Mployer Advisor receives investment from Martin Ventures

As Published in Nashville Business Journal, December 2, 2020 By Joel Stinnett Brian Freeman spent a decade working inside HCA Healthcare Inc, the nation’s largest hospital operator. The final three years, while helping build out a team of insurance brokers around the country, he noticed there were a number of inefficiencies for employers picking a health plan. “What few people realized is that a business actually hires an insurance broker and … the insurance broker hire decision is significantly more important and has much more of an impact than the actual choice of the insurance carrier,” Freeman said. “If you get a good broker they can help design the plan with the employer to make it cost effective. … If you got a bad insurance broker, what they can do in essence is take advantage of you from a cost perspective, because you’re paying commissions and they can sell you products that you don’t necessarily need.” Realizing the opportunity, Freeman left HCA in June of last year to create Mployer Advisor — a platform to help businesses search and evaluate insurance brokers. After launching in February, mostly in the Southeast, Mployer is now available nationwide, Freeman said. To help fuel the company’s growth, Mployer closed on a round of funding this week led by Nashville-based private equity firm Martin Ventures, with participation from Nashville health care veterans Trilliant Health CEO Hal Andrews, RevSpring CEO Scott MacKenzie and former Trilliant executive and current PYA Chief Development Officer Jeff Pate. Freeman declined to disclose the amount of the investment. Mployer’s platform has a rating systems that assigns a score to each broker based on their range of experience, said Freeman, who is also Mployer's CEO. Users can also search more than 25,000 reviews of insurance brokers. The platform’s aim is to help an employer choose the insurance broker that best fits their needs based on factors such as industry, price and size. “It’s very similar to physicians, if you have a problem with your knee, you wouldn’t want to go to a cardiologist, you want to go to someone with experience in your vertical.” Freeman said. “If you’ve got a technology company and I’ve got a mining company, we’re going to have very different needs. Your’s are going to be more focused on executive needs, benefits and wellness. Versus on the mining side I’m going to be more focused on workers comp., injury, things like that.” The platform is free to users. Mployer allows insurance brokers who achieve a top score on the platform to advertise on its site. Freeman said there are about 50 insurance brokers currently advertising on Mployer. The company has 10 employees, about half of which are based out of Nashville, he said. “Thousands of businesses already use Mployer Advisor to research and evaluate brokers,” Devin Carty, CEO of Martin Ventures, said in a news release. “We are excited about Mployer Advisor’s growth potential and see the company at the forefront of creating a new marketplace to benefit both employers and insurance advisors.” LINK TO ARTICLE