What we do
The second largest line in your budget, run the way you already run everything else.
Indiana units put paving, bond counsel, engineering, and audit out to bid. Employee benefits routinely go a decade without a rigorous market test. Our whole practice is closing that gap.
The engagement
Five steps, in order.
- Step 1
Read the file before anything else
Carrier and administrator agreements, the pharmacy contract, stop loss, the broker service agreement, and every compensation disclosure. The output is a written summary of what the unit actually agreed to, in language a board can follow.
- Step 2
Benchmark against comparable Indiana units
Drawn from Gateway filings, never a carrier's national book. Where the filings will not support a figure, the figure is withheld and the reason is printed next to the gap.
- Step 3
Model the funding question honestly
Fully insured, level funded, or self funded with stop loss. We show the downside case first, because that is the one the unit has to be able to absorb.
- Step 4
Take it to market on enforceable terms
A specification the board can approve, a real bidder list, apples-to-apples scoring, pharmacy priced separately, and a written recommendation suitable for the minutes.
- Step 5
Stay for the boring part
Implementation, enrollment communication in plain language, the compliance calendar, claim escalation, and a quarterly report that arrives whether or not there is news.
Pharmacy
Pharmacy is where the money moves and the paperwork does not.
Prescription trend runs in double digits, and the contract language does the work. How a generic is defined. Whether a rebate is a rebate or an administrative credit. What an audit may examine. Whether the arrangement can be exited without a penalty that makes leaving theoretical.
None of that shows up in a renewal spreadsheet. All of it shows up in the contract.
What a PBM review asks
- 01Who is the pharmacy benefit manager, and does that name appear in a document you hold?
- 02What is the full compensation to every party, including spread and retained rebate?
- 03Do rebates pass through to the plan, and how is that verified?
- 04What audit rights exist, and has anyone ever exercised them?
- 05What are the term, renewal, and exit provisions?
SEA 3 file review
A documentation finding, not a compliance finding.
01
Loyalty and care to the plan sponsor
The unit's interest comes first, and the standard of care is the one a prudent professional would apply.
02
All fees, costs, and commissions fully disclosed
Every dollar of compensation to every party, named and quantified in writing.
03
No self-dealing and no undisclosed conflicts
No arrangement that pays more when the unit is told less.
04
Transparency in all financial and contractual arrangements
Prescription drug benefits expressly included, not carved out.
This is a reading of a public statute and not legal advice. Confirm with counsel.
Compensation
One number, disclosed in writing, before we start.
46 North is fee first. The unit that hires us pays us, in an amount agreed in writing before any work begins. We publish our total compensation once a year as a single all-in number.
Where a commission is unavoidable because of how a carrier is filed, it is credited against the fee. The unit does not pay twice, and nothing in our compensation changes based on which vendor is selected.
No cost, no obligation
A first benchmark, before you hire anyone
Send us your unit type, your salaries line, and your benefits line. We will place you against peer Indiana units and tell you plainly whether there is anything worth looking at. If there is not, we will say so.
Who we serve
Indiana units of government. Only.
Counties
Commissioners, councils, and HR directors carrying several hundred employees and a self-funded plan nobody has stress tested.
Cities and towns
Where the clerk-treasurer is often the entire benefits department and the renewal arrives three weeks before it is due.
Townships
Small headcounts with outsized per-employee exposure and almost no advisory capacity in the room.
School corporations
The largest public employers in most counties, with the most complex bargaining and the least comparable filing data.
Libraries, utilities, and special districts
Small units that buy on the same terms as large ones without the leverage or the internal review.
Honest limits
Not employers we are wrong for
We do not serve private employers and we do not sell individual policies. If a unit is well served where it is, we will say so early rather than run a process for the sake of running one.