Why Included Health made its own employees the case study

Summary Jim O'Gorman, Chief People Officer at Included Health, joins host Kelsey Willock Jones on Beyond the Paycheck to argue that healthcare has become the benefit that decides who stays. He starts with a phone call from a fellow CHRO facing a 52% premium increase, most of which will land on employees, and explains why switching insurance carriers every renewal disrupts care without fixing cost. The alternative he makes the case for is alternative plan design, led by employers rather than insurers. At Included Health he tested the idea on his own people: employees and their dependents get free access to everything the company sells, connecting mind, body and wallet in one benefit, with no double digit benefits increases, high engagement and low attrition to show for it. He also explains why the CHRO has to be the best long-term planner in the business, how he builds a three-year plan in lockstep with the CFO, and why equity is losing its power to retain people in health tech. Built for CHROs, total rewards leaders and finance partners who are tired of renewals that just pass the bill along.Chapters 00:00 Intro 00:42 Meet Jim O'Gorman and Included Health 01:28 The paper boy mafia and a first paycheck 02:47 How his family's healthcare costs shaped his work 04:26 Why employer healthcare needs disruption 06:43 Mind, body and wallet 08:30 Collapsing point solutions into one benefit 11:27 The CHRO as the best long-term planner 14:57 The equity bet that stopped paying off 15:59 Alternative plan design and a final messageTakeaways - Premium increases rarely stay with the employer. A 52% renewal usually becomes a paycheck problem for employees whose salaries are not rising as fast. - Switching carriers every renewal disrupts care and delays treatment, so it is a cost of its own rather than a strategy. - Mind, body and wallet are connected, and one integrated benefit serves employees better than a stack of separate point solutions. - Testing a benefit on your own people first gives you real evidence on cost of care, engagement and attrition. - A three-year people plan built with the CFO and shared by the leadership team earns more investment than requests with 12 months of runway.Connect with the Guest Jim O'Gorman LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-o-gorman-0b32278/ Company Website: https://includedhealth.comSponsor Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations. Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence.With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.See a demo at https://www.aurafinance.com/