Most benefits brokers are trained to manage the status quo. Our founder, Brian Klem, was trained to break it.

Brian’s career wasn't built in the backrooms of traditional insurance firms. It was forged within the innovation hubs of global giants like Pfizer, Dexcom, and Virgin, and refined on the front lines of ZoomCare. When he was tasked with building a direct health solution for employers in 2012, he didn't just look at spreadsheets—he stepped in as an interim benefits manager to see the friction for himself.

The "Impossible" Moment

What he found was a labyrinth of hidden middleman costs: opaque PBM rebates, "percent off AWP" schemes that didn't add up, and "access fees" that provided no value. When Brian asked his broker how to cut 20% from the budget while improving care, the answer was a classic industry shrug: "That’s impossible. We can’t control these costs."

So, Brian fired the broker and rebuilt the engine from scratch.

By dismantling the traditional model and replacing it with transparency and logic, he didn't just hit that 20% savings goal—he proved that the "impossible" was simply a lack of imagination.

Our Blueprint for Better Care and Coverage

Today, Shift brings that same disruptive DNA to small and medium-sized employers. We use the exact strategies Brian used to outmaneuver the giants:

Financial Autonomy: Moving from fully insured to self-insured to kill middleman fees and taxes.

Radical Transparency: Replacing traditional PBMs with "Cost Plus" pharmacy models.

Smart Design: Optimizing plans to prioritize primary and mental health care, slashing ER waste.

Modern Safeguards: Leveraging Reference Based Pricing and aggressive stop-loss shopping to cap employer exposure.

Future-Proofing: Integrating AI-driven care and ICHRA models to give employees more choice than ever.

We don't just manage benefits. We Shift them.

15 years later, the mission remains the same: to prove that you don't have to choose between your bottom line and your people’s health.

Ready to stop accepting the "impossible"?

Let's Talk Today.

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