Colorado employee benefit consultants like Brad Gauen are rare - He has actuarial underwriting experience on the insurance side of the business, and now works to help employers offer competitive benefit plans while reducing health care costs. Some typical interventions include - IBNR reserve consult, health reform, benefit plan design, self-funding, etc.

1. Colorado Employee Benefit Consultant Brad Gauen
Brings Unique 3-Dimensional Experience to the Challenge
of Healthcare Cost Control
Denver Employee Benefit Consultant Brad Gauen brings a wealth of
experience and a unique 3-dimensional set of perspectives to the table
when helping CFOs and HR executives solve insurance, healthcare
cost and employee benefit program challenges. In the section below,
Brad shares more about himself and key insights every CEO and
CFO needs to know about employer healthcare costs and how to
manage them.
An Inside Look at 3 Choices for Group Health Insurance Solutions
http://www.mcgteam.com/denver-employee-benefits-consultant.html
Any company or organization that sponsors at least 200 health plan subscribers has a few options
getting help to set up employee benefit plans that simultaneously deliver on HR objectives and
keep costs down. They can hire an insurance broker, a multi-services consulting firm, or work
with an actuarial employee benefits consulting firm that specializes in controlling health and
welfare benefit costs. Over the last 25 years, I worked with all three types of organizations, as
well as directly with insurance companies.
I began my career as an actuarial analyst at General American Life - an insurance company -
developing and pricing health insurance products for large group clients. If you have ever had to
negotiate group health insurance quotes with these companies, you can imagine why our clients
value this "experience from the other side".
I moved on to a leading benefits brokerage firm in Southern California as an Account Executive
and I spent four years at the brokerage firm before going on to work with my first fee-based
employee benefits consulting companies.
4 Things Mid-Market Executives Need To Know About Employee Benefit Solutions
Here is what I found from my time delivering solutions for clients in the insurance, employee
benefits and health care cost control sectors:
1. Companies with less than 2,000 employees or plan subscribers rarely get the in-house
actuaries and "A-Team" consultants from the large multi-service firms (some companies
actually formally organize their departments this way).
2. Most mid-size organizations with between 200 and 2,000 employees are grossly under-
served by using insurance brokers because they lack the risk management and cost
reduction effectiveness that actuarial consultants bring to the table.
3. The commission arrangements (and contingent commissions) that commonly compensate
most insurance brokerage firms present an inherent conflict of interest that does not serve
client firms' best interests.

2. 4. Many senior executives of mid-size organizations are unaware that there are at least a
half dozen variables that such organizations can control to reduce baseline healthcare
costs.
And if you're wondering how I came to the conclusions I've reached above, here's a little bit
more about my background.
Fee-Based Employee Benefits Consulting Experience Before MCG
First as a consultant with Ernst & Young, and then with Buck Consultants, I advised clients with
1,000 to 10,000 employees on all areas of their health and welfare benefit programs including:
• Designing benefit plans to allow choice while minimizing adverse selection
• Analyzing the appropriate risk management and funding mechanisms
• Actuarial/underwriting analysis to project costs and set budgets
• Analyzing provider networks
• Analyzing prescription drug contracts, plan design, formularies and drug utilization
• Developing incurred but not reported reserve estimates for self-funded plans
• Review of systems and employee communications
• Developing retiree medical liability estimates and finding creative ways to manage and
control those liabilities
• Designing and monitoring wellness plans
For nearly three decades, I have advised organizations ranging from $150 million dollar (annual
revenue) nonprofits to firms like Cabela's, Tomkins, Cleveland Clinic, Alton Oshner Medical
Foundation, Federal Mogul, Operating Engineers #3, Carpenters of Missouri, and Maritz.
Ultimately, these organizations have realized millions of dollars in annual healthcare cost savings
through the strategies and solutions we implemented together.
The Biggest Mistake Mid-Size Organizations Are Making In Employee Benefit Planning
The biggest mistake executives make is thinking that increasing health and welfare benefit costs
are somewhat independent variables that you can do little about (other than switching insurance
carriers). That is far from the truth...
For the kinds of organizations we work with here at MCG (with employee/subscriber counts
between 200 and 3,000), MCG can typically reduce their annual healthcare cost increases from
11% to 6%. The graph below shows that the cumulative cost a 500 employee group could save
over four years by doing this is over $2.3 million.

3. Since I graduated from Drake University as an Actuarial Science major, I have spent the last few
decades helping organizations "see behind the numbers" in insurance and health plan products.
I earned my Fellow of the Life Management Institute designation in 1986, and the Chartered Life
Underwriter and Chartered Financial Consultant designations in 1988.
Today, although I live in Denver (hence the "Colorado employee benefit consultant" label), I
offer cost saving strategies and services to our clients at Marsh Consulting Group (MCG)
throughout Colorado and nationwide.
Website Bio: http://www.mcgteam.com/denver-employee-benefits-consultant.html
Contact: http://www.mcgteam.com/contact.html