National Food & Beverage Employer Saves on Health Insurance Renewal with The Difference Card
Key Takeaways A Quick Summary
Key Takeaways
- The employer faced a staggering 49.9% health insurance premium renewal increase and needed a sustainable solution without simply shifting costs to employees.
- Risk Strategies Brown & Brown (George Triant) partnered with The Difference Card (Emily Coughlin Molloy) to implement an employer-funded Medical Expense Reimbursement Plan (MERP), pairing a more cost-effective underlying plan with reimbursement of eligible out-of-pocket expenses while keeping the same national carrier, rich PPO plan and provider network.
- The strategy reduced the fixed premium increase from 49.9% to 23.7% and, after projected MERP reimbursements, lowered the total projected healthcare cost increase to 38.5% — an 11.4 percentage-point improvement versus the original renewal.
- Financially, the employer achieved approximately $97,000 in projected annual savings compared with the original renewal and purchased The Difference Guarantee to cap MERP reimbursement liability, providing budget predictability and protection from unexpected claims.
- The case demonstrates that innovative healthcare financing and broker-specialist collaboration can contain costs while improving employee benefits and preserving recruitment/retention competitiveness.
Faced with a 49.9% medical renewal increase, the U.S. operations of a global restaurant group partnered with George Triant of Brown & Brown and The Difference Card to develop a more cost-effective benefits strategy.
By integrating an employer-funded MERP, the group reduced its projected total healthcare cost increase from 49.9% to 38.5%, generating approximately $97,000 in projected annual savings.
The employer achieved these savings while remaining with the same national insurance carrier, retaining its rich PPO plan and provider network, and significantly improving employee benefits.
The Challenge: A Nearly 50% Health Insurance Renewal Increase
In the highly competitive food and beverage industry, attracting and retaining talented employees is essential to delivering exceptional customer experiences. For one National Food & Beverage Employer, offering competitive health insurance benefits was an important part of supporting its workforce.
However, when the organization was faced with a staggering 49.9% increase in health insurance premiums, leadership needed to find a more sustainable solution.
Like many employers across the country, the company was caught between escalating healthcare costs and the need to maintain affordable, high-quality benefits for its employees.
Rather than simply accepting the substantial renewal increase or shifting additional costs onto employees, the organization turned to its trusted insurance advisor, George Triant of Risk Strategies Brown & Brown's New York City office, to explore a more innovative approach.
George partnered with Emily Coughlin Molloy of The Difference Card's New York sales team to develop a customized healthcare cost-containment strategy designed to protect the company's bottom line while delivering better benefits for its employees.
The Solution: A Smarter Health Insurance Strategy with The Difference Card
Working together, George and Emily identified an opportunity to leverage The Difference Card's Medical Expense Reimbursement Plan (MERP) strategy to significantly reduce the employer's proposed health insurance renewal increase.
The Difference Card MERP strategy allows employers to pair a more cost-effective underlying health insurance plan with an employer-funded medical reimbursement program. This approach helps organizations manage fixed insurance premiums while using The Difference Card to reimburse eligible out-of-pocket healthcare expenses for employees.
For this National Food & Beverage Employer, the strategy reduced the proposed 49.9% premium increase to just 23.7% in fixed insurance costs.
After factoring in projected Difference Card medical reimbursements, the employer's total projected healthcare cost increase was reduced to 38.5%, representing approximately $97,000 in projected annual savings compared with the original renewal proposal.
The solution allowed the organization to accomplish several important objectives:
- Reduce the fixed premium renewal increase from 49.9% to 23.7%.
- Generate approximately $97,000 in projected annual savings compared with the original health insurance renewal.
- Improve employee benefits by helping offset eligible out-of-pocket medical expenses through the MERP.
- Protect the employer's financial exposure through The Difference Guarantee, which caps reimbursement liability.
- Create greater financial predictability through a healthcare strategy designed to balance cost containment with employee benefit improvements.
Rather than simply passing rising healthcare costs along to employees, the organization was able to take a more strategic approach to healthcare financing.
The Results: Approximately $97,000 in Projected Annual Healthcare Savings
The financial impact of the partnership demonstrates how an innovative healthcare strategy can make a meaningful difference, even in a challenging renewal environment.
Health Insurance Renewal Transformation
| Financial Metric | Result |
| Original health insurance renewal increase | +49.9% |
| Revised fixed premium increase with MERP | +23.7% |
| Total projected increase, including expected MERP claims | +38.5% |
| Reduction in projected total renewal increase | 11.4 percentage points |
| Projected annual savings vs. original renewal | Approximately $97,000 |
| MERP reimbursement liability | Capped by The Difference Guarantee |
By implementing The Difference Card MERP strategy, the National Food & Beverage Employer was able to reduce its projected total healthcare cost increase from 49.9% to 38.5%.
While the organization's fixed insurance premiums increased by 23.7%, the addition of projected MERP reimbursement expenses resulted in an overall projected increase of 38.5%—still substantially below the original renewal proposal.
The result was approximately $97,000 in projected annual savings, while maintaining a strategy focused on improving employee healthcare benefits.
Importantly, these savings were achieved without relying solely on shifting additional healthcare expenses onto employees.
The Difference Guarantee: Adding Financial Protection and Predictability
An essential component of the employer's healthcare strategy was the decision to purchase The Difference Guarantee, an innovative solution designed to protect employers from unexpected reimbursement expenses.
While the MERP strategy creates opportunities to reduce fixed insurance premiums, employers must also account for the variable costs associated with reimbursing employee medical expenses.
The Difference Guarantee addresses this concern by establishing a contractual cap on the employer's reimbursement liability.
For the National Food & Beverage Employer, this provided an additional layer of financial protection, allowing the organization to pursue meaningful healthcare savings while limiting its exposure to higher-than-expected reimbursement claims.
The Difference Guarantee delivered three important advantages:
- Financial protection: A contractual cap on the employer's eligible MERP reimbursement liability.
- Budget predictability: Greater confidence in planning annual healthcare expenditures.
- Savings protection: A reimbursement risk-management structure designed to support the employer's healthcare cost-containment objectives.
For a national food and beverage organization focused on controlling operating expenses while investing in its workforce, this additional financial certainty was an important component of the overall solution.
A Winning Partnership: Risk Strategies Brown & Brown and The Difference Card
The success of this case study highlights the value of collaboration between innovative insurance advisors and specialized healthcare cost-containment partners.
George Triant, representing Risk Strategies Brown & Brown in New York City, recognized that a traditional insurance renewal approach was unlikely to deliver the financial results his client needed.
By partnering with Emily Coughlin Molloy and The Difference Card, George was able to introduce an alternative strategy that addressed both the employer's financial objectives and the healthcare needs of its employees.
Emily worked alongside George to develop a customized MERP solution that transformed a challenging 49.9% renewal increase into a more manageable projected increase of 38.5%, generating approximately $97,000 in projected annual savings.
Beyond the financial impact, the partnership helped the employer maintain its commitment to offering competitive healthcare benefits in an industry where employee recruitment and retention remain critical priorities.
This collaboration demonstrates how forward-thinking insurance advisors can deliver measurable value by moving beyond traditional carrier negotiations and embracing innovative healthcare financing strategies.
The Difference Card: Helping Employers Save Money While Improving Benefits
The National Food & Beverage Employer case study reinforces a fundamental principle behind The Difference Card's approach to healthcare cost containment: Employers should not have to choose between managing healthcare costs and taking care of their employees.
Through the combination of an innovative MERP strategy, The Difference Guarantee, and a strong partnership with Risk Strategies Brown & Brown, the organization was able to turn a challenging health insurance renewal into a meaningful cost-containment opportunity.
By reducing its original 49.9% renewal increase to a projected 38.5% total healthcare cost increase, the employer achieved approximately $97,000 in projected annual savings, while implementing a solution designed to improve employee benefits and provide greater financial predictability.
For employers facing significant healthcare renewal increases, this case study demonstrates that there are alternatives to simply accepting higher premiums or reducing employee benefits.]
Facing a Challenging Health Insurance Renewal?
The Difference Card partners with insurance brokers and employers nationwide to develop customized healthcare cost-containment strategies that reduce costs, improve benefits, and provide financial predictability.
Contact The Difference Card today to learn how our Medical Expense Reimbursement Plan solutions and The Difference Guarantee can help your organization manage rising healthcare costs while supporting your employees.
Learn how The Difference Card can help your organization turn rising healthcare costs into an opportunity for savings.
Contact The Difference Card today to learn more about our Medical Expense Reimbursement Plan solutions and The Difference Guarantee at www.differencecard.com.
