From Dollars to Outcomes: A Framework for Proving Benefit Value

Panel Discussion

From Dollars to Outcomes: A Framework for Proving Benefit Value
A Panel for Benefits Consultants, Total Rewards Leaders, and HR Executives

Dori Steinberg, PhD
Principal Health Economics and Outcomes Researcher

Modern Health

Deb Smolensky, CWP
National Practice Leader, Vitality and Wellbeing Solutions

NFP

Mark Bukowski
Senior Director, NA Health & Benefits Consulting
WTW

Peter Rutigliano, PhD
Behavioral Health Practice Lead
Mercer

Thursday, August 28, 2025
9am PST | 11am CST | 12pm EST

As health care costs continue to rise and organizations face growing pressure to make smart, defensible benefits decisions, proving the value of those investments has never been more critical.

Whether advising clients or managing benefits internally, you're expected to go beyond good intentions—and make a clear, credible case for impact.

Join us for an exclusive conversation moderated by Dori Steinberg, PhD (Modern Health), featuring expert consultants Deb Smolensky, CWP (NFP), Mark Bukowski (WTW), and Peter Rutigliano, PhD (Mercer).

Together, they’ll discuss how they approach measuring and communicating the value of health and mental health benefits—drawing on frameworks like the AMA’s Return on Health and real-world experience across industries and client types.

We’ll explore how consultants and employers alike are balancing traditional ROI measures with broader value drivers—like access, engagement, retention, and employee experience—and how VOI (Value on Investment) continues to provide a durable, strategic lens for navigating benefit decisions.

Whether you advise clients on benefit strategy or champion programs within your own organization, you’ll walk away with practical insights for shaping value conversations, tailoring your message to different stakeholders, and strengthening your case even when hard ROI is difficult to isolate.

What You’ll Learn:

Value Frameworks: How consultants are applying and communicating VOI in today’s environment
Actionable Strategies: Ways to tailor benefit value messaging for different decision-makers (e.g., CFO, CHRO)
Credibility in Practice: How to blend data, outcomes, and lived experiences into a compelling value story

Why Attend:

Learn how to more confidently communicate the strategic value of employee benefits
Hear directly from consultants on how they navigate today’s ROI/VOI pressures
Earn .75 HR (General) recertification credit hour toward aPHR™, aPHRi™, PHR®, PHRca®, SPHR®, GPHR®, PHRi™, and SPHRi™ recertification

About the Speakers:

Dr. Dori Steinberg

Dr. Dori Steinberg is a public health researcher who specializes in data storytelling to show the value of mental health solutions. With nearly two decades of experience working in digital health research, she was previously VP of Research at Equip Health and Director of the Duke University Digital Health Science Center. Dr. Steinberg earned her M.S. in Public Health from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in Public Health/Nutrition from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Deb Smolensky, CWP

Deb is a #1 best-selling author, speaker, and award-winning thought leader in the area of human performance at work. She serves as NFP’s Global Well-being and Engagement Practice Leader and for the past 25 years has worked with hundreds of employers, including Fortune 500 companies, developing strategies, programs and practices that empower employees and executives to lead healthy, productive lives at work through innovative, meaningful, and highly engaging solutions.

Mark Bukowski

Mark Bukowski is a senior consultant in Willis Towers Watson’s Pittsburgh office. He is responsible for helping clients address a variety of strategic, financial and operational issues that will maximize the value of their global behavioral health and wellbeing programs.

With over 40 years of expertise in the health care industry, Mark has helped organizations of all sizes design innovative solutions to the behavioral health and wellbeing challenges they face. He assists organizations tailor their health programs through assessment of current and future cost drivers, planning multiyear strategies, alignment with total rewards initiatives, selection of best-in-class vendors and implementation and evaluation of integrated programs.

Prior to joining Willis Towers Watson, Mark spent six years at another global consulting firm leading their health and productivity practice and designing customer-specific health and wellness solutions encompassing condition management, wellness, behavioral health, engagement and communications on both a U.S. and global basis.

He led two behavioral health organizations’ quality improvement programs, client management initiatives, providing expert testimony on mental health parity legislation, initiating innovative care management improvements, delivering expert knowledge to state governments and non-profit organizations on program design and information systems and developing depression disease management programs.

Peter Rutigliano, PhD

Peter began consulting in the early 1990s which grew to a position at Mercer in 2007 (through the acquisition of Sirota). Peter currently leads the US Behavioral Health Practice at Mercer which supports organizations in managing and measuring the mental health needs of their employees. Client work involves mental health strategy, EAP management, skill building and prevention, mental health measurement and treatment, substance abuse access and treatment, as well as recovery and return to work. Additionally, Peter supports clients with sustainability efforts for Eastern US and Canada. His clients include many fortune 1000 companies around the world.

Before joining Mercer, Peter was an independent consultant for 15 years which also included a professorship at Ramapo College, Quinnipiac University and New York University. In his early years, Peter held positions at Johns Hopkins Medical Center, Hahnemann University Hospital, and Harvard Medical School/Brockton VA Medical Center as well as a number of other healthcare companies conducting therapy and clinical research.

Peter maintains an active research program with over 150 publications and scholarly presentations including a consistent representation at the SIOP annual conference. Peter’s major areas of focus is inclusion in the workspace with a particular concentration investigating the experiences of people with disabilities.

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