Episodes

“Life is short. In the meantime, your health is, at the end of the day, your health is all you have." - Heather Bowers Differentiating yourself through customer service is a tricky thing: it’s talked about so frequently that it can almost feel outdated focusing so much on the customer experience. But, as my guest Heather Bowers from Lone Star Benefits shared with me this week, it’s still the best way to truly serve your clients in 2024. Heather joined me from literally across the street, and ...

“We're simplifying the complexities of healthcare. We gotta declutter it, we've gotta demystify it, we've gotta make it more transparent and understandable in bite sized ways where members know and understand what's happening for and to them." - Rob Gelb It sounds like a simple question, but as an industry, we’re still working towards figuring it out: how do we engage members? Rob Gelb joined me this week to discuss what role Valenz has in solving that seemingly unsolvable equation. Along the...

“If you talk to almost anyone in this industry over a beer or something like that, I think they will all agree that we are operating in a pretty antiquated industry that needs some serious modernization, innovation, reimagination." - Brandon Weber This week’s episode of Self-Funded is coming to you from the (unfinished) San Francisco ParetoHealth office. Brandon Weber, founder of Nava Benefits, joined the healthcare industry as an outsider: he’s spent most of his career as a tech entrepreneur,...

"I think, not just in terms of the type of AI Verikai does, but AI in healthcare in general, I'm so optimistic about it, just because we are in such early stages of this." - Justen Nestico Did you know that what type of car you drive determines how healthy you're likely to be? Justen Nestico, Director of Actuarial Solutions at Verikai, joined me this week to discuss a really important thing when it comes to risk assessment: data. We talked about how Verikai integrating AI in interpreting, org...

"The best way I can explain it is the concept is like your house is on fire, and now you go get homeowners insurance." - Kevin Chambers Kevin Chambers (Lucent Health) joined me this week to help me understand just what makes tribal healthcare plans so unique. As Kevin shares in this episode, many companies are somewhat scared to insure tribes, as they have sovereignty and so any potential lawsuits are tried in tribal court. That doesn’t mean that this niche needs to be neglected, though; tribe...

"I think we need to do a better job of understanding each other and plugging each other in where we can help our clients to solve for issues that may not directly impact us, but make a world of difference for them." - Madison Baker Madison Baker, from Marsh McLennan, has expanded her business and online presence exponentially over the last year by creating engaging posts and content on LinkedIn. If you’re just starting out in a producer role and you’re not using LinkedIn to build your brand, tu...

“I realize there's this massive disconnect in the business model whereby you've got governments and health insurers paying billions and billions of dollars for what might be a not very effective therapy, and then there's all these potential cures, even, and much better treatments out there.” - Savva Kerdemelidis Savva Kerdemelidis and Zan Lowe, of Public Good Pharma, joined me this week to talk about re-aligning the incentive structures for drug development. In our current system, drugs are of...

"The US healthcare system is simple, easy to navigate and affordable. Said no one ever." - Guy Benjamin Guy Benjamin returns to the show a year after his previous episode to share just how much Healthee has expanded in that time (spoilers: it’s 100x). We talk about how Healthee’s role in the marketplace has shifted, what huge feature is on the horizon for them, and why Guy believes that the Healthee app deserves a spot on the bottom row of apps on your phone, next to your messages/email/Spotif...

"It's not always what you can do that makes you who you are. Sometimes the things that you don't do well create your style." - AG Ford We have a bit of a different episode in store for you this week: an interview with a local illustrator AG Ford, who’s worked on children’s book series like Construction Site and Magic Tree House. AG and I discussed just how hard it is to break into the world of illustration, what he learned in art school, and what his current work-life balance looks like. We a...

“If you're going to be the fiduciary, you have to protect the members, you have to protect the plan, and you need to defend that allowable to make sure that you're covering all of your bases." - Amy Pellegrin We made it to episode 150! A huge thank you to every guest we’ve had on the show so far, and obviously to you, the listeners, for making the show what it is today. For this special episode, we traveled to Des Moines, Iowa to meet with ClaimDOC, one of our sponsors, in early March and I ho...

"You're talking about the number one creator of wealth and security for people and one of their most important purchases. And like, how is this not in the employee benefits arena?" - Tommy Shumway For the first time ever, a father and son joined the podcast together. Dave and Tommy Shumway, from CityWorth, joined the show to discuss an innovative, yet somewhat obvious, benefit that they’ve rolled out for employers to offer their employees: down payment assistance. We spend a lot of time on the...

"Your fitness affects if you, even if you have a desk job. Your fitness is going to affect your performance over the long run, because it's your energy level." - Chris Hamilton Chris Hamilton (Hotchkiss) needs no introduction on the show at this point; this is his fifth appearance! This time, Chris introduced me to the world of Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) by putting a CGM in my arm at the very start of the show (be sure to listen to the whole episode to hear what my glucose level was!)...

“We need to solve for all of that, so that it's more rewarding, more enjoyable, because that's where the cost savings will come in. That's where the innovation will come." - Ben Callaghan Ben Callaghan, Chief Experience Officer at Empara, joined me this week to discuss how design can actually play a huge role in fixing many of the problems in our industry. Before working at Empara, Ben actually attempted to launch a ski design company, and we discussed how that experience designing physical pr...

"If you do hard things now, your life will be easy in the future. If you do easy things now, your life will be hard in the future." - Nick Bellanca Nick Bellanca joined me this week to get his perspective on something we don’t get a lot of on the show: selling as a consultant. Nick and I talked about his upbringing, how he got onto the football team at the University of San Diego, and starting out working at a carrier (which he says is a great place for people to start in this industry). Nick...

"When your brain is programmed that the only way it can be done is through submitting your insurance and when your brain has been for years and years and years that accepting cash is criminal, it's very hard to break that." - Dr. K My good friend Dr. K, founder of the NTTC Surgery Center and Hinkapin Health, joined the show to shed further light on what upfront pricing and value-based healthcare can do for this industry, employers, and patients. Dr. K came to America from India, and we discuss...

“It's the second largest line item that a company has, but they will stroke a check every month for a fully insured program without having data to support what those costs are for.” - Stephanie Koch Stephanie Koch joined the show to share what it was like to work in benefits and HR in a fully funded company before moving to one that self-funds. I invited Stephanie on to hear the employer perspective on the industry, but ended up getting so much more, as she’s truly on the cutting edge of healt...

“I realized that 95% of the scheduled surgeries, like shoulder/knee repairs, back fusions, even some pelvic floor surgeries, they're no more effective than doing nothing at all, on average.” - Heidi Ojha Heidi Ojha, founder of Aware Health and recently a part of our MSK roundtable, joined me this week in studio to talk about why there are so many unnecessary surgeries performed in this country, why these surgeries happen in the first place, and how she’s trying to change that. Heidi’s worked a...

“In what other industry are you just not covered up with business if you're cheaper and better? This is America, for God's sake." - Keith Smith This is a special episode with a special guest: Dr. Keith Smith from the Surgery Center of Oklahoma. Keith realized in the 1990s that the surgery system in America was exploitative and unfair, and decided to “rebel”, setting up a “parallel market” to sell surgeries direct to consumer at a listed price without any middlemen. The idea of a consumer knowi...

"No one wins alone. And you know what? You can't do it on your own." - John Butler John Butler, from JB Benefits Consulting, joined the show this week to talk the big-picture future of health insurance. From AI sales tools to ICHRA plans to Health Sharing Plans, John Butler is constantly thinking about the future of this industry, and it was fun to hear about how his life experience as a consultant led him to where he currently is. John and I also focused on making Americans actually healthie...

"I don't believe that random doctors should treat random patients in ongoing continuity of care. I don't think that transactional care is good for patients, and I know it's not good for physicians." - Chris Mathew The great Chris Mathew, Chief Growth Officer at Sniffle, joined me to talk about the future of Telehealth and the amazingly cost-effective ($15 a month!) benefits plan that Sniffle offers. Chris comes from an entrepreneurial family background, which pushed him to work at various star...

Does bone-on-bone contact always lead to pain? What's the best way to get good, new solutions in the hands of brokers? How many MSK surgeries are really necessary? Chris Hamilton, Heidi Ojha, and Mark Testa joined me in studio to answer those questions and many more in this special bonus episode of Self-Funded with Spencer, The MSK Roundtable. Key Links for Social: @SelfFunded on YouTube for video versions of the podcast and much more - https://www.youtube.com/@SelfFunded Listen on Spotify -...

"I always knew there was more. I always knew there was a different dimension to what this personnel or HR thing was." - Monica Panetta Monica Panetta, Chief People Officer at ParetoHealth (a show sponsor and the company I work for), joined me for an evening podcast in studio as we talked all things HR/People, starting with why the industry has moved away from saying HR. Monica’s so well-versed in the field that she actually started the HR program at her college as she was attending it, and the...

"I think the more questions the employer asks, and just the deeper that they're willing to think about this and have already thought about it, the more they're able to buy into this mission." - Russell Pekala Russell Pekala, co-founder of Yuzu Health, joined me in studio for this week’s episode focused on controlling pharmacy costs and emergency claims. Yuzu Health is a startup in the TPA space aiming to change how the claims process work. Rather than having the member get care and then deal w...

“To me, a private equity firm should never look at a healthcare vertical and say, God, there's opportunity there. That means that there's profit exploitation to be had in those areas.” - Taylor Rogers Taylor Rogers, former professional baseball pitcher turned insurance consultant, joined me this week for a podcast focused on profit exploitation in the current healthcare system, and what we need to do as an industry to bring back competition and lower prices. There are a huge number of people i...