The Broker's Voice: Bob McCollins, Co-Founder - ECRx

Hey. Hey. Welcome back to the Broker's Voice. I am excited today with the guest that we have on. We are going to talk all things prescription drugs. So if you're a broker wanting to know the latest and the greatest about how you can help your clients reduce the impact the cost of medications are having on their health plan, you're going to want to listen in. Now, before we get there, I've got to make a quick pitch to my guy Steve Konka and his team over at the agencyanix. If you're a health insurance agency, a partner to the industry, and you know your website could use a little upgrade, you know that your website is still saying the same thing it did five years ago. Do yourself a favor, reach out to these guys. Stevegencyanix. In fact, I am gonna put his email right here. Stevey Websolutions Agency Annex is their name. They build websites for the health insurance industry. Listen, when your website is talking to the prospect, not about yourself, your website becomes that salesperson you wish you had more of. So do yourself a favor if you know your website needs an upgrade. Go check out Steven, his guys right now, Shoot him an email, get on the phone, figure out what you need to do to make your website better, and you won't be disappointed. Hey, he runs my website, and I couldn't be happier. All right, let's get into this week's episode. I am bringing on the one, the only, Mr. Bob McCollins of ECRX. Bob, how you doing today?

I'm great, Andy. I'm great. Good to see you.

Likewise. Likewise. We're recording this the day after Easter, so we. We chatted offline. It sounds like you had a great Easter weekend, Bob. I love to start our conversations with how the heck did you get in the industry? You know, 98% of us didn't get in it by design, right? We had a friend, a colleague, a family member say, hey, you should try this insurance thing. How did you get your start just that way?

Honestly, my. My cousin in Huntington, West Virginia, had gone to work for Metropolitan Life Insurance, and he actually got me into the insurance business working for MetLife. Now, most of the people listening to this are going to have been just little puppies when I got into this business, because I am a little bit more senior than most of your typical audience. But, you know, back in the early 80s, I went to work for Metropolitan Life Insurance, calling baby leads, calling home leads, you know, those types of things. And I realized this is no good for me. So I actually responded back in those days, they would put ads for jobs in the newspaper. And you put a resume together and you mailed it in. Well, I saw an ad for a group service representative, and to be different, I took my, my resume in and handed it to the secretary, who happened to be the president's secretary. But that wasn't important. What was important was one of their sales reps saw me leave and he said, hey, Was that Bob McCollins? And sue said, I don't know. And he looked, he goes, give me that resume. And he walked it into the president said, you need to talk with this guy. And that's what got me into the employee benefits business. Working for a TPA called J.W. didion & Associates, because I played American Legion baseball. I went to Buckeye Boys State, sponsored by the American Legion. And Kent Bruce, who saw me, walked in, was very active at post 239. And if it hadn't been for Kent seeing me walking in that with that resume, I don't know if I'd ever gotten into the employee benefits business back in March of 1983. You do the.

Math. That's awesome, Bob. Little did we know, almost 40 years ago, you were already building your.

Brand. Well, I did have hair back then, so my brand was, was a little longer.

Here. And what I took from that is you walked in and handed them your resume. That doesn't happen as much anymore.

Right?

Yeah. Let's go right there though, on a subject that really is close to what you just talked about. You got in the business in 1983. Some of the people including, including myself were just young pups, as you said at that time, we weren't even thinking about the insurance industry. But here you are at your stage in the game and you have actually taken steps to put yourself on social media. You've actually taken the steps to adapt to the way we have to prospect these days. And there are so many advisors out there, let's admit our industry still has an average age of what, 58, 59. And they think they're beyond those years are beyond them. They don't need to put themselves out there, or they are still using the tried and true methods of prospecting that we did 30 years ago. What has put you putting yourself out there on social media done for you, or at least meant for.

You? Well, it's been a game changer, and that may be an understatement. I admit I was old school. I had to meet you, look your eye to eye, shake your hand, get to know you like it, trust you face to face. And we all know what 2020 did to disrupt that. And look, if we were going to survive, if we were going to grow, if we were going to thrive, if I was going to be able to, to do anything different, I had to change and I had to adapt. And, and I admit I'm a lifelong learner in this industry. And I realized I got to do something different because Covid forced me to. But Covid forced me to look at it differently. And admittedly and unashamedly, we got involved with Andy Neary in a Mastermind class. And what we learned and what we have put into practice, and specifically me as a brand, is sharing, has made just a huge impact on what we've been able to accomplish, but what the future look like for us. So if you're an older person, you're north of that 58 average age, man, dude, you can do this. And I can tell you it's a lot of fun. It really.

Is. And it's also, it also takes work. And I love the fact, you know, if you're not following Bob out on LinkedIn right now, he's got the bald guy, Bob Brand, which I absolutely love. And Bob, I mean, just you putting yourself out there consistently with content on social media has led to what, podcast interviews and speaking engagements. And I'm sure if it hasn't already, it's going to be leading to some great business.

Opportunities. It's, it's, it's brought business opportunities and new business. No doubt about that already. Just this year, whether it's been podcast or speaking at a webinar for a conference, or hosting webinars, we've already done 10 so far this.

Year.

Awesome. We haven't done 10 in the last many, many.

Years. That's awesome. So let's dive into ecrx. I think if you're a broker right now and you're not aware that there's a pharmacy issue in our industry, you've been hiding under a rock. And we know medications are front and center as the cost of medications, especially the specialty drugs, continue to skyrocket. For the brokers who are watching this, who have no clue who ECRX is, take a minute or two just to tell us a little bit about what you guys are.

Doing. Great. Well, Employers Choice rx, are we getting some feedback? I apologize, Employers Choice rx, you probably haven't heard about it because we just lived and were birthed in Fort Smith, Arkansas for self funded employers in that market. And we are now taking our ECRX pharmacy Benefits solution out to market with strategic partner relationships. Really looking for broker advisors that are doing the innovative and different approaches, whether it's reference based pricing, direct contracting. And what makes us unique and different is we were built by employers for employers. Number one. We've effectively addressed the misalignment and incentives that exist in pharmacy benefit solutions. We're a nonprofit approach, which is admittedly different. And we really focus on the clinical formulary management, putting the employer and their advisor specifically in the role of being able to control how their program is put together to maximize the benefit for the patient with the right drug at the lowest possible cost. And we are 100%, wholeheartedly in support of and want to market and partner with strategic benefit.

Advisors. So let's fill the gap a little bit because I think as an advisor myself, one thing that comes up a lot when you talk about prescription drugs, personally, I think it's the lowest hanging fruit an advisor has if they want to make an impact on a client's health plan. And all you have to do is take one drug, take something like Humira, which is what, 80 to $90,000 a year, and help one member in that plan solve that drug. You can literally reduce a client's cost by 5 to 10%. But I also hear about the fact that, well, there's so many employers, and I'd say even brokers feel like, well, these solutions are very disruptive. There's that thought that, that theory that, well, you're taking, you're forcing employers or employees, excuse me, to change medications. Dispel that myth right now. Try to talk if you can, just about how actually how easy it is for brokers to help their clients with prescription.

Solutions. It's very easy. And you know, case in point, we had a new client come on board October 1st and within the first three weeks we had a situation with a patient for a high cost drug that was Gonna cost about $6,000 a month. But more importantly for the patient, they were gonna pay $1,500 out of pocket. And when we talk to them about the fact that, you know, if you work with us through the patient.

This, your employer will benefit you by waiving your co pay and out of pocket costs. Well, now the patient, all of a sudden what mattered to them was we're going to help them through this process. It's the exact same drug. We're going to get it conveniently sent to your home. And because your employer has this great program for you, it's not going to cost you anything out of pocket. Okay, who became the hero there? The broker advisor who brought this new solution to the employer and then the employer themselves for that patient. The patient satisfaction with that was, I'm going to get that drug that cost me the prior year, $1,500 out of pocket at no cost. This is really a great approach. So it really comes down to getting the patient on board with what the benefit is to them and getting them comfortable that they know that it's the exact same drug. And if we need to, we invol the pharmacist or the pharmacist as well as their practitioner into the conversation to let them know, hey, don't worry, we've got your back. This is for your benefit. We're not going to make you change anything. And it's going to save you money. So you get the patient involved in that. It's a win for.

Everyone. Well, and there's, as you talked about the whole creating the hero, there's heroes at multiple levels. You're helping a broker become the hero to his or her client. The broker is helping the client become a hero to his or her employee. And heck, the employee is becoming a hero to his family's checkbook when you're literally helping an employee. Let me rephrase that. Get the same med they've always had. Now get it for.

Free. For free. And granted, the employer in this situation is going to end up saving about $80,000. And this is a nonprofit. This was a nonprofit church School. Okay, $80,000 to a nonprofit is a ton of money. But to that patient, that $1,500 to a school teacher, that was a lot of money to them. You talk about creating a disciple, someone to go out and talk about how great my benefits are to the other employees. Yeah, there was a lot of heroes.

There. Well, and think about the time we're in, right? In 2021, a lot of uncertainty around the economy as we move forward. A lot of businesses just trying to stay alive right now. Not only what did that mean to that teacher, $80,000 to that private school could be two new.

Employees. Yes, yes. It's. It's big dollars. And, and look, those stories exist all over the.

Place. Give me, give a, give the audience listening in a conservative, like with all the case studies you guys have, like, what kind of savings are we talking about in the, in the medications?

When you look at overall cost, overall spend of an inside an employer's.

Health plan, we're looking at anywhere.

Very, very conservative, no noise type of approach. Very, very minimal disruption. Of 25% up to 50 to 60 cents on the dollar. Again, a traditional, well known branded TBM. Their per member per month cost, they're going to run $115 and we're coming in just under $50 year over year. So do the math. I mean it's a significant number of amount of.

Money. Well, and again, do the reverse engineering. If you can save 25 to 70% on somebody's medication cost when medications now account for anywhere from 25 to 50% of an employer's overall budget. Right. Start doing the math. That's a pretty massive impact if you want to create stickiness for your clients. Take.

Pharmacy. It is low hanging fruit but you know, we like to recognize it too. If you look at the American health insurance plans breakup of a dollar bill, the highest single cost at 21 and a half cents is prescription drugs. More importantly, if you look at the data of a group, if you consider prescription drugs a chronic disease, like diabetes, like musculoskeletal, like cancer, if you consider prescription drug as a chronic disease, it's very likely that in the makeup of the data your pharmacy is your highest cost chronic.

Disease. Yep. So Bob, I'm going to let you put in, you put on your thought leader hat for a second and your, your crystal ball hat. As we look at the health insurance industry over the next three to five years, where do you see some changes, some trends, some things we're going to be looking at over the next three to five years as an industry.

Direct contracting is going to escalate and you know, reference based pricing is a great solution. But I think the best solution is direct contracting. I think we're going to see more and more benefit advisors investigate direct contracting along with that advanced direct primary care. The direct primary care approach I think is going to take off. I believe programs like Edison Healthcare and Centers of Excellence types of approach for high cost or complex care is also going to be a part of that. Obviously pharmacy benefits and innovations, whether it's, you know, better management of high cost specialty drugs and prior authorization all the way to pharmacogenomic testing and how your body metabolizes drugs and how, how that becomes a part of the care package for the patient. All of those things together I think are where we're headed as an industry. And quite frankly, I mean again I've been doing this for a long time. I think we are in an epic, exciting time to be in this industry and become relevant, relevant and great strategic advisors to employers that really want to dig into this and really understand. You know what, I can do something about my pharmacy. I can do something about my high cost claims. I can do something about my chronic disease challenges. But I need to find help and there's help out.

There. No, you're absolutely right. I think the industry is at an exciting time right now. And if I heard you right, Bob, basically what you're saying is fix health care, fix the health care and you fix the health insurance cost.

Right? Correct.

Right. Fix where the care is being given, fix how medications are being purchased and the channels are being purchased through guys, you will ultimately help your clients fix their health insurance premium problems. All right, last prediction. Bob, I want to ask you to make take that Chris bowl out, put that thought leadership hat on.

As you look out at the next five to 10 years. How long before the Ohio State Buckeyes give up the Big Ten reigns when it comes to college.

Football? Well, I'm a diehard Buckeye fan of the Ohio State University and I will tell you we won't give it up easily as long as Ryan Day and the troops are together. I like our chances to continue our dominance of the Big Ten. But there's some great challengers and everybody wants to come after everybody at the top. So bring it.

On. Now I, I'm a Wisconsin fan and I agree. I think the only two things that are going to knock Ohio State off the top are day going to the NFL and some kind of scandal. That's.

It.

Right?

Right.

Yeah. So Bob, last question. If somebody listening in wants to reach out to you, reach out to ecrx. What are the best ways to do.

That? Yeah, I would direct you to our website in at employers with an S choicerx.org O R G. There's a contact us form there. There's a lot of great information as to how you as a benefit advisor could utilize ecrx. We got some great case studies and stories there. What I think is one of the most valuable features is our calculate your savings. So with just a couple of little pieces of information, your annual pharmacy costs about how many average members you have a month. We can show you what the potential is of savings that could be offered through employer's Choice Rx. So visit our website. That's going to be the best way. Reach out through the contact us form and we'll get in touch with.

You. I'm also putting Bob's email now. This is your Pulse Health Solutions email. I've got Bob's email below as well. Here's Reach out. Learn more about ECRX and trust me, guys, like I said, if you are not focused on helping your clients right now, reduce the cost of the medications and the impact pharmacies having on their health plan, you're behind. You're missing the point. And so get on it today. Get ahold of Bob. You won't be disappointed. Bob, with that being said, I just want to thank you. And I don't want to put Mike Pattendale Springbok up.

There. He's a good guy, too. You can put it up.

There. Life. Okay, Bob, thank you once again for joining us on the Broker's.

Voice. Thanks, Andy. It's great to see you again. Appreciate all you've done for me personally and professionally. You've been a great mentor and friend, and I would encourage other folks to take advantage of your skill.

Set. I appreciate that. And if you're listening in, remember, pharmacy is the quickest way to make an impact for your clients because what you do with them is you help them create clarity. When you help them create clarity, you give them confidence, and then you know what happens next. Your clients start taking massive action, and that's what you want. So go help them make that today.