 Rich Reda, CEBS
Executive Vice President
Lockton Cos.
Kansas City, Mo.
If group-insurance experts are rarely dedicated to voluntary-benefit consulting projects, then Rich Reda is indeed that rare bird, as his fundamental understanding of how group and voluntary plans positively impact how efficiently insurance works for his clients.
Benefit communication insourcing is Reda's bailiwick. It combines group insurance consulting resources with communication personnel that are selected by clients, and includes being "perpetually" on-site with clients in order to produce an ad-hoc employee benefit strategy in wellness, consumer-driven health plans, and participation in flexible savings and health savings accounts.
The main goal of Reda's interaction with clients' employees is to improve employee benefit return on investment through financial education, by providing a description of each benefit offered and the associated employer/employee investment.
By providing tutorials on wellness resources and employee benefit content and enrollment portals, investments in wellness and technology are optimized. Indeed, a new client this year terminated their benefit call center outsourcing contract due to the level of expertise Reda's on-site personnel provided, resulting in $120,000 worth of savings.
Reda's team helped another client's employees save an average of 20 percent on its short-term disability premium.
"This provided a much needed premium discount for our employees," the client said, "but also improved our return-to-work objectives."
Reda also uncovered an opportunity to reduce another client's pharmacy spending after performing a pharmacy review. After negotiating rates with the current pharmacy benefit manager, Reda and the Lockton pharmacy analytics team were able to reduce a $10 million outlay by $1 million, or about 10 percent.
As education in a service business is an imperative, Reda also teaches CEBS designation classes for Lockton associates for two hours each week. "He's very responsive and customer focused," said one benefits manager client.
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