[S2E18] Dr. Lisa Larkin: Menopause Is Costing Your Company More Than You Know

[S2E19] Healthcare Big Ideas

We Already Have a Framework That Could Fix Healthcare Everyone complains about the healthcare system. Fewer people are willing to name what needs to change and how. This episode does both. Vincent Catalano sits down with Peter Hayes, recently retired president and CEO of the Healthcare Purchaser Alliance of Maine and former Director of Associate Health and Wellness at Hannaford Supermarkets, and Lawrence Thompson, founder and CEO of Benefit Systems Inc. and a nearly five-decade veteran of the payer, TPA, and self-insurance industries, for a wide-ranging conversation on what it would actually take to fix American healthcare -- on the insurance side, the provider side, and the financing side. The three cover a lot of ground: national licensing, association health plans, a Medicare-based national PPO, banning carrier ownership of providers, equal-nation drug pricing, hospital rate caps, the 340B federal drug program, broker compensation reform, and the administrative cost burden crushing physicians and hospitals alike. Larry drops data on what happens when providers are paid faster -- and how that alone could drive 30 to 35 percent discounts from physicians and similar reductions from hospitals. Peter shares a real story from his days managing Hannaford's self-insured plan that turned a million-dollar failure into a Wall Street Journal feature -- and sparked a national conversation on quality-driven benefit design. And when Vincent asks about brokers, Larry doesn't pull the punch. Thirty-eight years after writing a paper on it, he makes the case again: healthcare brokers should be paid like every other professional advisor -- flat fee, full stop. The framework exists. The question is whether anyone has the will to use it. About Our Guests Peter Hayes recently retired as president and CEO of the Healthcare Purchaser Alliance of Maine, and is formerly a principal of Healthcare Solutions and Director of Associate Health and Wellness at Hannaford Supermarkets. Recognized as a national thought leader in strategic benefit design for more than 25 years, he has been appointed by two different Maine governors to serve on healthcare reform commissions and is a co-founder of the Maine Health Management Coalition. He has served on advisory boards for Express Scripts, DFINITY Health, and others, and has been involved in national organizations including the Center for Health Innovation, Care Focused Purchasing, and Leapfrog. Lawrence Thompson is the founder and CEO of Benefit Systems Inc., a healthcare consulting and solutions firm he launched in 2002. With nearly five decades in the industry, his career spans payer, TPA, reinsurance, stop-loss, and consulting -- including serving as President of Pomco, Inc., one of the largest independent TPAs in the US (which he sold to UnitedHealth in 2017), Chief Commercial Officer of HealthNow New York overseeing $2.8 billion in annual P&L, and Chief Strategy and Revenue Officer at Advanced Medical Pricing Solutions. He founded and grew his own TPA in California and Arizona to 120,000 members before selling it in 2001, and has been a licensed broker since 1978. He is a past Chairman of the Self Insurance Institute of America and spent more than 20 years lobbying on Capitol Hill for the self-insurance industry. About Your Host Vincent Catalano is the CEO and Founder of CLEAR Healthcare Solutions and host of the CLEARly Beneficial Podcast. With more than 23 years of experience in employee benefits and healthcare consulting, Vincent has worked for two of the top 10 international brokerages, served clients ranging from 2 to 7,500 employees, served on insurance carrier advisory councils, and built relationships across health systems, health insurers, medical groups, TPAs, and brokerages. In recent years he has become a dedicated student of healthcare system reform, point solution integration, alternative funding models, and medical and pharmacy cost transparency. He holds an MBA from the UC Davis Graduate School of Management and a BA from Skidmore College. He launched the CLEARly Beneficial Podcast to bring the expertise of his network to brokers, HR professionals, employer decision-makers, and anyone navigating a system that too often works against the people it is supposed to serve. Disclaimer: This podcast reflects the personal views of the host and guests, not their employers or sponsors. Subscribe and Connect * Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/clearly-beneficial-podcast/id1844420953 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/clearly-beneficial-podcast/id1844420953] * Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0FDXss9G3m5sKwCuokJyAI [https://open.spotify.com/show/0FDXss9G3m5sKwCuokJyAI] * Subscribe on Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/043dc7d0-8535-4175-bd37-81c0e7f60aa1/clearly-beneficial-podcast [https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/043dc7d0-8535-4175-bd37-81c0e7f60aa1/clearly-beneficial-podcast] * Subscribe on Substack: https://substack.com/@clearlybeneficialpodcast [https://substack.com/@clearlybeneficialpodcast] * Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CLEARlyBeneficialPodcast [https://www.youtube.com/@CLEARlyBeneficialPodcast] * Connect with Vincent on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vcatalano [https://www.linkedin.com/in/vcatalano/] * CLEAR Healthcare Solutions website: https://clearhcs.com/ [https://clearhcs.com/]

[S2E18] Dr. Lisa Larkin: Menopause Is Costing Your Company More Than You Know

Your most experienced employees may be quietly struggling with symptoms that are treatable. And your benefits plan probably isn't covering it. Dr. Lisa Larkin, MD, FACP, MSCP, IF, a nationally recognized women's health internist, founder and CEO of Ms. Medicine, and Past President of The Menopause Society, joins Vincent Catalano to examine what untreated menopause actually costs employers — in productivity, retention, and workforce exit — and what a better benefits strategy looks like. They cover why the traditional insurance-based model is structurally incapable of addressing midlife women's health; how direct care and concierge models are filling the gap; the limits of telemedicine and AI as substitutes for relationship-based care; and what forward-thinking employers are doing differently right now. About Dr. Lisa Larkin: Dr. Lisa Larkin, MD, FACP, MSCP, IF, is a nationally recognized women's health internist with over 35 years of clinical experience. She is the founder and CEO of Ms. Medicine, a national network of 30 women's health specialists across 17 practices in 10 states, and founder and CEO of Concierge Medicine of Cincinnati. She is the founder and Executive Director of HERmedicine, an education nonprofit reaching clinicians in all 50 states and 37 countries, and a Past President of The Menopause Society. Dr. Larkin has been featured in CNN, the New York Times, O Magazine, NPR, and SiriusXM's Doctor Radio. About Vincent Catalano: Vincent Catalano brings over 23 years of employee benefits experience as an independent consultant and host of The CLEARly Beneficial Podcast. His unique position outside corporate constraints allows him to have frank conversations about healthcare issues that others in the industry won't. Disclaimer: The information provided in this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal, financial, or professional advice. Listeners should consult with qualified professionals regarding their specific situations. Subscribe & Connect: YouTube: @CLEARlyBeneficialPodcast [https://www.youtube.com/@CLEARlyBeneficialPodcast] Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/clearlybeneficialpodcast [https://open.substack.com/pub/clearlybeneficialpodcast] Website: www.clearhcs.com [http://www.clearhcs.com]  This episode is a reprise of season 2 episode 9.

[S2E17] Vincent Catalano: Healthcare Systems Are Not Going to Save You

The healthcare system is not designed to make things easy for you. Pricing is opaque, incentives are misaligned, and the default pathways are almost always the most expensive ones. Most people discover this the hard way, after the bill arrives. In this solo episode, Vincent Catalano reads and unpacks an article he wrote for TheAdvocates.org, developed in partnership with Diamond Michael Scott. The piece is called “Healthcare Systems Are Not Going to Save You” and it delivers exactly what the title promises: practical knowledge that puts you in the driver’s seat of your own healthcare. Vincent walks through five terms every insurance plan holder must know cold, the 80/19/1 breakdown that defines where most people actually fall on the healthcare cost spectrum, the 2 AM test for avoiding the most expensive door, and why the HSA remains one of the most powerful and underused financial tools in the entire system. He also covers what the uninsured actually have available to them, how to negotiate a hospital bill, and why your EOB, not the hospital invoice, is the number that matters. None of this requires a policy degree. It requires the willingness to treat your own healthcare decisions with the same deliberate attention you would give any major financial commitment. Read along here: https://www.theadvocates.org/healthcare-systems-are-not-going-to-save-you/ [https://www.theadvocates.org/healthcare-systems-are-not-going-to-save-you/] About Your Host Vincent Catalano is the CEO and Founder of CLEAR Healthcare Solutions and host of the CLEARly Beneficial Podcast. With more than 20 years of experience in employee benefits and healthcare consulting, Vincent brings the kind of direct, no-filter perspective that corporate brokerages simply cannot offer. He has held senior roles at firms including Arthur J. Gallagher, and built CLEAR Healthcare Solutions to help employers, brokers, and HR professionals navigate a system that too often works against the people it is supposed to serve. Subscribe and Connect * Subscribe on Substack: https://substack.com/@clearlybeneficialpodcast [https://substack.com/@clearlybeneficialpodcast] * Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CLEARlyBeneficialPodcast [https://www.youtube.com/@CLEARlyBeneficialPodcast] * Connect with Vincent on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vcatalano/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/vcatalano/] * CLEAR Healthcare Solutions website: https://clearhcs.com/ [https://clearhcs.com/]

[S2E16] Dr. Ralph Snyderman: Fixing Healthcare While the Plane Is Flying - What Comes Next

American healthcare is broken in a way everyone can see but almost no one has been able to fix. The system was built around treating disease episodes and it has created an epidemic of preventable chronic conditions, costs that are eating employers alive, and patients who get lost the moment a diagnosis lands. Dr. Ralph Snyderman has spent decades at the center of this problem and at the forefront of solving it. As Chancellor for Health Affairs at Duke University for 16 years and the founding President and CEO of the Duke University Health System (one of the first major integrated academic health systems in the country) he has seen what works, what doesn't, and why the transition from fee-for-service to value-based care is harder than it looks. In this episode, he and Vincent Catalano dig into what that transition actually requires: a new approach to care that is proactive and personalized rather than reactive and episodic, a care delivery system designed to match patients to the right level of care, reimbursement aligned with outcomes, and support systems that enable patients to do their part. They also discuss the groundbreaking work underway in Arkansas, where Alice Walton and the Heartland Whole Health Institute are building a whole-health model from a near-blank slate — and what it would mean if it scales. If you manage benefits, advise employers, or simply want to understand where American healthcare is actually headed, this conversation is the one to hear. About Dr. Ralph Snyderman: Dr. Ralph Snyderman is Chancellor Emeritus, James B. Duke Professor of Medicine, and Executive Director of the Center for Personalized Health Care at Duke University. He served as Chancellor for Health Affairs and Dean of the School of Medicine at Duke from 1989 to 2004, overseeing the development of the Duke University Health System — one of the most successful integrated academic health care systems in the country — and serving as its founding President and CEO. Dr. Snyderman has played a leading role in the conception and development of personalized healthcare and has been widely recognized for his contributions to more rational, effective, and compassionate care. The Association of American Medical Colleges has referred to him as the "father of personalized medicine." He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, with a bibliography of nearly 400 manuscripts and numerous books, including A Chancellor's Tale: Transforming Academic Medicine. He is also a founder and board member of Zeal Care, a population health company. About Vincent Catalano: Vincent Catalano is the founder and CEO of CLEAR Healthcare Solutions, bringing over 23 years of experience in employee benefits and healthcare consulting, including senior roles at Arthur J. Gallagher and Lockton. As host of the CLEARly Beneficial Podcast, he cuts through the complexity of the American healthcare system to bring brokers, HR professionals, and employer decision-makers the conversations that matter. This episode is brought to you by HealthNEXT. HealthNEXT helps employers build cultures of health and well-being that reduce healthcare costs, enhance workforce productivity, and create sustainable competitive advantages through data-driven population health strategies. 🎧 Listen to the podcast here or on your favorite platform: * Substack: https://clearlybeneficialpodcast.substack.com [https://clearlybeneficialpodcast.substack.com/]  * YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CLEARlyBeneficialPodcast [https://www.youtube.com/@CLEARlyBeneficialPodcast]  Disclaimer: This content is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute medical, legal, or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional for guidance specific to your situation.

[S2E15] Chris Fisher: What 500+ Benefits Pitches Taught Me

Brokers are drowning in meeting requests. Vendors think they have the next great solution. And somewhere in the middle, the best ideas in employee benefits never get a fair shot because nobody has time to figure out who's actually worth listening to. Chris Fisher built Benefits Ally to fix that. As the creator of the 3x3x3 Challenge, an on-demand elevator pitch format where vendors get 3 questions, 3 slides, and 3 minutes to explain what they do, how they're different, and who they're right for, Chris has seen over 500 vendor pitches and developed a clear-eyed view of what separates the real ones from the noise. In this episode, Vincent Catalano sits down with Chris to pull back the curtain on what actually works in benefits vendor communication, why so many point solutions fail to break through despite having good ideas, and what brokers and advisors are really thinking when a new vendor shows up in their inbox. Chris also shares why anonymity matters for advisors evaluating solutions, how Benefits Ally became a level playing field for startups and Fortune 500 vendors alike, and what vendors get catastrophically wrong when they say they're a good fit for everyone. If you're a broker, consultant, HR leader, or a vendor trying to get in front of the right people, this one will change how you think about trust, messaging, and what it actually takes to earn a seat at the table. About Chris Fisher: Chris Fisher is the Founder of Benefits Ally and the creator of the 3x3x3 Challenge, an on-demand elevator pitch for the employee benefits industry. In a market full of confusing, too-long, lookalike messaging, Chris is known as a straight shooter who pushes vendors to explain what they do, how they're different, and who they're right for in 3 questions, 3 slides, and 3 minutes. Built around the idea of "3 minutes to earn 30," the format gives brokers, consultants, HR leaders, and other benefits professionals a faster way to decide whether a deeper conversation is worth having. Chris speaks on what's broken in benefits communication, why so much industry messaging sounds the same, and what it takes to keep building when the personal side of life gets heavy. About Vincent Catalano: Vincent Catalano brings over 23 years of employee benefits experience as an independent consultant and host of The CLEARly Beneficial Podcast. His unique position outside corporate constraints allows him to have frank conversations about healthcare issues that others can't address. This episode is brought to you by HealthNEXT. HealthNEXT partners with employers to transform their employee health benefits through innovative, results-driven solutions that prioritize both cost savings and improved health outcomes. Disclaimer: The information provided in this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal, financial, or professional advice. Listeners should consult with qualified professionals regarding their specific situations. Subscribe & Connect: YouTube: @CLEARlyBeneficialPodcast  Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/clearlybeneficialpodcast  Website: www.clearhcs.com