Video transcript - PlanSource Partner

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Today, we will be spotlighting our API partnership with PlanSource. I am joined with Bradley Taylor, EVP of strategic partnerships for PlanSource. Bradley, thank you so much for joining us today.

It's great to join you, Myesha. Thank you for including PlanSource in your video.

Absolutely. You are definitely a great partner of ours. We are excited to have you with us today. Can you tell us about PlanSource's platform and the unique offering you have through the Boost program?

Absolutely. PlanSource helps centralize and simplify every aspect of the benefits program so employees in HR teams can make smarter, more confident benefit decisions. We believe the easier that the benefits are to understand, use, and manage, the more value people will get out of them. So we're on a mission to create the best benefits experience possible.

We know that with a clean, intuitive, and mobile-friendly experience paired with groundbreaking API integrations and strong partnerships with carriers like Guardian, we can really improve the benefits process from start to finish. PlanSource is dedicated to giving the best experience possible for benefits communication, dropping, enrollment, billing compliance, and, of course, administration.

So we know that this program has a lot to it. And we've tried to simplify it down to these four pillars of the Boost program. And it's simple to qualify. When customers select one or more products from Guardian, they're eligible for the Boost program. So we don't have a whole lot of hoops to jump through or products to change. It's really just easy, whether it's one new or existing qualifying Guardian product.

So the first component are the modern API integrations. And so together, we've developed API integrations that will drastically simplify the processes that we have in place today. We've also got a preferred pricing strategy that simplifies how the tech credit strategy comes to customers. So rather than looking at the number of products that have been purchased or trying to determine how many people are enrolled, we've come up with a simplified pricing price point off of one new or existing qualifying product.

Employee shopping really helps optimize the benefits shopping experience so employees appreciate, value, and understand how to utilize their benefits, which is what our employers want, which is engagement. They want their employees to understand how these benefits work. And then lastly, a simplified self-billing option that makes it easier for customers to pay their bills, understand who's covered and make changes, and helps the carriers offer a self-bill process without the reconciliation quarterly, annually, et cetera, and ensuring that the carrier is collecting the right premiums and helping the employer keep track of who's eligible.

You spoke of API integration. Tell me, what's the value of the integrations that our organizations have built together for our mutual customers?

The biggest thing to us is time. Time is such an important element these days with HR teams having typically fewer team members and more to do. And so time comes back to all of us in the form of a simpler plan configuration so making it easier to set the products up on the platform in the first place, easier to renew the benefit plans, keep track of changes.

And we know that an accurate plan setup leads to less re-work that comes from correcting things like payroll deduction errors, COBRA issues that may come about from the wrong, say, dependent age-out rules, those sorts of things. So time is critical, accuracy of benefits, really making Guardian the system of record for your plans, rates, rules, features, et cetera.

The second API that really matters is the API for enrollment transactions. And that allows us to, again, save time both in the setup process of getting the benefits live where instead of a, say, 90-day time period to get an EDI file built that only transmits weekly, we can very quickly establish a real-time integration that allows benefit plans to be updated in real time, which is what consumers expect today in the way they deal with their apps or things on our smartphones.

Nothing is weekly any longer. It's real time. And so time savings, having accurate coverage records, being able to correct a coverage issue in the platform and have that instantly feed to Guardian is a huge step forward for our industry.

Evidence of insurability is another key integration that provides comfort to the employee. So during the shopping experience, they can complete the medical questions necessary for the additional, say, life insurance coverage, and then allowing the decision to automatically update in the platform gives our customers peace of mind that the coverage is accurate, that the records that Guardian has approved show correctly in our software, that employees are paying for the right coverage amounts and aren't going to have a claim issue should someone pass away, and Guardian doesn't have those amounts on file.

So evidence of insurability as an integration paired with the plan configuration ensures that we have the plan rules built right, and we have the employees in the right place. And, lastly, we know that the provider directory and the member portal allow the employees to interact and engage with the benefits easier because it's simpler to determine if your dentist is in network, for instance. So, really, it's a value of time, accuracy, and allowing the employees to better utilize and engage with their benefits in a more convenient and familiar way.

Thank you so much for sharing your insights on the platform and for highlighting the capabilities that have been built between Guardian and PlanSource. We're excited about the value of these connections we'll bring to our joint customers. For additional information, please contact your Guardian or PlanSource representative.

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