Getting Creative with Employee Benefits; Finding the Fun in Employee Benefits Setup

When he was a child considering which career to pursue, Jason Ackermann wanted to be a teacher. In many ways, he believes he ended up doing just that, only on a much wider scale — and he can see how his work impacts the general population. 

Now as regional vice president – west region, Jason  leverages his passions for helping people and achieving goals to guide Humana’s reach.

The thrill-seeker at heart shares how he guides insurance planning for companies and their employees and his own goals of relationship and adventure. He likes to set lofty goals for both. 

Jason is one of many Humana employees making a difference in people’s lives and health on a daily basis. To learn more about working at Humana, visit careers.humana.com.

If you would like to learn more about Humana's employer group benefits or discuss customized coverage that meets your business needs, don't hesitate to reach out to Jason Ackermann.

What moved you to pursue a career in health care? 
Ackermann: I see the benefits to our customers, clients and the employees they serve. You’re selling dental insurance, life insurance, vision insurance, but when people have a need, the appreciation is there. To help employers creatively determine what benefits would best suit their employees — that’s where the fun is. 

What is the most rewarding part of your career? 
Ackermann: Helping people. I have the privilege of being able to offer guidance to people within and outside the organization. When I was younger, I wanted to be a teacher. This is a cool career where I get to fulfill a lot of that [aspiration] through the educational process of explaining benefits and being strategic and consultative. A lot of reward comes from that. 

Why did you choose Humana? 
Ackermann: First and foremost, the culture. Even when I went through the interview process, I noticed a difference in the executive leadership. Candidly, I was like, “They’re also salespeople. Once I get hired, it’s going to be a different scenario.” The reality is, I’ve been with Humana about eight months, and it’s safe to say the honeymoon phase is over and the culture of caring about the people and their well-being is real. 

The second part is the vision of Humana. It’s standing up its own specialty organization. Humana is one of the top 50 companies in the United States, yet the division I’m in has more of an entrepreneurial feel. I don’t know of many scenarios in which you can have walk into a startup, yet also have that Fortune 50 backing. 

What has been the greatest challenge of your career? 
Ackermann: The benefits landscape is constantly changing, whether from a marketplace perspective with a lot of mergers and acquisitions — things that can almost immediately change how we do our business — or the regulatory aspect, as with the Affordable Care Act or other legislative changes. Those are the most challenging pieces to keep up with to make sure you continue to offer the right solutions for everyone. 

What are some examples of Humana evolving to better serve customers? 
Ackermann: We’ve already started the evolution process and are going through a significant organizational change. We’ve had a lot of success around our nonmedical group benefits — dental, vision and life insurance. There’s going to be an additional investment into that business, enhancements to our products and services, additional resources to serve our broker partners and customers, and all of that will make a more positive experience on top of what has already been felt. 

Can you recall a moment in your career when you saw a direct positive impact of your actions on a customer? How did that impact affect future decision-making? 
Ackermann: There were a couple of potential customers in the public sector with similar scenarios. We won the business of one and not the other, but in both, the price point was significantly higher than the competition, yet they chose Humana because of what we stood for, our message and the benefits we provided. Meeting with them a year down the road, they would reconfirm they made the right decision. 

Many people have limited knowledge or preconceived notions about dental and vision health insurance. What is something you wish people knew about it? 
Ackermann: Our goal is often trying to get people to understand carriers and plans are not all the same. With dental and vision both, it’s how they relate to your overall wellbeing. With an eye exam, [providers] can tell if something’s going on behind the eyeball. They’ll send you to the doctor, and hopefully everything’s OK, but sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it might be a tumor. It’s the early identification. On the dental side, it’s periodontal disease and how that affects diabetes and high blood pressure. Those are things most people aren’t aware of. I’ve heard brokers say dental insurance is just trading dollars, that it’s not worth it. 

What is something you wish you knew at the start of your career that you know now?
Ackermann: How important the work we do every day is to the general population. If you’re not in our industry, a lot of people don’t know it exists, and if they do, they don’t know how [it works], even the biggest players. If I’d known that, it may have shaped who I’ve become in my career a little quicker. 

What are some of the most pressing concerns, other than COVID-19, that you see affecting the health care industry this year and next? 
Ackermann: The rising cost of health care, especially in medical, but it ties to some of the things I do as well. A lot of markets have limited options for their benefits. It’s been challenging to offer benefits at a cost that is reasonable for the customer and that enables the organization to stay in business. If health care costs rise too much or too quickly, how many companies will decide to no longer offer the benefits they offer today? I’m seeing a trend where companies are pushing off the cost to their employees, which puts more financial pressure on them. If we continue in that trend, how does the benefits industry change as a result? 

What do you do on your personal time to give back? 
Ackermann: I’m big into kids’ sports, pretty much all of them at some point, but there’s more of an emphasis today on soccer, coaching, refereeing and fundraising. In school, I was more of a baseball player, but my two kids have gravitated toward soccer. 

What are you passionate about? 
Ackermann: I like physical and mental challenges in my personal and professional life. Summiting Mount Rainier. Hiking the Grand Canyon from rim to rim, which is essentially 50 miles and 10,000 feet of elevation, in less than 24 hours. Biking from Seattle to Portland in one day, which is about 210 miles. Outdoor activities like these can be mentally draining, as well as physically challenging and, if you’re prepared for one and not the other, you usually won’t succeed. It all ties into goals. If you have a truly lofty goal, it’s not something you should be able to accomplish in a day, a week or even a month. That’s an investment of time, effort and energy — and sometimes finances as well. 

I view the business world no differently. We’re building something special at Humana. We want to double our book of business in five years, and we don’t have a small book of business to begin with. We’re talking about numbers in the billions. Like most people, I would love to get everything accomplished tomorrow, but I realize that’s not reality, so how do we lay the foundation and make sure we’re in a better spot tomorrow than today so we can hit that number in five years? 

What is one thing that most people would not know about you? 
Ackermann: I’m a bit of a thrill-seeker. I’ve been skydiving. I’ve gone way too fast on a motorcycle because I had an open stretch of highway and was just dumb and young enough to do it. I’ve jumped off 30-foot cliffs. Even though I’m not quite as young as I used to be, I would still take the opportunity to do something that gets the heart racing a little bit.