Spark Health Advisors Presents: Spotlight Series

Enterprise employers are hitting a wall with fragmented workforce data. HR and finance leaders are moving past isolated metrics, shifting instead toward unified, predictive labor modeling to find real bottom-line relief. In this episode of Spark Spotlight, Wendy Smith, Partner at Mercer, breaks down how organizations are deploying data science to simulate workforce capacity, neutralize talent shor...

Most founders lead their pitches with clinical outcomes, but the most sophisticated buyers, CFOs and actuaries, are looking for a verifiable link to utilization and cost reduction — and a way to pressure test whether those ROI assumptions actually hold up in practice. In this episode of Spark Spotlight, we’re joined by Mandy Geyer, an actuary who has evaluated hundreds of vendor pitches from the c...

Many founders assume that selling to health plans is simply employer sales at a larger scale. In reality, it’s more complex, more layered, and requires a significantly higher bar for proof. In this episode of Spark Spotlight, we sit down with Craig Ginnan (Field Access Manager at Medexus Pharmaceuticals) to explore what it actually takes to succeed in payer sales—from building early traction with...

We’re entering the 2026 RFP season — and most early- to mid-stage companies aren’t prepared for what that actually means. If enterprise employers are part of your 2026 growth plan, this is when seats at the table are decided. After participating in more RFPs than I can count over the years, one thing is clear: It’s not just about having a strong solution. It’s about navigating a competitive, multi...

Founder-led sales can carry a company a long way, but it often becomes harder to sustain as the business grows. For many healthcare founders, the challenge becomes figuring out how to build a sales org that works beyond their own relationships and involvement. In this episode, we talk with Nikki Ahlgren of Hilo Talent Partners about what that transition looks like in practice for B2B healthcare co...

Employers are facing steep health plan cost increases. As we head into 2026, it's more important than ever to partner with a broker who brings strategic guidance, not just transactional support. In this episode, we sit down with Nick Bellanca, Vice President of Lockton Companies, to talk about how to navigate this increasingly challenging system and bend the cost curve. Nick is a health benefi...

Addiction impacts every level of the workforce, with untreated Alcohol Use Disorder and Substance Use Disorder driving double, or even quadruple standard medical costs for employers. In this episode of Spark Spotlight, Lindsey Kratzer, CEO of Spark Health Advisors, sits down with Amanda Wilson, CEO & Co-Founder of Northstar Care, to talk about unrecognized problem of alcohol and substance use...

As healthcare costs rise, more employers are getting serious about bold cost-containment strategies—and reference-based pricing (RBP) is quickly becoming a hot topic. In this episode of Spark Spotlight, I sit down with Rick Elliott, Executive Vice President and Partner at Lockton Companies, to talk about how some employers are breaking the mold. Rick has spent over 40 years in healthcare and emplo...

Want to understand what’s really driving benefit plan performance? Tony Garavaglia breaks it down with data most employers never see. Tony is a Senior VP at Alliant with over 30 years of experience in employee benefits—and he’s leading the charge on using geographic and social determinants of health to shape smarter, more equitable benefit strategies. Using the Johns Hopkins 4 trillion+ claims dat...

If you're building for the employer market, this conversation with Rob LaHayne is a must-listen. Rob is the CEO of Leap Health, where his team helps large employers rein in one of the fastest-growing cost drivers in healthcare: specialty infusion drugs. Infusion care is a category most benefits leaders weren’t even tracking 10 years ago. Today, it’s driving 40% of pharmacy spend and 10–15% of...

In this episode, Lindsey Kratzer sits down with Cory Salmela, founder of Salmela Talent, a firm that helps venture- and PE-backed healthcare companies scale through a combination of executive recruiting and strategic advisory. Cory’s worked closely with founders who are navigating the messy middle—from founder-led sales to building out real, scalable commercial teams. In this episode, Cory shares...

In this episode, Lindsey Kratzer, CEO of Spark Health Advisors, sits down with John Zutter, CEO of Lantern. John led a turnaround that took the company from 100,000 members to over 6 million, driving more than $1B in savings for employers on specialty care. John started his career in investment banking, not healthcare. But that outside perspective gave him a clear view of what works and what doesn...

In this episode, Lindsey Kratzer, CEO of Spark Health Advisors, sits down with Grant Zarzour, orthopedic surgeon and CEO of Sperity Health, to discuss the opportunity for longevity care with employers. Key Takeaways from the Conversation: 1. This approach goes way beyond primary care with the explicit goal of extending healthspan. With tools like VO₂ max testing, telomere analysis, CT angiograms,...

In this episode, Spark Health Advisors CEO, Lindsey Kratzer, sat down with Steve Ditto—healthcare executive, patient advocate, and author of the Health Plan Compliance Advantage —to unpack what fiduciary duty actually requires from employers, and what that means for the vendors, brokers, and advisors trying to serve them. Key Insights from Our Conversation: 1. Fiduciary pressure is rising fast. Em...

In this episode, Spark Health Advisors CEO, Lindsey Kratzer, sat down with Jeff Bahrenburg, who leads the employee benefits practice at USI in San Francisco.  We discussed how vendors can better partner with brokers and how employer purchasing decisions actually get made. Key insights from our conversation: 1: This is still a relationship business. The best ideas don’t always win—founders need to...