I Believed in Meridio Before I Worked Here. Here's Why Partners Do Too.

Devin Barkley is Meridio’s Channel Sales Manager, leading partner strategy across brokers, payroll providers, associations, and HR technology companies. He brings extensive experience across benefits, retirement services, and HR and payroll technology.

Before I worked at Meridio, I was rooting for it from the outside. I’d spent years in the health insurance industry (broker side, payroll side, retirement side) watching smaller, growing companies get squeezed by an industry that wasn't built for them. When I first came across Meridio, it felt like someone had finally built the thing this space was missing. That's why I said yes when the opportunity came to lead Meridio’s partner channel.

The part of this health insurance industry nobody talks about

If you've spent any time around employee benefits, you know the standard playbook wasn't built with the small business market in mind. It was built for the big guys: companies with a dedicated HR team, a six-figure benefits budget, and time for a dozen carrier presentations.

Under-100-employee companies don't have that luxury. The person handling benefits is usually also handling payroll, recruiting, and half a dozen other things. They don't have the bandwidth to become insurance experts, and they shouldn't have to. That's the gap Meridio exists to close, and it's why our partners come to us in the first place.

Meridio is a health benefits partner built specifically for smaller and growing companies. It offers one place for plan strategy, enrollment, and the day-to-day support that usually falls through the cracks, so no one on your client's team has to become an insurance expert overnight.

Why partners turn to Meridio

Our partners come in many forms: brokers, solution providers such as payroll companies, HR and benefits platforms, and associations. What they share is a client base full of these same growing, yet under-served companies—one’s that have been hearing "your renewal is up 35 percent" way too often lately.

That's usually the moment partners come looking for us. Not because they've stopped doing their job, but because there's a piece of it they can't do alone.

Here's the thing: employers don't actually want more products. What they need is someone to run the whole job of benefits, from strategy and funding to enrollment, compliance, employee support, and cost management. That's the piece Meridio brings: the health foundation (medical, dental, vision) and the day-to-day execution and support behind it (enrollment, claims advocacy, compliance, billing, payroll coordination). Each renewal, we keep tuning it, watching utilization and plan fit so it gets better instead of just more expensive.

For a partner, that means bringing customers a real answer to rising costs, not just another quote.

The ways we partner (and why it's not one-size-fits-all)

Not every partner needs the same thing from us, so we don't offer just one kind of relationship.

Referral partnerships are the lighter-touch option. They're a strong fit for associations who want to add a real, useful benefit to their membership without taking on the complexity themselves. Also ideal for consultants and businesses serving smaller and fast-growing companies, along with solution providers who are considering if health benefits make sense as part of their offering before going deeper.

Strategic partnerships go further. This is where we sit down with brokers who have clients too small to service well on their own, usually under 100 employees, and become an extension of their team rather than a threat to the account. It's also where we work with payroll and HR technology companies and other organizations that want to offer benefits as part of their solution. This gives their customers added value through a natural extension of what they already provide.

These relationships come with more at stake: joint go-to-market plans, shared brand visibility, and, in return, a real growth lever instead of a line item. One HR software partner recently saw what that looks like in practice: a 58-employee client's monthly health plan renewal dropped from $65,877 to $44,047, a 33% reduction, without moving to a smaller network. That's the kind of outcome a strategic partnership is built to produce.

What every partner gets, no matter the model

Strip away the tier, and the constant is the same across every Meridio partnership: focus, support, and follow-through.

Employers get someone who is a trusted partner to help guide and manage the complexities of benefits, not just another product to manage. Employees get real people to call when they have questions or need help. And partners get to hand off the parts of the relationship they don't have the bandwidth for, without losing the trust they've built.

“We wanted our members to feel confident when offering their teams health insurance and Meridio offered just the right touch of real-world support and guidance,”

— Caitlin B., Loyalty Program Manager with Resound, a Meridio partner

Let's build something together

If you're serving smaller or growing companies and looking for a way to bring them more than another product comparison, we'd like to talk.

I believed in what Meridio could do before I ever worked here. I still do, even more now. If you’re interested in exploring a partnership with Meridio, we encourage you to contact us today!