Employee Benefits & Self-Funding
Self-funding is the practice The Howard Group knows most deeply. We recruit the senior sales, account management, underwriting, and operational talent across the ecosystem that delivers employee benefits to mid-market and large employers — the companies that underwrite the risk, administer the claims, manage the pharmacy spend, build the networks, and contain the cost of the modern self-funded plan.
It’s a fragmented, relationship-driven category. Hiring well here means understanding not just what each company does, but how the firms in the ecosystem actually work with one another — where the leverage sits and what kind of professional thrives in each corner of it. We know the sales dynamics, the buyer’s decision process, and the broker and consultant relationships that drive distribution, because we’ve worked inside this market for years.
Companies we serve:
- TPAs
- MGUs
- Stop-Loss Carriers
- Cost Containment
- Reference-Based Pricing
- PBMs
- Captives
- Analytics
Roles we place:
Chief Revenue Officer, Vice President and Regional Vice President of Sales, account management at every level, stop-loss underwriting, operational management, and the senior individual contributors that firms competing on relationship strength depend on.
What hiring executives get:
A search partner fluent in the way this market actually works — the distribution dynamics, the buyer’s decision process, and the operating environments that produce real growth. Paired with our AI-enhanced process, that fluency reaches candidates other firms never surface — and the result is people who do more than interview well. They produce results.
Property & Casualty Insurance
Property and casualty has been a Howard Group practice for decades. We recruit the producers, underwriters, claims professionals, and operating leaders for the companies that underwrite, distribute, administer, and reinsure P&C risk — the carriers, brokerages, agencies, MGAs, and programs that move the U.S. property and casualty market.
P&C is a relationship-driven business, and recruiting in it is no different. Hiring well means understanding not just what each company does, but how the companies in the distribution and risk-bearing chain actually work with one another — where the leverage points are, where the friction sits, and what kind of professional thrives in each part of it. We know the distribution dynamics, the buyer’s decision process, and the market conditions that shape each search, because we’ve worked inside this market for years.
Companies we serve:
- Carriers
- Wholesale Brokers
- Retail Agencies
- MGAs
- Program Administrators
- TPAs
- Reinsurance Organizations
Roles we place:
Producers, account executives, account managers, underwriters across specialty and niche lines, claims professionals, brokers, program managers, and leaders in operations, analytics, and the C-suite — from senior individual contributors to the presidents of growing platforms.
What hiring executives get:
A search partner who knows how this market actually works — the distribution chain, the buyer’s decision process, and the conditions shaping each search. Paired with our AI-enhanced process, that knowledge reaches candidates other firms never surface — and the result is people who do more than interview well. They produce results.
Provider & Payer Services & Technology
This practice covers two connected markets, divided by who buys. On one side are the companies selling technology and services into healthcare providers — health systems, physician practices, ACOs, IDNs, and post-acute organizations. On the other are the companies and services sold into payers and health plans. We recruit the senior sales, account management, and operating leaders across both.
What ties them together is a sophisticated, relationship-driven buyer and a long, complex sale. Hiring well here means understanding how a solution actually lands inside a provider organization or a health plan — where the buyer’s pain sits, who really decides, and what kind of professional can carry a complex sale to a demanding, technical buyer. We know those buyers and those sales dynamics, because we’ve worked inside these markets for years.
Companies we serve — provider-facing:
- Revenue Cycle Management
- EHR & Clinical Workflow
- Telehealth & Remote Patient Monitoring
- Care Coordination & Patient Engagement
- Cybersecurity
- Healthcare AI & Analytics
- Value-Based Care
- Healthcare Supply Chain
Companies we serve — payer-facing:
- Health Plan Services
- Payer Services
- Care Management
- Analytics
Roles we place:
Vice President and Regional Vice President of Sales, client relations and account management, operations, marketing, and the senior individual contributors that companies competing on substantive relationships depend on.
What hiring executives get:
A search partner who knows the category at substance — the buyer’s decision process inside provider organizations and health plans, the sales motion at every company stage, and the operating environments that produce real growth. Paired with our AI-enhanced process, that knowledge reaches candidates other firms never surface — and the result is people who do more than interview well. They produce results.
Digital Health
Digital health is one of the fastest-moving markets we recruit in, and it reaches the employer through the channel we know best. We place the senior sales, account management, and operating leaders for the point-solution and virtual-care companies that sell direct to employers, consultants, and brokers, as well as TPAs and health plans that bring them to market.
It’s a crowded, fast-changing category where the product is only half the sale — the other half is the channel. Hiring well here means understanding how a solution actually reaches a self-funded employer: the broker and consultant relationships that gate access, the buyer’s decision process, and what kind of professional can create sales in a market this noisy. We know that channel from thirty years inside self-funding, because it’s the same one that distributes the benefits we’ve recruited around all along.
Companies we serve:
- Virtual & Primary Care
- Mental & Behavioral Health
- Musculoskeletal (MSK)
- Cardiometabolic & Diabetes
- Weight Management
- Women’s & Family Health
- Care Navigation
- Caregiving
- Chronic Condition Management
Roles we place:
Chief Revenue Officer, Vice President and Regional Vice President of Sales, channel and partnership leaders who own the broker and consultant relationships, account management at every level, and the senior individual contributors that companies competing on distribution depend on.
What hiring executives get:
A search partner who knows how digital health actually gets sold — the broker and consultant channel, the self-funded employer buyer, and the operating environments that produce real growth. Paired with our AI-enhanced process, that knowledge reaches candidates other firms never surface — and the result is people who do more than interview well. They produce results.
