A Panel Discussion on Health Care and Insurance Costs

Plan to join us on Wednesday, April 27th as we host a panel discussion on health care and health insurance, a critical topic for employers as they confront rising costs while attempting to compete in the market place for current and prospective employees with an attractive suite of benefits. We have invited participants to share their five unique views on health care and employer sponsored health insurance: The Employer, the Insurance Industry, the Employee Benefits Advisor, the Medical Provider and the Employee. A Facilitator will engage the panel of five to provide their own perspective on the state of health care and how it affects the cost of health insurance. 

About the Format:

Our facilitator, Niko Caparisos with Community Owned Health Plans, will ask questions and invite a discussion between the five panelists. Prior to the meeting we invite you to submit questions that can be discussed among the five panelists. Questions can be submitted to cfocouncilsavannah@gmail.com.

About our Panel:

Medical Provider - Dr. Jamal Lawrence, MD is a board certified Family Medicine/Primary Care Physician. He is a New York native, who graduated from the State University of New York at Binghamton with a B.A. in Biological Sciences and Minor in Sociology. After graduating college, it was his hope to combine his studies in the practice of medicine. A year after graduating, Dr. Lawrence went on to attend Indiana University School of Medicine and later completed his training at the Savannah Family Medicine Residency program at Memorial Health in Savannah, Georgia. After residency, Dr. Lawrence traveled throughout Georgia providing care to patients as a primary care physician in a rural setting and also a wound care physician – but Savannah remained close to his heart. Thus, he established his own practice in Savannah, Ga as a direct primary care physician with a special focus on Lifestyle Medicine and Plant-Based Nutrition.

Employer - Ivy Council has served as Executive Vice President of Human Resources and Chief Compliance Officer for Citi Trends Inc. since March 2012 and as their Senior Vice President of Human Resources since January 2007.  In 2006, she served as Vice President of Human Resources for Baja Fresh Restaurants, a division of Wendy’s, Inc.  From 2003 to 2006, she served as Executive Vice President of Human Resources for Pasta Pomodoro Restaurants also a division of Wendy’s Inc. Prior to that, Ivy served as Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Ross Stores.  Ivy has served in a director capacity for the Pasta Pomodoro Restaurants (former affiliate of Wendy’s Inc.) and as a director for Brightside Academy – Child Care and Early Education (LLR Partners Private Equity).  

Benefits Advisor - Lisa Kelley has over 29 years experience in the Human Resources and Employee Benefits Consulting field.  She began her career in 1993 as a Human Resource Manager for Progressive Restaurants, once the 3^rd largest Taco Bell Franchise in the country.  She was then recruited into an Employee Benefits Consultant role in 1998 with HRH Insurance in Gainesville Florida where she spent the next 10 years working with employers ranging in size from 50 employees to over 10,000. 

In 2008 she accepted a position as Vice President with Wachovia Insurance Services in Savannah.  She remained in that position for 11 years as Wachovia Insurance became Wells Fargo Insurance Services and ultimately USI Insurance Services.  During that time she worked with a variety of large employers on their employee benefits program including The City of Savannah, Chatham County, The City of Augusta, and Effingham County.  In 2019 she left USI Insurance Services and opened her own consulting firm, Creative Benefits Consulting. 

 As an Independent Consultant she now focuses primarily on assisting employers in creating employee benefit consulting RFP’s, working with them through the selection process and providing her expertise in negotiating the contract for broker services and pricing for those services.  She also provides consulting services for employee wellness programs and fully insured versus self- funded analyses for employers that are evaluating their funding options.

Lisa is a member of The National Society for Human Resource Managers, is a Certified Self-Funding Specialist and is a licensed Broker and Consultant in Georgia as well as several other states.

Insurance Industry - Jeff Fusile has spent more than 30 years as a successful leader in the healthcare industry. He has a broad range of knowledge gathered from 22 years as a strategic management consultant retiring as a partner from PwC in 2011, 4 years as CFO of the Commercial and Specialty Business of Anthem, Inc. a $40B+ organization, and nearly 4 years as the President of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia, an organization serving the health insurance needs of nearly 3 million Georgians. Jeff now serves as the President of ExamMed, an award winning virtual care hub, where he is focused on helping physicians grow their practices and prepare for the future of healthcare.

Employee – Connie T. Matousek is the current Director of Internal Audit and Loss Prevention at Citi Trends.  She is a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) and Certified Public Accountant (CPA). In addition, as an employee for her current and former employers, Connie brings a unique perspective to the discussion as an insured employee and consumer of health care services by her and her family. 

Our sponsor for the April meeting is Truist Bank.

At Truist, our purpose is to inspire and build better lives and communities. That happens through real care to make things better. To meet client needs, to empower teammates, and to lift up communities.

Attendance guidelines:

Register Now! 

More Information

Thank you for your attention and response and we look forward to seeing you on Wednesday the 27th.

Geoff Kent

CFO Council of Savannah

cfocouncilsavannah@gmail.com

(912) 655-3907