The Advisor's Edge - Sept. 2025
The Silent Claims Accelerant
How Underlying Behavioral Health Issues Destroy Your People and Your Plan
Can you really know what your employees are going through outside of work? Is that a realistic expectation for an employer to have?
We recently began working with a new client called Porchlight Health. Porchlight Health operates recovery and addiction treatment centers across a network of locations in Colorado and New Mexico.
In a recent conversation with Porchlight’s CEO, we discussed how the presence of behavioral health situations can create exponential claims outcomes. After our conversation, he shared a Milliman Research Report conductuted in 2020. Results included:
Although only 27% (5.7 million) of the 21 million individuals in the study population had a behavioral health diagnosis and/or received behavioral health-specific treatment, those individuals accounted for 56.5% of total health care costs for the entire study population.
Half of the 5.7 million individuals who received a behavioral health diagnosis and/or treatment received less than $68 each per year in behavioral health treatment.
Over 95% of health care spending for the entire study population was used for physical treatment; the corresponding spend for behavioral health was just 4.4%.
You can read the full study HERE.
What You Missed ⏮️
Bridging the Vitality Gap
Understanding and addressing the diverse needs of employees has become more complex and more critical. With five generations coexisting in the workplace, employers are challenged to recalibrate their employee benefits and total rewards programs to address a wide array of needs and values.
The HUB International 2025 Workforce Vitality Gap Index, an annual report addressing employer and employee insights, presents key findings and offers recommendations on how to bridge those gaps by learning what questions to ask and leveraging data in new ways to achieve breakthrough results.
Learn more HERE.
ACA Affordability for 2026:
The IRS announced that ACA Affordability will increase to 9.96% from the current 9.02%. Employers will welcome the increase, which is quite substantial.
On the Horizon 🔔
Be in the room when one of today’s most inspiring leadership voices takes the stage. With authenticity, purpose, and powerful storytelling, Graci will share how leaders can:
Lead with authenticity
Build belonging in the workplace
Rise through adversity
Her message has been featured in Forbes, NBC News, and Harvard Business Review— and this is your chance to hear it live.
2025 HUB Colorado Leadership Summit
Empower Field - United Club
Wednesday, October 15 2025 from 9:30AM-4:30 PM MT
Use code EARLYBIRD for 80% off now: REGISTER HERE.
Book on My Desk📚
If you’ve followed my journey, you know I’ve done some extreme fitness challenges. I promised my wife that I would chill out this year. That led me to The Gospel of Fitness by Steve McKinney. This book examines how to make fitness sustainable as we age, focusing on the three W’s - walking, weights, and watching what we eat.
I’ve been following McKinney’s program for about a month now, and highly recommend it. Check it out HERE.
Thank you for reading,
Jim Sampson