“It's an exciting time—there's lots of new stuff going on. And the innovations taking place in the market now can work for any group size.” (Photo: Chris Bergin)

When Wanza Schweiger, founder and managing partner of Benefit Innovations, started her company, one of her goals was to bring more creativity to the benefits brokerage scene. One of her aims was to focus on smaller businesses that needed more-customized solutions.

“I was very interested in taking what the jumbo accounts did and bringing that down to the midsize accounts. These smaller employers wanted to offer multiple plans and be self-insured, as well,” she says.

The passage of the ACA also brought some changes to the market that her firm took advantage of. “Post-ACA, a lot of brokers just wrote off all their business that was under 100 lives and let it fall away. But I saw that as a great opportunity; I love self-insuring, and the market responded,” she says. “Today, we're probably at an average group size of 50 lives.”

➤➤ Join us for the official Broker of the Year announcement and a discussion panel, April 3 at 10:15 a.m. at the 2019 BenefitsPRO Broker Expo.

Not all of those companies are self-insured, but Schweiger's firm has been able to take advantage of market innovations such as reference-based pricing and direct primary care to bring the self-insured approach to many of its clients.

“It's an exciting time—there's lots of new stuff going on,” she says. “And the innovations taking place in the market now can work for any group size.”

Part of BI's secret, Schweiger says, is paying close attention to what's being tried by other firms. She credits industry groups like Q4i and ASCEND with bringing valuable insights and experience that independent firms can learn from.

“Being able to network nationally with other independent advisors, so you're not just focused on what is happening in your own marketplace, is very valuable,” she says. “The ability to innovate comes from not being afraid to share information and collaborate with other independent firms.”

She notes that smaller firms are often more likely to try new things, which pays off in a market that is rapidly evolving. “The big house firms have their own researchers and attorneys, but they're kind of in a straight-jacket in having to do things the way corporate wants it done. A smaller firm has the flexibility to do things differently for different clients.”

Schweiger's brokerage in Indianapolis is in a regional market dominated by large insurers such as Anthem and UnitedHealth Group. Traditionally, she notes, those big players will offer discounts to employers as an incentive to buy their plans. But such discounts aren't always a great deal.

“It's hard to get employers to understand that even with the biggest discounts of as much as 50 percent, in a market where the facilities charge 600 percent of Medicare, it's still expensive,” she says.

Direct-contracting with hospitals and clinics is something that her firm pioneered, and Schweiger says it's getting easier for agencies and their clients to find partners on the provider side. “Several hospitals in the suburbs here have joined together to do direct contracting as a unit,” she says. “You see more of that taking place. The biggest challenge is to get the employers to understand they do have some control over big-ticket items.”

As is often the case in the benefits world, Schweiger has made her small firm a family business—all of her children have worked there, and her daughter Danielle started her own career there.

“Danielle worked with BI from the time she was in high school. We had a great time working together and she had an opportunity to work at a bigger firm,” Schweiger says. “Now she's an up-and-coming broker. I'm really pleased with how it's worked out for all of us.”