Theory
Mending the trust gap
The advisor brings the ideas, the employer decides the fit. But who owns the outcome?
Derek Winn
In employee benefits since 2008. I write Fringe Theory on plan design, funding arrangements, and what actually drives workforce cost. Former high school history teacher.
Theory
The price of poker
The anatomy of a public standoff between a hospital system and a carrier, read out of the public files, with the Anthem and Sentara dispute in Virginia as the live case.
Theory
Mockingbirds
Every renewal turns on a discount nobody outside the contract could verify. That changed this year, and the check takes an evening.
Theory
Load bearing
The new triple threat to your health plan: retatrutide's knee osteoarthritis indication and what it does to a weight-management exclusion
Tail
Half-caf, no whip: Starbucks drops GLP-1 coverage for weight loss
Some employers pay claims. Some buy insurance. An autopsy built entirely from public records.
Tail
$250 million, 8% attrition, and the case study nobody has run
Bank of America covers GLP-1s for 132,000 employees and calls it an investment rather than a saving. Its filings go back fourteen years, its turnover runs at a third of its sector's rate, and whether those two facts are connected is nobody outside the company can answer.
Theory
Just a tree
The deductible is the move that fits the meeting. It is not the move that reaches the money.
Theory
No shoes to fill
Current labor trends are quietly repricing your benefits, and nobody's escalation assumption has caught up.
Theory
Your mileage may vary
Every published number on GLP-1 coverage belongs to somebody else’s plan.
Theory
From snout to tail
An intro to Fringe Theory. Cost shares decide who finances the spend, not its size.