Episodes

Paul Carter is the Chairman/CFO of HMA. Hawaii Mainland Administrators (HMA) is a full service TPA that seeks to be one of the premier managed healthcare organizations in the country through technology and information-based managed care. We covered a ton of info in an hour, and this episode will be especially for my self-funded gurus out there. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spencer-harlan-smith/support

The Metaverse for Business with John Beaman of the Elevare Club. In this episode we cover the Elevare Club, the Metaverse, digital transformation, digital real estate, the blockchain, NFT's and more! John not only has a undergraduate degree and an MBA, but he is also certified in something called "Digital Transformation". What that means is he can help small business owners digitize their business, moving from the analog world of paper documents and wet signatures, into the digital world of we...

Your Network is Your Net Worth - Scott Smith - TRUE Network Advisors. I took the podcast on the road to Guntersville, Alabama, home of Scott Smith and his company - TRUE Network Advisors. TRUE is a coalition of employee benefits brokers, seeking to enhance their network and collaborate with other strategic benefits advisors to grow their practices. TRUE is unique in that they have created an extraordinary engaging member experience, with both virtual and in-person events that are all the buzz in...

NavMD is a Data Analytics Platform for Brokers in the Employee Benefits space. Glenn Fisher is the Managing Partner of NavMD and acquired the company back in 2018. He is also one of the flat out coolest guys I know! Glenn is also a serial entrepreneur, having built businesses in the waste management space, FinTech, and now in Data Analytics at NavMD. The focus of episode 62 is the power of having a data analytics platform for your employers. If you want to know what is driving your claims cost...

Can you warranty spine surgery? Jamie Rindler, CEO of Marvel Group believes you can, and that is exactly what his company does! Marvel Group offers a Surgical Outcome Warranty for Spine patients. The warranty itself is actually supported by the medical device manufacturer, which augments their own product warranty. In exchange, the device providers get data in return that helps them improve their products, and understand what is, and is not, working. The revolutionary part is that the benefit of...

Modernizing Benefits Consulting at Genesys Health, with Chief Strategy Officer Matt Monahan. Genesys puts a large emphasis on Population Health Management in their practice, helping members navigate their healthcare journey with actionable data, guidance, and support. Matt has an extensive background from the carrier world with Aetna, having spent a 12 year period as a large group rep. He started at GE/Genworth as a group rep as well, after a short period of time playing semi-pro rugby. Matt ...

What is a High Performance Healthcare Network, and how does it improve the quality of care, while delivering lower costs? Blake is a native Texan, with a history of working on the "supply-side" of healthcare within hospital systems. This gives him a unique perspective on the problem of controlling the costs of healthcare delivery. Blake spent time in the Navy, with his inspiration to enlist coming as a result of 9/11. EHN's purpose is to "Provide quality health benefits for your employees whi...

Emergency Medical Transport 101. Everything you need to know about Emergency Medical Transportation, and how MASA MTS is helping control the insanely high cost of ground, and air transportation. Will Winters is Vice President, Broker and Strategic Partnership Sales, and is also an ex-Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). He learned a lot on the job as an EMT, was exposed to some very traumatic events, and ultimately decided he was better suited outside of the system selling a solution to employe...

How CBD Works with the CEO of CORGANICS, Chad Collins. Have you ever wondered about CBD? What is it? How does it work? Is it actually real, or placebo? Then this is the episode for you! I sat down with Chad for Episode 57 to discuss his Company called CORGANICS, and how they are "bridging the gap between healthcare professionals and their patients when it comes to understanding and treating the endocannabinoid system." Chad referenced a 2019 Gallup poll, that showed 1 in 5 Americans was taking s...

The Modern TPA - Tech when you need it, people when you don't. In episode 56 of Self-Funded with Spencer, I sit down with the CEO of HealthSmart, Craig Julien. Craig is a fascinating person, being an avid Triathlete, Mountain Climber, and a World Record Skydiver, while also running a very successful Third Party Administrator. Throughout his career, Craig has always been willing to raise his hand to take on more responsibility, or a new opportunity, even moving to India for a few years to run a...

There are people that have dreams. There are people that execute dreams that other people have. Few people get to do both. Those people are entrepreneurs. That’s the core message that Seth Denson, Head of Benefits for Acrisure, delivered on Episode 55 of the “Self-Funded with Spencer” podcast. In this episode we discussed his successful journey as an entrepreneur, as well as his second career as a business analyst for some of the largest news outlets in America. I’m grateful to call Seth a frien...

Jared Pope is the Founder of Work Shield, and a self-described "recovering attorney" to discuss the origins of his company and the solution they provide. Recognizing the gross inefficiencies in the way companies currently handle internal misconduct, Jared recognized an opportunity to deliver a better dispute resolution service, that was unbiased, faster, and easier to implement than most "Check-the-box" options on the market today. Work Shield is on a mission to change the way organizations and ...

The Power of SimplePay Health, a discussion with Wally Gomaa, Co-Founder. Wally has an extensive track record of success in the healthcare and employee benefits industries, and his latest venture - SimplePay - is an exciting new solution to help bring "Price Certainty" to the health insurance world. SimplePay Health - Where happy and health plan live together. https://www.simplepayhealth.com/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spencer-harlan-smith/support

John shares his own experience with Burnout at 41, which nearly cost him his life, and we discuss the challenges that men have in discussing their mental health with others, even with the typical EAP offerings most employers provide their employees today. It is even harder for people like John, who had been a pastor at a church for his whole career up that point, and who was perceived as a community leader, to express feelings of fear, weakness, emotional pain, etc. because of concerns of how hi...

Jake Thompson started Compete Every Day as an inspirational apparel company, and over the course of a decade, has grown it into a vehicle for performance coaching, business consulting, and traveling the country to do public speaking. The mindset of getting 1% better every day, while viewed on a micro scale may not seem much, but the aggregate effect over time on your life will have a massive impact. Whether it is your health, your job, your relationships, focusing on the little things you can do...

Chas Fields is Senior Partner at UKG - Ultimate Kronos Group - and is also a fellow podcaster, a public speaker, a change management expert, a volunteer, and a baseball coach. Oh yeah, he's also a really cool dude! This episode covers what Human Capital Management is, how it works, and how technology is enabling companies to better manager their Human Capital. We cover topics like the merger of two giant organizations into an even bigger one, managing people through the pandemic, fatherhood, how...

Insurance Captives & Innovation in Healthcare with David Voorhees, CEO of True Captive Insurance. Insurance captives have been covered quite a bit on my podcast because: 1) They are perceived to be more complex (they're really not) 2) They are an interesting vehicle for smaller employers to successfully transition into being self-funded. David Voorhees sat down with me after the True Captive St Louis Summit, to discuss the motivations for the creation of True Captive Insurance, why they decide...

How Jumbo Employers are Solving Healthcare. This podcast focuses on the Health Transformation Alliance (HTA) - A Co-Op - that is fully owned by about 65 Jumbo employers, whose entire mission is to create superior outcomes for their health plan. Their goals are to save lives, and save dollars. These employer groups need to have about 5,000 lives on their health plan and pay $500k to join, and all own an equal equity stake in the Co-Op. This fee can be paid over time and can come out of your he...

What is it like to work for a TPA? Owen Paradis of JP Farley joins me on the podcast for a discussion on how he got into the insurance world after working as a Corrections Officer. Like most of us, he didn't intend to get into insurance, but has nonetheless found a home here and embraced the learning curve with open arms. Half of the battle is just learning the acronyms, and Owen even said he used my Stop Loss with Spencer videos to help him learn the industry lingo. Owen talks about how much he...

Have you ever wondered how to plan a conference? Tonya Crawford of True Captive Insurance sits down with me to share what it takes to put together a major event. The main thing she said is that planning a conference starts with having great partners. Not just from a sponsorship perspective, but to provide support, as well as help market the event. It typically would take 2-3 months to plan an event, but Tonya and True Captive were able to pull off a great event in St Louis within 6 weeks. Th...

Everything you need to know about Insurance Captives, featuring Stephani Manning of Innovative Captive Strategies. We discuss the Layers of Captive, how those layers interact, and which parties are responsible for each of the three layers of the captive. Stephani is a teacher by nature, and it really comes across in how simply she explains how captives work. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spencer-harlan-smith/support

Have you ever wondered what it is like to MC (host) a big conference? In this episode of "Self-Funded with Spencer" on the road in St Louis at the True Captive Symposium, I discussed this topic with the host of the event - Kiera Hanselman. Kiera started to MC events during the pandemic at virtual conferences, and did such a good job that she kept getting asked to do it again. She talks about how her theater training helped her prepare to be on stage, but it really comes down to understanding t...

How Fasting Can Change Your Life. What is Fasting? What are the benefits of Fasting? How does a beginner get started Fasting? What is the difference in Fasting and Intermittent Fasting? What is Autophagy? What is a Water Fast? What is a Fasting Mimicking Diet?. Mark Testa is an expert at Fasting, as well as an expert in Stem Cells. Mark has personally gone through multiple 5-day fasts, and is a regular intermittent faster like myself. Personally, Intermittent Fasting has helped stabilize my ener...

The "PBM Princess" joins me again on Self-Funded with Spencer on the road, this time in St. Louis at the most recent True Captive Summit, held at Busch Stadium. In this mini-episode, Rachel highlights the convoluted supply chain in Pharmacy Benefit Management. So many different entities have a hand in the Rx supply chain, from payers, wholesalers, contracts with PBM's, marketing firms, insurance companies, etc, which makes it very difficult to uncover why prescription drug trends continue to in...