Chris Van Buren
Chris is a Senior Relationship Manager and Partner responsible for new business development, account management, and servicing the day-to-day needs of client businesses.
Prior to KMRD, Chris was a founding partner of Embrook Benefits. Based in Willow Grove, PA, Embrook empowered mid-sized organizations throughout Pennsylvania to lower their health care spend while simultaneously improving the administration of benefit plans and other HR headaches. Embrook’s proprietary 4D Process enabled organizations to evaluate if they can take advantage of newer, innovative health care strategies to lower costs while improving benefits. Chris has been in the insurance business since 1994.
At KMRD, Chris combines his passion for creating efficiencies for smaller businesses, with his ability to design comprehensive benefits, HR and compliance solutions. Chris is taking a new approach to healthcare benefits, best summarized as “healthcare supply chain management”. This model allows companies to apply the same effective cost-control practices they leverage in other parts of the organization to their healthcare costs – the process eliminates wasted expenses, redirects dollars to produce a measurable ROI, and optimizes the employee healthcare experience creating a more loyal, productive, and profitable workforce.
Chris spends much of his time with current and prospective clients, while also constantly vetting new benefits offerings, technology vendors and payroll and HR systems. He is a Health Rosetta Charter Certified Advisor, which significantly adds to his ability to execute forward-looking health plans.
Disciplines
- Day to Day Servicing
- Relationship Management
- Benefit Plan Design Strategies and Consultations
- Benefit Plan Funding Analysis
- Benefit Claims Advocacy and Resolution
- Enrollment and Benefit Administration Support
Education
- B.A. in Economics from the University of Richmond
Other Interesting Information
- Away from work, he enjoys coaching his kids’ sports activities and playing tennis and platform tennis.
- Chris has previously served on the Boards of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Society of Human Resources Managers (SHRM) and Huntingdon Valley Country Club.
In the News
- Examining Why Health Care Insurance Matters
- Webinar – Remote Workforce Woes: Solving the Top Challenges Faced by Employers
- Webinar – The Impact of Recent Healthcare Plan Transparency Regulations on Your Healthcare Plans
- Webinar – Lowering Healthcare Insurance Costs While Improving Benefits
- Lehigh Valley Business Daily News – Now is the perfect time to change your health plan
- Focus On Your PEPY Instead of Year-to-Year Change Percentages
- 2021 Health Care Trends
- Medical Plan Spend Benchmarks; Is Your Medical Plan Competitively Priced?
- KMRD Partners Acquires Embrook Benefits; Combines Strong Service Cultures And Expands KMRD’s Human Capital Solutions Group