Benefit power brokers: disability.

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Charles Cotter, CLU, ChFC

Principal

Barney & Barney, LLC 

San Diego 

Three years ago Chuck Cotter began working on an idea to help employers in the small to mid-market keep healthcare costs under control through the implementation of wellness programs.

To accomplish this, he needed to provide human resource departments with the support they needed to design, implement and run a program and provide a way for fully insured/pooled employers to benefit financially.

Three years later, his firm has set up an affordable service that provides a wellness coordinator to clients who set up a comprehensive wellness program.

Cotter also has negotiated special rating pools with health insurance companies for its clients, which allows them to be pooled with other qualifying employers who have successful wellness programs.

These employers benefit from upfront discounts to trend factors used in calculating their renewal. In developing this program, Barney & Barney first implemented it itself, finding that its medical renewal trend line has come down significantly over the last two years. Absenteeism has gone down and employee morale has gone up.

"Chuck is doing some innovative work with employers on combining wellness programs with health and disability plans," said a disability manager. "We're all working together to provide more of a value-based benefits package to employers."

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Mary Tavarozzi

Principal

Towers Perrin 

Tampa, Fla.

As practice leader for absence and disability management consulting at Towers Perrin, Mary Tavarozzi has developed a new approach to the integration of disability/absence management and group health management.

This approach links disabled employees with specialty care management services such as nurse counselors, disease management and nutrition counseling to improve productivity, decrease disability duration and reduce costs.

She has designed and implemented new disability plan designs that provide financial incentives to employees who proactively manage their health and reduce health risks. Tavarozzi also has provided subject matter expertise and strategic guidance to the development of the industry's first comprehensive database of disability, workers' compensation and leave of absence benchmarking. She facilitated industry groups of carders, third-party administrators, employers and others in the development and growth of the benchmarking database. She recruited carriers to participate in the database consortium and sponsored over 25 employers for participation in benchmarking analysis in the past year.

"Mary's done a great job for us," one client said, noting that she has been helping to set up an integrated disability program and to select vendors.

Tavarozzi has participated as a subject matter expert and industry adviser to the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine initiative for disability prevention and return to work training for physicians.

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Mike Barone

President

Intercare Insurance Solutions

San Diego

Intercare Insurance Solutions, with president Mike Barone at the helm, is a well-known leader in the disability and wellness arena. One client, a mortgage broker experiencing an uncertain financial future, raves about Barone's formalized educational program, Intercare Wellness University.

Intercare engages outside experts several times a year to speak at seminars on topics ranging from lowering prescription costs to the legal issues associated with health and wellness programs.

"I usually leave those seminars wishing it had been twice as long. I don't feel that way about anything else I attend," said the mortgage broker's senior manager of human resources.

Skyrocketing healthcare costs could have done this client in as they had 250 of their competitors. But after Barone suggested a voluntary health assessment program, employees now think foremost of their health, focusing on unhealthy habits and the signs of hypertension or diabetes. The potential savings are clear, the client said, considering it is a self-funded company. In September 2007 when the company laid off 60 percent of its workforce, it was facing major COBRA costs. Barone was able to create a strategy for a medical plan that limited the company's COBRA exposure.

"Without that type of negotiating and finding the right product, we may not be here today," said the client. "He literally helped us stay in business."

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Karen Trumbull English, CPCU, ARM

Partner

Spring Consulting Group, LLC

Boston

Karen Trumbull English is well known as an expert in the field of disability management and absence management.

She has conducted industry leading research in the area of integrated disability, absence and health benefits that has helped provide benchmarks to employers looking to design these types of programs and to insurance companies and third-party administrators looking to expand their product offerings.

During the past year, she implemented a total absence management program for a large transportation firm, conducted a competitive RFP and bidding process for a large energy company, and assisted several firms in assigning the feasibility of funding disability and life coverages through their captive insurance companies.

"Karen is seen as the industry expert on captives, which is a very new concept in the benefits world," one disability executive said. "Karen is extremely well-respected in the industry by employers, insurers and TPAs as well as competitors."

Outside of brokering and consulting, she serves on the local Disability Management Employer Coalition chapter board and works to bring quality programs to New England members. She has been with Spring Consulting for four years. Before that she was a senior consultant at Watson Wyatt.

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Richard Fuerstenberg, FSA, MAAA, FCA 

Principal

Mercer Health & Benefits, LLC

Princeton, N.J.

Richard J. Fuerstenberg has several leadership roles in Mercer H&B. He is the Consulting Practice Leader for Mercer H&B in New Jersey, the national Group Benefits specialty practice leader and the national expert in the area of using captive insurance companies to reinsure employee benefits.

Fuerstenberg provides healthcare and group benefits consulting services to some of the largest companies in the U.S. including a number of the financial services, telecommunications, aerospace, and pharmaceutical companies in the Fortune 50.

He has specialized expertise in the areas of active and retiree medical design, disability management, life insurance design and pricing and employee benefits funding. In addition, he also provides actuarial and management consulting services to healthcare and life insurance companies.

Prior to joining Mercer in 1996, Fuerstenberg worked at MetLife. His responsibilities there included pricing, underwriting and financial reporting for managed care, life, disability, and other group insurance products as well as providing consulting services to MetLife's largest group customer.

His other MetLife assignments included corporate actuarial and individual life insurance pricing and product development, with primary responsibility for variable life and survivorship whole life products.

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Terry Smith

Principal

Mercer Health & Benefits, LLC

Philadelphia

Terry Smith has spent years working to develop programs that promote the measurement and management of employee disability and productivity costs.

During the past year, he has worked with one of his key clients to improve the way in which the client's data warehouse partner supports its human capital management program.

In his work with this client, Smith also has audited the company's disability vendor to ensure that the disability program administrative model design is sound and that the execution of the model is efficient, accurate and consistent.

He also developed and managed a specialized audit of the company's disability vendor's ERISA appeals process to ensure that the company's employees are treated fairly and consistently and in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.

Smith has been this client's sole consultant on these disability and human capital programs since 1990.

In addition to his role as a national expert in the area of disability and productivity consulting, Smith served as the practice leader of Mercer's Philadelphia, Princeton, Wilmington and Harrisburg offices from 2003 through 2006.

During this time, Smith actively managed a staff of over 100 professionals while maintaining a full client workload. He has been with Mercer Health and Benefits for more than 20 years.