Navigating the Right Approach to Personal Loss and Mental Health in the Workplace

What's up everybody? It's David. I'm your host of Highway Health podcast series. And we've got a treat for you today. Today's podcast is not held in a studio. It is actually being held at the Meredith Golf Club here in Dallas, Texas. Maredo is home to some of the best in the world, whether it's Schuffler, Speed, Zala Torres or Tony Romo, I get to join the VP of Health and Welfare over at Lockton. His name's Matt Bros. He was nice enough to invite us out to the golf club where we get to talk, employee benefits, and bridging the gap, improving the access, the experience, the outcomes for our patient population for our employees, and Matt has a great personal story. One that we can all relate to on the mental wellness, the mental health of ourselves, of our colleagues, of our employees, and the importance of providing the support, the tools, the solutions, to those in need and how that improves, The overall quality of life for those around us, including ourselves. You're gonna love this conversation. Matt has taught me so much about All walks of life, from being a dad to being a sales guy, and even in health care. Matt is one of my favorite people. And so I know you'll love it. Let's dive in with Matt Bros, VP, Elsin Welfare, over at locked in. Enjoy. Talking about the cost service people side of things. So the people side really resonates for me, especially the mental health side of it. When, in two thousand twenty, father in law's name is Tex, and he's kind of one of my heroes. He, he got diagnosed with COVID, and, went to the hospital, Pretty quick on a ventilator. And then next thing you know, we kinda knew that, he was gonna be passing away. So my My wife went in to visit him. And during this, during this whole period, I was involved in this, like, viral healthcare plan that came out that, honestly, it was probably fifteen hours a day of just on calls, demos, all that kind of stuff. And so my capacity was just really, really limited. And then we've got this personal thing going on too, huge personal thing. And so my wife goes and visits on his last day, and we lose texts. And then all of a sudden, like, my, my head space, my mindset, like, just almost, I would say, almost, like, gotten to a coma. Like, it it was hard when I would open up the computer in the morning, It was hard for me to even see what was on the screen. I don't know if people have ever experienced that. And then my dad, at the same time, was starting to get ill. But, my, my family got COVID because my wife got when she visited him on the last day. So my family's got COVID, and we're going through, the planning of Texas funeral. And I remember us watching the viewing on a TV in our house because we couldn't go the viewing because we had COVID. And then, they had they figured it out a way for us to pull our car right next to the grave site and be able to kind of be able to experience the burial of texts. He was a police officer, and so that's a big deal. And so right after That, I remember us driving home, and I got a call from my mom. The same day we buried texts. I got a call from mom that my dad is not doing good. And so that night, at nine thirty at night is when my dad passed away, and at fortunately, they had just moved right by our house. So I was able to get over there, and I was on the other side of the window, because again, I've got COVID. And, and watch my dad pass away on the same day that I buried, that we buried my father-in-law. And two heroes in my life, my dad was, you know, Air Force, pilot, and like I said, Texas, a police officer. And so that even escalated related. This just really hard places I was at. It didn't have anything to do with like, I would say like a disability that I had or anything like that. I was just going through some really, really hard stuff all at the same time in the midst of probably experiencing the most challenging job role that I've ever had, awesome role. But, and, and I just know that there's people working all over the place that are going through stuff like that. And probably, you know, maybe not to the to the level that I was, But even a lesser level still gets you to a place that it's hard to do your job sometimes, unless you've got somebody that helps you, you know, mentally. And so just the mental health side of things, and in the solutions that have come to the table, I really care a lot about, and I wanna hear about them, because I just know that there's people that need them, and I was one of them for sure. So you're going through this hard time, and and, I think anybody would would suffer through a lot at that period. You must a strong community around you. That helped support you, but also may identify some things that, you know, personally, there's probably hard to to understand in the moment. Yeah. Well, I think for me, like, the community I had around me, they're going through it with us. Like, so, obviously, my family and my closest friends knew my dad and texts really well. So they're they're struggling themselves. So having people suffer with you, obviously helps. But my team, that I was working with, you know, they they knew, what I was going through, and they just stepped in and just kinda took a huge load, that helped out so much. But it really wasn't until, I would say, months after I started to realize when when all the the mental health stuff was continuing to increase. People were talking about it, talking about it, and then I started to realize, wow. You know, I was one of those people that suffered with it. And so I had amazing people that stepped in and helped me through it for sure. And I wouldn't would have been hard to go through it the way that I was, and probably for it to not impact my life as much as it could have work wise if I didn't have their help. But, you know, this awareness of mental health, it, it allowed me to realize, like, okay, my mind in a bad place. Like, it was in a bad place. It was in a place that, needed needed help for me to be able my job well for me to be a good husband and good father. My wife would say the same thing about her role in the house. Right? And so, which proves out the need for mental health solutions in the market. But at the same time, you know, like we've talked about is that you know, mental health is, the the awareness and that's a really good thing, but you can't it can't be a stumbling block either. You know, like, life is hard. It's gonna be hard no matter who you are. You know, we just saw Tony Romer out here, and I promise you life is hard for him. You know, you win think so. Life is hard. And and it's cool that it's it's awesome to have solutions out there that can help us, you know, in those times, but at the same time, we shouldn't be I think I think this this mental health awareness has sometimes created, it to be a stumbling block for people too. And so we gotta balance that. Right? Yeah. Well said, you know, we we talk about a lot on highway to health, about it taking a village. To improve, you know, access experience and outcomes for our patient community. Sometimes that village includes the provider and, these solutions, but also takes, you know, each each and every one of us for our own personal responsibility to be aware of our own health and taking of ourselves. But also your buddies and your colleagues, your peers, but we have to be resilient. Yeah. Because like you life is hard. It's always been that way. And I think, something that, you know, your dad was military, your father-in-law was a police officer. I have military and first responders in my family too. If you ever need some perspective, on what people are going through. Yeah. You know, talk to people in that community. Yeah. And, they need support. We need support. But at the end of the day, it's it's gonna be tough. Yeah. And and resiliency is a skill. Yeah. That that we all should should train and and work Yeah. Be ready for those challenges when they hit, man, because they're gonna hit. But, yeah, I think it's I think it's cool. And I think, you know, from my role that I have with employers is just making sure that if we're gonna have this conversation about impacting the mental health and their employees, that it's with solutions that have been vetted and that are truly making a positive impact. And they're not checking it off the box. And that's if there is a person on the other side of the phone, or the computer screen that's a qualified person to be able to handle challenging stuff. So back on that topic of you know, providing the right level of service and the right, inventing the solutions that these employers need. You must be a pretty strong partnership with. The solutions and the products and the other companies that are out there, how do how do you build that relationship with those third parties? What's what's your Well, it's interesting. It it locked in. We ride ourselves on independence. And so, and that's really the biggest differentiator in locked in is that, a, we're in family owned independent company, but we feel like to be the best adviser for our clients is that we need to look at every opportunity as kinda independent from the others. And so, you know, sure, we're gonna have products and solutions that we think are best in class, but it's important to us to still stay independent, to keep those products at arm's length to a point to where, you know, we're not being biased at all, you know, because relationships can kinda that way. Right. And so that is that is a bit there's, you know, there's other brokers out there that have things called consortiums where they actually take these vendors, and bring them into the fold and say, Hey, we're gonna treat you special. We think it's best for the client for us to say, hey, we're gonna bring our, our leverage to the table for you because we're a large broker, and we do a really job, but we're best to stay independent from, you know, those consortiums so that we can make the best decision for you, the employer every single time. I'd like to after I one eighty seven into the wind here. After I navigate I'd like to ask you how you how you draw that balance of being educated. Yeah. But also keeping him at arms length because that's, that's tough. We got a team of people at our firm that have, like, an overall, you know, vetting us that they do too, and it's a resource of ours. Right? Like, it's really good when a product gets vetted by them, even though, you know, for myself and our associates, we can work with any solution out there. But when it's been vetted by that team, It's helpful. And we get a weekly email from that team of the progress that they've had with certain solutions, etcetera. That can be anywhere from a mental health solution that in the grand scheme from a benefit standpoint might be a a small piece of the pie to the whole health plan itself. So, yeah, the cost service people is just the way you know, I was I mentored by a really awesome guy, named Den Bishop. And he had a way of just looking things in a really simple way. And so it it led me to to try to take something that's really complex, which is know, creating a whole employee benefit strategy for a company Right. And tried to get to a place where my role sounds a little bit more simple, you know, and it and it allows for me to have more simple conversations. And so I thought in my role, what I'm solving for is cost, service and people. So I'm trying to steward the cost of the employer, trying to provide superior service, the best service would possibly can. What is the service scope that you need as the employer? And then the people side. And and, around the people side, things. I really try to encourage employers, and a lot of employers don't need this encouragement, but to not minimize the influence that you have, the well-being of your employees. They're likely spending more time with you, the employer, than they're spending with their family And so I feel like there's a big responsibility in that. And so the conversations that I have with employers, whether it's a prospecting conversation, or it's with one of our clients, is is I really try to make sure that we're making an impact every single year, every single month on cost service and people. And our conversations will be a lot of times when you're in a meeting with me, Let's focus on cost right now. This is gonna be more of a cost meeting. And then just know we're not gonna forget the people piece or we're not gonna forget the service piece. But it's really easy to get into a meeting, and you're just talking about the whole world and the kitchen sink and that kind of stuff, and then you never really solve anything. So you I try to just segment it out. Obviously, I would I don't know any employer that wants to spend more money than they have to Right. On their benefits. And so everybody cares about cost. You know, there are some employers that are just like, leave me alone until renewal. So the service side to them you know, good service to them is leave me alone. Right. That's not what we do very well. Like, we wanna be there for you. But, and then the people side, when when we can get together with an employer that really loves the people conversation, I light up. Like, that gives me life. And so but yeah, all of them are equally important. And and for us, it's important for us to know with our clients, what are what are the more important pieces too, which is a good conversation to have. So, yeah. It's important. Yeah. Because you like you said, it can be overwhelming. There's so many things and being able to, you know, put those buckets out there and and have those deep conversations about fixing those three pillars Probably simplifies it and in a way allows you to be a guide Yeah. For these employers, which they need. And the cost piece seems daunting, but really when it comes down to it, like if I whiteboarded the whole cost world of what I do, It starts with first how you're funding your plan. And then it goes, okay. When we decide how you need to fund your plan, whether it's self funding, whether it's captives, whether it's, you know, fully insured, then you've got these tentacles. Like, when you start to take risk, your biggest cost drivers is complex claims and pharmacy And so, like, those are gonna be a huge focus if you're a self funded employer for us to talk talk about high cost and pharmacy. And then there's tentacles that break off of that. And so, you know, I have a tendency to be a little bit add, and so to be able to be, you know, to kind of have those worlds that I focus on has helped me a lot. For sure. Yeah. Well, I can see how I should be applying it in my role. Yeah. It's not, you know, we're not going to people and talking about these complex relationships, but oftentimes you you get busy chasing rabbits. Yeah. And you never really solve the problem or answer the true quest the true objection because you never go deep enough. Yeah. And if you were to focus on those pillars like you, so I can I can kinda see how it relates to to athletics in a way a good coach probably teaches you, step by step and builds upon the last step to make you into a better athlete, a better player? And, you probably had some experiences like that when you were playing. Totally. Totally, and to spiel to simplify it, especially in the game of golf, you've got, you got, you know, full swing, short game, butting. I I like to think in world of three, you know, even though full swing is a little bit more complex than, like, the driver swing is a little bit different than the swing. You know, one thing I really like I I feel like what I learned in sports that's similar to what we deal with in the business world and especially in health care and solving problems is, I had a a coach that always told me, play to your strengths practice your weaknesses. Mhmm. You know, and so when we're with, when we're with employers, we've really gotta think about that. What are what are you strong at? We're gonna play to those. We're gonna really execute on those and help you the employer to really get the most of those things that you're really wrong at, but then what are some weaknesses that we can practice and that we can help you on? You know? Because you gotta be aware of them. Yeah. Yeah. Or else they'll bite you? Yeah. For sure. Yeah. Kinda like my hook. So, you know, we started this conversation around mental health and the pain and being patient focused patient centered. Explain to me a little bit more about, you know, how the inflation, healthcare inflation trickles down and impacts, not just the employer, but the employee and the provider? Well, I think I think what needs to happen. I think what's going to happen is that you know, with a lot of the mechanisms to be able to solve kind of the cost problem that's out there is to essentially create opportunities for the patient to be more of a consumer. So some times, that means that, you know, say you go into a complex care situation. Okay? A self funded plan and a well run self funded plan, there should be an advocate that's going to intercede in the event that that that flame kinda starts to hit the books. Okay? And so then there would be a reach out. It's called care management to where that care management team helps them go, and they have to do that balance of going to the best place for the patient, but also the most efficient for the employer. Okay? Because, you know, it's not uncommon to all of a sudden, complex claims become million dollar thing. Right? But it doesn't have to be that way. And so you've got that care management piece, but then there's also there's a plan that I involved with, and and now, it's it's coming about in two different ways to where the employee is now being set wise to go the highest quality of care. Okay? And so, this is where this consumerism comes in. And so, basically, it tears providers on tier one, tier two, tier three, tier one being the best. And the plan doesn't have a deductible anymore. It's got just a variable copay, and so the employee now needs a consumer before they go to any provider to say, what is going to be the best provider for me to go to? Cause the best provider is gonna have the lowest co pay. So if you're going into a situation where you're getting a knee surgery and you have one of these plans, you're gonna go on the app you're gonna call their customer care to find out if I go to this provider, it's gonna cost seven hundred dollars to get this knee surgery. If I go to this provider, it's gonna cost hundred dollars. The cool thing is that seven hundred dollar one is the highest quality provider. Because all these provider contracts and the cost of care and that kind of stuff. It's kinda hard to actually have a grasp on that. But you can have a asp on reducing readmissions, reducing infections, and all that kind of stuff, which can really minimize the cost for the employer. So getting your employees the highest quality of care sounds potentially expensive, but it's not because that's the way, you know, that's the way contracts go with with carriers, but getting them to go to the highest quality of care is much less expensive when it comes down to it. So getting and so the employees, the patients, need to understand that plans are going that way. For so long, it's just being carte blanche, go wherever you want. Right. If it's in that work, do it. Yeah. Do it. But now they need to start under ending that we need to approach health care just like we approach buying a television just like we approach buying a tee buying a car. Yep. You know, because that's the dollars that we're about. You're right. And and it incentivizes the provider to provide high quality care. Yeah. Yeah. Because as consumerism rises, and we're incentivizing patients and employers on sending them to sending these patients to the right provider, getting the highest quality care. Now competition sets in on the provider side, and they're paying more attention to the quality of care that they're Yeah. They're providing a rendering. Which is it leads us into, and we don't have to get into all this. But that's why we're starting to see finally some momentum in the value based care models Yeah. In reimbursement structures we've talked about for twelve, fifteen years, but now we're actually seeing some momentum there. And it's because It's by necessity Yeah. Because of the inflation that we're seeing. It's like One hundred percent. You've gotta be a better consumer of your own health care. Well, thanks for what you're doing. Thanks for what life is doing. Yeah. And, thanks for showing me a thing or telling the golf course. No problem, man. Anytime, bud.