Dr. Keith Smith literally changed my life. As a "broker" selling employee benefits I stumbled on another podcast (way back when) where Dr. Smith was the guest and transparency was the subject of the day. It shook me out of my comfort zone and led me to the advisor I am today.

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

01:27 How I came to know Dr. Keith Smith

03:05 The Shiftshapers Podcast, Episode 164. That's where I heard the shot Dr. Smith fired around the world.

04:36 This story may surprise you

05:07 Pardon the misspeak there...I meant to say January of 2019. My bad!

07:00 Compare your surgery claims data to the fairly priced, free market, undiscounted, bundled and guaranteed cost on the Surgery Center of Oklahoma's website.

08:39 OMG! The insurance carrier fired the client! What?

10:05 Your insurance carrier has a lot to hide. Trust me.

10:40 What is employer-built healthcare? Find out here: mitigatepartners.com

11:09 Insurance companies hang their hat on their PPO network. But is that even a real benefit to you?

11:25 PPO networks are the ultimate participation trophy

12:25 Dr. Smith and I share the distinct honor of being fired by a carrier

14:23 Joining a PPO network was not only a mistake, it was like inviting a cancer into our organization.

15:10 Generally, prices at Surgery Center of OK (surgerycenterok.com) are about 1/5 of what insurance companies charge to the plan.

15:39 Most of the time the carriers don't want high quality and fair pricing because it's counterproductive to their revenue model

16:11 SCO will file claims as a courtesy but many times patients find that the entire fee they paid at SCO is lower than their deductible on their insurance plans

17:06 When the ACA was passed deductibles were allowed to skyrocket and those patients are "functionally uninsured"

17:22 Check out SHOPHEALTH at fmma.org

20:00 Watch this webinar

21:26 Don't believe the balance billing lie

22:15 Well, they were partially right

24:22 Now the client agrees their plan is actually a benefit, as opposed to before when their plan was only benefitting the insurance company

26:50 Waiting room story. BTW, I don't wait in waiting rooms any longer. I have Direct Primary Care.

30:00 State of Oklahoma could have saved $200M but they caved to special interests

32:15 A good lesson to learn is to just NOT work with entities who are dishonest (aka not transparent)

32:53 There's a gold nugget here! Instead of using "leverage" to get better prices (like your broker or insurance company is telling you), it's much smarter to engage in a mutually beneficial exchange

33:13 That's all for today! Join us again next time to #letsfixhealthcare, www.custombenefits.work.