Liberty Risk Services’ LEADING-EDGE APPROACH to bottom-line savings

Health management services have been an all or none proposition for corporate Canada. A company traditionally has to buy a bundle of services from one provider or assemble a program from a group of vendors. Liberty Risk Services Canada wants to change that.

The Toronto-based company is taking a new tactic to health management with an la carte health management services product that provides all the flexibility of multiple vendors with the simplicity of one manager and one invoice.

“The approach that we’re taking is the virtual corporation approach, meaning that we’re partnering with legitimate experts in a particular field. We blend their core competencies with ours and offer these services to industry across the country,” said Glenn Carmen, vice-president of health management services at Liberty Risk Services Canada.

Liberty can offer a bundled package that takes care of all of a company’s health management needs or design a program in phases or even one service at a time. “It’s a one-stop shop. They don’t have to go through the Yellow Pages to find out who and what is available in the industry, they come to us as the gatekeeper and they know that who we are dealing with is the best in the class.”

The members of Liberty’s network provide services in five areas of specialty:

Health promotion and illness prevention, otherwise known as employee wellness.

Workers’ compensation consulting services.

Occupational medicine including pre-placement medicals, health testing and environmental audits.

Health Services needs analysis, provided by Liberty Risk Services’ in-house staff and via strategic partners.

Medical assistance and file review, which is the determination of the cost effectiveness of treatment strategies. That is in turn fed back to the client case manager.

The flexibility of a building block approach to a corporate health services portfolio was exemplified recently from within the virtual company, said Mr. Carmen.

He pointed to a case management firm that is a member of Liberty’s network of partners. One of their clients is a 1,000 employee strong Canadian division of a large U.S. company.

“They came to us and said the client is looking for pre-placement medicals and a company doctor,” explained Carmen. Liberty provided those services to the client through its network.

Mr. Carmen can also put together a white label or private label package of services. He developed this approach while he was with CBI Health, formerly the Canadian Back Institute. “When I left, they let me take the intellectual capital that I had produced in my 26 months at the company,” he said. Mr. Carmen took the project to Liberty Risk Services last September. CBI Health continues to be one of the providers of the rehabilitation services to Liberty’s clients.

The services of Mr. Carmen’s virtual company became available to Liberty Risk Services as of January 1 and Mr. Carmen is now marketing to corporate Canada.

Liberty Risk Services’ expertise lies in the area of occupational safety, loss prevention, and risk management consulting. Adding other services required by industry in the area of health and disability management will enable Liberty to provide the “full spectrum” of services from prevention to return to work strategies which will provide a measured cost saving for their clients. Products and services that are “best-in-class”.

As this concept and the company develops, growth and expansion will be recognized by the addition of more professional staff and targeted acquisitions. “We are planning on this to occur within the next 12 to 18 months. We are presently meeting with potential “marquee” clients, top Financial Post companies, Fortune-100 and 500 companies, all of which are recognized leaders who want to ‘do the right thing’ for their employees while realizing bottom-line savings. But no company is too large or too small.”

In the future, Mr. Carmen sees the “virtual health management model” being introduced to other countries serviced by Liberty.

Account Management Branch

Health

Promotion/

Prevention

Case

Management

Occupational

Medicine

Needs

Analysis

Medical

Assessment

& File Review

Rehabilitation

Services