“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 co...
Jun 24, 2025•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 203
“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 on...
Jun 17, 2025•1 hr•Ep. 202
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 chemicals ...
Jun 13, 2025•40 min
"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 he...
Jun 10, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 201
“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 yo...
Jun 03, 2025•53 min•Ep. 200
“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 ba...
May 27, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 199
“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 lower...
May 20, 2025•54 min•Ep. 198
“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 Healthcare joined me to explain how Nice is able to provide in-home healthcare affordably, and how th...
May 13, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 197
“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. Si...
May 09, 2025•24 min•Ep. 196
“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 benefit...
May 06, 2025•48 min•Ep. 195
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 microp...
May 02, 2025•40 min
"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 d...
Apr 29, 2025•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 194
“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...
Apr 22, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 193
"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 backgr...
Apr 15, 2025•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 192
"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 w...
Apr 08, 2025•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 191
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 commis...
Apr 04, 2025•26 min
"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 seve...
Apr 01, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 190
"I think innovation is supposed to be hard. That's why it's innovation.” - Seth Denson “Better consumption requires a lot more education.” - Trey Marinello "Don't compare GLP-1s to working out, because if they were working out, they wouldn't need the GLP1s." - Danish Nagda “I think what RFK has done with the MAHA movement is he's gotten people interested in health again.” - Jonathan Lopez Seth Denson, Trey Marinello, Danish Nagda, and Jonathan Lopez joined me for the most ambitious podcast we’ve...
Mar 25, 2025•1 hr 43 min•Ep. 189
"Our business is predicated on two things: consolidating things that would otherwise be disparate, and then using that as a trusted chassis to communicate and engage effectively." - Ryan Coplon Ryan Coplon, co-founder of HealthWallet, joined me to discuss why improving member engagement actually reduces health plan expenses, how we get members to understand their healthcare, and what the “perfect” employer health plan would look like. In my opinion, solutions like HealthWallet are something of a...
Mar 18, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 188
If you'd like your question answered on next month's episode, call/text 469-213-6381 and leave us a voicemail/text. Welcome to our new monthly podcast series, 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 February 2025, including: - the start of the Make America Healthy Again commission - executive orders to make healthcare prices more transparent - ...
Mar 13, 2025•32 min
"I think that's the difference with a contagious community. Like, I want to bring other people that I like into this community." - Scott Smith Scott Smith, President of True Network Advisors, joins the show for a third time for this podcast filmed at his boathouse in Guntersville, Alabama. Scott and I talked about contagious communities, which Scott defines as a community that people want to share with other people in their life. We also talked about Scott’s list of paradoxes, why he calls his w...
Mar 11, 2025•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 187
"Reversing obesity, reversing diabetes is possible. You don't just have to manage a chronic condition." - Steve Hastings Steve Hastings, Leader of Health Plans at Virta Health, joined me to share Virta’s strategy to help members reverse type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, and obesity. He also shared their findings on just how important food is to our overall health and the power it has as medicine. If you’ve listened to pretty much any episode of Self-Funded with Spencer, you’ve heard my thoughts on t...
Mar 04, 2025•1 hr•Ep. 186
"If you're not going to be excited when I'm calling you, we're probably not a mutual fit." - Maggie Quinn Maggi Quinn, SVP of Consulting at Intrepid Benefits, joined me to discuss working at an all-female insurance agency, why specialization is so important in today’s market, and some innovative approaches to self-funded healthcare. Maggi shares her journey into insurance, as well as how she found her way to Intrepid, and why the relationship side of the business is the most important to her. We...
Feb 25, 2025•57 min•Ep. 185
"Be kind, be focused on others, be a steward of your craft and take the opportunity to take action.” - Sean Wood Sean Wood, SVP of National Partnerships at ParetoHealth, joined me for a podcast that is far less about captives than it is about being a sales ninja. We talk about getting started in sales, the buyer as a skeptic, collaborative selling, and sales mentorship. Sean was actually a pro basketball player, and he shares how his point guard experience has translated to his career. He shares...
Feb 18, 2025•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 184
“Whatever your clients find attractive about you and the reason they want to work with you is the exact same reason that a buyer is going to find you attractive and want to acquire your agency.” - Shelby Cowley Shelby Cowley joined me this week to discuss the complicated world of insurance mergers & acquisitions. How do you get the best valuation for your agency? What key metrics are most attractive to buyers? How much does personality impact the value? We answer all of those questions and m...
Feb 11, 2025•48 min•Ep. 183
“Organ transplant is not something that the employer or even the TPAs are necessarily all experts in." - Guy Finley “There are still going to be some situations and some events inside that episode of care that are going to be stop-loss related, so we want the two to work together.” - Robby Kerr Guy Finley and Robby Kerr from HCC joined me in studio for this week’s episode of Self-Funded to discuss covering organ transplants. The costs associated with and frequency of these procedures have greatl...
Feb 04, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 182
“It's everything. Exposure, knowledge, education, generating new business, solving clients, risk management objectives. It's all here. " - John Capasso “And the question comes up year over year, what is the ROI of SIIA? Did we have a legitimate hard dollar return on investment? And the answer is yes, we've always seen a return.” - Amy Gasbarro This week’s episode of Self-Funded was recorded at the SIIA National Conference in September 2024. I spoke on-stage with Amy Gasbarro and John Capasso abo...
Jan 28, 2025•1 hr•Ep. 181
"If we're not accessible to you, we can't help you." - David Kinzler David Kinzler, CEO of One-to-One Health, joined me this week to talk about the importance of primary care, restoring the doctor-patient relationship, and TextCare, which provides text messaging access to a dedicated care team with response times under 5 minutes. David is a former Marine, and spent a few years in US politics before joining the healthcare world, and eventually leading One-to-One. His key focus is simplifying heal...
Jan 21, 2025•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 180
"The problem with a lot of healthcare is everybody is coming in, making their own solution. So you have thousands of point solution vendors and all we're doing is confusing the end user and the people that we really want to be educated." - Chelsea Ryckis One of the most influential duos in healthcare, Chelsea and Donovan Ryckis, joined me this week to discuss their company Ethos Benefits, running a benefits agency based on values, and producing the documentary “It’s Not Personal, It’s Just Healt...
Jan 14, 2025•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 179
"I think I'd say our patients deserve better. Our Americans who are encountering the healthcare system deserve better." - Binu SamuelBinu Samuel, Director of Commercial Partnerships at Carrum Health, joined me for the first podcast of 2025 to discuss how we lower healthcare costs for self-funded employers. Binu, and Carrum’s, mission is to make healthcare easier for the employers, employees, and physicians, which includes focusing on making healthcare cost nothing out of pocket to employees. Tha...
Jan 07, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 178
