1514: Get Off the Hamster Wheel: : Steps Employers Use to Control Healthcare Costs and Improve Outcomes with Charles W. Gragg
Charles Gragg is an accomplished healthcare benefit solutions strategist, consultant, and author with over four decades of experience inside the American health insurance industry. Having worked in virtually every aspect of health insurance claims management, brokering, risk, and employer consulting, Charles is renowned for guiding CEOs and HR leaders to reclaim control over one of their company’s largest operating expenses: employee health insurance. His bestselling book, “Get Off the Hamster Wheel: An Employer’s Guide to Controlling His Second Largest Operating Expense,” is transforming how business owners approach group health plans for long-term savings and better employee outcomes.
In this episode of Marketer of the Day, Charles joins Robert Plank to expose the myths and hidden costs plaguing employer health insurance. Drawing on his unique vantage point as an industry insider turned transparency advocate, Charles unpacks actionable strategies to shift from overpriced, opaque insurance models to self-funded, outcome-driven plans. He explains how employer ignorance, market consolidation, and entrenched carriers (“the cartel”) conspire to keep costs high and what leaders can do to fight back. Discussion covers stepping away from traditional carriers, hiring independent third-party administrators, leveraging technology and analytics, educating employees, and how reference-based pricing benchmarks real savings. Charles shares riveting success stories, practical challenges, and the essential mindset shift required for sustainable change.
Quotes:
“Employers must know where every dollar is going and I will account for it for you.”
“The only way to control the cost is to control owning the business.”
“You can't just keep doing what you've been doing and expect a different result. That’s insanity.”
Resources:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:29 — 37.7MB) | Embed
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