Executive Lunch & Learn: Helping Employers Tackle Leave & Absence and Rising Health Plan Costs

A Brown & Brown Event

EARN 2.0 SHRM & HRCI CREDITS

Moving From Cost Shifting to Sustainable Cost Management by Rethinking Your Healthcare Spending

  • The “General Motors” Moment for Employers: Why healthcare costs are projected to reach 9% of revenue by 2031 and how this creates an existential crisis for American businesses similar to the 2008 auto industry collapse
  • The Provider Quality-Cost Paradox: An examination of why higher medical costs do not equal higher quality. We look at the data proving that a patient’s choice of doctor is the single biggest driver of both clinical outcomes and total spend
  • The Failure of Traditional Cost Shifting: Why typical employer strategies like increasing deductibles and narrowing networks often fail to lower costs and how a “partnership” model with employees provides a more sustainable path
  • Case Studies in Plan Design: A look at real-world results from self-funded employers who paired Garner’s transparency tools with first-dollar coverage incentives to reduce ER visits, hospitalizations, and overall plan spend

Elevating the Employee Experience in Leave & Absence

  • Why leave and absence programs have become increasingly complex, even for situations that appear simple on the surface
  • How growing compliance requirements, inconsistent vendor experiences and fragmented processes leave employees navigating critical moments with limited support
  • Why leave has become a central component of employee benefits—and how it directly influences workplace culture and trust
  • How organizations can simplify the leave experience, strengthen vendor partnerships and design programs that support both employees and the business

When

Tuesday, May 12th, 2026

11:00 AM – 11:30 AM | Registration, Networking & Lunch
11:30 AM – 1:30 PM | Lunch & Learn Educational Event

Where

Dallas Petroleum Club

1900 N Akard St Suite 1400, Dallas, TX 75201

Kirk Czonstka
Senior Vice President at Garner Health

Kirk Czonstka is a Senior Vice President at Garner Health, where he helps employers and benefits leaders better understand the drivers of healthcare quality, cost, and value within employer-sponsored health plans. His work focuses on educating organizations on how to use data and clinical insights to improve employee health outcomes while managing rising healthcare costs.

Prior to joining Garner, Kirk spent more than 15 years with a global employee benefits consultancy advising employers on health plan design, benefits strategy, and emerging healthcare solutions.

Kirk holds a Bachelor’s degree in Risk Management & Insurance with a concentration in Employee Benefits from Temple University and earned his Group Benefits Associate (GBA) designation from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans.

Melanie Payton
Brown & Brown
AVP, Absence Consulting and Audit Practice

Melanie Payton is an Assistant Vice President at Brown & Brown, Strategic Non-Medical Solutions (SNS), with more than 22 years of experience in the absence and disability space. Melanie is responsible for all aspects of absence management programs for SNS' clients including plan and process assessments, compliance reviews, RFP's, vendor selections, benchmarking, and managing our absence consultants and audit practice.

Melanie's specialty consulting skills within absence, encompassing disability, Family Medical Leave and the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA), include claims service delivery, time off strategy, disability and leave plan assessment and design, and compliance. She has experience in best practice administration designs, comparator benchmarking and vendor management.