Employees are increasingly going around their health plans for care, turning to direct primary care, concierge medicine, self-directed testing, weight-loss platforms, longevity services, and more. These choices offer greater access, personalization, and control, but they may also signal something deeper: frustration with the traditional healthcare experience.
This emerging parallel health system creates clinical, financial, and access implications for employers and employees alike. It can also reshape how employees perceive the value of their benefits and weaken the connection to employer-sponsored coverage. This session will examine what’s driving the shift, where it creates risk or opportunity, and whether or how employers should adapt their benefits strategy to better meet the needs of their people and culture.
Meet the Presenters
-
Kelly Polinski
Kelly Polinski, MPH, CPH is Vice President of Population Health, bringing more than sixteen years of experience in wellness, population health, and quality improvement. Kelly leads a national population health practice focused on helping employers take a more strategic, data-driven approach to health and benefits. Her work centers on empowering organizations to become more informed purchasers of healthcare by leveraging analytics, clinical insight, and innovative solutions to improve outcomes, enhance employee experience, and manage cost. She has deep experience partnering with clients, consultants, and vendor ecosystems to design and implement population health strategies that drive measurable impact. Prior to her current role, Kelly held leadership positions with Cambridge Health Alliance, where she managed wellness initiatives for over 3,000 employees, and with the Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS), where she led statewide improvement collaboratives, including the HANYS Diabetes Campaign. Kelly is a former board member of the Worksite Wellness Council of Massachusetts, where she served as Programs Committee Chair. She is a Certified Wellness Program Manager through the Chapman Institute and is Certified in Public Health (CPH). She holds a Master of Public Health from the University at Albany and a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from Elizabethtown College. She has also served as an examiner for Partners in Performance Excellence, applying Malcolm Baldrige principles to evaluate organizational performance. She resides in Central Massachusetts with her husband and two children. Outside of work, Kelly is a certified indoor cycling instructor and enjoys competing in sprint-distance triathlons.
-
Dannielle Sherrets
Dannielle Sherrets serves as the Director of Brown & Brown’s Innovation Hub as well as a Senior Consultant on the Population Health team. She brings over 18 years of experience working with employers on issues related to employee health and wellbeing. Prior to joining Brown & Brown, Dannielle spent much of her career at the Business Group on Health, leading their Institute on Innovation in Workforce Well-being and Health Innovation Forum. In these roles, she managed the development of the organization’s position on employee well-being and supported the evaluation of over 200 health innovations coming to market to support employee wellbeing. While at a federal consulting organization, Dannielle supported client’s research & analysis needs, specifically focused on improving corporate culture and employee experience. She also served as an employer relations consultant to NCQA, where she worked with employers to improve the quality of care they received from their health plan and health care vendors. Dannielle holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology from the College of Charleston and a Master of Public Health (MPH) from The George Washington University.
SHRM certification has approved this webinar for 1 PDC toward SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP recertification. A program code will be provided at the end of the webinar.