Episodes

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...

Your own Stem Cells can be extracted from your bone marrow, concentrated, and then later injected into certain areas to potentially eliminate the need for surgery. Many people just refer to it as "stem cells", but bone marrow concentrate which contains stem cells is the most accurate way to describe what Regenexx does. Regenexx can help self-funded employers who have employees which knee injuries, shoulder injuries, back injuries etc. as a possible intermediate step before the last hope is surge...

What is it like to be a Serial Entrepreneur? When you hear Mark's story it becomes clear that it takes someone with a combination of drive, intelligence, will, luck, faith, and a sense of humor! Mark Combs started his career in financial planning, moved into the employee benefits broker world, helped grow an agency into a successful acquisition, and after experiencing nothing but success in his work life thus far, that is when he said, "everything STOPPED working"! He talks about having to re-in...

Private Equity Explained What is it? How does it work? How do you get a job in private equity? When do you use equity vs debt? What types of firms should go public rather than stay private? What are the stages of growth that impact capital requirements? All of these questions and more are answered in Episode 44 of "Self-Funded with Spencer", featuring Kyle Coots, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Miramar Equity Partners. Kyle and I have known each other for almost 30 years, and we reconnected ...

Life Rewards Effort. Randy & I discussed Leadership, Faith, Family, Personal Growth, Managing Career Success, Being a Star Hurdler in High School, Moving from CA to TX, Advice for Young Salespeople, and the roles both of our Wives have played in making us the men we are today. From a random meeting at a children's play-place called "Cheeky Monkey" two years ago during the pandemic, to having Randy sit down this week for the podcast, it has been an interesting two years for both of us. --- Supp...

“Never Pay the First Bill” This is the title of Marshall Allen’s extraordinary book, which empowers working Americans to fight back against unfair medical billing practices and WIN. Marshall came on Self-Funded with Spencer to discuss: ✍️ His investigative journalism career 📚 His Substack newsletter 📽 His upcoming video series 👨‍⚖️ How to win in small claims court 🏥 His son’s recent ER visit ⛪️ His faith and time in ministry 🏛 His new job in the federal gov 📕 and of course, the book! “Never Pay ...

Allergy season, muscle cars, space shuttle launches...and Dependent Eligibility Audits? Keith Bird, VP of Sales for AmWINS came on the Self-Funded with Spencer Podcast to discuss the fiduciary responsibility that Self-Funded Employers have to ensure the dependents enrolled on their health plan are eligible to be there. Unless you have a good way of validating the eligibility of enrollees manually (you probably don't) then you likely have dependents on your plan today that are not supposed to b...