihave an abscessed tooth and I
don't do something about it, itcan create something that's
catastrophic.
But then you don't think about,hey, this is just me looking in
your eyes creates and I, can seeindications of other health.
It, becomes part of thepreventative maintenance.
Wow.
That is cool.
(19:11):
Super cool.
Yeah, and diabetes is a big partof that so that's one thing I
would say and and a greatbenefit and why is every
employer needs to have a visionplan is because Having this type
of preventive in here or earlydiagnosis of other diseases that
aren't even related to the eyeCan also help lower Medical
(19:33):
costs.
Yeah.
And we include a diabetic riderfor anybody who has type 1 or
type 2 diabetes where additionalservices additional in depth
screenings, multiple routine eyeexams are all covered at a
hundred percent.
To make sure that they are inthere and you know a diabetic
absolutely could lose theireyesight if their diabetes and
(19:57):
their, you know, eye health isleft untreated.
Yeah I always think about And Isaw kind of some of your
comments in your notes, evenabout like law enforcement,
emergency services, people whereI guess in certain circumstances
they may not want glasses, theymay prefer LASIK or some kind of
procedure, but Obviously theireye health is exceptionally
(20:17):
important to what they doEspecially driving heavy
equipment and you know, I'm surethere's a lot of liability there
And they're probably having togo through the exams on a
regular basis.
Yeah, I would think Yes,absolutely.
I mean, you think about any lawenforcement, fire, all of them,
you want to make sure that theyare getting their regular exams
(20:38):
and their prescription is up todate, right?
So they're getting new lensesevery year, not just kind of
sticking with those old lenses.
And then teachers, you know,it's really important.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
If I'm a student, I'm like, no,I want teachers to have bad
eyesight lot and I'm going tosit in the back of the class.
(20:59):
And not see me taking a nap backhere.
The less they see, the better.
younger nap on your phone.
It's not a calculator.
Like When you talk about youngerelementary school kids, they
probably don't even know.
Yeah.
That's, that's, that's like howlike, you know, they're, they're
(21:20):
born with, you know, not greateyesight and then they're just
growing up that way and then allof a sudden you put'em in a
classroom setting and they can'tsee the board and they're like,
is it supposed to look likethat?
I don't know.
You know, or they just strugglein class and knows why.
Yeah.
I think a lot of times, likeI've, even with the kids, like
I've had conversations where I,I'm, I'm curious.
'cause if they're struggling ina class and like, Hey, where do
(21:41):
you sit?
Do you sit up front?
Do you sit in the back?
If you sit in the back, like,are you having, or they'll be
like, man, I just keep gettingheadaches.
And I'm like, what's going onwith your eyes?
Like, are you able to see okay?
And they're, first thing,they're like, what do you mean
Well, if your eyes are strainingall the time, you're gonna get
headaches and you start to askthese kind of questions But it
would probably get vetted out.
(22:02):
Yeah, obviously it would getvetted out if you're because we
all remember, right?
It looks like Yeah, you seebetter with this one?
Or this one?
And it's like lens, lens, lens,lens, lens, right?
Yeah, and you got the liketriangular letters And actually
Madison at a young age gotdiagnosed with astigmatism and
before they knew the letters Soit was like shapes and it's like
(22:23):
as a young child, like theymight not even know like what
and some of them I'm like, Idon't know what that is.
Like, what are you trying toshow me?
But it's, it is interestingbecause you just don't really
know.
And, for her, she, doesn't wearglasses today, but I'm always
asking her like, Hey, do, canyou see the board?
Like, are you having issues?
But yeah, I think it's it'sinteresting.
We, we don't talk about likeproductivity.
(22:47):
We talk about health, when wetalk about insurance, we often
talk about the cost of it.
Right.
Right?
But like, I feel like as asociety, what we don't focus on
is, absenteeism as much.
Yes.
It's, it's like, yeah, there'salso, there's a cost to it, but
there's also a cost to, like,people not being able to go to
work.
Absolutely.
And then, like, history, ifyou're a teacher and you don't
show up to work, we now have tohire a substitute teacher.
(23:09):
And like, there's a cost,there's an actual impact to the
business.
And then, people are, and thestudents learn, and or like if
you're buying a product andpeople are absent and there's an
additional cost, now the priceof the product goes up, right,
which is a part of inflation.
So, it's like, a heightenedawareness around if you're doing
(23:30):
your dental stuff and yourvision stuff.
on a regular basis and gettingit checked, you're less likely
to have that issue that keepsyou out of work.
Because something happens.
Which happens.
I mean, it happens.
So, I guess, we don't talk aboutthat a lot, but I mean, that is
one of the benefits here of, ofkind of managing and maintaining
(23:51):
your health and wellness fromthat perspective.
It is, and it's so critical.
So what we do and our teams dois make sure that we encourage
utilization of our plans.
And us in the industry, we kindof think, ooh, a lot of times
we're sitting in meetings andwe're like, ooh, you have too
many utilizers or it's too high.
But, you know, I talked aboutteledentistry.
(24:11):
The other thing that we do onour dental plans is oftentimes
we include a third cleaning.
Which everyone's used to twocleanings a year, but we go
ahead and include a thirdcleaning with no medical
prequalifiers So we've seen someother companies say well if
you're expectant It's reallyimportant that you have you
expect a mother important thatyou have a third cleaning or
(24:32):
maybe if you have anothercondition But you need to get
your doctor to approve it beforeit's covered Yeah, at Humana, we
waive all of that just becausewe want to make sure it's
accessible Accessible to themembers and then we'll actually
bring dentists on site as wellSo we will go and have a full
Dentist set up at an employerpublic or private employer where
(24:55):
they can come on site do thecleanings Especially if it's
that third cleaning they caneven do fillings You name it and
that really helps to make surethat people are using the plan
Just making it easy to do theright thing.
Yeah, it's kind of so this isNot similar, but similar.
One of the most convenientthings that, I worked at a place
(25:16):
of employment back in the day,and there was a, like, when you
walk into work, there was a guysitting there with a scheduler.
And he'd be like, hey, you wantus to wash your car while you're
at work?
And it's like, I can just giveyou my keys, get on the list,
and when I come out to my carit's gonna be, beautiful and
clean after my day of work?
I'm like, heck yeah.
You know what I mean?
And at that point, if he told meit was, 50 bucks, I'd be like,
(25:38):
okay.
Convenience factor.
Right.
So, to your point, when it'seven more important, right, it's
my health, and I only have to dothat, it's not, like if it's
three times a year, or two timesa year, it's totally worth your
time to do that, save the extrascheduling, getting out of work,
even think about, like, my wife,trying to get to the dentist,
(25:59):
and she, we have three kids.
Okay, If I'm here right nowrecording this podcast and she's
taking the kids and droppingthem off and whatnot, then it's
like, when does she schedulethat?
Because between that and pick upand then sports and everything
else that's going on, it becomesvery hard to find that time.
So if she drops the kids andthen starts her work You know
(26:24):
what I mean?
And or if I'm now here and assoon as I'm done, so definitely
just being able to walk out andbe like, I'm going to get a
dental.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
It becomes a high, I think thatbecomes a big value.
It taps into my next question,right?
Which is, and I guess this ispart and parcel to how Dental
(26:44):
and vision insurance is evolvingwithin the industry and this is
more of a policy kind ofprocedure Evolution where you
guys are deciding to cover athird Visit right?
Yes.
What other things are you seeingtrends that you're seeing as far
as the evolution in dentistryand vision insurance?
Well, definitely wellnessadditional screenings, like oral
(27:05):
cancer screenings.
We are seeing a lot of peopleask for fluoride later.
They used to kind of only dofluoride until age 7, and people
are asking to have it,additionally, almost like a cash
pay dentist are saying, well,you can do additional screenings
beyond the age 8.
of H7, and so we've made someadjustments there, and then we
(27:27):
have a plan that's a DHMO, andwe've added, services like teeth
whitening, right?
It's cosmetic, but people wantto have access, and it's very
popular these days, and so we'regoing to be able to, use and
leverage our network to providethat to, to them under a co pay
or a discount on our plans.
Okay that's cool.
(27:48):
So, we talked a little bit aboutthis, but, sometimes it gets
overlooked how closely thedental and vision can tie to
your overall health and wellbeing.
And I know you mentioned the,the eyes and being able to track
things through there.
Is there anything else that youwant to mention on that?
Well, certainly from an oralhealth, you know, we talked a
lot about vision, oral health.
I think, you know, you mentionedit, if you have something going
(28:09):
on or if you have periodontaldisease, that can lead to heart
disease.
It's, you know, there's a directcorrelation and it's a whole,
your body is holistic, right?
So it's everything that you'redoing.
If you are not taking care ofyour teeth and you have
infection or disease in there,it's going to, you know, run
throughout your entire body andcause additional issues.
(28:31):
And so that's really why it isso important to get those
cleanings and to take care ofthe issues you have.
One of the number one reasonswhy people don't take care of
their oral health issues is thecost or the fact that they've
hit their annual maximum.
So on dental plans people mayhave a 1, 000 annual max and if
(28:56):
they have a Some major surfacesthat can be covered and then
their dental coverage is over,right?
Everything beyond that.
So what we've done is we'vecreated a unique solution to
that called the Extended Max.
It extends beyond your annualmaximum, so you never go without
coverage.
If you hit your example, that1000 max, but maybe you need
(29:20):
some deep periodontal cleaningsmaybe you need a root canal
implants, you know, majorservices, we will continue to
extend your service and give youa 30 percent benefit above and
beyond that annual max.
for the life of your plan.
And that's a really great way tokeep people healthy, to make
(29:41):
sure that they don't say, Oh,I've hit my max in August, I'm
gonna wait until January to getthis root canal and sit there in
pain or having it deteriorate.
It makes me wonder why there'snot so, there's health and
wellness dollars, right?
And it's like, I almost feellike the wellness dollars.
(30:05):
People apply wellness dollars togo to the gym but I have no way
of really knowing that peoplewent to the gym.
I know we use trackers, we tryto figure out ways, but in my
head I'm like, wouldn't you wantto use those wellness dollars
for people going to the dentistand going to vision?
Doing preventative care, yeah.
Because essentially, vision anddental visits are preventative
care, right?
(30:26):
So the tie back is, take like,okay, Somebody flosses their
teeth, right?
And their gums start bleeding.
Okay, so You also have plaque inyour mouth, right?
And then you think about well,what is plaque in The arterial
system.
It's like what causes a strokeand or a heart attack.
So clearly there's preventativecomponents to brushing your
(30:50):
teeth all the time not havingyour gums To where they're gum
disease and they're bleedinglike that.
And so you can kind of see theseconnections to your overall
health and say things that couldbecome catastrophic down the
road.
All right so then if I'mactively utilizing my plan for
(31:10):
dental and vision, why wouldn'tthere be a wellness credit on my
medical plan as an example?
versus somebody who's not.
Because you would think that I'mbeing more preventative in my
overall maintenance and care.
It is interesting to me as Ikind of process through like the
A, the importance of, just goingin and getting the procedure
done, obviously be helping mefund it through insurance, and
(31:32):
it, and then I guess like Istart to think about like the
connection to the wellnesscredits and or to the behavior,
like the fortification of thebehavior within the employer's
plan to say Hey, we need to likeencourage people who are doing
this over people who aren'tdoing it.
Yeah.
You know?
Well, and, and like you said, Ithink when you think wellness,
you think, Exercise and evenannual physicals or mental
(31:55):
health is a big thing thesedays, which is great But you
don't automatically think dentaland vision, but that is two main
things that are, you know Youabsolutely should.
Yes, yeah, and we, you know, wedo that.
I know for myself under ourwellness plan.
We are rewarded it.
They want to make sure you'regetting that routine checkup,
your oral exam, your eye exam.
(32:16):
But you're just talkingwearables.
I know we're all reallypassionate about wellness here.
There's one, tool that Humanahas partnered with a company
called Truth Brush, and you'regonna love it.
Truth Brush.
You're gonna love it.
And I'm probably Geez! There's alot of people out there in the
world that don't want that.
Well, I'll tell you, you all areprobably gonna have to You're
(32:37):
gonna have to I'm gonna have tosend you four of them for a
while.
I wanna hear this.
It is for children.
Yes, please.
And it's a wearable device.
Not wearable.
You attach it to their tooth.
And it has an app based trackerthat will show you, are they
getting all the corridors oftheir teeth?
Or how about their teeth at all?
(32:58):
At all! Why are you pretendinglike you're just missing a spot?
My three year old's just likesucking on the toothbrush.
I'm like, you have to brush yourteeth.
I'm not gonna name names.
I'm not gonna name names, but Iwas talking to somebody last
month, and literally, he looksat me and he's like, yeah, I
just, I shame the kid.
And I was like, what do youmean?
And he's like, well, as soon asthey walk down, I'm like, your
(33:18):
mouth smells like a cat box.
And I was like, so I was saying,what?
And he's like, yeah.
And then I'm like, get back upthere and brush those teeth,
please.
Yeah, you don't even have toknow because you know.
Well, the best part is, is he'slike, oh, yeah.
He's like, Rick, if I don't sayit, they're gonna go to school
and somebody's gonna think it orsay it.
Yeah, right.
It better come from you.
You didn't mean so, and Istarted laughing.
(33:39):
And now I'm just imagining himhaving this toothbrush and like
looking on his app and he'slike, Truth brush.
Truth brush.
Back upstairs, you know what Imean?
I saw, you only got those fromupstairs.
away It's so funny.
That's great.
Golly, kids can't get away withanything now.
No.
Oh my goodness.
Oh, this is funny.
(34:00):
That's awesome.
But then again, I think about,like, the kids who, they have,
like, these requirements fortheir sports now to, like, run
and literally, I talked to mygirls the other day, and they're
like Yeah, my friends just standin the house, and they just
stand in one place and do likethis, and it gives you the
points.
And I was like, That totallydefeats the purpose.
(34:20):
You know, like that is not,that's not winning.
You're not, you know what Imean?
It's like, you're going like,you know, I might as well put it
on the dog.
You know what I mean?
Now I'm imagining somebody witha tooth pulled out.
The dog imagining things dog dogalso did all my wellness steps,
all the things.
Oh my gosh, this is cool.
But that's fun, that's cool.
I've actually seen, like, I wasjust Like high blood pressure
(34:44):
and things like that.
It is pretty cool, some of thewearables that are coming out
for that.
And just the, the compatibilityback to an app And then even
like if you have an AppleiPhone, they now pull the data
from multiple apps and kind ofaccrue it into one location.
So like I use MyFitnessPal totrack what I eat, right?
And then I have the whoop that Iwear for my It's my wearable for
(35:09):
like general biometrics, heartrate variability, resting heart
rate, workouts, all that,calorie tracking.
Sleep.
Sleep.
And then like, and then I have ascale that like takes my body
fat percentage and does all thatstuff.
Well, so that's three differentthings I just described to you.
But Apple pulls all of that intoone.
(35:29):
And so it kind of, it'sinteresting, it tracks like all
of it.
And then it's got the decibelreadings for sound now.
It's, I mean.
Where the market's going on thisstuff is pretty cool.
So it is interesting to thinkabout that being integrated into
vision and dental.
You know, it makes me wonder atwhat point I keep, like, the
Super Bowl commercials I sawfor, like, the meta glasses.
(35:52):
Yes, yeah.
And I'm like, I wonder when theycome out with glasses that are
Behind camera, he's wearing themright now.
Yeah, are you?
Yeah.
So I'm kind of curious, like,when are the glasses gonna
Imagine if they could have,something that's looking at your
eyes too.
Yeah.
Right?
Because at some point.
And like, measuring, you know.
Yes.
Yeah.
Eye health.
Because at some point, if I, ifthe glasses aren't gonna like,
(36:13):
know what I'm looking at to,they'd have to have a camera
looking out and a camera lookingat my eye.
They're probably doing italready.
You need to look at this.
Right?
And so when the camera startslooking at my eye, at that
point, you could put some kindof, biometric, something to, for
eye health.
I mean, it, what, my point is.
Eye health.
(36:33):
It's really going to beinteresting to see where this
stuff goes.
Yeah, I agree.
And you mentioned even, hearing.
So that's a benefit that weoffer with our dental and
vision.
And it's a, Hearing test, it's aprogram called Audicus, which is
all virtual, so that's somethingalso people tend to neglect, or
they just think, I'm just tuningpeople out, I don't know if I
(36:55):
have any hearing loss oranything.
To your point, that's a slowdecline over time.
Yes.
So that's the boiling frog, youwouldn't necessarily know.
Most people don't know, andthey, especially the younger you
are, you just don't check thatout.
You know, it's something thatyou don't pay attention to, but
also the younger we are the moreyears we've used headphones or
exposed to loud noises andthings like that, and so that
(37:19):
can all be detrimental to yourhearing health, and so that's,
it's a nice benefit that wepartner with Audicus to provide
all of our members discounts.
to check that out and also gethearing aids if they need them.
I, you know, it's interestinghow that stuff happens.
I worked as a managementconsultant in a lot of different
(37:39):
fields, but specifically oil andenergy.
You got individuals that arebanging hammers, and in the
moment when you're banging ahammer, or doing something loud,
you guys know the feeling ofgoing to a concert, right?
And then you leave the concertand you're like, man, I can't
hear well.
Like, you almost can't hear wellat all That detriment over the
long term is significant, but alot of times it's not that
(38:02):
feeling of I just went to aconcert, right?
You're banging on it, nothinghappens, and then you move on.
And that's what makes it hardbecause there's no immediate
consequence, right?
So then you're like, ah, it'sfine, it didn't do anything, and
then they keep doing it.
And to your point, it's like nottill years later that that
decline starts to happen.
And the best way I know to tellsomebody to like test that, just
(38:24):
Just so you know, if you,there's things on like YouTube
or on social media wheresomebody will be like, all
right, listen to this sound playand get one of your children and
bring them up next to you.
They'll start it at one rangeand then they move it to a, and
it keeps going and at some pointI can't hear it any longer and
my son's like, I can hear it.
(38:45):
And I'm like, oh my gosh, like,I totally cannot hear that.
Wow.
And so that is just adescriptive example of like what
you're ultimately saying.
You know that tri that thingthat was like, the blue dress or
the black dress or whatever fromyears ago?
Yeah.
But it's like people see itdifferently.
Yes.
I saw it blue.
But I would have never knownthat somebody would see it
(39:06):
differently and tell it was likea thing But it's the same thing
like what you're saying youdon't know that you're not
hearing it until someone tellsyou or you're not seeing it
properly You're not seeing theboard.
It's not supposed to look blurryor whatever it is, you know You
just don't know.
The AirPod Pro now has a test soApple phones You can put your
AirPod Pro and go into a quietspace and it will do a full
(39:29):
hearing test for you That isThat's crazy.
I love that.
Yeah.
I think that's what these toolsshould do.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
you know, why wouldn't youintegrate that stuff?
I had questions on here that Ifeel like we've kind of covered.
Like I was going to talk aboutpublic sector employers,
teachers, firefighters, cityworkers, and specifically how
dental and vision help keep themhealthy and performing at their
(39:51):
best.
You, access to utilization, Ifeel like we talked about a lot
of that, preventative care.
And, job demands.
I feel like we talked about alot of that.
Maybe, Kyla, just kind of getinto Yeah, and, and I think we
covered this a little bit.
There's probably more to besaid.
Uh, when employees have solidbenefits in place, what kind of
(40:11):
impact do you see in theproductivity and the job
satisfaction?
I mean, that, uh, and I, I thinkI mentioned it before, In the
public sector, it's just socritical because public sector
employees are there for thebenefits in the long haul.
We see a much higher retentionof employees there.
(40:31):
And they're, they're there notnecessarily for the salary, but
for all of the benefits and theretirement there.
So it's important because theyare such legacy employees and
they have so much more tenurethan in the private sector that
you keep them healthy becausethey're likely to be on your
plan not just 5 years and go toanother employer but 50 years
(40:56):
or, you know, 30, 50 years untilthey officially retire from that
public entity.
And so it, it's like owning themfor a lifetime and so making
sure that they are as healthyand their overall health and
wellness is top priority iscritical because it's critical.
To keep, keeping them proactiveat work, but then also the
(41:16):
financials of all of thebenefits and the plans, you
know, and then you know what'sinteresting about, like, what
you're saying?
I'm thinking about this throughthe lens of the private sector,
and if I'm private sector,listening to what somebody's
saying the value is, and howit's perceived in the public
sector, I would almost sum it upby, like, saying something like
(41:37):
this, It's like Okay, we allagree that people generally have
a tendency to want to workwithin the public sector.
If you move past like the desireto serve and what those other
like cultural components and youjust say Some of the value
perceived is higher benefits.
They understand the pay is alittle lower, but you get, more
(41:58):
rich benefits.
It would also be fair to saythat there are a lot of dual
income families where one of thespouses works for, say,
government and the other is inthe private sector, but they're
using the benefits.
absolutely.
Because it's a lot cheaper.
Right?
But it's also, not only is itmore cost effective, it's like
(42:19):
better benefits.
Yes.
So that's a net benefit and gainto the family.
So if I'm a private sectoremployer hearing this, what I'm
actually hearing is people arewilling to take a career that,
that offers better benefits overhigher salary.
Yep.
And so, okay.
Then if I say, okay, I'm goingto fight for competitive
salaries because I have towithin my space.
(42:41):
But if I have additional marginand I'm trying to figure out,
like, what's the best strategyfor recruiting and retaining
employees, clearly, by enrichingthose benefit plans, that will
help.
Because we've got a wholesegment of people that will take
a job for that.
Yeah.
Right?
that then lets me kind of lookat that from a private sector
(43:04):
standpoint and basically saythis is how important the
benefits packages truly are inretaining and recruiting,
employees and, maybe just letthat speak for like why you need
to prioritize that in yourthinking and in your strategy
making for your for your plansas a, as a private sector
employer.
(43:24):
Yeah, and in private sector,you're absolutely right,
because, there's so much privatesector competing with the public
sector.
For example, in Florida.
Charter schools, privateschools, Catholic, Christian
schools, all the differentschools, they are competing for
that same teacher populationbase, but most of them in the
(43:46):
private sector don't offer thatfull retirement, you know, the
Florida State retirement thatthe teachers do in the public.
So they need to further enhancetheir benefits and, you know,
make sure that they have notonly a comprehensive package,
but in many cases, a betterpackage than in the public
systems and the private, privatecompanies are also having to be
(44:07):
more flexible at work, you know,flexible with time off or
volunteer time off, things likethat to make sure that they can
recruit against public entities.
To be competitive.
It makes sense.
Looking ahead, Laura, what doyou think the future holds for
dental and vision benefits?
Feel free to specify public,private, whatever sectors of the
(44:30):
market Any predictions on howthese benefits are going to kind
of continue to evolve from wherewe are right now Yeah, so I, you
know, I'll say this is, thiswill be the, the Laura comment,
just, you know, from my, my ownthoughts.
I think that those type benefitswill be more influenced by
social and social behaviors, andsocial media.
(44:54):
I've seen a lot of that trend inthe oral health, but also from a
vision perspective.
But oral, you see a lot ofpeople talking about teeth
whitening and veneers.
And I've even seen people, youknow, a big trend and it's
probably more on Tik Tok, butputting, you know, diamond bling
on their teeth and things likethat So it's going to be
(45:17):
interesting Those are not, youknow, A lot of that, that's all
cosmetic and not medicallynecessary, but I'm, I'm
wondering if there will be aconversion at some point.
Like we've already added teethwhitening to some of our plans
and having that benefit.
Will some of those influencethose services?
And then from a visionperspective, I think we're going
(45:38):
to see a lot continuing toevolve in the wearables, your
frames and the styles.
Everybody wants their own styleand then accessibility.
So, I mean, we have.
Five of our providers are onlineProviders you want to just go
online and order your contactsor you want to go online and get
a new pair of Ray Bans You cantry them on virtually and have
(46:00):
them shipped directly to yourhouse We'll see more and more of
that.
I think it's pretty cool Well,this has been so fun, so a
couple like last fun questions,what is your go to productivity
hack?
Oh my goodness.
Uh uh well, listen, I love AI SoAI, I am with it all the way.
(46:23):
I use it every day I thinkpeople are missing out if
they're not using AI, it doesn'tmatter if it's for my own travel
plans, organizations Excelspreadsheet tracking, or if it's
just writing memos and doingmarketing.
AI is my productivity hack forsure.
And what is one book or, podcastthat you'd recommend to our
(46:46):
listeners?
Aside from ours, obviously.
multiple multiple Yes,absolutely.
This is my, number one.
I, so I'm in multiple book clubsright now.
We do have a book club at work.
I have my own.
I actually have two personalbook clubs I'm in.
I'm an avid reader, but more soI'm an avid listener because I'm
on the road a lot.
And so I would say, I love theapps and the tools that will
(47:09):
summarize.
It's the top, trending businessbooks or historical books and it
will give like all the keypoints and the highlights and
that, that's probably myfavorite thing, but I'm, I use
Audible, I use Libby, so I getall my, Free books from the
public library becauseoftentimes I'm reading two books
(47:30):
at once.
Okay, this is totally off topic,but I have a question for you on
Libby.
My mom and I were talking aboutthis the other day.
Why is there a wait for avirtual book?
Like, I don't understand.
It's not like it's a librarybook that you're checking out.
Like, it's, an audible book.
I don't understand.
I mean, it's like they're justbuilding demand.
Yeah, I have five on wait lists.
(47:50):
Yeah.
Right now in my Libby app andthat's all I do is I put them in
because it'll say two weeksthrough.
I think it's the licensing.
Yeah.
So that's.
Meaning like they can onlydistribute so many at a given
time.
And it'll tell you, it'll say wehave two on waitlist, we only
have ten copies of this.
It's audible.
It's like, you know, it's audio.
How interesting is that?
(48:11):
Yeah.
My mom and I were talking aboutit.
She was like, I'm waiting forthis book.
I've been waiting two months.
She was like, I don't know whyI'm waiting so long.
That's a really good question.
I never even You know, normallythe ones I get, I just get them.
I haven't encountered that somuch On Libby?
Well, I don't use Libby.
I use Audible.
You're paying, yeah, but you'repaying for it.
Yeah, Libby is like a library, avirtual library.
(48:31):
Oh, okay, okay.
And it is connected to your ownlibrary card.
So, I know, you know, I'm DuvalCounty.
I didn't understand that.
I'm glad you shared that.
I'll have to look that up.
Oh, it's great, because I alsosubscribe to Audible, but I
don't want, I read so much.
I don't want to pay 100 inbooks, so I have both apps.
That's a great idea.
(48:53):
Whoa.
Okay.
know know to know Learnsomething new Boom.
Knowledge bomb dropped.
to to know That's pretty cool.
Uh, Laura, at the end of thesewe always kind of reserve this
final question.
And it's just for you.
It's, is there anything elseyou'd like our listeners to know
I, you know, I would say thoselistening that I am a resource.
(49:15):
I'm here.
So if anyone hears something or,you know, take something from
this podcast today and they wantto do a deeper dive or just have
a general question, that's whatI'm here to be as a resource to
anyone, not, not just futureclients or current clients, but
just to help others.
Well, thank you.
I'm really grateful for youcoming in today.
(49:36):
Thank you to the listeners.
If you have any questions,please contact us or look for
information on our homepage atwww.
fbmc.
com.
And, just know that you canlearn more about the work Laura
is doing at Humana.
Laura, just real quick as a plugfor you, like, where can they
find you?
What's the best way?
Okay, so, www humana.com.
(49:59):
Okay.
H-U-M-A-N a.com.
Certainly.
And my email for anyone whowants it is l nolan, NOLA
n@humana.com.
And certainly follow me onLinkedIn as well.
I was gonna say they couldprobably look, look you up on
LinkedIn.
Yeah, absolutely.
well thank you to everybody andremember you can find us and
subscribe on any podcast app.
(50:20):
Thanks and have a great day.
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