June 2, 2025 • 6 mins
Patty Starr is president and CEO of Health Action Council and is responsible for driving the strategic direction of the organization--build stronger, healthier communities where business can thrive.
Since joining the Health Action Council staff in 2013, she has transformed the organization yielding broad national expansion and seven consecutive years of growth.
Patty is a member of the Advisory Board at the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine and the Board of Directors for Health Policy Institute of Ohio (HPIO). She has also served on the Board of Directors for the Better Health Partnership, Ohio Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative and Health Action Council before becoming executive director in 2013.
In 2022, she was named a Woman of Influence by Cleveland Business Journal, and In 2018, she was named among Notable Women in Healthcare by Crain’s Cleveland Business.
Prior to Health Action Council, she was the senior director of health insurance and benefits at the Council of Smaller Enterprises (COSE) and president and founder of The Ark Individual Insurance Brokerage.
Since joining the Health Action Council staff in 2013, she has transformed the organization yielding broad national expansion and seven consecutive years of growth.
Patty is a member of the Advisory Board at the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine and the Board of Directors for Health Policy Institute of Ohio (HPIO). She has also served on the Board of Directors for the Better Health Partnership, Ohio Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative and Health Action Council before becoming executive director in 2013.
In 2022, she was named a Woman of Influence by Cleveland Business Journal, and In 2018, she was named among Notable Women in Healthcare by Crain’s Cleveland Business.
Prior to Health Action Council, she was the senior director of health insurance and benefits at the Council of Smaller Enterprises (COSE) and president and founder of The Ark Individual Insurance Brokerage.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is iHeartRadio CEOs you should know I'm Keith Hodgkiss.
Today our guest is Patti Starr, the CEO of the
Health Action Council. Patty, we want to first start by
asking you what exactly is the Health Action Council.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Health Action Council is a not for profit organization that
works with medium and large size employers and obtaining healthcare
benefits for their employees, providing education around health as well
as doing health improvement projects for employees and communities alike.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
So when we talk about health insurance, it's I know
most people find it either confusing. We had discussed earlier
that it's not necessarily the most interesting topic at a
dinner party, but boy, it's important. Talk about what you
do to sort of bridge the gaps between knowledge bases
from your employer base and how people who are just
constantly bombarded with healthcare ads.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
How do they navigate this space? Is that kind of
what you guys do? Well?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Primarily, we're working with the employer, So the employer that
is making those healthcare decisions for their employees, they're self funded.
Are the employers that we're specifically working with, and they're
looking at their employees as both an asset and a liability. Yeah,
and they're going, how do we actually help keep them
(01:17):
healthy so that they can come to work, so that
we can actually keep our eye on the business and
focused on our commitments to our employees.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
This is an important work you're doing them because most
businesses in the US are small and medium sized businesses
I think about eighty five percent. So these people need
to focus, like you said, on running their business and
not but they also want to provide healthcare to their employees, right, correct.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
What's something that's you know.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Changed since the you know, Affordable Care Act, and how
have employers had to respond in terms of meeting the
needs of their employees.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Well, first, let's just acknowledge that the markets that continue
to evolve, and it's evolving as we're speaking today. This
is no market that change is not going to continue
to occur into. So I think it's very important that
employers stay current on what actually is happening, whether it's
both on a federal level as well as a local.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Level at the state level.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So once you understand the big scope of that, I
think that as an employer, we still want to provide
the foundation of funding for healthcare.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Do you help companies decide which providers to go with
or is it more of just about education and advocacy.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Really, what we're trying to do is educator employer members
to say what's happening in the market, what's coming in
the market. How can they make better strategic directional decisions
for their employees' benefit package, both on a short term
basis in long term basis. Once we understand what's most
(02:54):
important to our membership, then we go to market and
we actually issue a regular RFP to market to say,
how can you be a best service to our membership,
and so we'll actually negotiate with vendors to bring those
benefits forward to the employees.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
We're talking with Patti Starr, the CEO of Health Action Council,
and it's important work you're doing to help make sure
that small businesses can provide quality healthcare to their employees.
Talk about when you join the organization, how have you
helped transform it? Since you've been there more than ten
years now.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
So being with the organization for over twelve years at
this point in time. Really, what we've done is come
back to our original mission, which is really on quality
of care and purposeful care. For the employees of our membership.
From there, what we now do is not only are
we looking for the quality of care, the transparency, the costs,
(03:51):
the accessibility of care, but we also want to have
a bigger scope and we evaluate and look at the
data that's actually coming from claims, or from accessibility or
from timeliness to say, how can we be a better
service and how can we help create designs and contracts
that are going to be a better support long term
(04:13):
and short term.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
So you mentioned membership, about how many members do you
have and how can someone join?
Speaker 2 (04:19):
So today we have over two hundred and fifty employers.
They cover over two point eight million lives across the
United States. To join the organization is a fairly simple process.
Either give us a call directly or go to our
website Healthactioncounsel dot org and somebody will be happy to
support you in joining.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
So one of the things we like to talk about
on CEOs you should know is how folks under you know,
the sort of daily pressures of CEOs are under, how
do they stay healthy, how do they find centered groundness?
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Is it gardening?
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Is you know, how does someone like you spend your
time in terms of like keeping yourself centered and so
you can be valuable to your team.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Thank you for that question.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I actually am one who actually really tries to live
the mission. So I actually eat really healthy and I
love to cook, so I make the big spreads for people.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
And then in addition to that, I like to work
out every day.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
I'm a big swimmer, so I swim every morning before
I go into the office. My team knows not to
schedule a meeting until I've gotten into the pool, right.
But then on the outside of that, I also very
much enjoyed during the summers going out to Blossom to
enjoy the Cleveland Orchestra, or I love going to the theater.
I like doing house construction projects similar to gardening. I
(05:36):
like to have hammers and nails in my hand. Wow,
and actually doing the construction.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Keep yourself busy, right, that's very cool. So the Health
Action Council representing employers to help them choose quality care
and good health plans for their employees, and that website patty.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
Is Health Action Council dot org.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Awesome. Thanks so much for joining us today.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
And this has been on iHeartRadio. CEOs.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
You should know Today's show was produced by Bob katesaid,
I'm Keith Hotchkiss.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
We'll see you next time.
This is iHeartRadio CEOs you should know I'm Keith Hodgkiss.
Today our guest is Patti Starr, the CEO of the
Health Action Council. Patty, we want to first start by
asking you what exactly is the Health Action Council.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Health Action Council is a not for profit organization that
works with medium and large size employers and obtaining healthcare
benefits for their employees, providing education around health as well
as doing health improvement projects for employees and communities alike.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
So when we talk about health insurance, it's I know
most people find it either confusing. We had discussed earlier
that it's not necessarily the most interesting topic at a
dinner party, but boy, it's important. Talk about what you
do to sort of bridge the gaps between knowledge bases
from your employer base and how people who are just
constantly bombarded with healthcare ads.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
How do they navigate this space? Is that kind of
what you guys do? Well?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Primarily, we're working with the employer, So the employer that
is making those healthcare decisions for their employees, they're self funded.
Are the employers that we're specifically working with, and they're
looking at their employees as both an asset and a liability. Yeah,
and they're going, how do we actually help keep them
(01:17):
healthy so that they can come to work, so that
we can actually keep our eye on the business and
focused on our commitments to our employees.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
This is an important work you're doing them because most
businesses in the US are small and medium sized businesses
I think about eighty five percent. So these people need
to focus, like you said, on running their business and
not but they also want to provide healthcare to their employees, right, correct.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
What's something that's you know.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Changed since the you know, Affordable Care Act, and how
have employers had to respond in terms of meeting the
needs of their employees.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Well, first, let's just acknowledge that the markets that continue
to evolve, and it's evolving as we're speaking today. This
is no market that change is not going to continue
to occur into. So I think it's very important that
employers stay current on what actually is happening, whether it's
both on a federal level as well as a local.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Level at the state level.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So once you understand the big scope of that, I
think that as an employer, we still want to provide
the foundation of funding for healthcare.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Do you help companies decide which providers to go with
or is it more of just about education and advocacy.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Really, what we're trying to do is educator employer members
to say what's happening in the market, what's coming in
the market. How can they make better strategic directional decisions
for their employees' benefit package, both on a short term
basis in long term basis. Once we understand what's most
(02:54):
important to our membership, then we go to market and
we actually issue a regular RFP to market to say,
how can you be a best service to our membership,
and so we'll actually negotiate with vendors to bring those
benefits forward to the employees.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
We're talking with Patti Starr, the CEO of Health Action Council,
and it's important work you're doing to help make sure
that small businesses can provide quality healthcare to their employees.
Talk about when you join the organization, how have you
helped transform it? Since you've been there more than ten
years now.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
So being with the organization for over twelve years at
this point in time. Really, what we've done is come
back to our original mission, which is really on quality
of care and purposeful care. For the employees of our membership.
From there, what we now do is not only are
we looking for the quality of care, the transparency, the costs,
(03:51):
the accessibility of care, but we also want to have
a bigger scope and we evaluate and look at the
data that's actually coming from claims, or from accessibility or
from timeliness to say, how can we be a better
service and how can we help create designs and contracts
that are going to be a better support long term
(04:13):
and short term.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
So you mentioned membership, about how many members do you
have and how can someone join?
Speaker 2 (04:19):
So today we have over two hundred and fifty employers.
They cover over two point eight million lives across the
United States. To join the organization is a fairly simple process.
Either give us a call directly or go to our
website Healthactioncounsel dot org and somebody will be happy to
support you in joining.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
So one of the things we like to talk about
on CEOs you should know is how folks under you know,
the sort of daily pressures of CEOs are under, how
do they stay healthy, how do they find centered groundness?
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Is it gardening?
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Is you know, how does someone like you spend your
time in terms of like keeping yourself centered and so
you can be valuable to your team.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Thank you for that question.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I actually am one who actually really tries to live
the mission. So I actually eat really healthy and I
love to cook, so I make the big spreads for people.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
And then in addition to that, I like to work
out every day.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
I'm a big swimmer, so I swim every morning before
I go into the office. My team knows not to
schedule a meeting until I've gotten into the pool, right.
But then on the outside of that, I also very
much enjoyed during the summers going out to Blossom to
enjoy the Cleveland Orchestra, or I love going to the theater.
I like doing house construction projects similar to gardening. I
(05:36):
like to have hammers and nails in my hand. Wow,
and actually doing the construction.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Keep yourself busy, right, that's very cool. So the Health
Action Council representing employers to help them choose quality care
and good health plans for their employees, and that website patty.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
Is Health Action Council dot org.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Awesome. Thanks so much for joining us today.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
And this has been on iHeartRadio. CEOs.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
You should know Today's show was produced by Bob katesaid,
I'm Keith Hotchkiss.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
We'll see you next time.
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