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In this episode Ron chats with Brad Kirkpatrick, Chief Commercial Officer at Hydrogen Health. Here, Brad does a deep dive into the founding and mission of Hydrogen Health. They offer virtual primary care that focuses on chronic condition management, urgent health, pediatric health, and mental health. He also discusses the importance of providing cost effective primary care that offers deep relationships with the provider and improves health outcomes.

With over 30 years in the healthcare industry, Brad has played key roles at healthcare start-ups and publicly traded companies, including Best Doctors, Healthways and Anthem. As Anthem’s Chief Client Officer, he led a team responsible for 300 national account clients and 4 million members. Brad brings his deep industry knowledge to Hydrogen to help lead employers and insurers in transforming the healthcare ecosystem.

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In this episode, Ron has chats with Grady Gibbs, Product Manager & Strategic Relationship Development at Evolve Medical Consulting, a consulting company that assists healthcare companies engage more doctors and helps doctors sell more products and procedures. Here, they dive into the reason why Grady loves the direct primary care model. He also discusses why he feels that ACOs are “dead”, what the Consolidated Appropriations Act is going to do to brokers that have to disclose all the millions they have been sweeping under the rug for themselves, and much more.

Grady Gibbs helps healthcare companies engage more doctors and he helps doctors sell more products and procedures. After a career in investment banking and finance, and a return to graduate school, Grady became an expert in applying statistics and research to consult on brand strategy for some of the largest marketers in the United States.

After launching a direct-to-consumer ad campaign for a drug company, he realized doctors needed more help than drug companies and began what is now an almost 20 year career serving doctors and helping them achieve the triple aim: good for the patient, good for the system, good for the doctor.

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In this episode Peter Hayes returns to the show to do a deep dive into his thoughts on the current state of CMS, hospitals, and more. He also discusses with Ron how purchasing alliances work and his thoughts on the ideal health plan design.

Peter Hayes currently the President & CEO of the Healthcare Purchaser Alliance of Maine and formerly a principal of Healthcare Solutions and Director of Associate Health and Wellness at Hannaford Supermarkets. He has been recognized as a thought leader in innovative, strategic benefit design for the past 25+ years. He has received numerous national awards in recognition of his commitment to working collaboratively with healthcare providers and vendors in delivering health benefits that are focused on value (high quality efficient care). He has been successful in this arena by focusing on innovative solutions for patient advocacy, chronic disease management, and health promotion programs.

Peter has also been involved in health care reform leadership roles on both the national and regional levels with organizations like Center for Health Innovation, Care Focused Purchasing, Leapfrog, co-founder of the Maine Health Management Coalition, and been appointed by two different Maine Governors to serve on Health Care Reform Commissions to recommend public policies to improve the access and affordability of health care for Maine citizens.

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In this episode Ron chats with Scott Haas & Erik Davis, Senior Vice Presidents at USI on their Healthcare Operational Risk Consulting Team. USI has served over 500,000 clients meeting their property & casualty, employee benefit, personal risk and retirement needs nationwide. USI works to understand the specific needs of their clients, to provide an unparalleled local service experience, and to innovate with cutting edge solutions so their clients can continue to invest and grow. Here, they do a deep dive into what makes their approach stand out from the competition to make them a top 10 national benefits firm. They also discuss how they work to design optimal plans, negotiate advantageous pricing, deliver preferred services and keep clients aware of market changes.

Erik has over 30 years of experience in the insurance and risk management industry.  Erik works to create an environment that supports the strategic managed care risk goals of an organization, while maintaining focus on compliance and financial accountability.

Erik is instrumental in vendor negotiations, data benchmarking, population

health strategies, claims analysis, recommendations in plan design and communication strategies. In this capacity, Erik has been involved with development of rates, payment structures and recommendations of changes in processes, policies and procedures. He has a broad understanding of contract analysis, evaluating risk, auditing for correct payment and structuring of excess loss and pharmacy programs.

Erik’s experience extends from overall employee benefits consulting to workers’ compensation, commercial risk, and Medicaid and Medicare Managed Care Organizations.

Erik earned his B.S. in economics from Oregon State University. He holds Accredited Advisor in Insurance (AAI), Certified Insurance Councilor (CIC), and Certified Risk Manager (CRM) designations.

Scott has over 35 years of employee benefits experience. His background includes the development and validation of care management programs; prescription benefit management (PBM) solutions; provider network evaluation, valuation, and negotiation; and underwriting. Scott started and operationalized a third-party-administrator (TPA) and a pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) platform from scratch. He has worked in the arena of alternative funding/risk management for most of his career.  Scott’s current role within USI is focused on consulting with entities at risk for Medicaid, Medicare and Commercial health insurance.

Scott has held officer-level positions within Blues plans and TPAs as Vice President of Sales and Marketing; Vice President of Underwriting; and President. Scott has also served as a trustee for both union and non-union health and welfare and pension plans.

Scott frequently shares his consulting expertise speaking at national events hosted by organizations such as the International Foundation of Employee Benefits; Health and Welfare Plan Management Conference; Western Pension and Benefits Council; and the Self-Insurance Institute of America. Scott has authored and co-authored articles on various topics over his career.

Scott earned his B.S. in Business Administration and B.S. in Economics from the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Scott also holds Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) and Registered Health Underwriter (RHU) designations.

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This episode features Randa Deaton, Vice President of Purchaser Engagement at Purchaser Business Group on Health (PBGH). PBGH is a nonprofit coalition representing nearly 40 private employers and public entities across the U.S. that collectively spend $350 billion annually purchasing health care services for more than 21 million Americans and their families. PBGH has a 30-year track record of incubating and scaling new, disruptive operational programs that lower health care costs and increase quality across the U.S. she discusses the work PBGH does, the importance of strong relationship with a primary care provider, direct primary care, and more.

As Vice President of Purchaser Engagement, Randa Deaton leads the PBGH Member Value team to engage purchasers in high-impact solutions to improve health care quality, affordability and equity.

Prior to joining PBGH, Randa served as the President and CEO of the Kentuckiana Health Collaborative (KHC), bringing more than 17 years of experience working directly with health care purchasers. She led the Corporate Community Health Initiative as part of the benefit strategy team for Ford Motor Company from 2004 to 2020. In her previous roles, Randa led the development of Kentucky’s first multi-payer primary care quality and public reporting, the Kentucky Core Healthcare Measures (KCHMS) and the KCHMS purchaser priority measurement set. She also launched the Healthcare Equity Advisory Committee.

Randa served as Vice Chair of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, Advisory Board Member of the University of Louisville’s School of Public Health and Information Sciences Advisory Board and Taskforce Member of the National Quality Forum’s (NQF) Driving Value through the Next Generation of Quality. Randa earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Indiana State University and her master’s in industrial/organizational psychology from Middle Tennessee State University.

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In this episode Ron chats with Benjamin Clinton, Deputy Superintendent of Raymondville ISD. Here, they discuss Raymondville ISD’s journey to find the right benefits for their district. Benjamin discusses how now that they found a super affordable and innovative package for their employees, they do much better with recruiting and employee retention. He also discusses some of the great healthcare innovations they have planned for their employees going forward.

Benjamin Clinton has been an educator for 18 years and the Deputy Superintendent of Raymondville ISD since 2018.  Before becoming Deputy Superintendent, he served as a Special Programs Director, High School Principal, and Social Studies teacher.  Dr. Clinton earned an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from Lamar University, and his research focused on providing employees with affordable group health coverage.  Benjamin holds a B.A. in Economics from Rice University and is a TASBO Registered Texas School Business Administrator.

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In this episode Ron brings Dutch Rojas back on the show. Here, they do a deep dive into the current state of healthcare benefits, digital health, venture backed healthcare startups, and many other aspects of American healthcare.

Dutch Rojas is a healthcare entrepreneur dedicated to making medical treatments affordable and accessible to all. Currently, he is the Chief Executive Officer of Sano Surgery, a bundled priced network as well as the Founder of Everyone Health, a consumer marketplace to purchase medical treatments. Dutch immigrated to the United States from the Netherlands and served in the US Marine Corps from 1995 to 2002.

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In this episode Doug Aldeen, General Counsel and ERISA Health Care Attorney, returns to the show. Here they do a deep dive into the current state of the healthcare industry and the impact COVID-19 has had on it. They also discuss the transparency laws, large employers finding better benefits brokers, and more.

Doug is an Austin, TX based health care and ERISA attorney who recently served as ERISA counsel on behalf of the Berkeley Research Group in New York City to the $7.7 billion May 2016 acquisition of Multiplan and its medical bill repricing product Data Isight by the private equity firm Hellman and Friedman. Since 1997, he currently and has represented reference base pricing organizations, a bundled payment software platform, PPO networks, medium to small self-funded plans, TPA’s and provider sponsored HMO’s  in various capacities including Herdrich v. Peagram which was argued before the United States Supreme Court in 2001. Moreover, he currently serves as a resource to national news organizations regarding issues on health care and in addition as a consultant with the Governmental Relations Committee at the Self Insured Institute of America in Washington D.C. and as an advisor to RIP Medical Debt which has abolished over $1.2 billion in medical debt.

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This episode features Sean K Mehra, Founder & CEO at HealthTap. Here they discuss HealthTap and their focus on being a virtual primary care platform that gives patients long term relationships with their doctor so that the doctor can focus on the holistic and ongoing care of each patient.

Sean is currently Founder & Chief Executive Officer at HealthTap, a nationwide virtual primary care clinic enabled by a leading consumer technology experience to provide a personal relationship to an affordable, long-term primary care doctor equitably nationwide to all Americans, with or without good insurance. Over the decade, Sean served various leadership roles at the organization, including COO and CPO, responsible for building the technology, team, and clinical operation which allow the company to deliver trusted doctor care and knowledge scalably and cost-efficiently.

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In this episode Ron chats with Mary Talley Bowden, Owner of BreatheMD. Here, they do a deep dive into how Mary stood up to the healthcare establishment and the Bigs to treat COVID-19 patients how she felt they should be treated and how she asked all the right questions when it came to treatments, vaccines, and censorship. She also discusses how the pandemic has shed light on many of the issues in the American healthcare system and how independent and direct care leads to better outcomes.

Dr. Bowden completed her residency at Stanford University and is board-certified in both Otolaryngology and Sleep Medicine. In 2003, she moved to Houston and worked with Drs. Kyle McCutcheon and Alasdair Gilchrist at Memorial Northwest Otolaryngology. She specializes in sinus, sleep and allergy disorders and treats both children and adults.

As a mother of four boys, Dr. Bowden has spent many years being on the other side of the doctor-patient relationship. Her frustrations with the traditional medical system inspired her to open BreatheMD in 2019, with the goal to simplify and improve patients’ office visit experiences. To optimize efficiency, she has included multiple therapeutic diagnostic modalities on-site so patients can leave her office with a treatment plan and feeling better. Access to her clinic is easy with ground-level parking and online appointment scheduling. Patients are expected to leave the visit feeling better, with medications and procedures available in her clinic.

BreatheMD is a cash-pay facility, and Dr Bowden has opted out of all insurance plans but keeps her prices fair and transparent. All prices for clinic appointments and surgeries are listed on our website. Patients are given an itemized receipt to submit to their insurance companies for reimbursement. If you are an employer who self-insures, please talk to us – we love working directly with businesses to help them provide affordable high-quality care to their patients.

Dr. Bowden is also interested in research and is currently working to publish her findings from recent COVID-19 testing. For a list of Dr. Bowden’s publications, please click here.

She is on the advisory team of FLCCC, is co-leader of the Houston chapter of the Free Market Medical Association, and serves on the advisory board at the Validation Institute.