S2:E2 – Health Insurance for Roofing Contractors

By Karen L. Edwards, RCS Editor.

This Coffee Conversation is one that you don’t want to miss because it shares important information that can change your business.

NRCA Vice President Tom Shanahan and Ted Ryan from Vault Health Strategies joined Heidi for a conversation about a topic that is on many of our minds – health care. Tom explained that he gets a lot of calls from members wondering whether NRCA has any health care options they can offer their employees.

“The challenge has been two-fold: First, over the years, the laws change,” said Tom. “Offering a national program has been tough because state laws vary to the point where certain states would no longer allow our program. Second, often the programs we would offer would be terrific, but would serve just one segment of our membership base. So, only a handful of members could benefit from it. We haven't had the opportunity, until now, to have a program that offers products and options to all members, wherever they are, in their need for providing some kind of benefit for employees.”

NRCA teamed up with Vault Health Strategies, a healthcare consultancy as well as an insurance company, to develop a program that meets each individual member company’s needs and helps each company gain control over its healthcare costs and employee benefits program. “We quickly realized there was going to be no one solution that met every member's needs,” explained Ted. “The needs of the membership vary. The membership is diverse, so the product mix for members also needs to be diverse and reflect their needs. Our overall goal with the program is to meet each member where he or she is today and to find solutions for the future.”

Ted explained how larger insurance companies, with the names we recognize, have no incentive to change what they're doing. “Executives at these large companies are pulling in bonuses of $270 million a year. Well, ask yourself where that comes from, and that comes from folks who are buying their products. That gives you an idea of the type of margins they have in their products.”

The NRCA solution changes that model and brings the benefit back to members. “Our solution is offering a self-funding solution where it makes sense,” said Ted. “This is a solution where we remove those margins because we're not paying the stockholders and we're not paying the CEOs extravagant bonuses. We can literally customize programs and take those extra costs out but still deliver the same benefits members are used to and your employees desire.”

Tom shared that though this is an NRCA member program, you don’t have to be a member to get a quote. “We really want to give you the chance to use our program and at the very least to compare and contrast. We work with your broker or your agent.” If you decide you want to move forward with the program, he said you can discuss membership at that time.

Learn more about this new program by watching the full Coffee Conversation.