264 - HR buys healthcare for half of America, but the system’s broken — here’s how to “moneyball” it

Brandon Weber, Co-founder & CEO of Nava Benefits, joined us on The Modern People Leader.We talked about why benefits have become the second-largest company expense — and how HR can “moneyball” their healthcare spend, cut down on benefits-related admin work, and deliver better employee outcomes through the emerging “alt marketplace.”---- Nava Links:🔗 Learn more about Nava.MPL Links:🔗 Buy your ticket for MPL Live Austin.🔗 Go sign up for MPL Build.---- (07:07) Brandon’s Founder Journey and 10-Month Sabbatical Spark(14:06) The Broker as Market Maker: Distribution Problem in Employer Healthcare(16:27) Why Benefits Are Strategic: From Cost Center to Business Lever(18:28) Benefits Jumped to #2 Company Expense and a Talent Magnet(20:53) HR Holds the Healthcare Purse Strings for Half of America(21:15) Being Strategic with a Small People Team(21:39) Explosion of Benefits Complexity (from ~6 to ~20 offerings)(26:47) Status-Quo “Stockholm Syndrome” and Breaking the Cycle(28:51) 2025 Renewal Pain Driving Change(31:02) Automating Benefits Admin(33:11) The “Alt Marketplace” of Health Plans, PBMs, and Point Solutions(33:39) Examples of "Alt Marketplace": Garner Health Network Design; Sidecar Health Price Transparency(40:58) Agentic Future: Auditing Carrier Bills and Auto-Remediation(42:18) Renewal Season AI: From Spreadsheet Chaos to Real-Time Scenario Modeling(43:16) Zapier Example: Benefits Help Desk and the Real Cost of Repeated Questions(45:06) Nava’s AI Strategy for HR: Support, Admin Automation, Smarter Spend(47:35) “Moneyball” Your Benefits Spend with Data Science(48:06) Why Brokers’ 20-Year Spreadsheets Fail HR and CFOs(51:05) Rapid Fire Questions---- 📬 Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get episode recaps💡 Follow The Modern People Leader on LinkedIn😊 Follow Daniel Huerta on LinkedIn😊 Follow Stephen Huerta on LinkedIn---- Past guests on MPL include Brené Brown, Annie Dean (VP of Team Anywhere, Atlassian), Josh Bersin, Katie Burke (Chief People Officer, Harvey), Liz Fosslien, Helen Russell (Chief People Officer, HubSpot), Dave Scott (Chief People Officer, ADT), Melanie Rossenwasser (Chief People Officer, Dropbox), Crystal Boysen (Chief People Officer, Sprout Social), and many more.