A New Solution For Hard-to-Insure Workforces | The CHAMP Plan

What can you do with the savings that this plan is creating for you that will better your employee livelihood?

Hey, welcome back to the Broker's Voice. Andy Neary here. I am excited. Today I am joined by Mike Anarumo with Champion Health. We're going to learn a little bit about Champion Health today, but we're also going to learn a little bit about Mike's baseball background because I'm a baseball fan. Mike, welcome to the show.

Hey, Andy, thanks for having me, man. Appreciate it.

So we're going to get into the champ plan, Champion Health because that's why we're doing this episode today. But before we get there, since we are at the start of the baseball playoffs in mlb, talk about your baseball journey a little bit. You grew up in New York, right?

Yep.

You ended up playing was Lemoyne. Remind me, was LeMoyne D1 or D2? They're D1 now, aren't they?

Yeah, they flip flopped a couple times. Yeah, they were D1 in just men's and baseball and women's lacrosse when I went there. And then my last year there we went to D2 and then just recently went back to D1.

Okay, so give people a little background on your journey because when you and I chatted offline, I told you I was a little jealous because you were a pitcher and you definitely had more of the prototypical size of a pitcher than I did. But yeah, give people a little background on your journey. Ended up getting drafted by mlb and so yeah, if you don't mind sharing, I think people would love to hear the story.

Yeah, sure, yeah, I'll be brief, but yeah, no, baseball was my entire life. I have two brothers as well, older brother and younger brother. We all played baseball. Big passion of ours. I think my mom had a sign in the house that was this family stops her baseball season essentially. So that's all we did played even since I was 8 years old. 70 to 120 games this summer we would just non stop playing tournaments and leagues and everything. We get into football, winter camps, didn't matter, we were doing it. So yeah, just played baseball whole life. Ended up went to MacArthur High School in Long Island, New York. All my best friends played baseball. So we all just all year round, just baseball, baseball, baseball. And then went to college. Ended up I wasn't even a pitcher until.

The summer going into my senior year of high school. I was at center field my whole life but was growing. I think I grew nine inches in three years. So a lot of growing pains. But yeah, so 65 at the end of it, throwing pretty good from the left side and got a scholarship too.

Okay, So I want everybody to hear that. 6, 5 Throwing from the left side. This is why I don't like you. And I've never shaken your hand. I'm five nine from the right side. I wish God had given me the 6, 5 with a left handed. With the left handed arm. Keep going.

Yeah, well, when you're buying a car or sitting into an airplane without an exit row or a first class ticket, you. I envy you at that point.

Or buying clothes, anything.

Yeah, yeah.

You don't fit and nothing fits you, so. But no, yeah, it was a great time. You know, you learned a lot and going from high school, you know, being one of the big, you know, a bigger fish in a smaller pond and then being a small fish in a big pond, you know, responsibilities and pecking order and earning your keep and so on and so forth. So. Yeah, just played baseball, loved it there. Yeah. Ended up getting drafted after Tommy John surgery. So anybody that ever has Tommy John, it's not over. You got to really treat it right. It's like putting an adult brain in a baby's body and you have the ability to come back stronger with better mechanics and better understanding how to take care of yourself. So if you do it right, you come back. I think I came back and I started live in 10 and a half months. Ended up getting drafted. Didn't go for plethora of reasons, you know, business and sports and what it is. But yeah. And then basically started my professional career right after college to go to ADP and so on and so forth. But baseball was very hard to find yourself after 20 years of identifying as a baseball player.

And I wanted to ask you that, you know, as somebody who played baseball at a very high level level as well, did you have trouble making that transition to what I like to call chapter two of your life where baseball defined you for so long and now here you are working for adp. I was working for a financial planner.

Right. Yeah, it's tough. It's tough. It's too. And like at sales they're always like, you know, we love athletes, they're so competitive. But I'm competitive in baseball and competitive and working out, not dialing phones and knocking doors. Yes, I'm competitive, but for a specific, for a specific sport. So no, yeah, the transition was tough. Finding that next passion that really could link yourself to but. And wake up every morning, care about deeply doing the things when nobody's. Nobody's watching Doing the right things always, like, that's, you know, it's. Nowadays we're all remote work for the most part. And if it's something you don't really enjoy and something you're not really passionate about, that makes it very, you know, again, like trying to find that. And I think that's honestly just life in general.

Right.

You're trying to figure out what, where you fit, what you want to do and how you want to do it and what you're good at and is what you're good at really what you want to do Anyway, There's a ton of athletes that are good at football, sports, baseball, whatever it may be, but it's not sometimes just not their passion, which is tough. So, yeah, the transition stuff, and I think for 15 years, wallet, ADP and pay core in that, in that realm, in that industry, always wanted to find something that. No Sunday scaries. I don't, you know, I'm traveling with my family or doing something like, I want to pick the phone up, I want to. I want to be working, I want to be doing things. So, yeah, it was hard, but I think finding that right thing, whether it's product or company or both, it's a hard thing to find. I think people do that their entire lives is looking for something that gets them out of bed in the morning. Not just out of bed, but you're jumping out, not crawling out.

You said something I think was, I actually really hadn't thought about it this way until you said it. I think people in our industry, a lot of insurance companies hire athletes, right? They're competitive, they're driven, they're disciplined. But there is a point to be made. They were. Because they were very passionate about it. And that doesn't mean that discipline and that drive is going to easily translate over into the world of insurance. It didn't for me. I was a very mediocre producer for a good almost 10 years. And part of that was I wasn't able to translate the discipline and all the work I put in off the field in baseball to insurance.

Yeah, it's big. It's tough, right? Because especially in sales too, and you're just starting out. It's all number. It's a, it's a phone, it's how many people can you dial, how many people can you talk to in a day, how many meetings can you set? And you're building pipeline the first X amount of time anyway. So it's like, you go to the gym, you pick up weight, you see results, you know like time and time again. And when it's a tangible result versus a, hey, do a lot of this work now and it will pay off in six days. We've had that, obviously, work, you know, in working out, you're starting to hire people, professionals at, you know, 21, 22. They've been working out for a while. They see the results when they go to the gym. So it's, it's, it is. It's that thing that they're selling or they're doing that I really think is the key.

And, you know, it's funny because I used to think about this all the time, man. Early in my career, when I wasn't having a lot of success, I would always look back to my pitching career and I'd tell myself, why was I so at peace with guys on second and third and one out? But here in this sales situation, I'm full of anxiety. Like, I can't figure it out. Yeah, it just would. It would blow. It would just frustrate me that, why can't I translate this? And then it finally, you know, it took a decade to finally figure it out. But I just remember thinking about that all the time. Under pressure with guys on second and third and one out. I was fine. Now I'm in front of a prospect with a big opportunity on the line. Why am I freaking out?

Yeah. Yeah. At that point, you know, you're. By the time you're 15 or 20, I mean, you've been there a million times already and now you're 21.

Good point.

Learning something brand new, you know, flexing a different muscle.

Yeah.

Different knowledge base, whatever it is. And now you're basically a baby, you know, an adult in a baby's mind when it comes to sales. And yeah, it's. At that point you're more aware.

Right.

You're more aware of your failures and your downside. So you're not as confident when you're a kid, you're 11 years old, everybody's 11 playing, and you're in the business world and you're in a meeting with your boss or your mentor or whoever it may be, and they're been doing for 15 years, and they know what you're supposed to be saying, and you're more aware that you're not saying the right things. You're saying, doing the right thing. So, yeah, I think the transition comes in two ways. You gotta remove the ego because you were great at whatever you were doing prior to. To then understand that you're not. That you're not that skilled person in this new venture, new chapter of your life. So you have to have that reality check.

And then it's those that can then figure out, okay, well, now that I know I'm better at this, what can I be doing or what can I be selling that will give me that fire that I had when I was on the mound? When I love being on the mound, the. One of the biggest feelings I miss is the nothingness that I could hear. I can't hear. When you're locked in, you can't. It doesn't matter. You can't hear anything. There's no crowd, there's no nothing. There's just you in the glove. And that's. To try to find that again is a very, very tough thing.

Well, and I remember one of the things I loved about pitching is the ball in my hand. I control the game. This game cannot move forward until I throw this ball.

Only sport that the defense has the ball.

Yeah. And so I think everything you said is very relevant. It's. Yeah, but. But eventually I think you figure it out and then you realize, wait a second. Everything I did in baseball to have success, especially off the field, I can now apply to business and holy cow. And then at that point, everything takes off.

Yeah.

Talk about your journey now. So here you are, you're out on the west coast. Now you're in California.

Yeah.

You're with Champion Health, which we're going to dive into here. What led you? You were with a lot, spending an early part of your career on the payroll side.

Yeah.

But now you're executive director of sales at Champion Health. What led you on that journey to end up where you are today with Champion Health?

Oh, no. Great question. Yeah, yeah. Better part of 15 years, decade and a half was hrs and payroll. So I was with ADP for over 10 years. Started in Long Island, New York as a seller and then I moved to Colorado to take over my first team. So I first taste of leadership at 24 years old and that's what I really love. Like that was that really think about the product is one thing, but then leadership, passion wise about other people being successful, like getting that coaching kind of mentality back and I guess gratitude, if you will, of seeing people be successful and I'm coaching them there. And then I took over as VP of sales for Sacramento, California area. That was awesome. Having their own office and people to rely on you. And then Pay Core came knocking probably mid 21, right after Covid and a lot of very tough, very tough Covid and hard time. But they came knocking there, opened up in California, Northern California and they wanted me to open it. That's something that ADP could just never offer me because ADP is everywhere and anywhere. ADP is fantastic. What an organization by the way. Just a machine. And they teach you well, both sales and leadership wise. Just everything the training they've done is incredible. So going to take on a new challenge. That challenge myself, honestly it wasn't really a financial decision or anything like that. It was more. I've never hired a team from the ground up. I've never started a market from the ground up. You know, the company is still in growth mode so still figuring out processes and SOPs and so on and so forth. So yeah, I went on to do that and then I've always, you know, not a detriment to the industry itself. But yeah, irs, HRS and payroll is, it's a tough industry. And again if you don't really enjoy the payroll and HR side of things, which I did, I love talking to those people. But it wasn't, wasn't my. I knew, I just felt it wasn't my everything. So I always kept my ear to the ground for something to happen. But day to day always did my job the best of my abilities. And this plan came along my desk as I'm networking and going to all these events in Northern California to get the brand out there. And I don't know, I just had something in the back of my mind was like keep talking about it. And so I met these people, met with Champion Health and at the end of the day there weren't hiring, there wasn't a job posting. But I had an inkling that this is really something I love. Something I get out, like I said, not crawl out of bed, but jump out of bed for. So yeah, I wrote them. I wrote the founders, Michael Conway, Matt Martinez and my chief sales officer Richard Howell, a three page reverse offer letter on who I am, what I've done and what I want to do for their company. And I was hired three weeks later.

It's kind of back like the baseball days, right. You had to recruit yourself. You had to, you had to promote yourself to the colleges to get recruited. I love that. Well, let's, let's dive into it, man with Champion Health for. Let's start with people who haven't heard about it before.

Sure.

What is the program talked about? And I believe it's the champ plan. Right.

Talk to us a little bit about the plan. How does it work?

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, it's a group benefit. So self insured, employee funded, employer sponsored supplemental benefits are not primary or secondary, but supplemental. And it's really in place to provide essential health care to as many people as possible without putting our hands in their pocket. Very, very uniquely structured financially, but to create a win win scenario all around for both the employee and the employer. And then from a health perspective, like that's really what we care about is the benefits. It's not a watered down plan by any means in person benefits, formulary, virtual benefits, 24, 7 vet care at home, lab testing, vital scanning. We want the benefit to be what people actually use and be preventative and proactive about their healthcare. So it's all about from a financial standpoint, obviously offsetting claims from your major medical. But if we give people zero out of pocket cost, zero copay, zero deductible to remove the barrier of entry from both the financial standpoint of going to the doctor when they feel sick, maintaining their health. Just like we do with our cars, right? We do brakes and oil changes and tire rotations, but we don't go and catch the spark before this, before the fire. So like we want to make sure people are preventative about that. And then from a convenience standpoint, every, you grab your keys, you grab your wallet, you grab your phone. So it's got to be in an app and a very user friendly app so that even the busiest of people can get the care they need when they need it.

Okay, so I'm going to ask the question, it's call it the white elephant in the room, right? People who are familiar with it, once in a while we'll say, you know, there's definitely some misconceptions. People say, oh, I've heard there's a lot of gray area when it comes to the regulatory and the compliance side of Champ. Talk to us a little bit about that because that's, you know, again, when you talk to the broker market with a program like this, you're going to get both sides. Like, okay, I could see this where this is a very, very nice financial tool for CFOs. But at the same time, hey Mike, I've heard there's some compliance issues with this.

Yeah, no, great question. We get it all the time. But yeah, no, at the end of the day, our plan is built from the ground up first and foremost with compliance and the IRS and the ERISA in mind. Like that's everything that we've done. So every piece of the plan has a rhyme and a reason for compliance. Reasons Everything that we do is to the letter of the law. We don't ever want to put one ourselves in place or any clients that we put in place in any sort of way to be harmed financially, tax wise or whatever it may be. So we hear a lot of double dipping. We hear this is a tax plan, this is a tax adversement plan, so on and so forth. Our plan, our benefits are, it's a met qualified plan. It's fantastic. It is benefits first. Obviously the cherry on top is the financial side, but everything from the structure of it, the way that money flows, the no co million of funds and we just keep adding more and more to it. The benefit side, that's what it's all about is how like the end of the day, how can we create a healthier America? By spoon feeding exactly what they need to do to prevent. Not maybe not prevent, but catch things early. Like I said, catch a spark, not the fire.

So how does let's dive maybe into the details of how it actually works. You mentioned there's a smartphone app to make access to the program easy. But let's say I'm a member of a health plan of an employer, I have access to champ. How does it work for me? What does that look like? What are the benefits? How do I access it financially? What does that look like? Let's just break down the details a little bit for the end consumer for sure.

Yeah. So first and foremost, before a client ever comes on board or even signs plan documents, we do an analysis of their payroll to ensure that we understand what employees are positively impacted. Employees could be out of pocket for the plan in regards to whether they're withholding status, gross income, so on and so forth. We want to make sure they get it's 20, 25. We should be able to give you those numbers before anything so we make sure we understand that first and foremost so the employer can make an educated decision. And then as an employee, it doesn't matter if you're well from an employer standpoint, it doesn't matter if there are 20 employees and they're not federally obligated to offer benefits, they could still offer this benefit as they step in the right direction to help their employees have at least some health care right at the end of the day when you're 50FTE plus as you all know, this cannot stand alone. So it's in tandem with to both complement and enhance the current benefit offering. So from a member standpoint, there's in person benefits. So zero out of pocket cost for your Primary care visits and your urgent care centers. So 100% of the visit is paid for the CHAMP plan and that's in the First Health network. So we are network driven. In the app, they could find a provider by either searching a specific physician's name or urgent care center or by zip code a mile radius. So if they're home, they can check out their, you know, their normal PCP or urgent care centers or if they're on vacation in the continent of the US and they want to go to urgent care center because they got sick or their kid got sick, they have the ability to do so. So there's that. Our formulary is strong, over 600 plus zero cost medications, all GDIs, which is incredible. You think about amoxicillin, allergy, asthma, cholesterol, blood thinners, mental health, women's health, even face creams that we have on there that you can get at, I guess what's one of the stores my wife goes to one of those. There's so much. And then the virtual. Exactly. So there's just so much that we want to offer.

Really.

People don't even know the power of the plan is how deep it goes just today. And then the virtual benefits, both unlimited personal physical health and mental health. So licensed therapist and peer to peer, they can be diagnosed, they can be helped. It's all about, like I said, everybody has their heart and everybody's busy. We're all busy. This world doesn't stop. So how can you make it so convenient for just even the busiest of people to get care when they need it? Not even just when they need it. How they desire it too. Not everyone wants to go see a therapist. Not everybody wants to go to the doctor. Like it's just, how can you just make it? The harder it is for somebody to do something, the less likely they're going to do it. So we got to make it so easy because people typically put themselves second or last when it comes to their family or whatever it may be. And they don't want to get the help. They don't want to take the time to go to the doctor or go seek that help that, hey, I'm feeling a little different. Maybe it's anxiety or depression. You don't really know how to diagnose that. So we want people to feel comfortable and supported to get the right health and care when they need it, why they need it in the way in which they desire it.

Yeah, I, you know, so if I heard you right, If I have 50 or more employees, number one, this is a MEC plan structured? Structured as a MEC. So it's not major medical, but it provides some, some preventative day to day type care.

Yep.

If I have more than 50 employees, it can't be standalone. It's got to be paired with a major medical. Because I have to offer major medical.

What's that?

Does not need to be paired. So it's so it can't stand alone at 50 FTE plus. But you're 20, 30 employee company.

Yes.

Major medical is too expensive. Whatever it is, you could still offer our plan.

Okay. But 50 and above, you do have to pair it with them.

Yeah. We meet the Metro application on the individual mandate that was repealed in 2019, but not in the organization.

So how does. This is where I think some of the questions come around the compliance side. Right. Like so how does it get paid for then? This is where there are again, depending on the members, the employee's tax bracket or tax status, there are some advantages. Right. As for how this gets paid.

Yeah, yeah. The plan is basically the way it's structured. It's fully funded by the tax savings it does create for both the employee and the employer. Now like it's a nice cherry on top to have maybe an extra five, ten bucks a week, a month or employer saving X amount of dollars. The real thing is how can we make the benefits $0 cost? I would love it if it was honestly the financial side here or there. But if everybody just broke even and was able to have essential healthcare coverage through and through, that would be incredible for us. I would love people to actually have the access to that. You know, think about your hourly workers, your restaurant industry people that just don't oftenly get offered medical insurance. We want to be there for them.

Yeah. Just thinking out loud, when you think about the plan itself, I'd love for you to give some advice. So let's say I'm an advisor out there. This is very much a conversation probably at the C suite level, especially with somebody who has some responsibility to the profit and loss statement. What would be your advice to an advisor who might be tuning in who says, hey Mike, I get it. Sounds like an interesting plan. Could be something intriguing to a cfo. Any advice on how they should pitch this program to a cfo? Like what could they be? What. How could they bring the program to a CFO to create intrigue or appeal for how this might positively impact that CFO's employees, but also financially?

Yeah. From the CFO standpoint, obviously they're always worried about the bottom line. So obviously the financial savings to that buying Persona, if you will, is a key when engaging with the cfo. So it's not really the money you're saving, but what are the things that are staying your way? What's the limitations of your budget, of what you're looking to put in place for your employees? Maybe it's additional, maybe it's another line of benefit, maybe it's a pet insurance, maybe it's a life insurance plan. What can you do with the savings that this plan is creating for you that will better your employee livelihood?

Right.

And they're seeing an increase, obviously that's a nice thing for the employees from a retention standpoint. And then they're also, like I said, I mean you're having these benefits and we talk about like redundancies obviously.

Right.

The plan could be both supplemental and additional in nature depending on your current primary benefit offerings. So it could be supplemental, obviously in redundancies. And offsetting claims is huge. Right. I mean it's especially self insured plans. The main factor is how many claims are hitting that pool when you come to every year. And the renewal is 12% in a good year, 1822. I mean back in.

When the AC first came out, I mean we're looking at 42% interest rates. That's when the PEO started taking off. Right. And by looking at 42% renewal rates, 38%, 35. So I mean we're fighting an uphill battle every year. A good year, like I said, is at 9 to 12%. So we do something, put something in place that not only offsets claims, but is creating habits of employees that make them healthier so that even they're not going to the hospital, the doctor as often or so on and so forth so that they. You're creating a healthier workforce. So it's both short term advantages and long term advantages. And as the plan increases, enhances in regards to that spoon feeding type of information and services so that employees are really becoming healthier. That's the whole goal. Yeah.

So provides access to $0 primary care and urgent care.

Yes sir.

$0 to a pretty wide list of prescription drugs.

Yes sir.

And very accessible for an employee because there's access to the program via smartphone app.

You got it.

What does the enrollment process like? So if I have a client, I'm a broker, I have a client and this is a program I think would be worthwhile. Maybe they have a ton of part time, seasonal. What does that enrollment process look like for putting the CHAMP plan in Place.

Yeah, no, great question. Yeah. And we work on this everything. The company is under a mega scope. We want to make sure that our plan is good. I love our plan. I love the outcome in which it does for employers and employees. But it's the experience, the client experience, the member experience, the agent experience. Like how can we make sure? Like this is the easiest thing. Again, coming from hris and payroll. Implementing something new to a company is a heavy lift, especially the tech that we used to sell. So I don't want that for HR or for payroll or for the clients. So our onboarding process is very detailed and oriented in regards to white glove. So say they're coming on board. We have what we call an enrollment alignment call. Before anything else, we sit down with the client, the agent, the selling agent. They're key players from payroll and XYZ to ensure we lay out the best timeline for that group. Every group is unique and we treat them as such. That's what I say to everybody. It's what we want to do. So if you're a car dealership, we're not going to enroll this or have an open enrollment during the last two weeks of a month. Doesn't make sense. You're trying to get your sales in. So we want to make sure that we are educating through and through. So we line up the whole timeline, payroll, implementation, all that stuff and then we go to lengths from education and information. So during open enrollment the employees actually get access to our app, limited access so they could virtual benefits they have access to in the HRA and they can check out the content so they could touch and feel. But we have email communications that go out. We host employee education calls, we go over the plan Q and A. We have resources at the yin yang to ensure that everybody needs to get their answers. They're getting their answers and then they enroll in the plan so that you know, positive impacted employees have the ability to opt out during that open enrollment period and we go to links to communicate them and then if they were negative they have the ability to opt in. Obviously Average cost for urgent care center visit, 250, $300 a visit. If you're or formulary is vast. So if you're currently paying for a medication that's $0 for us from us like that's a good, a good move for you as well. So we want to make sure we're educating amongst that healthcare is only as good as the education that comes with it. How to use it, when to use it, why to use it, how to Maximize that benefit. So we care about the client's experience, the members experience, and then obviously in the back end, from the agent standpoint, making sure that they know when they introduce us and bring us into the plan, and they're bringing Champion Health to this organization, one of their clients, that they probably have another line of business with that, that clients get to thank them at the end of the day for the experience they had of onboarding, buying, implementing and maintaining. So it's a very handheld process.

What would you say? So if I asked, you know, hey, what are some of the ideal industries that would be a fit? I think the safe answer is any industry that has a high, high amount of part time and seasonal, I got to believe is a good fit. Right.

Well, part time and seasonal are, you know, that's a little tougher because obviously the champ plan, there's two deduction codes that go into the payroll. So you want to be taking those amounts on and off those employees.

Got it.

It's more geared towards a full time employee, not seasonal.

Good, thank you for clarifying that.

So like we, and we go through all that, like every question, everything that we get, like we want to make sure, like if you have commissions and you have different pay cycle or you have some part time, like home health care, very, very hourly, but then you have some documents that are strict out. So like we want to make sure we have those strategic conversations before any communications, the employees, anything ever goes live. We want to set everybody up for success through and through. So yeah, industry wise.

Like you said, I've been coming from the payroll background and lead pulling, if you will. You want to be very specific in your quote unquote ask. But we have five employed companies and 5,000 employee companies in public and private and government. Blue collar, white collar. Well, it's just really our job is to educate and provide all the answers to their questions and their concerns and it's their job to make the decision if it's a good fit for their organization.

Yeah, love that. Well, you know, I know there are going to be people listening in and my urge to the people who are tuning in with programs like these, I think it's easy to make a quick judgment or have a misconception because of something somebody else has said. My advice would be, hey, check this out, see if this is a good fit for a client of yours and then make the call, you know, and I think, you know, there are reasons certain benefits are offered and they're a good fit for some and not a good fit for others. And so if somebody was tuning in today, Mike, and said, all right, I think I've got some. Some CFOs, I would. That would find this very intriguing. What is the easiest way to reach out to you and get in touch with you?

Yeah, for sure. Our website is champlan.com 2P's and then also infohamplan.com is also an email you can reach out to as well. We'd love to hear from you. Yeah, I think you said it. Due diligence is everything. And both your client and then your client to their member, to their employees like it, it's worth it to at least do your due diligence. Don't the, you know, every, you know, anything else has been out there or you've heard of or this or that? Like, take your time to do your due diligence because your clients and your employees deserve that 100.

Well, Mike, it's been a pleasure having you on, man.

Yeah, thank you so much for having me.

If you're tuning in, you want to know more about the Champ Plan from Champion Health, definitely reach out to champplan. Com info at champplan. Com or even go out and reach out and connect with Mike on LinkedIn. Mike, take care. Everybody else, give Champ Plan a look from Champion Health and see if it's a fit for your clients.