Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome to Align for Impact. I'm your host, Matthew Naylor. I started this podcast because healthcare and leadership both come down to the same thing. Alignment. When people, purpose and performance connect, real impact happens.
On this show, we'll talk with entrepreneurs, brokers, and change makers who are challenging what is broken in healthcare and in business and find new ways to make a difference for companies, communities, and the people they serve.
I'm Matt Naylor. I'm the host of the Matt Naylor podcast where we interview wonderful people like yourself and talk about their passion, their purpose, their happiness, their joy, and how they're making an impact on their life personally and professionally. Got a wonderful guest today, Judy Youngs with Deeper. Dean and Draper.
[00:01:00] Speaker B: Dean and Draper. Yes.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: Yeah. So Judy Young with Dean and Draper. And, Judy, you are in charge of
[00:01:07] Speaker B: the employee benefits department.
[00:01:09] Speaker A: Employee benefits department there.
You know, Judy, I always like starting the conversation off with just a little bit of an icebreaker.
Why don't you just tell us a little bit about yourself, where you're from. How'd you get into the benefits business?
[00:01:25] Speaker B: So I'm actually originally from New Jersey. Moved from New Jersey to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. My father was transferred a while ago and then moved to Reading when I got married. And then life changes.
Actually a remarried widow. I met someone else. We wanted to change the scenery, so we went to South Carolina. Thought it was great until it wasn't. And then he's a pharmacist, so we were able to look around, see where we wanted to be. We thought Houston would be fun, so we moved to Houston six and a half years ago.
[00:01:56] Speaker A: Wow. And how did you. Most people just don't end up in the employee benefits insurance business. I find it always interesting. There's always a story behind it. How did you get into the benefits business?
[00:02:07] Speaker B: Well, my sister worked for a company and was determined. I felt like I needed a change from what I was doing. So I went to a company called Susquehanna Administrators, which was in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. And I started out typing ID cards and plan documents there, and then just worked my way up, and it was a great organization.
And then I left. Went back a couple years later, was there for a while, and then when I left the second time, I actually went and worked with the original owner of Stout Advisors. He had started a boutique brokerage firm. And I had the opportunity to go work with a Stout family. And so I started in 2005 as a broker.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:02:46] Speaker B: For Ken Stout and David Stout.
[00:02:47] Speaker A: Wow.
And they ended up selling.
[00:02:51] Speaker B: They did. So I left there in 2015 when I relocated and they sold out to assured partners as I was exiting.
[00:02:58] Speaker A: Well, a lot has happened in healthcare since 2015.
Healthcare is really complicated, difficult for an expert like yourself, let alone a client or an employer group.
You know, an employee, a member of a plan.
Being in the account management side of the business is difficult. Can you just help us understand a little bit about how you're set up today, like your team? And, and sure.
[00:03:27] Speaker B: So I work with producers, so it's their job to secure the business. They bring it in. Once it's brought in to me, depending upon the producer style, I will either work closely with them or it's a handoff. Here you go. Install it. Find the best carrier for them.
Get that group implemented with the carrier. Make sure ID cards go out timely so the members have that information. Make sure their prescriptions get completed as they are moving on to the new plan. And then just work with the group as a whole to make sure employees are happy with the benefits. They're accessing them. They have access to care. Their providers are in network. Their prescription drugs are being covered, as well as working with them to ensure that we're doing our best to keep the costs maintained.
[00:04:14] Speaker A: That's a really. That's a really, really interesting insight. Healthcare inflation's a real thing. Costs continue to escalate. They do, you know, there's just more and more being pushed onto employers and employees.
Navigating healthcare is really hard.
[00:04:34] Speaker B: It is.
[00:04:35] Speaker A: What are you and your firm doing to like lower cost, produce a better outcome and create a better experience for your clients?
[00:04:45] Speaker B: In the group market size that I work in, unfortunately, there's not a lot when you're working with the major insurance companies, so to speak, because they are book rates. So you're always looking at different plan options. Is there a way that you can increase the deductible, the coinsurance? Can you put a health savings account or a high deductible health plan with an hsa? Can you put an HRA in health reimbursement account plan?
As well as try to help them understand utilization and how they receive care and where they receive care.
[00:05:18] Speaker A: And it's interesting when Crumbdale engages with firms like yourself, we're pretty specific about how we go about our process.
I'm always interested to understand from your perspective why Crumbdale.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: Why?
Because everything that you're doing resonates with me.
It's trying to help members get prescription coverage at a lower cost. And it's, you know, to me, PBMs are. They were one of the first ones to sign on with health care reform bill. There's a reason why.
So there's a lot of abuse there. And when you have members call up and say, I can't afford this medication. I can't afford this copay, or you're watching that dollar hit the group's claims experience and you. What's going to happen with the renewal? There has to be a better way for us to get this medication.
So that was one thing. Just your. Your team here, hands on.
It's. It really reminds me a lot of when I worked for Susquehanna administrators and we were impactful with our clients back in that time.
[00:06:26] Speaker A: And, Judy, what is it about our teams specifically? What from your perspective, what is it that our team does that's differentiated your
[00:06:39] Speaker B: passion and your engagement.
[00:06:42] Speaker A: That's great. That's awesome. Culture's important to us. I know it's important to your firm.
If you could reimagine how healthcare is delivered, is there something that comes to mind?
[00:07:00] Speaker B: There is.
[00:07:01] Speaker A: What is it?
[00:07:03] Speaker B: We as a society have to take ownership of our healthcare, of us, of our health. Everything you eat, you ingest.
And. Sure. Could I exercise more? Yep. I always have an excuse. But there's no personal accountability anymore. And then when the member or the employee shows up and they go to get their prescription and it's $200 because that's medication they need to be on, well, it's everyone else's fault. But there's. So I'm. I'm a pretty direct speaker. We're not taking care of ourselves.
[00:07:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:33] Speaker B: And our food industry has a lot to do with that as well. When you look at, you know, all the different chemicals, what is it, 10,000 chemicals have been introduced since 1958. Where other countries, there's 400 chemicals that have been introduced into our food products.
So it really just isn't the employee. It's what our. Sorry. What our government has allowed to happen to us as well.
[00:07:53] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, Dean and Draper has been an amazing partner. Like what your firm has done in the past, like what you're doing currently, what you're aspiring to do in the future is it's aspirational. We love partnering with you. And, Judy, thank you for spending time with us today.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: Thank you very much.
[00:08:14] Speaker A: This is Matthew Naylor. You've been listening to Aligned for Impact.
