How a 20,000-Square-Mile Union Fund Solved Its Quality Problem, With Randy Curry

A member needs a knee replaced. The surgeon everyone in town uses is fifteen minutes away; the surgeon with the best outcomes is two hours away and easy to overlook, so the fund absorbs whatever happens next. Randy Curry, Business Manager and Financial Secretary of IBEW Local 191, joins Nancy Ryerson and Lindsay Leeder, SVP of Labor, Union and Trust at Lantern, to unpack what pushed his fund toward a quality-first plan design and what it took to get that decision through a trust. Randy and Lindsay talk through how one bad outcome becomes local news in a small town, why Lantern narrows a referral down to the specific procedure instead of handing over a full list of providers, and why he believes a Taft-Hartley trustee has no room to get this wrong. There's no HR department standing between him and the members who elected him. In this episode, you'll learn: Why a small-town fund went after quality over convenience in its plan design How Lantern narrows a referral down to the top three providers for a given procedure What makes a Taft-Hartley trustee's accountability different from a typical HR department Highlights: (00:00) Meet Randy Curry and Lindsay Leeder (02:06) Think, feel, do: why "feel" won for Randy (05:15) From healthcare worker to electrician to trustee (08:07) What members in a one-hospital town were telling him (09:55) Why quality beats convenience in rural healthcare (13:02) The "telegraph, telephone, telewireman" test for a new benefit (15:35) From specific-procedure vetting to the one-call navigation experience (18:54) The travel benefit, and why 98% of members never need it (20:50) Building trust among fellow IBEW business managers (22:23) Why Taft-Hartley trustees can't hide behind an HR department (29:49) Randy and Lindsay's five-year hopes for healthcare Resources: Nancy Ryerson’s LinkedIn:   / nancyryerson   Lindsay Leeder’s LinkedIn:   / lindsay-leeder-msn-arnp-6a3740146   Randy Curry’s LinkedIn:   / randy-curry-a528261b7   IBEW Local 191’s website: https://www.ibew191.com/