Aug 28, 2025

PBGH member employers collectively spend over $350 billion a year on healthcare. And per Elizabeth Mitchell, 30% of that spend disappears in the middle — not reaching providers, not improving health — just gone into administrative spread, misaligned fee structures, and the cost of a system that was never designed...

Aug 21, 2025

Across the country, self-insured employer teams are waking up to the fact that "I trusted my consultant" is not a legal defense. Not under ERISA. Not under the Consolidated Appropriations Act. And the lawsuits — J&J, Wells Fargo, Tiara Yachts versus Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Osceola County — are making it...

Aug 14, 2025

The negative healthcare flywheel spins on one axle: employers buying discounts. Discounts create no incentive for health systems to control prices, no incentive to invest in primary care, and no way to know what anything actually costs. The flywheel just keeps spinning. In Part 2 of this conversation, Jonathan Baran...

Aug 7, 2025

A 9% healthcare renewal is celebrated as a good year. But 9% is three times the rate of inflation, and it's not going to doctors or nurses — physician compensation has been flat or declining, and nursing strikes are evidence enough of what's happening there. So where does the money go? Jonathan Baran has a very clear...

Aug 7, 2025

When Stacey Richter and Jonathan Baran dig into the incentive structures driving healthcare costs, there is an important caveat: the individuals working inside large health systems, carriers, and benefit consulting firms are not the same as the organizations they work for. A C-suite decision to pursue margin at the...