Shane Foss, CEO of Hooray Health

SHANE FOSS CEO of Hooray Health
Hooray Health provides affordable, convenient supplemental healthcare. This includes hourly, contingent, and full-time workforces and their families. They specialize in providing unique benefit plans designed specifically for their needs. Their plans offer accessible care at home or on the go using a network of Retail Clinics and Urgent Care Facilities, as well as Telemedicine services, prescriptions and specialty care discounts. Since its founding in 2017, Hooray Health LLC has been committed to disrupting the health industry by providing employers, members, and their families with the assurance that their basic healthcare needs are met.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This week on the Art of Improvement, I'll be speaking with Shane Foss.
He is the CEO of Horray Health. At Horray Health, Foss and his
team focus on offering peace of mindto lower income individuals and families who face
medical challenges, while providing business ownersan affordable way to reward and retain employees.
My conversation with Shane is coming upnext on the Art of Improvement.

(00:28):
Thank you so much for joining ustoday. My guest is Shane Fosse is
the CEO of Hooray Health. Hi, Shame, how you doing, Hey
Karen, how are you? I'mfine, So listen. I wanted to
tell everybody about Horray Health because it'ssuch a fantastic idea. Apparently if you
have not heard of it, Hoorayis it offers benefits our health, yeah,

(00:53):
their health benefits. So we're asupplemental plan, so we're not major
medical. But we were focus onis providing first dollar coverage with no deductibles
to people that you know, justwant to get basic care right, you
know, So if you have aseven thousand dollars deductible and you have five

(01:14):
hundred dollars in your bank account,it doesn't matter, right, you're functionally
uninsured. But so what we dois we're actually the opposite. We don't
have a deductible. We pay first. So when you look at traditionally,
what happens and with most Americans isthat they're gonna go see a doctor a
few times a year when they're sick. They're going to go have a wellness

(01:36):
visit, go get the check up. And then the other thing that happens
over the course of a year isyou know, you're gonna have an accident,
right, you're gonna break an arm, You're gonna maybe needing some stitches,
or you're gonna twist your ankle,and you're gonna need to get that
taken care of. And so whenyou look at what happens to most Americans
as sixty so sixty seven percent ofall personal bankruptcies are due to medical related

(01:57):
bad debt. And the average debt, Yeah, and the average debt's only
six hundred bucks. It's not likewe're talking major surgery tens of thousands.
And what happens is it all theyall come from three things the physician visit,
affiliated lab, an X ray,or an accident. And so that's
what we take care of and sowe can sit underneath the major medical plan.

(02:21):
If you have a high deductible oryou know, there's some people that
just you know, they can't affordit. They're not getting a subsidy,
and so they go without health insurance. And that's just not what we want.
We want to make sure that theyhave a low cost, affordable plan
to at least get the basic needsmet from a healthcare standpoint. So that's
what we focus on at Horray Health. It sounds too good to be true

(02:44):
in the way that I have insurance, but I don't know what other people
have. But I feel like sometimesif even if it's a out of pocket
just for a visit, there's onehundred and fifty dollars that sometimes you will
doublethink going to the doctor. Andit is very sad. But do you

(03:06):
find that people more and more thesedays might need something like a Ray Health.
Oh? Absolutely, So when youlook at what's going on today is
so a lot of people are optingout of their employer coverage and so they
go without and the reason is forwhat I just talked about, which was
they can't afford the coverage. Andso when you look at your family coverage.

(03:29):
You know, you can spend twentyfour thousand dollars a year just on
premiums and then you've got twelve thousandout of pocket before they pay anything,
right, so you're talking thirty sixthousand dollars a year. Think about that.
Yeah, thirty six thousand dollars ayear. I just bought a car
for that much not too long ago, right, you know, for my
kids. So you know it's andthat's in a year before and that's what

(03:53):
you paid before they're responsible for anything. And so the reality is we're you
know, we're in a situation whereit's more important right now for them to
pay for rent or their mortgage ortheir car payment than insurance to you know,
for basic health needs. And soyou know, our plans start at

(04:14):
sixty dollars a month and we coveragain we're not major medical, We just
cover the basic things. But wewere you know, we really we really
focus on making sure that we're improvingaccess to healthcare, and so we have
a mobile app that guides you.We actually created our own provider network that
includes urgent cares and retail clinics,which you know that's the fastest growing segment

(04:39):
of the healthcare delivery model because everybodyloves it. And why they're open seven
days a week, you don't needan appointment, they're open till eight o'clock
at night. They have on sitelab and X ray. So what happens
is with her, when you gointo a Horay health provider, you pay
a twenty five dollars copay and there'sno balance bill, no balance bill.

(04:59):
No nobody else has that and soand the reason we do that is because
we focus on really the not onlythe health of the individual and well being,
but also the financial health right.We want to make sure that they
can go into the doctor get whatthey need. But why is it that
if I go in with it,you know, in a traditional plan where

(05:21):
I pay twenty five fifty seventy fivedollars for a co pay, that now
all of a sudden, I'm eligiblefor a balanced bill. And it's crazy
because that's how I started Hooray.I literally had I went in with the
seventy five dollars I as major medical. I had a seventy five dollars co
pay to an urgent care. Iwent in, they took an X ray

(05:41):
in my neck, they gave mea couple of injections must relax our anti
inflammatory because I had an issue withmy back and I got an eight hundred
dollars balanced bill. Yeah. Well, if fifty percent of Americans have five
hundred in their bank account, guesswhat they're not going to go. I
just I just don't. I amso blown away by your idea. But

(06:03):
before we go any further, Iwant to ask, because everybody's going to
want to know, where do Ifind out more about this? How do
people find out more? Shane?Sure, So you can go to hooray
health dot com h o r ay health dot com to learn more.
We are getting ready to launch ourindividual product here in January, so even

(06:27):
as an individual, you'll be ableto get it. But today you can
only get it through an employer.And so UM, you know, talk
to your employers about it, anduh, you know, we we take
care of you know, the hourlyemployee, we take care of ten ninety
nine, we take care of UMusually usually a lot of full timers as

(06:47):
well that are hourly that have beenpriced out. But what we're seeing more
and more is even even the youknow, the mid level salary people are
benefiting from Horey Health because we're sittingunderneath the five thousand dollars deductible, because
just because you have the money topay it, why do you need to
pay it? Right? It doesn'tmake any sense, especially when there's no

(07:09):
transparency. I I probably stopped youin mid sentence, but can you tell
me, I mean, it obviouslywas a personal thing for you. Could
you tell that story again on howyou even came up with the idea?
Right, So, I've been inhealthcare my whole professional career, starting off
working in surgery and the military,and so I've always loved healthcare. And

(07:30):
so our last company that we builtand sold was a company that provided access
to large, large employers for surgicalbundles, and so that was really my
specialty was contracting providers, and soI really got to understand how providers fought
about it from a business standpoint.And so when we sold that company,

(07:54):
I worked there for six months andthen I was out consulting and I ended
up with a back issue and Iwent into an urgent care because that's the
most convenient place to go, andI went in and just asked them.
I said, hey, look,I've got United Healthcare. I paid my
seventy five dollar copay and they said, come on in, and they took
an X ray in my neck andthey found out what they thought was a

(08:16):
bone spur, right, and theysaid, that's irritating your nerve route.
So we're going to give you twoinjections of muscle relax or an anti inflammatory
and send me on your way.And so, you know, I left
there thinking that, you know,I had a seventy five I paid my
seventy five dollars and I was good. Well, three weeks later I ended
up with an eight hundred dollars balancebill. And so when I when I

(08:39):
called back and I said, hey, guys, you know you're in network,
and I know that these services arenot contracted at this rate, and
you know you're in network. AndI paid a seventy five dollar copay and
they said, well, you knowwe have carve outs and I said,
well what does that mean and like, well, we're not contracted with United
for the X ray or the injectionsand blah blah blah. And I said,

(09:01):
okay, well, since you're notcontracted, I'm not legally obligated to
pay it, and so um,so I didn't pay it and so I
said, you know, I said, I'm gonna I'm gonna pay you know,
I'll pay eighty bucks. And Inegotiated them down. And I've paid
eighty bucks for it. I mean, because there was a service, it's
fine. But but the reality isnobody else is going to do that.

(09:24):
I know the system, and they'regonna worry about it and they're gonna you
know, and if you call themlike that. Lady was like, no,
you can't negotiate this. You can'tdo I was like, well,
actually I can. And so you'reeither going to get nothing or you're gonna
get eighty bucks. But but theproblem is most providers they outsourced their billing
and so when those billers know whatto do and there and oh, we'll

(09:50):
put you out a payment plan,we'll do this, we'll do that.
But the reality is when you havea contracted rate, it's ten times less
than what they're going to bill youif you walk in there without a network.
That's why we've built a network andwe're you know, we're in forty
eight states now. We have overhalf the urgent cares in the United States
contracted for twenty five dollars copay.No balance bill, and so when you

(10:11):
look at the demographics today, it'sreally interesting because if you're under the age
of fifty, fifty four percent don'teven have a primary care physician. They
are seeking care in an urgent carebecause it's more convenient. I'm one of
those people. I am a cuteYeah, it's it's so weird because it

(10:33):
seems like when you get older,you should be going to the doctor more,
but I have. I'm fairly healthy, and so I look at the
price, like I go to aspecialist, like my eye doctor. I'm
I'm telling you this because it justhappened to me this week. Yeah,
I go and the co pay iseighty dollars, and then I'll get a

(10:54):
bill for four hundred dollars because Ihaven't met my deductible. And the funny
thing is, I'm going in becauseI need to get medication because the one
that I was using is like twofifty a month, and I'm like,
I can't do that anymore, andso they're trying to get it. But
so then every four weeks I haveto pay eighty dollars. So I'm like,
doesn't isn't this, you know,counter to what I'm trying to do

(11:18):
I'm trying to get lower prices forprescription, but I have to come in
every four weeks, and so itjust blew my mind. And then I
kept reading about Horay Health and I'mthinking, wait a second, this is
like, this is a solution.So Shane, when you say that you
have to go through your employer rightnow, does that mean your employer has

(11:41):
to agree to I guess offer itto you. How does that work?
Yeah? Yeah, It's called sponsor, So the employer would sponsor our planned
to the employees. So during openenrollment, they would provide the access for
their employees to Ray Health. Sothat's how it works. But but we

(12:03):
you know, we've we've wanted todo this for a long time and we
just really now found the right partnerto where we just filed. We expect
to be in you know, beavailable in you know, forty two forty
three states around the US, whichwill be great. Um. And uh,
you know, it's it's a it'san unmet need in the community and

(12:28):
um, and we're we're really excitedabout that. Absolutely. UM. So
I have to ask you, youknow, you said that you were in
the Air Force. Thank you somuch for your service and that you became
interested in in medicine. And howdoes that lead to coming up with your

(12:48):
own app and your own form ofhealth insurance practically? How does how does
that even work? Well? I'vealways been entrepreneurial, and so I when
I when I got into health benefitswith the last company where we created the
access to surgical bundles, I reallyI really got to learn health health benefits,

(13:09):
and I really loved it. Ithought there was a tremendous opportunity.
And when you look at the reallyyou know, the unfair share that healthcare
is is really pulling from people's incomesright now in corporations, you know,
there's a huge need there. Andwhen we looked at when I was consulting

(13:31):
and I was looking at, youknow, what I was going to do
next, I really was you know, from my standpoint, I try to
look at the trends, you know, what's happening, and I knew there
was going to be an inflection pointat some time where health insurance was just
going to be too expensive and insteadof instead of people you know, opting

(13:52):
out at ten percent, you're goingto go down to ten percent participation and
it's just going to be the peoplethat are you know, for the you
know, that are making enough moneyto justify it. And then then the
other side of it, what's happenedis we've created a dependent only product because
you know, how how horrible isit as an employee right where you know,

(14:13):
you're offered benefits and maybe your employersare great employer and they provide benefits
for um uh for you at nocost, but then when you go to
sign up your family, it's twothousand dollars a month and you can't afford
it, right, I mean,So, so what we've done is actually
we've created a dependent only option aswell, which we're the only ones to

(14:33):
I've ever done that. And soyou know, our mission is really U
is really to take care of people, help people UH through affordable, meaningful
benefits and then really improving access tohealthcare. That's our goal. You know,
we we live it every day.That's what we focus on, you

(14:54):
know. In the last so we'vebeen around almost eight years now and we've
never had price increase. As moreof fact, we've only increased benefits and
reduced the price over thirty percent,believe it or not. Since our inception,
and so our whole goal internally isuh, making sure that we can

(15:15):
we can provide affordable, meaningful benefitsto really that it's the hourly worker as
our primary focus. But you know, as it especially as we go into
the individual market here next year,what's going to happen is we're going to
see more and more people that arein the higher income that have you know,
seventy five hundred or ten thousand dollarscatastrophic plan a deductible and you know,

(15:39):
and they can buy our plan foryou know, even for their family
to add a three hundred bucks amonth, but they get all of their
basic needs met and so that'll begreat, you know for them and financially
fiscal right, financially responsibility excuse me, not fiscally responsibile. There we go.
Well, you know, it's funnybecause I don't know medical and health

(16:04):
insurance benefits. It's just so notsexy, and so it's hard. It's
so hard for people to listen andunderstand until something happens. And then when
something happened, you suddenly have thisgreat interest in what you signed up for

(16:25):
through your company. And it's neverenough. And there used to be a
time. I remember when people,I guess, companies, large companies would
have meetings on what you should chooseand how you should go about, you
know what, and what type ofinsurance, what level do you need?
And I feel like they don't evendo that anymore. And it's I mean,

(16:47):
when did health insurance become a luxury? That's what it feels like sometimes.
Yeah, it's really been more recent, you know, after Obamacare.
You know, I think that Iyou know, and look, this is
an a political state. Yeah,he's screwed up health insurance. I'm just

(17:10):
I'm just it's a fact. Andthe problem is when you know, you
look at statistically where our costs havegone since he implemented it. Um it
was, you know, for asa business person, everybody predicted this.
And here's why you If I limita corporation, especially a publicly traded corporation,

(17:37):
um, and I limit their profitability. And what that means is,
you know, so depending on thegroup size. But I'm just gonna make
a flat you know, just aflat assumption. So as an insurance carrier,
I cannot make more than fifteen percenton that insurance product. Okay,
So if I if I sell youone hundred dollars premium a month. I

(18:00):
cannot make more than fifteen dollars.So anything that's in reserve to that I
need to give back to you.Okay, so let me ask you something
as a shareholder, what do youexpect your shares to do? You're supposed
to in create exactly. So ifI'm limiting your profitability, I can't find

(18:21):
it anywhere else. And network costsor in profit share, any of these
other things, I can't find itanywhere else. What's going to happen.
You're going to raise the cost ofhealthcare. So what happens is, you
know, now the carriers have gonein, and so they start with the
hospitals, and the hospitals that becausethat's where the bulk of the cost is

(18:41):
going to come from. They're like, hey, instead of us paying you
know, you one hundred dollars,we're going to pay you, We're going
to pay you four hundred dollars.And then so so for the same procedure
that we used to pay five thousand, now we're paying you know, thirty
thousand dollars for it. And thereason is because I would rather have fifteen

(19:03):
percent or thirty thousand than fifteen percentof five thousands, right, and so
I'm oversimplifying it. And then yeah, and so now you've got you know,
the all the major insurers, insurerslike United Healthcare there is literally the
largest employer of physicians in the nationnow, right, and so they've gone

(19:26):
up and bought up all these practices, so they're controlling costs and making money
that way. Right. So that'sjust like, that's I mean, that's
literally like you know, you're you'reyou got the fox in the henhouse,
right, because now I you know, the you know, the United Healthcare
Insurance is saying, oh, wellman, our physicians are raising great,

(19:48):
We've got to pay more and more. We'll guess what. On the flip
side, they're the ones that areraising the ring. You see what I'm
saying. So um, but youknow, look, there's it's not a
perfect world because it's not all theirfault either, by the way. I
mean again, it's legislation that drivesthem to do that. And you've got
shareholders. So I'm not even begrudginglysaying it's their fault. I think that

(20:11):
the challenges you know, this thisgoes to overregulation, right, and so
um, you know, we needa we need a competitive market and we
don't right now. And it's it'syou know, there's there's a lot of
issues and you know, and thenon the flip side, physicians in general,
um, you know, they werenot making a lot more money before,

(20:34):
right they were. You know,you look at a physician a physician
payment over the last thirty years,it's it's very um, it's very flat,
like we're talking, you know,single digit percentages over thirty years and
so you know, and their costsgo up because you have nurses and texts
and stuff that work for you.So so it's not you know, it's

(20:56):
like I said, it's it's nota simple problem, but it certainly was
magnified by Obamacare. Well, I'mtelling you this is such a fabulous idea.
And if somebody just jumped in atthe end of the show, this
is Shane FOSSi is the CEO ofHooray Health. And can you tell people
again how they can find out moreabout Hoorray Health. Sure, it's you

(21:18):
just go to Hooray Health dot comh O R A Y And unless you're
a marine, it's Hoorrah. Butotherwise otherwise for US Air Force guys,
it's Hooray Health dot com and wewe'd love to hear from you. And
right now, it is only forbusinesses correct correct, And then starting in

(21:41):
January, keep your eye out forus. We will be selling direct to
the consumer. So we are wewill have an individual product. You'll be
able to buy it on our website. Uh and uh, we're really excited
about that. Well, you're gonnahave to come back in January because this
is something that I think everybody's goingto be interested in because remember a long

(22:03):
time ago, when you made eightyor one hundred thousand dollars, it was
like a ton of money. Nownow when you have healthcare or if you
have a health issue and then yougo in, it's just it's never ending.
And so people they do need ahelping hand and Hooray Health could be
the very thing that saved them fromgoing under. And I just really appreciate

(22:27):
you coming on today. I hopethat you get the chance to come back
on next year because I really wantto hear how things are going. Awesome.
Well, thank you so much,it was great speaking with you,
and good luck