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Welcome to our new monthly podcast series, Last Month In Healthcare! Each month, producer Nathaniel joins me to discuss the previous month's podcasts, headlines, and listener-submitted questions.

This episode covers healthcare news from February 2025, including:

- the start of the Make America Healthy Again commission

- executive orders to make healthcare prices more transparent

- beef tallow fries at Steak 'n Shake

- telehealth advertising and GLP-1 statistics

- the FTC lawsuit against huge PBMs- American's wariness about AI in healthcare

- allowing AI to prescribe medicine

- a bipartisan bill to allow HSA dollars to be used for direct primary care

Chapters:

0:00 - Intro

1:09 - The Self-Funded Review

8:40 - Healthcare Headlines

30:40 - Ask Spencer Anything

"I think that's the difference with a contagious community. Like, I want to bring other people that I like into this community." - Scott Smith

Scott Smith, President of True Network Advisors, joins the show for a third time for this podcast filmed at his boathouse in Guntersville, Alabama.

Scott and I talked about contagious communities, which Scott defines as a community that people want to share with other people in their life. We also talked about Scott’s list of paradoxes, why he calls his wife “Miss Hot Dog”, creating genuine relationships in life and business, and why authentic expression is so important to both of us.

This is the longest podcast we’ve ever released, but also one of the most engaging, and Scott is always a fascinating person to talk to.

Tune in this week to Self-Funded with Spencer to learn about what it takes to create a contagious community!

Chapters:

00:00:00 How to Build a Contagious Community | with Scott Smith
00:12:19 What’s in a name?
00:16:36 Scott’s definition of a “contagious community”
00:24:46 Organic growing an engaging community
00:36:27 Cultivating positive community experiences
00:40:09 Building a culture of kindness
00:46:33 Creating genuine relationships in business and life
00:57:48 Should we worry about our own legacies?
01:06:29 Dealing with the negativity that comes with building anything
01:16:37 Why authentic expression is so important
01:23:10 The burden of choice

Key Links for Social:

@SelfFunded on YouTube for video versions of the podcast and much more - https://www.youtube.com/@SelfFunded

Listen on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1TjmrMrkIj0qSmlwAIevKA?si=068a389925474f02

Listen on Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/self-funded-with-spencer/id1566182286

Follow Spencer on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/spencer-smith-self-funded/

Follow Spencer on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/selffundedwithspencer/

Key Words:

Contagious Community, Contagious Communities, Creating Communities, Community Building, Relationship Building, Legacy, Free Speech, Paradox Of Choice, Positive Communities, podcast, healthcare, health insurance, self funded, self funding, self funded health insurance, self funded insurance

#ContagiousCommunity #ContagiousCommunities #CreatingCommunities #CommunityBuilding #RelationshipBuilding #Legacy #FreeSpeech #ParadoxOfChoice #PositiveCommunities #podcast #healthcare #healthinsurance #selffunded #selffunding #selffundedhealthinsurance #selffundedinsurance

"Reversing obesity, reversing diabetes is possible. You don't just have to manage a chronic condition." - Steve Hastings

Steve Hastings, Leader of Health Plans at Virta Health, joined me to share Virta’s strategy to help members reverse type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, and obesity. He also shared their findings on just how important food is to our overall health and the power it has as medicine.

If you’ve listened to pretty much any episode of Self-Funded with Spencer, you’ve heard my thoughts on the importance of healthy nutrition and eating, and how so many of America’s chronic health problems are due to what we eat. Steve shared how they put together effective plans that actually work to help people lose weight, and keep it off, without using GLP-1s or other drugs. And, if a member needs GLP-1s, they work to create a strategy to make sure the drug is effective and they can maintain that weight loss.

Join us on Self-Funded this week to learn how it’s possible to reverse diabetes and obesity!

Chapters:

00:00:00 Meet Steve Hastings
00:02:53 Food As Medicine
00:07:47 Membership-based Primary Care
00:15:29 Nutrition-Based Reversal of Diabetes and Obesity
00:17:35 America’s Obesity Health Crisis
00:20:03 Long-term Health Goal Support
00:27:42 Tailored Nutrition Plans To Reverse Diabetes
00:35:55 Mental Health Improvement From Weight Loss
00:49:00 Optimizing Health Outcomes Through Food

Key Links for Social:

@SelfFunded on YouTube for video versions of the podcast and much more - https://www.youtube.com/@SelfFunded

Listen on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1TjmrMrkIj0qSmlwAIevKA?si=068a389925474f02

Listen on Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/self-funded-with-spencer/id1566182286

Follow Spencer on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/spencer-smith-self-funded/

Follow Spencer on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/selffundedwithspencer/

Key Words:

Nutrition, Primary Care, Reversing Diabetes, Reversing Obesity, Diabetes, Obesity, Obesity In America, Behavior Change, Individualized Nutrition, GLP1s, GLPs, Ozempic, semiglutides, Food As Medicine, Wellness, podcast, healthcare, health insurance, self funded, self funding, self funded health insurance, self funded insurance

#Nutrition #PrimaryCare #ReversingDiabetes #ReversingObesity #Diabetes #Obesity #ObesityInAmerica #BehaviorChange #IndividualizedNutrition #GLP1s #GLPs #Ozempic #semiglutides #FoodAsMedicine #Wellness #podcast #healthcare #healthinsurance #selffunded #selffunding #selffundedhealthinsurance #selffundedinsurance