Disrupting the Norm

Disruption

Disruption is a good thing! To put it simply, disruption means to break the normal course or continuation of some activity, process, etc.

To many, disruption alludes a negative connotation. With disruption comes change. Change is scary because it opens the door to the unknown. I am advocating to change that narrative. Change needs to happen. It allows companies to test new approaches for the betterment of their business both internally and externally.

Human Resources and the Standard

For many Human Resource managers, the thought of making changes to a company’s health plan seems terrifying. Through the years, I have found that one of the biggest reasons why a potential client declines the services of SHARx is because HR does not want to disrupt their current processes.

Truth be told, most health plans produce headaches, but HR departments continue to implement what they know believing that their employer and employees like it. In reality, almost no one likes it. However, most HR departments are too afraid to stop what they are currently doing because of the unknown outcomes.

Taking the Leap

Disruption can be positive if done the right way. Sometimes it just requires taking the leap of faith.

Brian Hall, CFO at McCray Lumber and longtime SHARx client, took that leap and he’s glad that he did. Hall states, “If you roll it [SHARx] out, the implementation is not near as painful and if you explain it, just be open and upfront with your people and all your employees. They’ll understand and ultimately, they’ll embrace it and view it as a large benefit like all the rest of us do. If HR looks at this and says we are going to give it a try, they could end up being a superstar in the eyes of their finance people. If they roll it [SHARx] out and have the kind of experience that all of SHARx’s clients have, they will end up being viewed as a superstar.”

Empowering Everyone Involved

Hall decided his blue-collar marginalized company needed disruption. Where margins are thin, every dollar matters. Hall recognized his company could not stay on the same path it had been on for the past two years. Instead of trying to get better insurance, he stopped letting insurance dictate what happened in the health plan. Hall turned to SHARx to empower his employees.

Year after year, the trend line on the cost of their medications continued to rise despite shifting cost share to the employees and moving PBMs regularly.

It would have been simple to just exclude these drugs from coverage, but Hall wanted his employees to have access to the medications they needed and knew that something had to give. “Maintenance medications – It’s a bill that the employer sees on their plan month after month as long as that employee works for them instead of a $20,000 surgery that would go away,” says Hall. He needed a way to solve this financial dilemma for his company without losing some very valuable team members and knew there had to be a better way.

By taking a stand early, utilizing what was available on the market, and attaining access to it, Hall was able to keep premiums the same, no longer had to pay for the drugs that he had to pay out of pocket for before, and reinvested the savings into keeping his employees’ cost shares flat. By implementing SHARx, Hall took back control of his company.

We do not have to accept the status quo. Doing something different can benefit your clients both financially and administratively. Disruption is a good thing! Are you ready to take the leap with SHARx?