Spencer Smith

Self-Funded

Business EN ↓ 287 episodes

Self-Funded, hosted by Spencer Smith, is the definitive resource for benefits consultants and employers who are ready to challenge the broken healthcare status quo. Each week, you'll get an insider's playbook of actionable strategies from industry leaders that help make healthcare better, together.

Author

Spencer Smith

Category

Business

Latest episode

Jul 10, 2026

Where to listen?

Podcasts in the app Replaio Radio Coming soon

Podcasts are coming to the app soon. Install now and be the first to see a whole new take on podcasts

Get it on Google Play Install for free Android 5M+ downloads · 4.8 rating iOS soon

Episodes

The End of Confusing Health Benefits | with Matt Scovil & Nathan Gilchrist 16.09.2025

"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 Medefy 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 engag...

Tuning Into The Frequency Of Excellence | with Scott Millson 09.09.2025

"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...

Fixing Healthcare's 528 Billion Dollar Mistake | with Chris Grilli 03.09.2025

"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 p...

Lessons In Healthcare And Life, with Todd Whitthorne 26.08.2025

"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 f...

How to Think Like an Underwriter (And Why It's a Game-Changer) | with Bobby Stuart 19.08.2025

"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 a...

Your Medical Bills Have Errors. Here's How Goodbill Fixes Them. (with Patrick Haig) 12.08.2025

"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 do...

This Pharmacy Went Cash-Only, Lost 70% Of Customers, & Doubled Profits | With Brad Hart 05.08.2025

"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 an...

Removing The Middlemen Is The Key To Lowering Healthcare Costs | with Josh Walker 29.07.2025

"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....

How High-Performance Health Networks Actually Work | with Blake Allison & Riley Dearing 22.07.2025

“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 oppor...

Mark Cuban's Healthcare Tweet, Healthcare Is America's Top Employer | Last Month In Healthcare 18.07.2025

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 Les...

How the World's #1 Chevy Dealer Structures Their Benefits 15.07.2025

“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 Chev...

The Empowering Employers Live Podcast, with Q&A! 08.07.2025

"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: Rache...

Healthcare Needs To Be Simpler | with David Silverstein 01.07.2025

 "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...

Why Brokers Must Constantly Innovate | with Taylor Orton 24.06.2025

“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...

Functional Medicine 101 | with Erica Armstrong, MD 17.06.2025

“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...

Trump's "Most Favored Nation" Executive Order, with Shawn Ferguson | Last Month In Healthcare 13.06.2025

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, includin...

VālenzONE: A Deep Dive Into Optimized Healthcare | with Rob Gelb 10.06.2025

"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 mea...

CGMs: GLP-1 Weight Loss At A Fraction Of The Cost | with Colin Rogers 03.06.2025

“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...

Continuing Marshall Allen's Legacy | with Sonja Allen 27.05.2025

“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...

US Healthcare Desperately Needs To Be A Free Market | with Dean Jargo 20.05.2025

“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 requi...

The In-Home Healthcare Revolution | with Jory Zunich 13.05.2025

“Some of the most expensive real estate is 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 H...

Helping Each Other Through Mental Health Struggles | with Sims Tillirson 09.05.2025

“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 s...

The Four Pillars of the Perfect LinkedIn Strategy | with Sims Tillirson 06.05.2025

“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...

UnitedHealth's Stock Crash, with Rob Gelb | Last Month In Healthcare 02.05.2025

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 202...

A Fitness And Diet App For Employee Wellness | with Chris Burgess 29.04.2025

"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...

Listen to the Self-Funded podcast in Replaio

Radio and podcasts in one app - free, with no sign-up. Install today and do not miss the launch

Get it on Google Play

Replaio is not a podcast publisher; show names, artwork and audio belong to their authors and are distributed through public RSS feeds.