In this episode, Morgan Kendrick, EVP and President, Commercial Health Benefits, Elevance Health, discusses the rising cost pressures facing employers and explores how balanced funding, self-funding, and multiple employer welfare arrangements can help improve affordability while simplifying healthcare benefits for businesses and their employees.

Tackling Healthcare Affordability Through Innovative Funding Models with Morgan Kendrick

Becker’s Payer Issues Podcast

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** Becker’s Payer Issues Podcast

## Participants

- **Elizabeth Caselo** (Becker's Healthcare)
- **Morgan Kendrick** (Elevance Health)

## Transcript

GLP-1s, Medicare Advantage Headwinds, a Medicaid landscape that looks different every quarter. Payer leadership right now means making durable decisions in an environment that keeps moving, and the organizations pulling ahead are the ones that stopped waiting for stability before acting. Becker's fifth annual Fall Payer Issues Roundtable convenes more than 500 executive-level attendees and 70-plus speakers November 2nd and 3rd at the Swiss Hotel Chicago.

Two days of senior-level dialogue on affordability, benefit design, value-based care, and the strategies shaping how care gets financed and delivered. Featuring a celebrity keynote from Pro Football Hall of Famer Emmett Smith. Agenda and registration at beckerspayer.com. Click events in the upper right. Hi, everyone. This is Elizabeth Caselo with the Becker's Payer Issues Podcast.

I'm excited today to be joined by Morgan Kendrick, President and Executive Vice President, Commercial Health Benefits at Elevance Health. Morgan, thank you so much for joining us today. Yeah, Liz, thanks for having me. Look forward to our conversation. Yeah, me too. So before we jump in, I would just love to hear a little bit more about your background and your role at Elevance. You know, I've been with the company for quite some time, so 31 years with the organization.

That being said, the entire career has been spent in the commercial side of the house, which is a large piece of our business, as you would imagine, all the employer business as well as the ACA business. So I've got the privilege of leading that team right now for the past several years. It's a big part of our organization, and it's a big part of like solving problems in the market, which I'm looking forward to our dialogue today.

Yeah, so kind of to think about some higher level context here, according to KFF, the average family premium has increased 26% in five years. So when you're talking to a smaller employer who's frustrated with that trajectory and they're feeling the impacts of that, what's the conversation that you're having with them about what's driving those costs and what's realistically within their control there?

You know, I think, you know, as I look at where we're sitting right now for our 2026 and 2027 cycle in the group employer business, 100% of the opportunities that are coming our way to actually bid on coverage are focused on affordability and simplicity. The system is expensive, and it's becoming more and more so, to your point, every year. And the ability to navigate and traverse the healthcare system is not necessarily always intuitive to people. So I think there's opportunities there.

And so when I think about our organization, and by the way, we go to market with our Blue Cross and Blue Shield brand called Anthem, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, u...

Tackling Healthcare Affordability Through Innovative Funding Models with Morgan Kendrick

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.

Tackling Healthcare Affordability Through Innovative Funding Models with Morgan Kendrick

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.