Kim
Welcome back to NEBGH Voices, everyone. Thank you so much for listening to season one of our podcast. It really was a terrific inaugural year. I encourage you to subscribe to NEBGH Voices wherever you get your podcast. This is our season two opening episode, and we thought it would be fun to preview what’s on tap at NEBGH in 2026. I still have to get used to saying that 2026, but here we are. We are excited about this year, and we really have a great lineup planned for our members. So we’re going to kind of go chronologically through the year. First up, coming upon us quickly, is our Tribute to Leadership. This is taking place on February 12, from six to 830 at Convene at 360 Madison Avenue. So excited to announce that we have a Broadway singer again. His name is Jacob Dickey, and you’re going to want to be there to hear him. He is just remarkable. Our honorees include Richard Allen from American Corporate Benefits. Matias Arias-Duval from Colgate-Palmolive. Donna Ray, who is the Executive Director and CEO of 199SEIU Benefit and Pension Funds, and Dr. Jeff Vacirca, who’s the CEO of New York Cancer & Blood Specialists. We encourage you to buy a package. Buy a ticket for the event. You can find details on our website at NEBGH.org, so we will be excited to see you there. It’s going to be a fun evening, and, oh, it’s close to Valentine’s Day. So think about chocolates and think about roses, and maybe wear something red if you feel inclined. Next, as we move on through the year, the end of March, Thursday, March 26, is our Cardiometabolic Conference. I’m going to bring our team in here to talk about these activities. I’ve got Janaera Gaston, who’s our Vice President of Programs and Conferences, Jeanette Fuente, Vice President also of Programs and Conferences, and Emily Commer, who’s our senior director of membership. So Janaera, let’s start with Mario. Metabolic conference, Thursday, March 26, tell us about the conference. What can what can folks expect? And by the way, everybody’s talking about GLP-1S. So, so why don’t you talk about why we’re calling this our cardio metabolic conference?
Janaera
Yes, thank you. Thank you for having me and doing this. I think this is a great way to start the year. So you know, Kim, right now, cardio metabolic disease is quietly, or maybe not so quietly, driving more employer health costs, productivity, loss, and workforce risk than almost any other condition, and for the employers we work with, it’s now the second largest driver of high cost claims, right behind cancer, and that’s significant. Most employers are reacting to it rather than managing it strategically. And so this conference is really about changing that. So, as you know, we are the great conveners. We bring together employers, clinicians, and benefit leaders at our events. And this is no different. And we’re bringing all those people together to look at obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cardiometabolic risk as connected conditions, not siloed problem, and benefit strategy right now is very siloed around these conditions. We want to move beyond awareness and into practical strategy. That’s what we like to do. That’s how our programs are usually go. We want to make sure that we can help employers navigate GLP, one coverage, manage the rising costs, integrate technology and clinical care into their solutions, and think about prevention, productivity, and the risk long term to their workforce of cardiometabolic conditions.
Kim
Terrific. Exciting, I think, very timely. I know registration is open for that conference, Janaera. I know folks can register at any NEBGH.org I think the conference is really starting to fill up. So I encourage folks to go online and register to participate. Can you remind folks where and when? Janaera?
Janaera
Absolutely, yes. The conference takes place again on Thursday, March 26. It’s 8:30am to 3:30 at Convene, which is for this Convene will be at 601 Lexington Avenue in New York City. We are right there in Midtown, so it should be convenient for everyone.
Kim
Great. I love the practical nature of this conference. I know we’re really going to lean into helping our employer solve some of the problems and challenges that they’re facing around this coverage and around these rising costs. So we really do hope to see you there. It’s going to be a great gathering. Jeanette. Annual Conference, 15th anniversary. Can you tell our folks what to expect with this conference? Talk a little bit about the theme, the conference highlights. What are some of the topics we’re going to cover?
Jeanette
Thanks, Kim, and thanks for having me on this podcast. We are really gearing up for an amazing 15th Annual Conference this year. We are having… we’re focusing around the theme of powering progress to drive change, with an emphasis on health and well-being benefits. So this conference is going to offer something for everyone. It’s our largest premiere event of the year, where we bring together employers, benefits, leaders, and the entire healthcare community to really explore what the latest innovations in healthcare and wellbeing are, and to have different perspectives and a broad range of topics shared with our attendees.
Kim
So what are some of those topics? Jeanette, are we going to talk about cancer? Are we going to talk about GLP-1s? Are we going to talk about mental health? Are we going to talk about managing cost, which, really, you know, rising cost of health care is such a key theme for our folks this year. Give us a couple of highlights, if you will.
Jeanette
Absolutely, Kim. I think we’re going to talk about all of those things you just mentioned, but certainly, we are going to cover a broad range of topics as mentioned earlier, and that does include managing high-cost trends and claims. AI and benefits is a hot topic, behavioral health and resilience, women’s health, GLP-1’s, musculoskeletal health, and again, I think there’s going to be something for everyone in all of what we’re covering on this day. It is a one-day event. It’s very highly curated, so that we can get a lot of information, a lot of ideas and solutions, all you know, work through in a day’s event.
Kim
So I know last year, Jeanette, we had over 400 attendees. I think we’re expecting that and more this year for the 15th anniversary, we’re in a new space. Can you tell our listeners the when and the where and how they can find out about registration?
Jeanette
Absolutely, the 15th anniversary has really motivated us to go a little bit, you know, bolder and larger than we have in the past years. And that really involved finding another beautiful, Convene space in downtown Manhattan that can accommodate more than 400 attendees. So we are looking at an event that’s going to be, you know, bigger this year. It’s not going to be so much bigger that you won’t be able to find the people you want to meet in the room, but it will be larger, and there are more opportunities available. The new location, as I mentioned, is a Convene site downtown New York City, at 225 Liberty Street. And you can go to our NEBGH.org website, under Events, look at the annual conference, and find out more information there. We’ll be opening the registration really soon, and you can reach out to me directly for any questions at Jfuente@nebgh.org. So this is a must-attend event, and please put June 18th on your calendar.
Kim
That’s right, if you experience FOMO, you’d better get this one on your calendar. It’s going to be a great gathering in New York, June 18, down at 225 Liberty Place downtown. Very excited about that. Janaera, we’re back in the Garden State by popular demand, New Jersey, for our Pharmacy Benefits conference on Thursday, September 24, we’re back at the Eisenhower Conference Center in Livingston. That conference was sold out last year, and our members have said to us, this needs to be an annual event. We know that pharmacy is such a driver of cost for folks, it’s very complicated. I know a lot of folks talking about lack of transparency, so just give a little flavor. Why are we doing this conference now as an annual conference, and what are some of the things that folks can expect when we see them in New Jersey in September?
Janaera
I think Kim, that you know, part of what drives this is that it’s impacting every employer. We’ve got the GLP-1’s as a specialty pharmacy is increasing the budgets for most of our employers. But it’s not just GLP-1’s specialty as the one specialty pharmacy risk. We’re also looking at gene and cell therapies and the pipeline, and it’s exploding our employers’ budgets. They need real strategy to help them manage the costs of increasing pharmacy in the same way that we help them with strategy around other conditions. And we promise that every year, because every year we need new strategy, or we need to improve the strategy that they’re delivering. Well, they need to improve the strategy they’re delivering. So that’s where we do this every year. It has become an annual event. Pharmacy is not going away. And we can, we want to be consistent and deliberate about helping our employers and manage this particular challenge with PBMs, with managing the costs, and so we’re doing it again this year.
Kim
Right. I know that last year we talked about how spicy this topic is. So it continues to be spicy. It continues to be a driver of cost, and we are seeing some interesting shifts in this landscape. So please plan to join us, Thursday, September 24th, at the Eisenhower Conference Center in Livingston for this pharmacy benefits conference. We may even have some hot sauce at your table, because I think it’s going to be spicy again. So plan to be with us there. And then Jeanette. I know we’re in early planning for our Q4 conference. I don’t think we have a date locked on that yet, but I know our employers have come to us and said, “Hey, guys, we’ve got to keep this topic of physical and mental health and well-being on the table.” A lot of our employees, our employers, are still dealing with some of these mental health challenges. They’re investing in these wonderful programs around exercise and nutrition. So just a little preview, Jeanette, of what folks can expect in Q4 for this physical and mental health and well-being event.
Jeanette
That’s right, Kim, we are definitely working on a date. We’re looking at November, so Q4 early November of this year. And we’re we’re really working on an event that supports a more resilient workforce and a workforce that thrives, right? And we want to include happiness in there. Employers definitely have mental health and behavioral health, and well-being as a top priority on their minds. It continues to be a top priority. Issues with stress, burnout, access to services are all really essential to support a resilient and thriving employee population. We know, you know, the wisdom tells us that the mind and the body are interconnected and you can’t separate them. So we will also be focusing on evidence-based and innovative approaches to nutrition, physical activity, behavioral health, and whole-person health. I can give you a sneak peek on a couple of topics
Kim
Please do
Jeanette
If we, if we have time.
Kim
Yeah, go ahead.
Jeanette
Yes. We will be looking at food as medicine, autoimmune diseases, opportunities for prevention, and we’ll have some wellness moments, which you know, we’ll have some mindful wellness moments, we’ll have some physical wellness moments, and it’s going to be a really great and relevant event.
Kim
Terrific. You’re making me want to stand up. You and my watch are making me want to stand up and walk around the table a little bit and maybe go eat an apple.
Jeanette
There’ll be a lot of that.
Kim
Yes, Outstanding, outstanding. So more details to come on that one, but to keep an eye out for q4 we’ll lock that data in soon and get you those details lastly, but certainly not least, our fearless head of membership, Emily comer, Emily, I think it’s so critical when we hear about all these great things happening, we want our members to come, we want our members to engage. We want our members to maximize their membership with NEBGH. And I’m just going to share one little data point that I thought we set a little record last year, and we had more members renew for this year in 2025 than ever in our history. So I think we are creating that FOMO, though a little bit. I think we’re delivering exciting content. And we also have a new strategic plan, Emily. Just say around our commitment in that plan, talk about the commitment to our members in that plan, and talk about some tips and ways that folks can maximize their membership.
Emily
Thanks, Kim. First of all, I just have to say how excited I am to be here. I’m a huge fan of NEBGH Voices. I listen every month, nice, but we have a relentless commitment to our members, and that’s in our strategic plan, but it’s really the North Star of the work that I do, day in and day out. And maximizing your membership benefits is simple. We’ve made it simple, and we’re here to support you in whatever way that looks like for you. But really, it’s about letting your employees and your colleagues know that you have this membership, sharing their contact details with us, or sharing NEBGH programs with them so that they can register and get on our mailing list is really all you have to do. Once they’re in, we take over from there, we do the work. We get them into the mailing list. They receive our invitations to all these incredible in-person programs that were just mentioned, also all of the virtual programming that we offer, as well as resource guides, policy briefings, our monthly newsletter. And that’s really where people plug in, and they find their people. They find what’s relevant to them. And another way that you can really maximize your benefits is to participate in our annual member surveys. That is really helping also to guide our strategic plan forward and making sure that we know what’s top of mind for members, we’re providing the opportunity for their feedback, which really, you know, strengthens the benefits that we offer and delivers them in a way that’s relevant to our members. So I will continue to be relentless about that.
Kim
Nice. I love that. I love that. Just a quick mention, if you don’t mind, Emily, around our senior benefits roundtable, and we have completely refreshed, relaunched Up and Comers. Tell folks what Up and Comers is and how they they can engage their young and rising professionals in their companies.
Emily
Right. So we have a biweekly round table with our senior benefit leaders. It’s really invaluable, and it’s also peer-led. It helps inform our programming in multiple ways, but it also helps our benefit leaders solve the issues that they’re looking for answers to, or bring awareness to topics that others may need to think about. So we have a lot of active participation in that. And we also have a round table, I should mention, for our population health medical directors, which is led by Dr Mark Cunningham Hill, and some of those discussions bubble up topics that are relevant for benefits leaders or other members, and maybe even become an episode of our Mondays with Dr Mark and Dr Michael. So in relaunching our programming for Up and Comers, we felt that we wanted to take a refreshed approach, and we wanted it to be informed by our Up and Comers, so we created the Ambassador Circle. It’s an advisory group of Up and Comers and a few different of our member organizations that have helped us to think about this programming and develop new quarterly sessions that are interactive. They feature interviews with senior leaders exploring their career paths. They feature resource guides and resource how tos really digging into how can you use this and how can it help you in your day-to-day, as well as that same kind of open discussion, problem solving and raising awareness of issues that are coming down the pipeline that we do in our senior benefit leaders roundtable. And I have to say, I’m new and I’m excited to be relaunching this program, but as my colleagues could tell you, they have seen Up and Comers who are now on that senior benefit leaders roundtable, so it’s really important programming, and I’m excited to be involved with it.
Kim
That’s terrific, and I’m so grateful that the Up and Comers let me come to their meetings. It makes me feel still young and cool, even though I’m neither. I appreciate that they let me listen in. They’re doing some great work. And as you said, our Up and Comers then eventually graduate to our senior benefit leaders. And by the way, we’ve had folks who were Up and Comers who graduated to the senior benefits group who are now on our board of directors. So there really is a leadership pathway here at NEBGH for those rising professionals. So make sure your company has somebody who’s connected in to thatUp and Comer group. And if you are a senior benefits leader, join us every other Friday. I want to mention that those meetings happen under what’s referred to as Chatham House rules, so you can attribute what you learn and take that knowledge away, but we don’t mention who the person was, or the company was, where that came from, and really allows for more open and honest dialogue among those senior benefits leaders. So we want to folks to know that. So please join us for that again. You build the agenda. Shout out to the amazing Heather Bravo from Curtiss-Wright, who is the person, who is the peer, person who leads those for us right now, she’s just outstanding, but it really is a wonderful peer-to-peer connection with our senior benefits group. So you’re if you’re not in that, please join us. So just a couple of recap items, because as you can see, we are all very excited about the year ahead. Mentioning February 12, that’s our tribute to leadership. Come on to that event. You can learn about that on our website. I want to give you some chocolate. I want to give you a rose. I want you to hear Jacob Dickey sing some beautiful songs and honor these wonderful leaders in our community. Join us for that. Thursday, March 26th, Cardiometabolic Conference in New York. Registration is open and filling up quickly, so please join us for that. You can register on our website. Annual Conference, bigger, better. 15th anniversary. June 18th, at Liberty Place in Brookfield Place downtown. Going to be a great event. Thursday, September 24, our pharmacy benefits conference, Eisenhower Conference Center in Livingston, and then more to come on, our physical and mental health and well-being event in Q4 maximize your membership. We want to make sure you are learning from being a part of NEBGH, connecting, making those connections, and building a wonderful network of professionals throughout our community. So we encourage you to check out our website, NEBGH.org. Please subscribe to the podcast so you can hear the great things that are happening through the podcast. We are all available to you at any time. I will say my email is kim@nebgh.org so don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly or anybody on the team. We have a great year planned for you. We love seeing you. We love hearing from you, and hopefully, we’ll see you soon at the tribute. So this is NEBGH Voices. I’m so glad to have the team on today. I’m so glad that you’ve listened to our episode and that you are a part of our NEBGH community and family, and as always, I wish you wellness.
Voices
And I am one of the voices of NEBGH.
