Insights from UFCW on the Evolving Pension Market

Jessica Hurley: Hi, I'm Jessica Hurley from Majesco and this is Future of Retirement. In this series I sit down with leaders across retirement, Pension and pension risk transfer to talk about what's changing across technology operations and the way we serve our members. Because the reality is there's a lot going on in this space right now. And at Majesco we spend a lot of time thinking about what's next while staying grounded in what organizations need to execute today. So stay with us. You might just find your next now.

Jessica Hurley: Hey. I'm joined with Rick Silva, Executive Director and trust fund administrator for UFCW and Employers Trust LLC. Rick oversees 15 ERISA benefit plans serving more than 140,000 members and leads a team of more than 178 professionals across two offices. With a remarkable 45 year career with UFCW. From Grocery Clerk to senior leadership, Rick brings unmatched experience, deep industry knowledge and a powerful commitment to modernization of pension and benefit administration. I'm thrilled to have him with us today to share his insights and what's ahead for ufcw. Thanks for joining me today, Rick.

Rick Silva: Thanks, Jessica. Our mission is simple. To provide exceptional benefit administration for those we serve. Delivering security, accuracy and member first experience. Uh, modernization has been a strategic priority for us. We're transforming our technology and processes to meet rising expectations and to ensure long term sustainability.

Jessica Hurley: Terrific. Well, thanks Rick. Let's just jump right in and you know you mentioned your commitment to security accuracy and a member first kind of experience. How has UFCW modernized this technology infrastructure to achieve those goals?

Rick Silva: Okay, I've got a couple points here. Our cloud migration and platform upgrades. We've transitioned core systems to modern cloud based platforms leveraging SaaS and AWS through velocity agile implementation which has significantly improved scalability, security and resilience in our organization. Uh, I would call integrated data systems. Uh, we consolidated fragmented data sources into a unified data environment giving uh, us real time access and strong analytics and then uh, digital member tools. This has been very big for us. We've launched self service portals for members, self service, employer self service and provider self service, giving each group secure, convenient access to the information they need. I would say of the three member self service has been exceptional and huge in our uh, progress with our open enrollment platform that was created by Velocity Group.

Jessica Hurley: Terrific. So you talked about infrastructure. I'm assuming that a lot of business processes had to change as well along with that infrastructure. Perhaps even, even more so. What kind of business processes have you re engineered and why are these changes important?

Rick Silva: Okay, Eligibility and claims automation is probably the biggest IT'S a signature moment for us in our history. I'll tell you a little bit about that takes a couple minutes. Let's go back to. We started a full integration of all departments in, let's see, December of 2012. That took four years to get everything, all departments on a, on a single platform. By April 30th, 2016 we were at 0% auto adjudication for claims. And that's automizing the claims. Uh, is, was heavily in the industry. Hospitals, blue shields, all of the shields, the uh, blues anthems those folks have are uh, they're high, they're very high in this particular area. But we were at 0%. We internally, we have a very sophisticated IT team, worked with your folks and your team. We put together auto adjudication in that first month. We went from 0 to 25% by the time, the end of 2017. So one year later we were at 60%, 65%. Uh today's dates, I'll give you an example of where we are today with auto adjudication. Our professional claims were at 90%. Our institutional claims at 74%. Our dental claims at 78%. Total auto adjudication for 12-03-2025, 87%. We average 85%. What does that mean? I started in the organization as the administrator in uh, August of 2011 we had 43 claims folks, we have today 11. So the sophistication of the system is uh, amazing. And what we've been able to do is redeploy those resources across the organization and give us a uh, project management team of three, compliance and internal controls team of five, a communications team of four. You know I can go on and on. So deploying those into the organization so that we can serve our membership better was a tactical move that was generated right here. Then I would move on to workflow digitization. We've enabled real time audit trail, uh, trails, allowing managers to make informed decisions on the fly. Reallocating work, recognizing high performers and addressing issues quickly. I would also talk about imaging and correspondence service. This is another good story ics. We uh, were going to go on the outside. We're going to go use a third party to come in and adjunct to the software that, that you guys provided for us, we chose not to, we chose to go with velocity. We brought that in and used uh, that system and that was a very good business decision for us that helped populate when our member service folks are working with our members. Everything is integrated. So when, when, when they bring up, you know, Susie or David Boom. Everything is where they, where they go to the doctors. All that comes up through this correspondence service and it creates workflows and that's been tremendous for our success. Then I would say member communication real time data helps us deliver more timely and targeted communications especially during critical periods like open enrollment which we're in right now. We have platform and that's why I mentioned earlier the member self service piece which uh, is in real time. I'll talk about it a little bit more during this interview. Pension process enhancements. We've automated pension benefit calculations reducing errors and accelerating processing so members receive accurate estimates and, and uh, payments faster. If you could think if you take us back to May 1st, 2016 we were completely paper. We now think about that. So we have, we're now. Everything is in a flash. People can get their calculations very quickly through their own efforts. We were looking at records back. We've been 67 years in business so our records were so old. So this whole process, that question that you asked starts with preserving records, preserving making sure that fish film all of these. Uh, you're preserving these records that are so old. We used a vendor at that time called Scantech. We still work with them today. An outstanding vendor and I bring that person up because uh, Ron, the owner and they if, if it wasn't for them helping us index and get that right and then that's what we fed into the velocity system. You would not have the, the synergies that came from us working with folks and this system. The scalability of the system was uh, was instrumental to our success. Let's see what else. Uh contribution tracking. We've automated dependent premiums DEP we call it invoicing and payment application. Laying the groundwork for a broader uh contribution automation in the future. And what that does is allows contracts to be negotiated and then they come in through, through this method and it. The automation generates appointment. I mean it's still. We were just. Things that would take weeks are now in days. It's just, it's been tremendous for our organization. So I went on a little bit there Jessica but that's what I would say.

Jessica Hurley: No worries. In fact you've kind of uh, answered a couple of questions that that would be my follow ons but let me ask it anyways. You know that's a lot of change in terms of infrastructure and then process but you know does, does change matter unless there's an impact to people. And I guess my question is how have the members and employer partners benefited from all these changes? Yeah.

Rick Silva: Good, good, good, good. Follow up, uh, faster service. I mean processing times, claims and eligibility have dropped dramatically. Uh, weeks have become days. Uh, we can say now I think on our sick leave folks I told you we had 11, we have like six folks. We process sick leave for our, on our major funds which is I mean unheard of. Uh, it's like a single day. I mean it's so it's optimized staffing, it's efficiency, uh the members the true winner. And I think that is kind of the, that's what we should be celebrating. Improved accuracy. Automation has reduced errors and strength and trust. I mean uh, this business way too many transactions, you got to have accuracy. So their automation you uh, know is, is a game changer for that. Members, employers and providers all have greater confidence in our administration for sure. And then better self service experiences, mss, ESS and provider self service give members, employers, the providers streamlined user friendly access and that has been appreciated by are the people we do business with. So that's probably what I'd say.

Jessica Hurley: That's terrific. So, so faster service, um, improved accuracy and then better self service. Uh, and that expert, that user experience has really been the major impacts. So as you look uh, ahead, as you look ahead for UFCW and you know uh, and what's on the roadmap in the future. What's, what's, what's that look like?

Rick Silva: Okay. Um, Well I would say uh, enhanced member engagement. I mean we're talking about exploring personalized digital experiences like uh, chat based support, advanced automation. We're continuously improving automation so that we can onboard new funds and plans quickly and seamlessly. We have um, like I told you, we have a very sophisticated uh tenured IT team uh led by Adam Fisher, our deputy administrator. They solve problems and they're looking constantly at trying to make things better across the organization. Soon to be led by Jason Bergman. And again they, those two folks have been with me my entire tenure here. When you have that kind of stability it allows uh and then you bring in these, you know we call it our think tank and we're able to advance automation. We're continuously improving automation so we can onboard new funds. That new fund piece they've already started with some of our big locals. We have uh two of the biggest locals in the United States and uh local 8, local 5. We, we've been able to fast track onboarding without going through the paper trails and some of the of uh those misgivings our AI and predictive analytics. I know velocity with AI is what we chose to do in 2019 when we were completely stable. We had, we, uh, most people would never take on advancing technology when you have no jurors and you're that stable. We chose to. And the advancement of member self service by, by itself was a motivating factor uh, when we made that decision. And then our cyber security and compliance as we scale security and regulatory compliance will continue to be our top priorities. I had a meeting this morning before our meeting on that. So um, yeah, I'd say that that's

Jessica Hurley: um, the future does look great for EOCW in terms of that and looks good for its members and the various folks who interact with your systems. Let's finish with the last question I'd have which, you know, a lot of folks talk about security and how important that is certainly for your, you know, your members, uh, older crowds, things like that. Security has become a big issue throughout this transformation. How has UFCW ensured that data privacy and system security are protected or perhaps improved?

Rick Silva: Great question. I'm going to mention a name, another name here. Z. I can't say his name. He's Czech, he's from Czechoslovakia. But he is one of the brightest folks that I have been fortunate to work with. And he has put in factor multi, uh, factor authentic, uh, authentication. He has been relentless on making sure that we advance like we're supposed to. Again, putting the right people around you and then having those folks that uh, that have that kind of expertise has definitely improved us. We've implemented across our organization encryption and monitoring. All data is encrypted at transit at rest as well as continuous monitoring for anomalies. Again, I told you I had that meeting this morning on this very topic. Compliance frameworks. We adhere to industry standards. We conduct constant regular audits and ensure our governance process meets the highest benchmarks. We have a third party high tech audit that we look at internal external penetrations et. So that is what I would say, uh, is the future.

Jessica Hurley: Terrific. Well, you know, it's been great talking with you today Rick, about, about your experiences and things like that and I want to thank you again for joining us. You've shared a lot of thoughtful experience with UFCW and the modernization journey. Do you have any additional thoughts before I let you go?

Rick Silva: Yeah, Let me reinforce UFCW's commitment. I mean uh, modernization is, is, isn't just about technology. It's about delivering better outcomes for those we serve. So this is our, you know, our mission statement. Vision, standing, core values. Everything that we do runs through those things. If it can't answer that question. If it's not about exceptional service or providing infrastructure innovation, then we don't do it. So if we're driven by that, it gets, you know, it avoids the noise and it makes us focused. And I think I'm, um, very proud of the organization that we built. I'm proud that our membership feels that they are well taken care of. And to me, you know, that's God's work. We do the best that we can. But we also understand that you, to do the best that we can, can't just be altruistic. It has to be. You got to put automation, you've got to be forward thinking. We're excited about what's ahead and proud to be setting the standard for health pension administration in the digital era. Uh, there's no question about it. So I thank you. Thank you.

Jessica Hurley: Great. Thanks, Rick. I appreciate that. And thank you so much for your leadership and the work of, uh, your entire team. Um, it really shows how modernization isn't just about transforming technology. It's about delivering better service and strengthening trust and improving outcomes from members, employers and providers that you support every day. So we also want to thank UFCW for the partnership, collaboration and we've been working together for quite a while and we're excited to continue working together to see the next phase of innovation that, uh, that you and your team is lead. For all of you watching at home, uh, thanks for taking the time to be with us today. Thanks, Rick.

Rick Silva: Thank you.

Jessica Hurley: Thanks for joining me on Future of Retirement. If you found this conversation valuable, be sure to follow the series and for more insights, join us@majesco.com and from all of us here at Majesco, here's to shaping your next now.