The Healthcare Quarterback: Putting Your Benefit Puzzle Together

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Listener Question: "What do you actually do?" 

Ever wondered what a benefit advisor actually does? It's a question that prompted Justin Futrell to peel back the curtain on his role at True North Companies in this enlightening episode.

While placing health insurance represents the foundation of Justin's work—accounting for roughly 80% of his focus to match the proportion of employee benefits spending—the real value comes through strategic customization. "Candidly, you could spend a hundred bucks, study a few hours and pass the test to be able to sell health insurance," Justin reveals. The true expertise emerges when tailoring comprehensive solutions to each company's specific cultural and economic objectives.

The episode highlights a startling workplace reality: 80% of employees worry about personal finances during work hours, losing approximately 36 hours of productivity annually per employee. With nearly half of Americans struggling with medical debt, Justin explains how innovative approaches to healthcare benefits can address these financial stressors. By functioning as a "healthcare quarterback," he helps companies provide employees with genuine choices beyond traditional healthcare pathways, where patients typically follow provider recommendations without questioning costs or comparing quality metrics.

Through real-world examples—including a nonprofit struggling to recruit tech talent despite budget limitations—Justin demonstrates how thoughtful benefits design can solve complex organizational challenges. The benefit advisor role has evolved far beyond simple insurance placement into strategic partnership that aligns employee wellbeing with company objectives.

Have questions about optimizing your company's benefits strategy? Drop them in the chat, and Justin might address them in an upcoming episode. Your organization's unique challenges deserve a customized approach that considers both economic realities and cultural goals.

Music by Alex Lambert.

Contact Justin via text 740-525-5259 or via email [e-mail]

I welcome the opportunity to hear your feedback from this episode!

Thanks again to my musically gifted friend Alex Lambert for the music. Also thanks to Kevin Asehan for the edits.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to another Tuesday morning with Justin.
I'm Justin Futrell, benefitAdvisor at True North Companies,
and today I want to read aquestion that we got from a
listener, and that is Justin,you seem knowledgeable about
healthcare, but what do youactually do?
And I got a chuckle out of thatand I can appreciate that.

(00:21):
I would say that 80% of what Ido is resolved around healthcare
, and that's because probably80% or more of the spend within
an employee benefits program ishealthcare, health insurance.
So, yes, we help place healthinsurance, but that's the very

(00:43):
most basic thing that we do.
Candidly, you could spend ahundred bucks, study a few hours
and pass the test to be able tosell health insurance.
What makes our team unique isthinking about how we can tailor
everything possible to thespecific cultural and economic

(01:09):
goals of our client of a certaincompany.
So with that, I get to workwith CFOs, chief financial
officers and HR leaders infiguring out how to deploy the
best technology during openenrollment so that you have a
good experience.
Thinking about what benefitswe're offering, yes, but also

(01:32):
what challenges are we facing?
I'm looking at an article fromthe Leader's Edge, which is in
the employee benefits industry,and there is a quote here that
says 80% of employees worryabout finances, their personal
finances, during work hours andthe average employee spends more

(01:55):
than three hours of work permonth on personal finance issues
.
Three hours a month, 12 monthsa year, that's 36 hours of
wasted time, and I'm not kidding.
Just three days ago mycolleague Deborah started
walking out on a Thursdayafternoon.

(02:16):
We were like what are you doing?
And she's always the first onein and quite often the last one
out.
She's a baby boomer and sheworks hard.
She's one of she's probably inthe 99th percentile of the
hardest working people at ourcompany.
The point is, she said I'mtaking the afternoon off to get

(02:37):
up, to make calls, to getappointments set up and figure
out a few things personally,when I'm in the office I work.
She said that because someonewas like why don't you just make
the calls over lunch?
And she said when I'm in theoffice I work, I don't use my
cell phone.
Not everyone has that philosophy.
So if it's true, the 80% ofemployees worry about their

(03:01):
personal finances and wasteabout three hours a month during
work time, what can we do tohelp offset that?
Well, my head goes to thehealthcare system.
I want to say 50% of people,I'll have to find the stat and
I'll correct it if it's wrong.
Every other person has medicaldebt of some extent.

(03:21):
That's insane.
So, yeah, how do we help solvethe medical debt?
Well, that goes into what we'vetalked about in previous weeks,
in giving consumers you and meoptions for the first time when
it comes to healthcare.
All we've ever known is go toour family doctor or go to

(03:42):
urgent care, and wherever theytell us to go, we go.
We don't think about it.
If we end up in the emergencyroom somewhere, we end up
getting submitted to inpatientin that hospital.
We end up almost always stayingwithin that healthcare system
without having any idea how muchit's going to cost and, more

(04:02):
importantly, what kind ofquality are we talking?
Is that health system the bestat that procedure?
Is that health system the bestat not having complications with
whatever's going on with you?
So just some things to thinkabout.
That's what's fun for me.
How do we create a puzzle?
How do we put puzzle piecestogether?

(04:24):
I'm almost like the quarterbackof the team.
It's my chance to make up forthose days when I was a bad
quarterback in high school.
Anyway, we get to put thepuzzle pieces together.
What's what economic andcultural goals do you have at
your company and how do we makethat work?
That's what I love getting todo and how do we make that work.

(04:47):
That's what I love getting todo.
Last thought.
I was on a call last week witha nonprofit in Arkansas and they
said we need to figure out howto hire more tech workers with
tech talent and we can't competewith the money, but we've got
better work-life balance, so howcan you help us lean into that?
And then we'd go from there,brainstorm, figure out what's

(05:07):
best.
All right, gang, always feelfree to drop a question in the
chat, see ya.