About The Principal About the Managing Principal Published Articles Ethics Affiliations About the Managing Principal Theodore R. Carlson founded Carlson's Consulting in 1991 to provide clients with objective and unbiased advice on employee benefit plans. His focus is on helping clients achieve their goals and objectives by empowering them with strategies based on his training and extensive experience. Ted teaches Health Care Cost Containment for the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans and has taught Health Care Economics, The design and Administration of Employee Benefit Plans and Financial Management for the non-Financial Executive at the University of Houston. In addition he designed and wrote the e-learning class titled Introduction to Health Care and Group Benefit Plans. He is a Certified Employee Benefit Specialist (CEBS), a Fellow of the International Society of CEBS, served on the CEBS curriculum committee and has been interviewed on TV regarding HMO quality of care issues. He was appointed to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania's advisory board on "Controlling Risk Segmentation Under Employment Based MSAs" and developed the International Foundation's certificate series course titled Health Benefit Plan Basics. Ted served as president of the International Society of CEBS, is a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) and was elected a Fellow of Institute of Management Consultants (IMC-USA) in 2002. He was a national director of the Institute of Management Consultants and served on their executive board. In addition to being a licensed Life, Health and HMO agent, Mr. Carlson is one of only 372 (as of August 31, 2007) in the state of Texas who has satisfied the requirements for the Life and Health Counselor license. Previously, he held various senior management positions ranging from chief operating officer of a third party administration (TPA) / managed care organization (MCO) to marketing and managing employee benefit programs for 200,000 members with Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Additionally, he has designed, implemented and administered benefit plans in private industry. return to contents

Benefits Related Published Articles

The following articles are available for download in the Adobe Acrobat .pdf Format.

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10 Practical Strategies to Reduce Health care Costs; Health plan sponsors face different cost drivers now than they did 10 years ago. Both the health care and insurance industries have fundamentally changed requiring a new focus by benefit managers. By focusing on the cost dynamics within their own plans, plan sponsors have the opportunity to reduce their health care costs. Published by Benefits & Compensation Digest, October 2006, Vol. 43 No 10.

New Benefits ... New Responsibilities: The value of employee benefits in the future will be based on an employee's ability to capitalize on the tax-advantaged programs offered by employers. A change from the past when employees just had to be classified as full time to receive benefits. Published by Employee Benefit News.

Health Care Cost Dynamics Change with Defined Contribution Plans - We have an opportunity to introduce market competition in the health care industry and limit the tremendous transfer of wealth from the employer community. These strategies will contribute to a natural process for attracting the healthiest employees while minimizing employer cost.

Benefit Cost Management in the New Millennium - The new millennium brings challenges to plan managers as costs are going up, COBRA and HIPPA adds cost and complexity while employers expect strategic partnering and a high degree of flexibility. Published in Benefits Quarterly by the International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists.

Becoming a Strategic Business Partner - Historically, compensation and benefits departments have been professional bureaucracies. Their goal: to standardize processes used to compensate and provide benefits to employees. Now the situation has changed. The focus now is on implementing strategies that support corporate goals and objectives where global competitive thinking is required at all levels.

The Process of Automating Employee Benefit Plans - The need to offer benefit programs tailored to individuals, the increasing need for useful and strategic benefit information, and the changing nature of employee benefits have put increased pressure on employers to automate employee benefit plans. Published in Benefits Quarterly by the International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists.

EDI's Hidden Cost for Health & Welfare Benefit Plans - Electronic data interchange (EDI) as it relates to claim processing is the electronic transmission of billing information from hospitals and physicians (providers) to insurance companies and claim administrators (payers). This article quantifies the potential cost of expedited claim payments and its impact on incurred but not reported reserves. Article published in NewsScope by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans.

Lowering Health Care Costs by Changing Our Paradigms - We can lower health care costs by changing our paradigms to focus on wellness instead of illness. Compensation for providers can be used as the driving force to accomplish this goal. Published in Newsbriefs by the International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists.

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Code of Ethics

Carlson's Consulting subscribes to both the Institute of Management Consultants and the Society of Human Resource Managers code of ethics. Both require the highest level of professionalism in the execution of projects.

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Professional affiliations