7:45 AM - 6:30 PM | Registration
9:00 AM - 1:00 PM | NAHU Workshop - Employer Sponsored Plans in a Post ACA Era
Attendees participating in this preconference workshop will address the health insurance landscape before the enactment of the ACA and discuss what the ACA has changed market-by-market. The law's implementation and alterations to-date and its integration with other state and federal requirements are a key component. In addition, Jessica will discuss how national political forces, legal challenges, and the future actions of states may or may not impact the ACA and health insurance markets moving forward.
There are a myriad of requirements that impact on all employer plans, including wellness changes, HSA/FSA/HRA provisions, fees, annual and lifetime limits, waiting periods and W2 reporting, as well as the ACA's looming excise tax and nondiscrimination requirements. Attendees will learn how ACA intersects with other laws governing group benefits with special attention directed to the concerns of small employers and the employer shared responsibility provisions (employer mandate) and the related health coverage information reporting requirements, including some of the mechanics, use of vendors, and enforcement.
Course Objectives:
- Explanation of what the ACA has changed market by market
- Implementations and alterations with state and federal requirements
- Wellness Changes
- HSA/FSA/HRA provisions
- Waiting periods and W2 reporting
- Reporting and compliance responsibilities
- Individual and employer mandate penalties
Speaker: Jessica Waltman, Principal - Forward Health Consulting
9:30 AM - 10:30 AM | Now or Never: How Technology is Taking Over the Industry
Technology has been reshaping every facet of our lives, but small businesses have been left behind. Insurance agencies are the best entity in a position to bring SMBs online. They’re looking for online enrollment and carrier connectivity, HR, and payroll, in sync. David Reid, CEO of Ease, will discuss how to make technology your competitive edge to win new business, deepen your client relationships, and protect your book of business.
Speaker: David Reid, CEO, Ease
Sponsored by: 
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM | Leveraging tech + data to lower healthcare costs and increase transparency for your clients
It’s a well-known fact that healthcare is anything but transparent. So the idea of painting your clients a picture by leveraging hyperlocal healthcare data can seem impossible. However, there is a wealth of healthcare data available to the public. The trick is not just
knowing where to find it, but how to use it.
knowing where to find it, but how to use it.
Join Maestro Health for a demonstration on how brokers can leverage technology to bolster cost containment strategies for your clients.
What you’ll learn:
- How to use market and claims analyses to drill into the data that matters to your clients’ populations
- How to identify the data points that will validate provider selection from a cost and quality standpoint
- How to determine which provider markets are receptive to direct contract and reference-based pricing solutions
- How implementing care management technology can flag at-risk employees before they encounter costly medical claims, saving your clients money in the long run
Speakers:
Scott Bennett, Vice President of Access Innovation, Maestro Health
Ashley Ross, Sales Director – Southeast, Maestro Health
Ashley Ross, Sales Director – Southeast, Maestro Health
Sponsored by: 
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM | The Undefeated Mind: How Resilience Can Be Learned
New research shows that resilience isn’t something we’re either lucky enough to be born with or unlucky enough to be born without but rather something we can all take specific steps to develop.
Physician Alex Lickerman will describe four of nine principles that his study at the University of Chicago has shown not only increases resilience, but also decreases anxiety and depression to levels equal to that accomplished by medication.
Key Takeaways:
- We can learn to resist becoming discouraged by manipulating our expectations of task difficulty
- We can decrease our tendency to become depressed by altering the explanations we give ourselves for the causes of adverse events
- We can learn to endure pain, both physical and emotional, by accepting it rather than rejecting it
- We can learn to speed up the grieving process when we lose attachments by avoiding sense-making
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM | Advanced Prospecting with the Form 5500 and Beyond
Join Eric Ryles, VP of ALM’s Judy Diamond, for an in-depth session on how to identify and connect with prospects using data pulled from the Form 5500. Attendees will learn where to find key information, analyze trends, and present information to Plan Sponsors
Key Takeaways:
- Spot important flags on the 5500 that suggest the plan may be out of compliance.
- Understand and present complex disclosure data to your prospects
- Uncover the relationships between carriers, brokers, and plan sponsors
- Identify the right person to contact
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM | Working with the C-suite
As benefits advisers develop more innovative strategies to help dramatically reduce employers’ health care costs, they’re increasingly working with not only the human resources department, but the C-suite as well. For many brokers, this relationship is uncharted territory. What is the C-suite looking for? How can brokers better speak their language and address their needs and concerns? Join this discussion to hear from both sides of the table on the ingredients for success.
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM | The Intersection and Evolution of Benefits and Technology: How can we best serve the consumer?
Joi and Vinay will discuss how the whole of this marriage of insurance plus technology can be greater than the sum of its parts, and how you can prepare for that shift in both clients’ and consumers’ expectations around their experience with benefits and healthcare. Just as employers need guidance around the constantly changing healthcare regulatory landscape, they need support to understand, adopt, and implement these innovations.
Key Takeaways:
- Gain insights into how you can navigate the changes of technology and healthcare simultaneously, while connecting the dots to integration.
- Better understanding the various aspects of benefits technology, such as data analytics and decision support tools
- Learn how to adapt to the constant ebb and flow of innovation
- Learn about how consumers gain understanding of their benefits, and how to utilize the technology available to them during enrollment season and year - round.
2:30 PM - 3:00 PM | Networking & Refreshment Break
3:00 PM - 3:45 PM | Business 101: Advice & Strategies that Will Kick Your Business up a Notch!
You ever hear the phrase, “I didn’t know what I didn’t know”? That comes to mind when many entrepreneurs are starting out in business. Hear Susan L Combs discuss advice she learn along the way as well as strategies she’s put in place to develop her teams, built a brand through Social Media, attracted a Millennial Workforce and found alternative sources of revenue to take her company to the next level!
Key Takeaways:
- Learn keen insights on adapting your environment to the Millennial workforce and understand what this demographic is looking for in an employer.
- Tired of working for free? Understand how to figure out what you are worth and how to approach adding consulting into your practice and charging fees.
- Learn a tried and true method to social media strategies that will help you develop a communications calendar.
- Discuss key components of developing your core teams for work, personal grown and home!
3:00 PM - 3:45 PM | The Adviser of Tomorrow
The broker community has adopted a mantra of next-gen healthcare supply chain language tailored for the C-Suite at prospective employer clients. To date it has served as a creative way to get meetings with a new audience but does your firm have the technical expertise to deliver on your messaging or will you be replaced a year later and remembered as yet another broker who sold an empty promise?
Key Takeaways:
- Advisers/Consultants Don’t Quote
- The Amazon Effect on the Producer Model
- Walking the Walk in Healthcare Supply Chain Management
- Spectrum Selling
3:00 PM - 3:45 PM | The Great Reveal: Demystifying Healthcare Costs - The 6 Opportunities in Healthcare
Carl lays out the real reasons why healthcare is expensive to begin with and discusses 6 real-world opportunities to lower costs and improve quality. In addition to identifying the many obstacles to lower healthcare costs, we were also able to identify the best in class High Performance Healthcare Solutions needed to impact your cost spending patterns.
Key Takeaways:
- Why is healthcare so expensive to begin with?
- How to have health insurance your way and your terms
- Showcasing the solutions to what we believe are the six fundamental flaws in our healthcare system that we have turned into opportunities for you
3:00 PM - 3:45 PM | The Trends in Voluntary Benefits
The voluntary benefits industry continues to expand year after year. While the market expands and grows, so does the complexity. Every year, Eastbridge Consulting Group and BenefitsPro do a joint survey of brokers regarding their views and attitudes of the voluntary market today.
Key Takeaways:
- Insight for current peer group attitudes and views of the voluntary industry.
- An overview of the trends facing the industry today.
- Alignments (and misalignments) between the attitudes of brokers, employers, employees regarding different aspects of worksite benefits.
3:00 PM - 3:45 PM | The Great Reveal: Demystifying Healthcare Costs - The 6 Opportunities in Healthcare
Carl lays out the real reasons why healthcare is expensive to begin with and discusses 6 real-world opportunities to lower costs and improve quality. In addition to identifying the many obstacles to lower healthcare costs, we were also able to identify the best in class High Performance Healthcare Solutions needed to impact your cost spending patterns.
Key Takeaways:
- Why is healthcare so expensive to begin with?
- How to have health insurance your way and your terms
- Showcasing the solutions to what we believe are the six fundamental flaws in our healthcare system that we have turned into opportunities for you
3:45 PM - 4:00 PM | State of The Industry
Join Eric Ryles, of ALM’s own Judy Diamond Associates, as he presents findings from his latest research on total ERISA benefits spend. Subjects covered will include the growth in ERISA spending by industry and geography segmented further by the core lines of coverage; health, life, dental, vision, STD, and LTD.
Speaker: Eric Ryles, Vice President of Customer Solutions - ALM Media
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM | Opening Keynote: Digital Leadership: Becoming the Disruptor vs. the Disrupted
Sponsored by: 
Leaders in the Exponential Age are made—not born. We are living in the golden age of data and disruption, and the key to winning is grasping the 5 Habits that all successful leaders practice to achieve success and happiness. Embracing these habits will help you become more productive, reduce stress and drive success. With pioneering video-storytelling techniques, this motivating message from Erik Qualman is entertaining, educating, and empowering.
What you'll learn:
- Current and future trends that will impact your book of business
- Digital leadership practices that allow brokers to be cutting edge vs. bleeding edge
- The delicate harmony of offline and online initiatives for your customers, employees, and stakeholders
- Habits that will allow you to be the disruptor vs. the disrupted like failing fast, failing forward, and failing
Keynote Speaker: Erik Qualman, Keynote Speaker & Best Selling Author
5:00 PM - 6:00 PM | Welcome Reception In Exhibit Hall
6:30 PM - 9:30 PM | Benefits Pro Expo Official Networking Party Hosted By Aflac
8:30 AM - 6:30 PM | Registration
8:45 AM - 10:15 AM | The Future of Underwriting: UBI, IOT, and Emerging Business Models
The future of underwriting aims to highlight the state of the art in emerging benefits and insurance product business models, with a focus on Usage Based Insurance, how the internet of things is shaping and connecting products and risk to the customer they support in a more intimate way, and the profound effect this will have on how employers and employees approach the benefits space in the future. This is a relevant and timely topic for the audience that you won't hear in greater detail and expertise than from one of the pioneers of this space.
Participation in this session is subject to approval.
Speaker: Alex Frommeyer, Co-founder and CEO - Beam Dental
Sponsored by: 