Matthew Naylor: Welcome to Alignment for Impact. I’m your host, Matthew Naylor. I started this podcast because healthcare and leadership both come down to the same thing: alignment. When people, purpose, and performance connect, real impact happens. On this show, we’ll talk with entrepreneurs, brokers, and change-makers who are challenging what is broken in healthcare and in business and find new ways to make a difference for companies, communities, and the people they serve.
I love interviewing people and talking about what your passion is, what your purpose is, what your happiness and joy are, and how you’re making an impact in your life, personally and professionally. It’s awesome—you and your firm are really shaking up the employee benefit space, specifically the self-insured health plan space. It’s a pleasure to have you here today, Angie Martinez. You’re with Dean and Draper?
Angie Martinez: Yes.
Matthew Naylor: And how long have you been with Dean and Draper?
Angie Martinez: For 15 years. Going on 15 years.
Matthew Naylor: 15 years. Wow. How did you end up in the employee benefits business?
Angie Martinez: Funny story. I started in the auto and home insurance agency almost 30 years ago. I interviewed for a receptionist position, started my career, and then about a year later, I was given an opportunity at an insurance agency that was only employee benefits. I was there about five years and then I went to a PNC agency and developed an additional career there. I learned more about the PNC side, but I missed the employee benefits I had been involved with.
Fast forward—the agency I came from, which held a lot of my foundation, was acquired by Dean and Draper. I always knew that I had more of a passion for employee benefits than PNC. Both are wonderful worlds, but I just missed employee benefits a lot. I wanted it to be my purpose to service clients, find solutions, and explore different avenues they could take to help their employees and their overall healthcare spend. So that’s been my journey, almost 30 years later.
Matthew Naylor: Wow, it’s a really great story. Healthcare is complicated. Healthcare inflation is real—costs continue to go up, services continue to go down, and the experience for members continues to be really problematic and hard. What is it at Dean and Draper that you’re doing that’s unique or distinctive to help reduce cost, produce a better outcome, and create a better experience for the member?
Angie Martinez: Being more of an advocate for our members and our employers, and digging more into data. We are finding out specifically what is causing some of the higher increases, particularly in pharmacy prescription costs and access to providers. I think just digging more into the data and having more insight allows us to have those conversations with the employer about what is causing those higher numbers to show up on their reports, and then determining what the solutions are.
Matthew Naylor: When you say digging into the data, have you not had access to that data in the past?
Angie Martinez: Not necessarily.
Matthew Naylor: And why is that?
Angie Martinez: You’re contained; you’re limited either by group size or by some of the carriers whose hands are tied. You’re given just very high-level information. You may not know exactly what’s going on within the group, so you may be presented with a high renewal, yet there’s not a lot of validation or data to explain that to the client.
Matthew Naylor: So why Crumdale? Why are you working with Crumdale and how did that come about?
Angie Martinez: It came about through an organization that we’re part of, Assured Global Partners. Just connecting with some of our partners and hearing the name Crumdale was the introduction to hearing something different. Why Crumdale? I think you’re trying to do the same thing that we are. We’re shaking things up and looking at things that an employer may not have considered in the past. You can be comfortable with a certain product or service, but sometimes you have to feel pain in order to be open to change.
Matthew Naylor: That’s wonderful. For a young person who would want to aspire to get into account management—which is a really, really difficult and challenging role—what would you say to them?
Angie Martinez: I think you have to just be steady and maintain why you want to do this. What’s your goal? What drives you? Account management is very difficult because you are presented with all of the pain that the employees, the HR team, and the entire group as a whole are feeling. I think for the account management team, it’s vital to just show empathy and show that you care for that client and those employees.
Matthew Naylor: In account management, you get pulled in a lot of different directions. You have your producers, your clients, and the members. Customers for self-insured health plans are inundated with innovation and disruption now—technology, AI, and all the point solutions like case management, disease management, narrow networks, reference-based pricing, telemedicine, and more. How do you manage and handle all that?
Angie Martinez: Probably by just doing a better job at vetting the vendors. You don’t have to have every “shiny” point solution. It’s not about the volume of the solutions, but finding the right one that works. You need several because one is not a fit for all, but partnering with the right ones, sticking to those vendors, and looking at what other groups are doing helps us enhance what we already have. It’s about narrowing it down to the preferred ones for your agency or your client.
Matthew Naylor: That’s great. Well, Angie, it’s a pleasure spending time with you today. Dean and Draper is a phenomenal firm; you guys have a super bright future in front of you, and I appreciate you sharing your time with us.
Angie Martinez: Thank you. I appreciate you having me.
Matthew Naylor: This is Matthew Naylor. You’ve been listening to Aligned for Impact.
