It is with excitement and more than a little trepidation that I share the launch of my new project, the Illuminate HR Podcast. What started as an idea to capture, and share, the great Employee Experience and Human Resources conversations we are all a part of everyday has resulted in learning a new skill and title of “Podcast Host”.
Over the years, I have had the opportunity to have, and listen into, some amazing conversations with incredibly smart people in and around HR. From veterans, to fresh faces, founders, consultants and thought leaders, I have found there is much to be learned by listening to passionate people.
The concept is simple; short (usually no more than 20 minute) conversations with interesting people in the Human Resources space. I hope you will join me on this adventure.
Listen now or tune in and subscribe using your favorite playeriTunes | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify | RSS
Last but not least, a huge thank you to Lumity, Inc. for sponsoring this first season and making this initiative a reality.

An article in the New York Times last year grabbed readers’ attention with its haunting headline: “Go to the Wrong Hospital and You’re 3 Times More Likely to Die”. The piece was penned following the release of a comprehensive study that examined the vast disparity of patient outcomes (22 million in all) from facility to facility- all over the country.

​As an employee benefits professional, the report immediately caught my attention. The topic of patient outcomes and evaluation is one that me and my colleagues have been grappling with for years. Hospitals are risky places, and the hard truth of the matter is that patients have very limited resources outside of personal or provider referrals to help them gauge surgeons and facilities ahead of operation day.

Today, I’m excited to announce that I have joined on with MPIRICA as a member of its Advisory Board. The company’s platform is nothing short of a critical solution in a healthcare ecosystem that lacks sincere evaluation methods. It has all the potential to be the industry game changer. But don’t take my word for it. If you’re in the employee benefits space, head over to MPIRICA’s website and see what it can do for your people.

Nate ​
Founder and President

We live in the age of Big Data. It’s become so prevalent in helping us as consumers that we hardly pay it much attention in our daily lives. Whether we’re relying on Amazon to show us a selection of books that might suit our interests to Google serving up content squarely aimed at our online consumption habits, making complex decisions is easier than ever thanks to deep analytics.

Big data helps us just about everywhere nowadays except in our healthcare choices. Instead of leveraging information that is applicable to us, we’re stuck in aMonty Hall problem wondering which options are best and keeping our fingers crossed that our decisions are the right ones: pick door 1, 2 or 3 hope you don’t end up with a goat.

When it comes to healthcare, the lack of personalized support doesn’t help us predict or answer complex health outcomes for ourselves or our families. This dilemma is made worse by the increasingly complex healthcare environment that requires cost management strategies; whether it’s high deductible health plans, health savings accounts, premier networks, reference based pricing, or complex and confusing drug formularies, there’s no shortage of consumer questions that could be readily answered with individualized insight.

Imagine bringing the same techniques and technologies that we already use when shopping for goods to the healthcare space. Obeo Health is doing just that. Obeo Health’s solutions change how employees engage with their healthcare choices by utilizing sophisticated algorithms that combine the employee’s specific historical health information with millions of bits of provider data.

I am excited to join forces with Obeo Health in an Advisory role. Their evaluation and comparison tool is the best I have seen in the market, but that’s not the spark that enthuses me most. They have a smart platform that combines advanced prescriptive analytics and personal health data to give more transparency and control to users.

By using historical data and prescriptive analytics, they give employees the tools to compare, evaluate and model the cost and quality of their healthcare options. They also help them decode the Explanation of Benefits (EOB), check healthcare billing for accuracy, and provide personalized education- all using plain language that clearly describes each concept and reinforces ideas and values with simple graphics, charts and diagrams.

If you are interested in learning more, check out the Obeo Health Founders Statement, learn about their solutions, or reach out to me to discuss.
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Nate