Episodes

"I doubled my profit when I lost 70% of my customers, which is insane." - Brad Hart My guest this week, Brad Hart, owner of Forest Park Pharmacy, came on the show to discuss how he moved his pharmacy from struggling to survive in a broken, insurance-based reimbursement model to thriving as an all-cash, "cost-plus" business. Brad popped on my radar because of his very popular and informative Instagram profile, where he shows how everyday Americans are getting fleeced by PBMs. We break down the ...

"Nomi actually stands for 'no middleman'. Take out that invented complexity... Price comes way down, becomes more simple to administer, and there's plenty of dollars to go around for providers now making more money." - Josh Walker My guest this week, Josh Walker, Founder & COO of Nomi Health, is on a mission to rebuild healthcare by tackling its "invented complexity." He joined me on the show to explain why creating a direct relationship between the buyers and providers of care is the key to a ...

“Does your consultant understand these kind of strategies and mechanisms are available in the market and do they know how to implement them and make them work?" - Riley DearingRiley Dearing of Hotchkiss Insurance returns to the show this week, and he’s brought with him Blake Allison, CEO of Employers Health Network (EHN) to talk all about high-performance health networks and the massive opportunity they represent.Ever wonder how high-performance health networks actually work? We broke down the r...

If you'd like your question answered on next month's episode, call/text 469-213-6381 and leave us a voicemail/text.Each month on Last Month In Healthcare, producer Nathaniel joins me to discuss the previous month's podcasts, headlines, and listener-submitted questions.This episode covers healthcare news from June to mid-July 2025.And we play a new game called the "Which Has Less Ingredients?", which is exactly like what the title suggests.Chapters: 0:00 - Intro0:22 - A proposal to ban drug ads2:...

“That race car you got, that you studied all the components and now you're just tweaking horsepower and how much can you get out of it? That's what this feels like. You are really optimizing the horsepower of this engine, your employee benefit plan, and everybody likes it.” - Bently Durant This week, I was joined by an all-star duo: Bently Durant, the COO of Classic Chevrolet, which is the #1 Chevy dealer in the world, and his benefits advisor, Riley Dearing of Hotchkiss Insurance. Together, w...

"If employers do not think that they are in the healthcare business, they are sadly mistaken. Every employer is in the healthcare business whether they want to or not." - Stephanie Koch I’m super excited about this week’s episode: the Empowering Employers live panel show that we recorded in front of a live audience on June 18th. I was joined on-stage by an all-star group of guests: Rachel Strauss, Kimberly Carleson, Kristen Rivers, and Stephanie Koch. Together, we discussed some of the biggest...

"There is no such thing as a health or medical problem for which we are not your partner." - David Silverstein The U.S. healthcare system is the third-largest economy on the planet, which makes expecting patients to navigate all of its complexities pretty unrealistic. This week’s guest, David Silverstein, is aiming to make healthcare simpler for the end user, steering them when appropriate to the best care and becoming their first point of contact with the healthcare system. David explains why...

“As a broker, our job is counting cards against the system. Because everything catches up 5-10 years later. Every other broker, every other consultant gets in like, oh, that's a great idea. We're always trying to find the next little thing, and then the system eventually shuts it down because it messes with somebody's money." - Taylor Orton What does it mean to be on the bleeding edge of employee benefits? My next guest, Taylor Orton, CEBS, of Cottingham & Butler, frames the work of a top consu...

“There's this ability to impact people directly through the employer in a very cost effective way, giving everyone the chance to improve their health. The more employers that we can impact, the more people we're going to impact." - Erica Armstrong I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Erica Armstrong, MD, IFMCP, the founder of Root Functional Medicine, who is on a mission to use functional medicine to find and treat the root cause of our health issues. After first connecting with Erica o...

If you'd like your question answered on next month's episode, call/text 469-213-6381 and leave us a voicemail/text. Each month on Last Month In Healthcare, producer Nathaniel joins me to discuss the previous month's podcasts, headlines, and listener-submitted questions. This month, we were joined in studio by Shawn Ferguson from Acrisure! This episode covers healthcare news from May 2025, including: - Trump's 'most favored nation' executive order - AI in the FDA - FDA's plan to review chemi...

"I want to be in our own category." - Rob Gelb I recently joined Rob Gelb, CEO of Vālenz, which is a sponsor of this show, at the Vālenz office in Philadelphia to discuss the story of the company, how it operates in the market currently, and it’s future, which includes the recently announced Vālenz One. Rob describes VālenzONE as a “health plan optimizer”, and we discussed what that means and what it looks like to build a new way for employers to manage their healthcare. We also discussed the ...

“We show…very similar weight loss outcomes to GLP1 in a similar timeframe at a fraction of the cost, but sustainable through behavior change." - Colin Rogers Colin Rogers, VP at Signos, joined me for episode 200! On this special episode, we talked about something I’m very passionate and vocal about: weight loss for everybody. Signos combines continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), our phones, and AI to track longitudinal data and help educate and prompt members to make better health decisions. If...

“You know, Marshall was known in the healthcare space, but there's 100 million Americans who don't know anything about the healthcare space. And those are the people that we're really trying to serve." - Sonja Allen Sonja Allen is the Managing Director of the Marshall Allen Project and the Allen Health Academy, and as many of you know, she was also married to our dear friend, the late Marshall Allen. Sonja joined me to discuss how she’s continuing Marshall’s mission of helping Americans fight ...

“That's the great thing about upfront, all inclusive, transparent specialty care is you eliminate all of that, right? You purchase the service, you never see another bill from it again. You're done." - Dean Jargo Dean Jargo, CEO of Fair Market Health, joined me this week to share why US healthcare desperately needs to be a fair market. We talked about what that means and why it requires us to construct a new healthcare ecosystem, how it enables patients to actually receive better care at a lo...

“Some of the most expensive real estate healthcare real estate. And so by pulling that out of our business model, it allows us to bring care in a very convenient way directly into the homes of our patients." - Jory Zunich This episode combines two topics we speak about frequently on Self-Funded: making healthcare more affordable, and improving access to care for employees. Jory Zunich of Nice Healthcare joined me to explain how Nice is able to provide in-home healthcare affordably, and how the...

“I want other people to know that, like, there's nothing wrong with you. If you have mental health issues, there's help for you and there's life on the other side." - Sims Tillirson This is the second part of my conversation with Sims Tillirson, the first of which released this Tuesday. In this episode, we focused on Sims’ openness about his mental health issues on LinkedIn, his struggle to get off of antidepressants, and destigmatizing conversations about mental health, especially among men. ...

“If you've shied away from showing who you are because you fear that you'll lose sales: people that would not like the authentic version of you are not going to be good customers of you anyway. Put yourself out there, disqualify the people that don't like the real you, and create a bunch of raving fans for yourself." - Sims Tillirson I would honestly be surprised if you listen to this show and haven’t heard of Sims Tillirson; he has one of the best social media presences of anyone in the benef...

If you'd like your question answered on next month's episode, call/text 469-213-6381 and leave us a voicemail/text. This month, we were joined by Rob Gelb in his office in Philadelphia! Welcome to Last Month In Healthcare! Each month, producer Nathaniel joins me to discuss the previous month's podcasts, headlines, and listener-submitted questions. This episode covers healthcare news from April 2025, including: - RFK banning artificial food dyes - Phasing out animal testing - The amount of ...

"Automating those healthy habits is essential." - Chris Burgess Chris Burgess is the creator of the app Affili-Fit, which creates custom workout and diet plans for its users. We talked about what led him to create this app, how it sets itself apart in that market, and how he’s working with employers to use the app for employee wellness programs. Chris never intended to start an app, and he shares what the experience has been like from initial idea, to taking on investment, and now expanding in...

“Each acquisition has its own fingerprints. You kind of think, oh, it's an acquisition. No, it's all different.” - Diane Dooley Diane Dooley, a CHRO and consultant, joined me this week to discuss what HR’s role in mergers & acquisitions is, and why HR is so key to that process. We talked about doing the right due diligence before an acquisition, how to merge cultures, and how to navigate the different reactions that employees inevitably have. Diane and I also dove into the psychology of both t...

"If you're an employer, if someone comes up and knocks on your door, take a second, breathe, and listen to what they have to say." - Christopher Cordon Christopher Cordon joined me this week to talk about something that may initially seem contradictory to what I typically preach: level-funding. Chris shares why worksite benefits sales for employers with under 50 employees led him to level-funding as a solution, and why he’s so passionate about serving that under-served market. Chris has a back...

"If you know how a PBM gets paid, that's the best transparency you can ask for.” - Julie Wasserman Julie Wasserman, VP of Sales for VerusRx, joined me this week to discuss the PBM industry in 2025. If you’re a PBM, how do you gain trust with employers and build plans that work for them? We talk about what every PBM should be doing for their employers, what true transparency looks like, how to reach employees directly through software, and how GLP1s are changing the industry. If you’re a PBM or...

If you'd like your question answered on next month's episode, call/text 469-213-6381 and leave us a voicemail/text. Last Month In Healthcare is officially a video podcast! Each month, producer Nathaniel joins me to discuss the previous month's podcasts, headlines, and listener-submitted questions. This episode covers healthcare news from March 2025, including: - Marty Makary getting confirmed to lead the FDA - The HHS restructuring, including 10,000 job cuts - Texas's response to the MAHA c...

"Insurance is about health and wealth. It protects your health, it should protect your wealth." - Kylie Everhart Kylie Everhart, Chief Growth Officer at Oxbridge Health, joined me to discuss episode benefit plans and how they empower consumers to make better healthcare choices. Episode benefit plans bundle pricing for the entirety of an “episode of care” - for example, if you need a knee surgery, an episode benefit plan would figure out the cost of everything involved in that procedure from sev...