---

Transcript

Ryan Eaton: Happy New Year and welcome to another episode of the Insurance Leadership Podcast. I'm Ryan, your co-host and honored to be here with you today.

Before we get kicked off with this, with today's episode, we wanted to go back through a highlight of what 2024 and the previous years looked like. You know, we looked at this and we've been doing this now for four years. We've had over 40 episodes. We've had people have been New York Times best sellers on the podcast.

We have had, CEOs, presidents, startup companies, military leaders, even Secret Service agents who've been on this podcast. And it's been awesome to kind of see the topics, whether it was insurance or leadership. We had a lot of things on distribution, how to start agencies from scratch, even to the point of, you know, what it looks like when you're trying to sell to private equity.

And it's been really neat, really exciting. And we've been fortunate enough to be able to do this now for, again, four years, over 40 episodes. But we have some even more exciting things coming up in 2025. So, we're looking forward to telling you about that today.

But before we do that, I want to thank two people who have been very, very critical to this podcast over the past four years.

First one, you can't say it right now is Janice Blanton. Janice has been such a big help to this podcast. Whether it's booking the speakers, lining up everything, getting the time, set up social media scripts for the podcast. Whatever the case may be, she has been just a huge help.

The next one is sitting to my right. Casey, Co-invest and Casey usually runs all of the video production with this.

Does the editing. Today might be a little bit different because he's right here, so hopefully this works out well. But Casey has been another one who's just been so influential on the podcast, and he's run over 30 different podcasts for different people. And used, Koa or used to host his own prior to selling it. But he has done a phenomenal job.

We're thankful to have him here. But some of the things that we changed for 2025, which we are super excited about, we got a whole new lineup of speakers.

We're always looking for more speakers to be on the podcast, so if you have anyone good, please let us know. We're gonna have more interactions. Q and A we'll have multi co-host this year.

But one of the things the biggest thing that we're changing for 2025 and beyond is that we will have two new co-hosts for the Insurance Leadership podcast. I've already introduced Casey here. And the other one on one introduces Ben Markland. So Ben is VP of Sales at Morgan White Group and he has been with our company now ten years, does a phenomenal job.

He works in the administration side, the distribution side, the technology side. He kind of touches all the different pieces there and will bring a ton of value to the podcast, especially on the insurance side. So, we're super excited about 2025 and what it has to offer. But with that being said, we're going to go ahead and jump into the podcast for today.

We're talking about leadership trends, and I'm gonna let Casey go ahead and be the moderator for today. So, Casey, kick it off with brother.

Casey Combest: Absolutely. And I speak for a Ben and myself just to say thanks so much for carrying the show. Yeah, we're excited to be a part. I thank you, brother. Appreciate it. Let's dive in.

Ben, we'll start with some questions for you. Starting with trends and technologies. We're looking at a brand-new year. I'm sure a bunch of folks are thinking about what technology can make their lives easier as they move forward. Talk to us about this next year. What should we keep our eye out?

Ben Markland: Yeah, I mean, we've we've seen a lot of changes on the tech side. Covid did a lot to really accelerate that for a lot of the customers.

The carriers, you know, there wasn't as much of a demand as I think, pushed the carriers to make decisions. Until the country was shut down. Right. So, we see we've seen a big increase, in digital benefits. So, we're working with some carriers, telemedicine being one of them, that we've seen, you know, wasn't widely accepted until it was kind of really forced upon people.

And now obviously been growing leaps and bounds. So, we've seen, you know, a big increase in the acceptance of the kind of digital benefits. We're working with another carrier, that does digital vision benefits. So, no networks, no seeing a doctor or anything like that. Everything's done completely online. And I think maybe, you know, ten years ago probably would have been unheard of.

People think, you know, in order to see a doctor in order to, to get something done, you have to see someone face to face. And we're just seeing that kind of stigma go away a little bit. So that's something that we're seeing a lot with carriers.

Another one that I've seen personally, and just some of the, the partnerships that I've worked with is the growth of ICHRA

So, we're seeing, a lot of brokers around the country starting to embrace the Individual Coverage HRA. And the reason I bring that up when we mentioned technology is because the challenge with an Acra implementation would be you're taking a 30-person group and turning it into 30 individuals.

So, the administrative side of that becomes, you know, quite unwieldy for your average broker. That's not used to doing that stuff.

So, we're seeing a lot of technology companies and actually a lot of VC money pouring into these companies that are doing this stuff, to kind of manage employer contribution, to manage the payment side of it. So, those are kind of some of the trends we've seen on that. I'm excited to see where it goes.

You know, we have partnerships with a lot of people that are doing this stuff. So, these are things really, we weren't thinking about in-house here, but we're partners with so many people. They're kind of driving some of these trends, and it's kind of forcing our hands to learn a little bit more ourselves.

Casey Combest: So, I don't know. For myself, I don't know if you guys felt this, but it seemed like every time I opened up a browser or news or something new with AI.

Ben Markland: Absolutely.

So, as we're looking at how a, continues to impact our daily lives, as far as the operational strategy for insurance agencies, what are they looking at this next year? What should they keep their eye on?

Oh, yeah, I mean, that's another great question. You know, obviously claims processing for, insurance companies are a big thing. There's a lot of information. Obviously, that's where money's changing hands. That's where, you know, if you're winning or losing on a customer. But I think there's a big role for AI in claims processing.

On the other side, you obviously have the customer experience. So, if you deal with any large insurance companies or really any business online, now, if you get online, what's the first thing that pops up in the corner? Hey, how can I help you? That's not a person. I mean, everyone knows that that's AI. And I mean, maybe it starts you there, but you know, that first interaction is where I can really start routing people to the right place.

We on our own insurance company here have kind of experiment a little bit with AI on our phone system.

We have hundreds of thousands of members. And we found that a large percentage of phone calls was really just around. I need to change my credit card. And, you know, in order to involve a person in that and someone updating a system and doing all that, these are things that could very easily be done with AI.

So that's something we're kind of investigating a little bit as well.

And I think there's a role for a lot of that just because of the large numbers, the just the amount of information out there and the repetitive stuff. I think obviously AI is kind of teed up to handle that, that type of information.

Casey Combest: Any other emerging risk or opportunities as it relates to prioritizing just stay competitive.

Ben Markland: Yeah. I mean, risks obviously would be cyber-attacks. Once again, things you wouldn't really see or think about. I don't think many insurance companies were thinking about this, you know, 20 years ago. Just because the, the criminals doing that stuff didn't really exist yet. And if they did, they had different methods. And now it's just the vast amount of, of, personal, potentially dangerous information that insurance companies store on people.

You know, you have their Social Security number, you have their health history, you probably have their payment information. Obviously, we have to deal with compliance and all of that. But if a bad guy gets there, they don't they don't care. So, you know, insurance companies I think are a big target for cyber-attacks just because of the type and amount of data that we store.

So, you know, I think it's just important. And I think a lot of these bigger ones are coming up with just entire departments just to combat that. So once again, a place you got to spend money that maybe you didn't have to before.

As far as opportunities, I think, just the number of connected devices around, I mean, you know, just like the bad guys are after information to do nefarious things. There's a lot of good information out there that that I think insurance companies could use to better their offerings and, you know, maybe even affect the bottom line for pricing.

Yeah. I was just thinking myself, you know, how many connected devices do you have in your house? And, I mean, I've got plugs, I've got light bulbs, I've got my kids toys that are connected to apps. Somebody is doing something with all this information, and if they're not, somebody wants to.

So, you know, I don't know that I can connect to one of my kids toys to figure out something to do with their health care in the future. But someone's looking at it. All this data is being collected. Data is the largest, product in the world right now.

And, you know, the fact that we are connected and everything we do from when we wake up and, you know, there's toothbrushes that are connected. You sure you guys have heard there's companies out there that are tracking what people brush their teeth, and you might get a discount on your premium for something like that.

So, you know, these are these are a type thing that I mean I think there is opportunity there for insurance companies. Just like someone would do with a car, insurance today, you know, they offer an app. If you're not a crazy driver, maybe we'll lower your premium. If you are a crazy driver, we've got to tell you. But we pay. Raise your or cancel you.

So, the advantage is that insurance, can. Because people are so connected today, I think there's a lot of opportunity for the, the customer to share information with the company they're doing business with. And, you know, decisions can be made based on that information. And I think that can be for the greater good of everybody.

So, I think that's a that's a big opportunity out there.

Casey Combest: Yeah. Lots to keep our eye on as we're looking at 2025. And so that's another reason why insurance leadership is so important. And it's a great topic like this. And help you to stay informed to make the best decisions you can for right for you.

For Ryan for you as you're looking at leadership for 2025, what's it focusses for you?

Ryan Eaton: For me personally, I'm looking at two things for kind of 2025 at least the start of the year, trying to get some things a hold on. One is time management. We've all heard, seen, read books on different things from a time management perspective, but I'm really trying to focus on things that I can do specifically, maybe that I've heard for a long time, but I just haven't pulled the trigger on to try to be able to help.

And then I'm also looking from a project management standpoint, like what we need to do to execute more effectively as a company. And, you know, there's only so many, so many hours in a day.

Right? And, you know, and some of it's allotted to ourselves, some of us to our family, some to, you know, outside of office functions, but some are here at the office.

So, it's maximizing those hours to the best that we can. And I had a mentor tell me a long time ago he said, he said, your life is kind of like a car and you have four wheels. And he said, one may be your family, another one might be spirituality, another might be health, another one might be work, he said.

If any one of those four tires gets low, gets flat, he said, the car will not ride correctly. He said. So, make sure you have everything balanced. And so that's kind of one of the things I'm working on this year is trying to make sure I got myself balanced. But then also as a team, as a company that we're doing the same thing there. So, we don't get off kilter.

Casey Combest: Good, that's a great transition into our next question for leaders who might be watching you. They're saying, I'm busy. I'm really, really busy. Ryan. Like, how do I do these things? What are some low hanging fruit that they could take advantage of right now?

Ryan Eaton: That's a great question. So, I'll just say what I've started doing over the past little bit.

So, these are, you know, people you may already have done this. This may be something a lot of you guys have already implemented as well, but I had not.

First one I look is emails. I checked it out and as I mentioned earlier on the call, we were looking at my emails and trying to figure out what we could do, and I was getting over 250 emails a day and trying to check 250 emails a day and take the phone calls and do the kid stuff and everything else.

It was just get to that point like it was mental, mental haze, right? You just want to be like, let it all go. Well, I spent two weeks going through and unsubscribing and so instead of just unsubscribing I would unsubscribe them.

And then I put them on a junk list or a Barracuda list as well. Because what I found is that some of them which you unsubscribe actually don't even unsubscribe you, they're kind of checking their box so that it looks like they're doing it, but they're really not.

So that was one of the first things I say. All right. Let me unsubscribe. Let me get the junk stuff off. Then the second step of that email management was looking at it from a standpoint of, hey, how can I get all the emails that I need to get, but I don't need them actually during the day to go to a specific folder.

And so, there's a lot of different rules you can set up and outlook that I could get my bank, I could get kids school, I get investment accounts, I could get, you know, Mississippi State emails, all these different things that, you know, you kind of want to see Amazon deliveries, right?

This time of the year, some of you, if you're getting 10 or 15 packages a day with all the different stuff, you might be getting 30 to 45 emails because it's on the way.

Hey, now it's delivered. Hey, rate it to say those type things just clutter you. And if you've ever been on a team’s meeting with somebody and you see them, you're looking straight at them and all of a sudden you say them, look down to the bottom right. They're saying those pop ups. Well, this is a way to be able to just get those distractions out of the way.

So that's one of the things, also the Do Not Disturb feature if you have an iPhone. I blocked my time off from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. where no one's calls or texts get there unless I want to go look at it. And so, I blocked that time out for my family. For me, I like having a few personal hours to start the day, so I'm actually getting all my stuff.

And what, instead of what other people are trying to send me to do to make sure I'm effective from that standpoint.

And then I think the last thing real basic but organize your priorities. It's amazing how many things we do from a time management perspective that it doesn't even align with the things we really want to accomplish. We're just doing it.

Maybe it feels right. Maybe someone else wants us to do it. Maybe, you know, maybe they want to take me to lunch to try to pitch their idea. Like, instead, I'm not trying to figure out how to pitch my idea. Right. And so, take time to organize your priorities and figure out what you're actually doing. That helps kind of reach toward your goals and what you're doing.

That's just wasted time.

Casey Combest: Feels like January is a great month to do that. So just get that focus back. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. Love that.

Ryan Eaton: Those are the low hanging fruit that I would say. Yeah

Casey Combest: Yeah, That's great right. As we sort of close out our questions section. Ryan, as we're looking at the new administration taking office, what changes do you see for the insurance industry coming up?

Ryan Eaton: Yeah, that's a great question. And we don't know what everything's going to look like obviously, yet.

But there's a list that the Trump's administration has put out and Kamala had the same type thing where they put out the different things.

And I really agree with a lot of things on Trump's list. And I think with, the Republicans having the House, the Senate and the presidential seat, I see this being a stronger push probably in the next few years.

First thing is direct primary care. This is still new to the area we're in in the southeast. It's very, very new overall, but a lot of big cities have had this for a while. It's a great thing. It's you have a have a doctor, you maybe pay a monthly membership fee to your part of it. And then you can text them, you can call them, you can get prescriptions done in, you know, if I'm at the deer camp and I get in poison ivy, I can text, I can call, and they can call me.

And poison ivy, almost like a built-in telemedicine with a doctor. But it's also you can get all your tests and exams and they're all done for free as long as you pay that monthly fee. And so, you kind of can get a lot of the preventative type stuff. And because it's no cost besides the monthly fee, you get more stuff.

So, I think that's going to be a big one. The direct primary care model, PBMs, I do see them going after the PBMs. You know, prescriptions are one of the things that are left out of ACA, lobbying efforts of the different prescription benefit management companies got prescriptions taken out of it. And we look even at our own self-funded plan, we only have probably 250 to 400 employees in our company's plan.

But it's 49% of our medical spend is prescriptions. That's got to be regulated as a whole. It's it's getting it's getting crazy. And they're also talking about for like, medical practices, hospitals, urgent cares, reducing the licensing complications to make it easier to be able to build some of these facilities, different place where it's easier to be able to get certain things.

You don't think about it the less you're dealing with it. But like these end stage renal dialysis clinics, they're so hard to get built or so cost of. They're so, so much cost $2 million to put in a building. It can only say a certain number of people on a day because they're having to cycle their blood. Well, they may have to go through a year worth of licensing compliance to get in.

Sometimes I just ask himself, is this worth it? But then you have CMS for those companies breathing down their necks and saying you need open more, you need be able to get this. It's like we're stuck in limbo with governmental type stuff. So, I see them reducing a lot of those regulations on companies. And then the last thing that I'll hit on today is the increased, transparency of pricing.

So, if you go to the movie theaters, there's a price. You go launch anywhere, there's a price. If we go, you know, name, if you go look at a car, you go to a retail shop, you go to anything. There's pricing laid out for the consumers. You know what you're buying. You know what you're paying. You know what you're getting.

Health care is the only business I know of in the world. It's not like that. And you can walk in, get the services, walk out and still have no idea what you're about to pay for it. And we wonder what's broken. I mean, it is it's it's got a lot of flaws to it. And so, I think price transparency is going to be really big.

I think some of that type of stuff will really be a good thing for our country as a whole. We have the fastest growing, pricing, for medical care of any other country.

And you look at that, that's got to be something to it. If I can walk in and pick up a Lamborghini and not even know the price tag till, I got home and then got the sticker shock, you know what happened?

You know, blah. There would be a problem, right? And it's the same thing here. And so, I think hopefully they'll do a lot on that side, but it is not going to be easy. Don't they be clear on that. That is a tough thing when you get network fees and what this one cost versus this one, it's the same doctor but they're charging different fees.

That's tough for member to be able to understand. And especially someone who's not in every day, it's going to feel like a racket. And so, I think some of those type of things, how you navigate it's going to be very interesting over the next few years.

Casey Combest: Yeah, probably a lot of arguments at the other will be there.

Ryan Eaton: I mean look it doesn't look good for the hospitals, doesn't look good for the insurance companies. The consumers are already frustrated. I mean, it's a lot of different stuff like that. But I think simplicity is key in anything. Right? We all know that. And so, I think there's probably a way to be able to do it simpler. I don't think it's a quick fix.

But it's also tough from the hospital standpoint when Medicare is reimbursing at this price. But they make all the insurance companies pay at this price. And, you know, it's a lot of stuff like that gets kind of convoluted and kind of messy. But that's what I see, kind of the administration, some of the coming up nights looking like,

Casey Combest: Good thing you guys don't have to deal with the day to day to that.

Ryan Eaton: Amen.

Casey Combest: Hey guys, thank you all so much for your time, the day and your expertise.

And thank you guys so much for listening. We're so excited about 2025. But we know there's a lot of great stuff ahead.

Please make sure to send us topics we want to hear from you guys. We want to hear about topics you are interested in, or people you would like to see on the podcast or hear from, and also participate with us on social media.

We're on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

Ben Markland: Yeah. Casey and I are really excited to host this podcast that Ryan so gracefully done for the last four years. And we're excited about our lineup, our topics. And, you know, as Casey mentioned, you know, we can't do this without you guys.

So, we're certainly open to hear and what you're interested in as well. Really think there's a lot of opportunity a lot of risks out there. For what we do, for what you guys do. We're excited to talk about it. We're excited to bounce ideas off of our guests and hear what the different takes that we can get. But once again, we're looking forward to doing all with you guys.

So, that being said, we'll see you soon.

Ryan Eaton: Thanks, everybody.