
Beam Benefits: Building a Digitally Native Future for Employee Health
07/30/23 • 33 min
In this engaging and informative podcast, hosts Mike Pattengale and Jennifer Jones chat with Alex Frommeyer, the co-founder and CEO of Beam Benefits. Alex shares his journey from being an engineer to founding Beam, a digitally native employee benefits company that's transforming dental insurance and more.
Key takeaways:
- Digitally Native Benefits: Beam's success lies in being a native digital company, leveraging AI-powered underwriting and a wellness program to offer flexible and innovative benefits for small and medium-sized businesses. This digital approach differentiates Beam from traditional insurers and creates a memorable experience for employees.
- Dental Wellness Program: Beam's unique dental wellness program gamifies dental care, allowing users to accumulate points by brushing their teeth with the connected Beam toothbrush. These points can be redeemed for various products and gift cards, promoting better dental health while engaging users passively.
- The Future of Employee Benefits: Alex envisions a more integrated and comprehensive approach to employee benefits, where data-driven solutions unify various health-related coverages and experiences. He believes tech and entrepreneurial innovation will be the driving force behind this future.
The next time you brush your teeth, remember that you can make dental health more fun and rewarding with Beam!
Catch the full conversation.
- Connect with Alex Frommeyer on LinkedIn
- Visit Beam Benefits' website
- Connect with our co-hosts Jennifer Jones and Mike Pattengale
Subscribe so you don’t miss an episode: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other popular podcast players.
Have feedback, questions, or suggestions for show ideas? Send them to us at [email protected].
Please rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform, and share it with your friends and colleagues. We appreciate you and thank you for listening!
Theme music: "Overboard" by Stay Outside
In this engaging and informative podcast, hosts Mike Pattengale and Jennifer Jones chat with Alex Frommeyer, the co-founder and CEO of Beam Benefits. Alex shares his journey from being an engineer to founding Beam, a digitally native employee benefits company that's transforming dental insurance and more.
Key takeaways:
- Digitally Native Benefits: Beam's success lies in being a native digital company, leveraging AI-powered underwriting and a wellness program to offer flexible and innovative benefits for small and medium-sized businesses. This digital approach differentiates Beam from traditional insurers and creates a memorable experience for employees.
- Dental Wellness Program: Beam's unique dental wellness program gamifies dental care, allowing users to accumulate points by brushing their teeth with the connected Beam toothbrush. These points can be redeemed for various products and gift cards, promoting better dental health while engaging users passively.
- The Future of Employee Benefits: Alex envisions a more integrated and comprehensive approach to employee benefits, where data-driven solutions unify various health-related coverages and experiences. He believes tech and entrepreneurial innovation will be the driving force behind this future.
The next time you brush your teeth, remember that you can make dental health more fun and rewarding with Beam!
Catch the full conversation.
- Connect with Alex Frommeyer on LinkedIn
- Visit Beam Benefits' website
- Connect with our co-hosts Jennifer Jones and Mike Pattengale
Subscribe so you don’t miss an episode: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other popular podcast players.
Have feedback, questions, or suggestions for show ideas? Send them to us at [email protected].
Please rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform, and share it with your friends and colleagues. We appreciate you and thank you for listening!
Theme music: "Overboard" by Stay Outside
Previous Episode

Access Healthcare Without Breaking the Bank: Paytient's Innovative Solution for Affordable Medical Expenses - Brian Whorley
Brian Whorley, founder of Paytient, explained how the company's health payment accounts provide interest-free credit lines for out-of-pocket healthcare expenses, aiming to bridge the gap between existing healthcare savings accounts (HSAs), flexible spending accounts (FSAs), and the financial burden of healthcare costs. Whorley stated, "Credit is what we use in our lives to turn large, unexpected, or infrequent expenses into affordable things."
Paytient's health payment accounts, unlike HSAs and FSAs, do not require employer or employee funding and do not perform credit checks on the account holders. Whorley emphasized that there's "no interest to the actual members" and "no credit check to the actual members." The goal is to enable more people to access healthcare and reduce financial stress around medical expenses.
Whorley said Paytient can be used with existing HSAs and FSAs to create more equitable access to healthcare, particularly for lower-income employees who may struggle with high-deductible health plans. Whorley explained that Paytient is a flexible product that can be tailored to the needs of different employers and their workforce demographics. This allows employers to ensure that their health plans are more accessible and equitable for all employees, regardless of their income level or job position.
Whorley also talked about how Paytient can help address deferred healthcare, which has been more prevalent since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. By providing individuals with a way to afford healthcare without incurring additional financial burden, Paytient aims to encourage more people to seek medical care when they need it, rather than delaying or avoiding treatment due to financial concerns.
Whorley acknowledged the need to address the root cause of high healthcare costs, but emphasized that Paytient offers a practical solution for individuals and employers in the meantime. He said, "As long as you have your phone, you have a way to pay for care," demonstrating how Paytient can help make healthcare more accessible and affordable for everyone.
Key Take-aways:
- Paytient provides interest-free credit lines to help people afford healthcare expenses.
- Paytient can sit alongside HSAs and FSAs, making all benefits more effective.
- Deferred care is a pervasive issue that can be addressed by providing more affordable healthcare options.
- Paytient can be deployed at any time throughout the year for employers.
- Paytient recently closed a $40 million Series B funding round to support its growth plans.
- Connect with Brian Whorley on LinkedIn
- Visit Paytient’s website
- Connect with our co-hosts Jennifer Jones and Mike Pattengale
Subscribe so you don’t miss an episode: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other popular podcast players.
Have feedback, questions, or suggestions for show ideas? Send them to us at [email protected].
Please rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform, and share it with your friends and colleagues. We appreciate you and thank you for listening!
Theme music: "Overboard" by Stay Outside
Next Episode

Navigating the World of High-Cost Healthcare: Effective Strategies and Insights
Dive into the world of high-cost claimants trends with Janet Young, MD, Clinical Analytics Advisor at Springbuk and one of the authors of the 2024 Employee Health Trends report. The report sheds light on managing those hefty healthcare expenses. Janet describes the journey through the world of healthcare economics, beginning with a breakdown of high-cost claimants into distinct segments, then explaining how those groups differ in their influence on overall healthcare spending. The conversation then turns to the diverse health conditions within these categories, underlining the critical need to grasp these differences for crafting impactful management strategies.
You'll hear about innovative approaches like encouraging regular cancer screenings and leveraging Centers of Excellence for top-notch care and advice, particularly vital in the priciest categories dominated by facility expenses.
What You Will Learn:
- The segmentation of high-cost claimants in healthcare and their impact on total spending
- The importance of understanding the variation in health conditions across different cost categories
- Strategies for managing high-cost claims, including early cancer screenings and leveraging Centers of Excellence
- Connect with Janet Young on LinkedIn
- Get the complete 2024 Employee Health Trends report and other related resources
- Connect with our co-hosts Jennifer Jones and David Pittman
Subscribe so you don’t miss an episode: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other popular podcast players.
Have feedback, questions, or suggestions for show ideas? Send them to us at [email protected].
Please rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform, and share it with your friends and colleagues. We appreciate you and thank you for listening!
Theme music: "Overboard" by Stay Outside
Healthcare on the Rocks - Employee Benefits with a Twist - Beam Benefits: Building a Digitally Native Future for Employee Health
Transcript
Most kids, and my former college roommates, don't like brushing their teeth or going to the dentist. Today we're going to talk with a man who's trying to make the brushing process a little more fun for kids and adults, while also innovating a variety of health and insurance benefits for employees and employers. I'm Mike Pattengale, Mid Market Practice Leader here at Springbuk, the leading U. S. health intelligence and analytics platform.
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