A total benefits transformation across plan design, stop-loss, pharmacy, union strategy, and ancillary benefits
Earning the Right to Replace A Long-Tenured Relationship
Replacing a long-tenured broker relationship is never simple. Processes are established, relationships are entrenched, and the status quo carries its own momentum. For the employer, change can feel risky, especially when accustomed to a particular experience.
However, when one of the largest candy manufacturers in the United States engaged BSI in 2018, the stakes were clear. A 35-year broker relationship was ending. A 586-person workforce, including unionized production associates, many of whom are bilingual, needed continuity and confidence in what was coming. Leadership needed to see meaningful results quickly enough to validate the decision to change.
BSI delivered across every dimension of the benefits program, simultaneously, from day one.
Designing for a Complex, Mixed Workforce
The workforce presented a genuine benefits challenge: business associates and unionized production associates with different priorities, a bilingual population requiring tailored communication, and a union negotiation process that demanded its own strategy.
BSI designed a dual-choice architecture that served both populations with equal intentionality. Business associates received an HSA plan that rewarded smarter healthcare decisions. Production associates received a dual-choice HSA and PPO option, preserving familiarity while expanding access to the HSA model.
Transitioning a unionized workforce to an HSA requires more than a plan change. It requires direct education, trusted communication, and a negotiation approach that positions the new benefit as an improvement. BSI executed that process successfully across all employee groups, union and non-union alike.
Stop-Loss: Nearly $1.7M in Risk Eliminated and Avoided
This is where BSI’s access to the CORE consortium delivered some of its most immediate and impactful results.
At transition, the organization carried a $945,000 laser tied to a high-cost claimant, nearly $1 million in unprotected financial exposure sitting entirely outside stop-loss coverage. BSI eliminated it through CORE on day one. Simultaneously, a 110% aggregate corridor avoided an additional $728,000 in stop-loss exposure at transition.
Combined, BSI removed nearly $1.7 million in concentrated risk from the plan’s financial profile before a single additional claim was filed.
The stop-loss management continued delivering through every subsequent renewal. BSI secured 25% capped renewals through CORE for ongoing budget predictability and, most critically, locked in a 5% renewal rate ahead of a $2 million claim, protecting the organization from the dramatically higher renewal that claim would have otherwise triggered. For the 2026 plan year, BSI negotiated a 0% stop-loss renewal, a result that reflects the long-term value of a well-managed plan and BSI’s carrier relationships.
Pharmacy: $838K Saved Without Touching the Formulary
Pharmacy savings that require formulary changes create member friction and erode trust. Employees don’t experience a cost-saving initiative; they experience a benefit cut.
BSI generated $838,000 in pharmacy savings through a 2025 RFP without any plan or formulary changes. Every dollar came from contract renegotiation and market competition. Employees never felt the process. The plan captured the savings entirely.
Telemedicine and Ancillary: $615K in Additional Savings
Implemented in 2019, telemedicine has generated $315,000 in documented savings by directing utilization toward faster, lower-cost virtual care. For a bilingual manufacturing workforce with variable shift schedules, it also serves as a critical access equalizer, ensuring every employee can connect with quality care when and where they need it.
A comprehensive ancillary redesign of life, short-term disability, and long-term disability coverage delivered $300,000 in savings over three years through competitive market placement that the prior broker had never pursued. BSI also launched a voluntary life insurance program with $150,000 in guaranteed issue, giving production associates meaningful supplemental coverage without underwriting barriers.
The Results at a Glance
| Initiative | Result |
| Laser eliminated via CORE | $945,000 |
| Aggregate corridor at transition | $728,000 avoided |
| Stop-loss renewal (1/1/2026) | 0% increase |
| Stop-loss locked ahead of $2M claim | 5% cap secured |
| Pharmacy savings (2025 RFP) | $838,000 |
| Telemedicine savings (since 2019) | $315,000+ |
| Ancillary redesign (3 years) | $300,000 |
| Voluntary life launched | $150,000 guaranteed issue |
| Union HSA transition | Successfully executed |
What Replacing 35 Years Actually Requires
The financial results are significant. But the harder achievement was earning the trust of a workforce accustomed to a different benefits relationship for longer than many of its employees had been working.
That trust was built through communication tailored to a bilingual workforce, a union strategy that educated rather than mandated, plan design that offered genuine choices, and results that arrived quickly enough to validate the change before doubt had time to grow.
BSI didn’t just replace a broker. BSI replaced 35 years with something demonstrably better, for the organization’s budget and for every employee it covers.
Considering a benefits partner change? BSI specializes in transitions that deliver immediate value and long-term results. Let’s talk about what’s possible.