Episodes

"If we can remove the cost barrier, folks are going to engage more because it's not standing in the way of going to get the care that they need or even preventive care." - Trey Smith High healthcare deductibles were sold to employers as a way to create better "consumers" of healthcare. My guest this week, Trey Smith of Hub International, argues that they've been a failed experiment that has done more harm than good. Instead of creating smarter shoppers, high deductibles have become a massive ba...

"I can look for something on Amazon and have it shipped to my door tomorrow... so why wouldn't employees want a similar experience with their healthcare?" - Amanda Volner Can artificial intelligence actually make healthcare feel more human? Amanda Volner, AVP of Broker Partnerships at Healthee, joins the show for a deep dive into the real role of AI in the benefits industry. We discuss how artificial intelligence is a powerful tool to augment our abilities, but why uniquely human skills like c...

"Good entrepreneurs fall in love with their solution and their platform, but great entrepreneurs fall in love with the problem." - Matt Scovil Matt Scovil and Nathan Gilchrist of Medify Health, have fallen in love with one of the biggest problems in benefits: nobody wants to engage with them. They joined the show to discuss their journey of building a platform designed to solve the engagement crisis and simplify the healthcare experience for everyone. Matt and Nathan break down their "bottoms-...

"I think the three strongest words that you can use as a leader, as a salesperson, as a client relationship person is I don't know." - Scott Milson My guest this week, 35-year industry veteran and author Scott Milson, joins the show for a deep dive into the mindset required for a long and successful career. We discuss his journey from a self-described "career B student" to a partner at a major firm, and the lessons he learned about loyalty, hard work, and what it truly means to be excellent. S...

"We spend about $528 billion a year fixing the mistakes we make with medicines." - Chris Grilli Fixing healthcare's $528 billion dollar mistake starts with ending the "trial-and-error" prescribing that plagues our system. My guest this week, pharmacist and genomics expert Chris Grilli of RxMapper, joined the show to explain how personalized, DNA-guided medicine is the key to solving this massive problem. Chris breaks down the RxMapper model, explaining how they analyze 36 million data points f...

"There's a big difference for me in living and being alive. There's a difference between breathing and truly experiencing life." - Todd Whitthorne My guest this week Todd Whitthorne joined me for a conversation that goes far beyond the balance sheet to explore the true meaning of well-being. We discuss why a leader's personal health is the foundational, non-negotiable asset for their professional success. Todd breaks down the crucial role leaders play in building trust and creating a "culture ...

"Understanding how an underwriter thinks and how they manage risk allows you to create a solution that actually creates impact and change for the long term." - Bobby Stuart This week on the show, I'm joined by Bobby Stuart, a benefits consultant with Hotchkiss Insurance, for a deep dive into the mindset of a modern, forward-thinking advisor. We discuss his journey into the industry and what it takes to guide employers through the complexities of self-funding. Bobby also broke down his playbook...

"The balance bill came in, it was 37 grand for this member, and we were able to get that thing fully wiped." - Patrick Haig My guest this week, Patrick Haig, Co-Founder of Goodbill, has built a company designed to find errors in medical bills and fix them. From upcoding to time-based discrepancies, these inaccuracies cost health plans and their members a fortune. In this episode, Patrick breaks down the Goodbill model. We discuss how their technology integrates directly with health plans to au...

"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. ...