Posts in Disease Management
Hot Tea Midday Keeps the Hunger Away

A simple cup of hot tea. What can it do for you? It could compete with a soon to be trillion-dollar industry. GLP-1s or “semaglutide” as some call it, has taken the US by storm and will make its way across first-world countries soon enough. Its makers are already making billions per year in the US. It won’t be long before billions become trillions. Read on for more.

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This was inevitable...

Spoiler alert. Intermittent fasting and consistent exercise will give you the same results but with better health as an ultimate outcome...not worse health because of a drug your body didn't really need.  This week’s article in BenefitsPro about the 10K patients who are suing the makers of the GLP-1s like Ozempic and Wegovy was inevitable.

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BCBSNC tries to pull one over on us, but we aren't fooled...

When BCBSNC tells us they prefer brand name drugs to low-cost generics, we did some fact checking.

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S03E08: How to Prevent the 2060 Dystopia Featuring Richard Young, MD.

I’m not a huge fan of SciFi as a genre. Mainly because I don’t identify with the future state that’s controlled by robots and I don’t want to admit that our futures are a grim reality of the outcomes of our current day choices. When I read, “2060” by Dr. Richard Young, it made me realize that I need to grow up, grow a spine, grow a pair…whatever your cliche for “pull up your big girl pants and fix this thing” is. Our healthcare system is going to eat up every possible dollar there is to spend on infrastructure, education, quality of life and more if we don’t do something. Listen to Cristy Gupton and Dr. Young talk about his latest book and pick up a copy right away. You won’t regret this eye-opening glimpse into our futures if we stay still.

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S03E06: Blackwell's Solution with Kari Niblack

Healthcare is consistently the #2 or #3 highest expense on an employer’s balance sheet. There’s no denying that you’re in the healthcare business even if you don’t think you are. That’s why it’s important to view your organization’s healthcare spend as every other high-cost expenditure you have and manage it accordingly. After all, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (CAA) require you to pay close attention to it. Step one? Listen to this podcast with Cristy Gupton and Kari Niblack as they give you food for thought regarding your employee health plan.

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Moose Pharmacy Wins Rosie Award

Moose Pharmacy, a local, independent, community pharmacy in the suburbs of Charlotte, NC recently won a national award for having one of the 50 best health plans in America. After a competitive vetting process, the pharmacy’s employee health plan stood tall up against employers who were hundreds of times larger than them. Moose Pharmacy and Cristy Gupton of Custom Benefits Solutions started working together 3 years ago to improve healthcare and lower costs for employees and their families.

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Guidance for Employers Phasing Out of Quarantine

Custom Benefits Solutions hosts free webinar aimed at helping employers a they bring employees back to work after quarantine.

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The New War on Drugs: Opioid Outliers Detectable in Health Plans

Opioid addiction is a growing epidemic in the United States, with opioid overdoses killing 91 Americans every day. In 2015 alone, more than 33,000 people died from an opioid overdose. Read on to learn more about opioids and to learn how to recognize the signs of opioid addiction.

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Employers are Calling for Innovative Solutions

Perhaps the most notable change in this movement toward self-funding is the number of smaller employers getting in the game. Although most of these are level-funded arrangements, employers see the value in gaining control of their plan with a focus on what’s important to their specific employee base. Plus, the tax advantage isn’t bad either, as state taxes are eliminated on most self-insured plans. 

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Winning the War on Diabetes

Diabetes is affecting over 29 million people in the United States.  That's 10% of every man, woman and child and according to the Centers for Disease Control, another 86 million have pre-diabetes and some don't even know it.  Of the $245 Billion being spent annually on the treatment of diabetes and its complications you can bet some of that money is coming out of your health plan.  At Custom Benefits Solutions, we work with our employer clients to develop a wellness strategy that helps employees with diabetes to better manage that disease and reduce their employer's financial burden associated with it.  #custombenefitswork

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