Keep Your Doctors, Ditch the Big Carrier Networks | with Jarred Pierce

“The worst thing and last thing you want is a bunch of your employees complaining about, I don’t have access or my kid’s pediatrician’s not in the network.” - Jarred Pierce Most networks hand employers a directory and tell members to make it work. When employees lose their doctors, the complaints land on HR. In this episode, Jarred Pierce, co-founder of Unity Preferred Network, explains how he builds a network around each group’s claims data and the doctors its members already use. He’s been b

“They’re taking these 40, 50% increases because they just are afraid or don’t understand self-funding, and won’t move into an alternate risk environment.” - Carrie Cherveny Self-funding isn’t as complicated as it sounds. But collateral, captive managers, stop-loss contracts... most employers hear the jargon, tune out, and sign another big renewal. Carrie Cherveny, SVP of Alternative Risk at HUB International, joins me this week to explain self-funding in plain language, starting with why fully

“You talk to the janitor or the field worker making hourly pay and looking at these figures, knowing we better stay healthy this year, because there’s no way we can afford this.” - Sebastian Sanchez, RHSB In this episode of Last Month in Healthcare, Producer Nathaniel and I sat down with Sebastian Sanchez, benefits consultant at RHSB in Dallas, to break down the biggest healthcare news stories of October 2026. We started with Mark Cuban’s argument in Fortune that healthcare costs, not AI, are

“Rebates, I’ll go out on a limb and say, they’re almost inherently evil... Your sickest employees are paying for that rebate.” - Steve Ditto PBM rebates are sold as savings. Steve Ditto argues they do the opposite. Manufacturers pay for rebates by raising list prices, and members’ copays and deductibles are based on those inflated prices. The employer cashes the rebate check while its sickest members cover the cost. Steve spent 30 years as a healthcare consultant before the wrong $100,000 infu

“The idea with WellGenie is, what if we can increase access and remove the cost burden? Then we give the opportunity for people to not delay care.” - Chris Mathew, WellGenie Many employees have insurance they can’t afford to use. Every prescription, virtual visit, and specialist appointment costs them money, so they put off care until small problems become expensive ones. Chris Mathew joined me this week to explain how WellGenie makes everyday care free for each employee and up to four family

“Medical physicians are trained that [diabetes is] not reversible... Still to this day, I would say 95% of medical physicians do not know it’s reversible.” - Dr. Jeffrey Hockings, Diabetes Reversal Group Type 2 diabetes costs a self-funded employer about $15,000 a year per diabetic employee, and the standard of care is to manage it with medications for life. Dr. Jeffrey Hockings has spent almost 17 years showing it can be reversed instead. More than 10,000 people have reversed it on Diabetes Re