Self-Funded With Spencer

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...

“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 benef...

"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, Kr...

 "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 ...

“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 ne...

“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 ...

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' exe...

"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 ...

“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 e...

“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 joine...

“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 hea...

“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 N...

“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 antidepres...

“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 S...

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...

"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 experienc...

“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 ...

"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 passi...

"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 th...