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22 minute read
Prior to open enrollment, Bryan Schmidt, Director of Operations at Southern Guaranty Insurance Group (SGIC), had a discussion with Alan Edgin to provide insight from a carrier's point of view.
During their conversation, Bryan and Alan explored trends in platform integration, how best to collaborate with partners to streamline legacy systems, and how to efficiently partner with marketing distribution partners.
As a former professional athlete with a strong business acumen, Bryan provides a unique perspective on insurance trends, as he is a newcomer to this industry. We invite you to listen and learn:
- Why are Short-Term Medical (STM) plans becoming more popular, and who benefits most from these plans?
- How to efficiently adopt new systems when replacing legacy platforms
- Tips on partnering with distribution channels
- The significance of AI in remaining relevant in insurance sales
Insurance Innovation, brought to you by e123 - the premiere life and health distribution management system.
Episode Transcript:
Narrator
Welcome to the Do's and Don'ts, our series that builds on best practices for insurance marketers carriers and marketing organizations based on white papers from leading thinkers on the future of insurance distribution and of our own course from our e123, CEO, Fred Studier. With me today is Austin Siegel. Welcome to the show. Thank you for being part of the panel discussion earlier today [at Medicarians]. Can you tell us a little bit about your background and what got you interested in being a panelist?
Alan Edgin
Welcome to our podcast series that focuses on the core issues of how to innovate, how to use data to innovate, and what the future might hold. Today's guest is Bryan Schmidt. He's Director of Operations for Southern Guaranty Insurance Company (SGIC) based in Clearwater, Florida. Bryan was born and raised in Minnesota. He graduated from Merrimack University near Boston with a degree in Business and Accounting. He began a professional hockey career initiated by playing Division I hockey at Merrimack. He spent two years playing in the US for the LA Kings and Nashville Predators Team. Bryan extended his career in Europe, playing for eight years across countries like Germany, Denmark, Norway and England. He achieved an MSA in Management and Leadership from Loughborough University in England, during his last two years of hockey, enhancing his education alongside his career. Sports career Bryan transitioned into construction industry post-retirement in 2016, taking on a project role in St. Petersburg, Florida, diversifying his experience by stepping into the insurance industry as a project manager for an affiliated TPA Premier Administrative Solutions. Bryan quickly demonstrated competence and leadership, earning promotions to Operations Manager at Premier Administrative Solutions (PAS) and then to Director of Operation at Southern Guaranty Insurance Company (SGIC) in 2022. Currently, he's committed to driving operational success and strategic growth at SGIC. Bryan, welcome to the podcast.
Bryan Schmidt
Thank you, Alan. Pleasure to be here.
Alan Edgin
Bryan, one thing that amazes me about professional hockey is just how fast they skate. I've always just been blown away by the speed. Is that something you're born with?
Bryan Schmidt
Yeah. It's funny. I wish that was the case. I wish it was my case, too. That's probably why I didn't make the NHL. But no, I grew up in Minnesota. I started playing hockey outside at three years old. My dad took me out with my sister. We started playing. We play in the snow. We'd jump off the boards, stand in waist deep snow, jump back on and just keep going. And they say you can skate faster than you can run. So when you're on the ice, you're moving. Right. And then not only are you moving, you got to have your head up because someone's going to try to hit you.
Alan Edgin
Yeah. That's crazy. Well, I know you had a great career, and congratulations on that. And I know you're going to have just as great a career, if not better, in the insurance world.
Bryan Schmidt
Thank you. Appreciate it.
Alan Edgin
So how was the transition from playing professional hockey to going down in the insurance world? Was it fairly smooth?
Bryan Schmidt
No, not at all. It's interesting. It's funny because I actually went, as you said, last two years and played in England at Loughborough University. They have a deal where you can play for them and go to school. So I knew I was retiring, right? I was 33 years old. My body was breaking down. I was just like, what do I do now? So I basically said, I need to get my brain working again, right. Because I haven't used my brain in what, ten, eight years? So I got the Master of Science, which is kind of like an MBA here in the US. Kind of transitioned me a little bit. I got into construction in a super strange way, just kind of fell into it. And St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, Great place to be. Did a pretty decent job there creating a then, you know, one day our owner just said, OK, it's time to go to insurance because I was doing so well. And when I got to the insurance world in the TPA PAs and I was just like head spinning, right. Just no idea what's going on. It's a whole different world. Talking about term dates and pay through dates and grace periods, and I'm just like, what are you guys even talking about? But eventually I kind of got mentored a little bit by a pretty good TPI expert and we kind of went for six months. I was helping out the administration team role. I'm learning a lot of different things. And then he was kind of. Giving me tips on, hey, what is this? What is that? And I just kind of picked it up quickly. And I know at our company, especially our CEO, he would not just give me a break. Right.
It's either you sink or swim. And I happened to be swimming, so kind of grew up into that. After six months, I did a fairly good job, did another good job for a year, and kind of here I am at SGIC now.
Alan Edgin
Yeah, that's a good transitional question, but what lessons from playing hockey can you use in your job now?
Bryan Schmidt
Yeah, it's a good question. And I actually was lucky enough to be a leader and a captain on a lot of my teams, and I think that was huge for my career in general. And when I walk in there, I can use that, hey, teamwork. Because in your insurance world, there's so many moving parts, right? So you need to put a bunch of different teams together and say, hey, guys, we have to figure out how to work together and make this amazing product and get the sales going and service our members. So the hockey world, you've got 20 guys with all different kinds of attitudes, I'm better at this. And you somehow got to make a team and you got to win. So that kind of same transition helped me a lot with the insurance world. And the second thing I think that was great for me is one thing, because I didn't grow up in insurance. I wasn't in a box, right? I wasn't like, here's how insurance works. Just go in this box. I'm a little bit outside of the box thinker, so we try new things and. Push some certain scenarios and they push back on me and say, Bryan, you can't do it. Okay, fine. You can't do it. That's fine. But not growing up there gave me a different kind of look when I walked in there. And I think it has been helping and kind of helping PAS and SGIC be a little more innovative than usual.
Alan Edgin
Yeah, that's a good point. I didn't think about that. I've been in the insurance business since I got out of college, and so I kind of grew up with it. But you kind of had a whole different set of experiences, and you can bring that. And it's interesting because you can tell that obviously you're a born leader, but there's a lot of qualities, whether it's playing hockey or running operations for an insurance concern or running a gas company, that are transitions that kind of go across that in. So that's glad that you kind of took your lessons from being the hockey player over to the insurance world.
Bryan Schmidt
Yeah. And I tell our teams at all times, too. And one of the lucky things about being an ex athlete. Very few other professions teach you how to be a leader, right? Maybe the military or other, but no one really teaches you how to be a leader. So you might be amazing at your job, right? And you might roll up in the ranks, and all of a sudden, one day, your leader is like, okay, what do I do as a leader? No one's ever taught me what to do. Right. It's a whole different thing from just hitting my excel, hitting my numbers, hitting my KPIs. To know, hey, now your team's got to hit those, right? Yeah. I was very fortunate and lucky to have them. I think that helped me more than I ever would have thought possible in this role.
Alan Edgin
Right? Yeah. Since you've been in the business, I guess now a little three and a half years, if you came in 2020, um. You know, our insurance world has some unique characters and great people. Have you met anybody that stands out to you as kind of a mentor, a luminary, or a person you just really gotten along with that understands what we do?
Bryan Schmidt
Yeah, I mean, I've met a multitude of characters that I could just name multiple and just have a fun time in this conversation, but I'm going to just stick with the people that I kind of know. And within my company, there's probably four main people who've really helped me a lot, and luckily they've all been in different sectors of insurance, if that makes any sense. So our current Claims Manager and TPA Consultant has been just phenomenal. He's just a juggernaut with claims, knows it very well, and the TPA World, and he's been very helpful in just kind of being there to answer questions and have that knowledge right away, kind of guide me in the right direction. Another guy is Lou Marinacci who is on our Board. I don't think I told him X because he's still in Sales, but he's been in sales for a long time in the accident & health (A&H) and property & casualty (P&C) world, I believe, and he's been a great help. I talk to him every other day now, and he's just been just a him, they call him. Happy Lou or Jolly Lou? He's just a great guy, right. He's always positive, nice. He's a very friendly human being, and he's known around the industry very well. The other one is actually, and I think, Alan, you might know Dr. Bobby. Dr. Bobby, a lot of people don't like to say age drop, but she doesn't mind at all. She's over 70. She's been a board certified physician for 40 years. She's just a phenomenal human being. And she's the exact doctor you want to have. She's caring, but she'll sit down and say, Bryan, take your medicine. Yes, ma'am. And funny enough, and a fantastic saleswoman. She's just great. And lastly is my CEO and owner, Dale, who obviously is, I guess, close to me, but he's as tough as they come. And be honest with you, and just guided me in a lot of directions. That's been extremely helpful. So I couldn't say enough without those four people just helping me kind of get to where I am.
Alan Edgin
Yeah, I know several of those kinds of people on your side and kind of helping you and guiding you along the way. So, Bryan, before we dig into some innovation, let's get everyone acquainted with Southern Guaranty Insurance Company and what you do. So give me just an elevator pitch about SGIC, what products you offer, what markets you're in, what distribution channels.
Bryan Schmidt
Yeah. So SJC was purchased in 2017 as a shell company. Had eight states with zero lives on the books. Right. Right now it's in 28 states. We have about 30,000 lives. We first came out and partnered with that to do a med sub product that is now a closed block. But it was very good for us and a good way to get our feet wet. Then we came out with a short term med and a limited med indemnity product and that came from our owner. That's kind of his background in the insurance industry. He knew those, he's big on accounting and auditing and RB Reports. He just knew exactly those loss ratios. Okay, this is what we're going to do. This is what we're going to start with because SGIC, really, funny enough, is a P&C, right, that sells A&H products. Right. So I know he wants to go in the P&C world eventually, but now with our Medicare Supplement (med sup) and indemnity short term med and soon to build some other ancillary products that it's just funded over P&C and selling A&H products. But yeah, so we've been around for six years. I would say that we're past the quote unquote startup phase. We came from a separate company so a lot of the people there have been there for about 20 years because Dale sold a separate business and then purchased SGIC, the carrier. So a ton of experience there. Now in year six, I would call it, we've gotten past our infancy stage and we're hoping to hit our pre-adolescence and hit some strides because we've got some good things going on for us, but we still need to grow and do smaller things to get there.
Alan Edgin
Yeah. Just as an aside, knowing your company and your business, one thing you have to fear as being an insurance company or any insurance is the legislative risk that's associated with some products. I think you're well aware of what the government's trying to do with short term medical. What's your guy's view on that? Are you going to continue to offer short term medical? Is it a wait and see? What are you going to do?
Bryan Schmidt
We are going to continue. Offered short term medical in various forms, has been around since the 80s, so I don't think it's going anywhere. Let's hope not. It's going anywhere. And I don't stick my head in the stand, but. It's been around since the 80s. It's a transitional period.
Employers who hire an employee usually have a 90 day wait period. What does that person do? You lose your job, you try to go on COBRA. COBRA is twice your expense now, and you just lost your salary. What do you do? So our products are there for a reason, right? It's not for everybody. There's a certain segment of the population, maybe ten, maybe 20%, kind of growing with the gig economy that says, hey, I need something like this because, one, it'll cover me in a time of transition and will not destroy my bank account because they're so expensive. It's tough what they're saying, and I hope they don't go through with it, because there's definitely a segment of the market that needs our products. Um. But since we're PNC and some other inserted products we're going to build, we obviously need to hedge our bets as well, right?
Alan Edgin
And I've been around since the 80s in the insurance world and when short term medical first came out, it was for just as you said, it was someone transitioning in between jobs or someone that had a waiting period three months or six months or so on forth to get their health insurance at their new job or someone graduating from college that needs insurance until they get a job that offers insurance. And I still think that's valid today. There's still people graduating from college. There's still people that are leaving one job, going to another and there's still people that are going to work at a company that says hey, you don't get coverage until one, one. And so to me it's a great product. It's a viable product. It serves the need and I think that hopefully it'll stick around.
Bryan Schmidt
I agree. Yeah. Sorry to cut you off if I did, Alan, I just got to say I think the evolution in my mind and what I've been told is the short term meds that we're offering much more robust benefit wise. Right. So an Affordable Care Act (ACA) plan has to have ten of ten minimum essential coverage. We have nine of ten. Right. Only thing we're missing is maternity. But you'll have mental health, substance abuse, chiropractor. We now have an amazing RX vendor added to our program. Just got First Health as a network. We offer outpatient, inpatient, advanced radiology surgeries. All those things that a typical health plan has, we basically have. So for those people who are healthy and want to save $300 a month on premiums and maybe not start a family, this product is a great product.
Alan Edgin
Yeah, I agree wholeheartedly. So what distribution channels do you currently work with?
Bryan Schmidt
Yeah. We have worked with two for almost four or five years now. One is called CCG or Colonial, and the other one is called NEO Insurance Solutions. They've been good partners with us. They've been a huge help getting us off the ground, and we're just really happy that they've been with us and been doing well together.
Alan Edgin
Are you seeing any kind of trends in our business? Is there something that you say, hey, we got to be in that?
Bryan Schmidt
Just throwing a few stats out here about the gig economy. I think there's about 60 million people right now in the United States that are part of the gig economy. So that's 15% to 20% of the population, and compared to a salaried employee, they make about $36,000 a year. So if you're at $36,000, you don't get your health insurance through your employer, what do you do? You go to the ACA, and if you get a subsidized plan, great, you could possibly afford it. But we're seeing those ACA plans rise and rise and rise. But our products, our premiums are kind of staying pretty steady. It's a good deal for the people who want some insurance but can't afford an ACA plan, or don't have insurance through their employer. So the gig economy is kind of what we're seeing as a target market for us.
Alan Edgin
Okay. So any new products that you're going to kind of unveil at this new open enrollment that's coming in a few days?
Bryan Schmidt
Yeah, actually. Right. Yeah. So we've got a new short term medical product we built prior to the Biden administration announcement. So we were hoping to have a little more time with this and we'll see what happens to that. But the product itself, like I was telling you, has nine out of ten minimum essential coverage. So it's got a very robust benefit structure. It also included riders, an Accident Medical Expense (AME), so an accident benefit, a Critical Illness (CI) and an Accidental Death and Dismemberment product (AD&D) and really rounds out the coverage. And with our enhancement of the First Health Network and then the new RX partner, Revive Health, we're working with, which is a different pharmacy option that we've seen in the market, is basically you sign up for our plan. I think it's about $7 per household per month. And with that you get about 45 free urgent care drugs straight to the pharmacy, Walgreens CVS. You get about 500 maintenance medications delivered to your door for a 90 day supply. And if for any reason your drug is not on that formulary, you get an 80% discount card. Yeah, you get a really 1st $0, $0 get about or $7 per month you get a ton of benefits of that RX. And it's funny, just as a kind of a joke. And I was saying, Dr. Bobby is a sales lady. If she talks about it, she'll just rave about it. And she goes, Bryan. Even Viagra is covered here. I'm like, thank you, Dr. Bobby.
Alan Edgin
Well, I'm interested to see, after the open enrollment period, how successful I bet it's going to be. Very successful. So I'm eager to hear the success stories. So, e123, we've tried to position ourselves as a Distribution Management System (DMS) for life and health. And with that, how does SGIC handle their distribution management system? How do you manage that whole piece of the pie?
Bryan Schmidt
Yeah. So the two distributors I mentioned before, they have their own systems. I think CCG has their own proprietary and I think NEO Insurance Solutions uses e123 actually. So we typically outsource it through them and it's worked out very well on all sides. We actually are, as we speak, standing up an instance with your company or e123 right now. So it's probably going to be live here in about hopefully two, three, a few weeks. Yeah, so I think that's a big plus for SGIC and hopefully a plus for e123 as well. As we're growing as a company, we know we need to offer a better, robust solution not only to our distribution partners, but to our members. Right. So it's kind of a one stop shop is our goal. And there's so many systems out there, there's so many ways to do things that it's hard to do everything in house. So it's kind of an evolution of who we are and we'll get there one day. But for now, I think what we're doing now is great for all parties.
Alan Edgin
Yeah. And I think from e123’s perspective, they realize that distribution systems are complicated. Obviously, insurance companies are very complicated. And what e123 is trying to do is basically simplify that whole piece of the puzzle with the distribution management system and allow carriers, or allow distribution or up-lines, Insurance Marketing Organizations (IMOs), Field Marketing Organizations (FMOs), Managing General Agents (MGAs), to manage their business more effectively. With our distribution management system, they can figure out what the persistency of the products are going to be or what they are, what the distribution persistency is, what the outliers are, and where the product is hot, where it can be sold. And that allows distribution to move. Say your product is really hot in Georgia, you know, and then they can build, you know, and, and try to build a bigger block of business in Georgia, so that's important. So also at e123, we think a lot about innovation and learn and try to learn what others are doing in our sector. So what do you do at SGIC to innovate? What do you do to kind of be different from your competitor?
Bryan Schmidt
Yeah, I think the biggest thing as we like to talk about and we have fun doing it, is products. Right? So we have an internal kind of plan utilization team. There's a lady named Cindy who's been with our company for a long time. She's just fantastic. Together with Dr. Bobby, I've mentioned our Claims Manager, Glenn, myself, we’ve got our Product Development Manager. It's just a kind of robust team of experience and kind of new innovators to really figure out what the market needs, right? And it's hard right. Because as a market says this state has one rule and this state has one rule, so you need to adjust per state. For example, Arizona requires you to file a brochure where most states require a certificate. So you've got to be nimble and flexible, and I think that's one thing SGIC has is that we are not yet they said we're infancy past startup. A big conglomerate, you have to go through a lot of obstacles to get there. It's a small team. If the market moves, like the Biden Administration, we could hopefully move quickly with them and I think products would be the key for us. I know we need the technology upgrades, and we're looking currently into some new AI items that could streamline some items for us to help our sufficiency and services, but I think the biggest thing for us to be is to offer the market great products, continue to try to build our relations with our distribution partners, and then find robust solution for technology. I think those three ways are where we can build a great company.
Alan Edgin
That's great. So we touched on it a little bit earlier, but what barriers do you see when you're trying to roll out some new products?
Bryan Schmidt
Yeah, it's interesting. So we don't have any internal actuaries. We use outside partners or vendors to do that. And they're all nice. And actuaries are actuaries. They speak for themselves. So you want to be innovative and they are rightfully doing their job and say, you can't do that. Okay, fine. Next one would be once it's, hey, let's try that. Let's do that. And then you go to a state, say it's like, well, I don't know if you could do that. Well, we're trying to be a better product for the members. Well, I don't know if I see it that way. And it's like, okay, so now you got to convince a state, right? But then if you convince one state, then you might have to convince 10, 20 others, right. That, hey, this is okay for the population or members. So obviously the products we have and the barriers to get through are a lot of state by state issues and time frame wise, right. So an example, if we want to get a product filed and ready to go if we get done in six months we're happy and that's kind of sad, right? That's not very fast but a lot of it is that it will take once you file for the first time at least 90 days just to get a reply from one state. I'm not going to name the state because I don't want to get in any bad graces but one state literally said to us we want to expand your product. I went to their state so we want to expand our product in your state. They said well listen we had a transition and we're not going to fill that role for another 90 days so if you guys even see anything for another six months we'd be surprised. Awesome. You know what I mean?
Alan Edgin
Yeah. So I know that you’ve got two major distribution systems that you work with, but within those two, have you tried any kind of unique stuff with the commission management advances or do you just let your IMOs do that?
Bryan Schmidt
For now, we let the IMOs do that. That's something we talk about a lot internally, and I will freely admit it. I think our team will freely admit it. We are not strong marketers. We're not, unfortunately. Right. So if you think about the lifecycle of insurance, right, you got your carrier, who's your product developer, you've got your administrator who kind of administers everything, or TPA, and then you got your salesforce. Right? We’re a great TPA or great carrier. We can get that done. Marketing is definitely a weak point of ours. So we've typically let the IMOs, FMOs, MGAs handle that for us, and they've done a good job, but we know we need to get stronger and we know we need to be better on that, so it's one of our initiatives for the future.
Alan Edgin
So let's pivot here first for a while and talk about data. Insurance products, as an actuary will certainly share with you that it’s a lot about data, and what the potential loss ratio is going to be. Whatever the product happens to be. And data is kind of our lifeblood in our business, but everybody kind of uses it differently. So for you at SGIC, what do you do to kind of tame that data beast?
Bryan Schmidt
Yeah. And again, I think one of our strategic advantages is we have our own proprietary claim system. Right? So we own it. We have our own team that runs it. We have all the data in there. It's a huge help for us, especially when we build products. The problem with that is it is a bit of an older system, and it doesn't have the reporting capability that a true forward thinking organization should. So that's how we need to solve it. One of the things that I can describe that way is the claim systems built for claims, right? But it's not built for when an agent sells a product, what state is it in? And how many products do they sell in that state, or how many products does this MGA sell in this state? Or what's the premium for that? So we really need to come up with a better all kitchen sink reporting solution. The difficulty there, and I find it's not just data for us personally, because we have a lot of internal departments or companies. It's people, right? And people are laughing at me, well what do you mean people? It's like, well, If I have a claims department, a call center, we have Medical Nurses and Doctors. We have Accountants, your Operations Admin Sales Team. So you’ve got five different departments all thinking differently. Accountants think about Quickbooks and cash flow. Call centers think about term date, active date, billing date and pay through date. Claims thinks about CPT codes, and to adjudicate a claim properly, your medical nurses and doctors look at medical records and your admin team or your sales team looks at numbers and premiums. How do you get all five of those people who are kind of in their lanes to understand that the data that you're looking at is essential to the other team's data and get them all encompassed into one thing and say, hey, we're all looking at the same numbers, we all understand the same thing, let's move this way. I feel like that's a big challenge for us. And I don't know if we're the only company that has a challenge for us, but it's not easy because people just are in their lane. They know what they do. They become experts. Somebody's got to look outside of your lane to get the data you need.
Alan Edgin
Yeah, I think you're spot on. I think a lot of carriers deal with that same issue. And again, I guess put a plug in for e123, and they can consolidate all of that data and make it available in all five of those lanes that they're in, so that someone like you, in your position, can look at that and say, yeah, that makes sense to do this or do that. Sometimes carriers will acquire blocks of businesses. They'll do other types of actions like that, and it creates multiple legacy systems. Do you guys have much for multiple legacy systems?
Bryan Schmidt
The answer is yes. Our co-owner acquired a block called SMIG, which Alan, obviously, you know, and another one called iCan. They had their own systems, they had their own ways of doing things, and it was always a transition. For three years prior to when I got there, there was a lot of difficulty. Right. Because technology always advances, technology changes. Who's got the next biggest one? Let's make a transition. And the transition of doing that is that your workforce just gets kind of tired, if that makes any sense, because they're constantly not only doing their job, but learning and trying new things all the time. So we've got a few, we no longer use those systems. They're just kind of laid to bed. We're trying to keep everything as simple as possible for our teams and as simple as possible for our members.
Alan Edgin
Yeah, great. So, when you think about initiating new IT projects or stuff, do you try to work with outside vendors, outside parties that can do a solution for you? Or is your first go to your internal IT folks and work from that way?
Bryan Schmidt
Now we look at external vendors like e123, or someone else who really are the subject matter experts in their role and figuring out what's the best way to find a solution for our members. So even though we do have an internal IT Department, they help us with the general day-to-day things, maintenance, help desk, and our proprietary system. But to build new systems or try new things, I just don't think we're there yet because that takes very technical minded expertise that we just don't have or are ready to pay for yet.
Alan Edgin
I think even larger insurance companies have very built out infrastructure. You know, they realize that for speed to market, or for even expense reasons, that it makes sense to go to a third party vendor. And I know at e123 this year, we've had a couple of larger insurance companies that have come to us and just said, hey, we need to be done in 60 days. And our IT team is saying 18 months. We can't wait that long, so we've been able to help them. That's been a big deal for us, a big plus for us. Have you taken on any massive data projects in the last couple of years that you can think about?
Bryan Schmidt
Besides some of the internal transitional systems we talked about a few minutes ago, not really. We're trying something new coming up with AI, and I think we've got the right team around it, and hopefully for the future that's going to work to help PAS. But it's technology again, it's always changing and difficult to say. So it's unfortunately going to take some quality steps in the right direction as opposed to let's go, let's go, let's go. If you get a quote for, let's call it $500,000 in a year, you're probably going to be a million in two years to take it out. Things just double for some reason, so you really got to just make sure you do your due diligence and do everything as much as you can just to vet this and be the best you can at it.
Alan Edgin
I agree totally. So given what you foresee happening in the insurance space over the next few years, what advice would you give to our listeners?
Bryan Schmidt
That's a great question. It's funny, and I don't pretend to be the expert here, and I am fairly new to the industry, but I would say personally is to do your research. So, for example, if you go out and buy a car, you're just not going to walk up and say I want that one. You're going to test drive those things, right? If you have preexisting conditions or comorbidities or go to the hospital lot, you should probably find an ACA plan. That's probably the best plan for you. It's going to be expensive, but that's the best plan for you. If you're someone who is young, out of college in a gig economy, who just rarely sees the doctor and wants to go and save money for the future, one of our plans, or an indemnity, or an accident, or maybe a concierge doctor would be great for you. Right. It's just doing your research and cash pay is available if you need to. Right. So a lot of people are working with carriers now and say, hey, we can kind of do a cash pay plus our plan, it makes a great overall plan for the members. So just do your research. Try to understand the market more. I know it's a busy world and we live in such quick times right now and it's tough, but I think that's the best way to handle yourself in healthcare.
Alan Edgin
I agree. I agree totally. That's great information, Bryan. Thanks so much for spending a few minutes with us and sharing your thoughts. It's been very insightful and I really like the fact that you come from outside the business and so you bring a fresh set of eyes, a fresh set of thinking logic, which is refreshing. We need more of that in our business. I wish nothing but the best for you and SGIC. Thanks again.
Bryan Schmidt
All right, thank you, Alan. Appreciate your time.
Narrator
Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Insurance Innovation, brought to you by e123. We hope you enjoyed the show. Please provide feedback and let us know topics that would inspire you on the website at e123insurtech.com, home of the premier life and health insurance distribution management system.
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