Bonus Add-on: Honoring Those in Healthcare Who Are Trying Every Day to Do the Right Thing, With Jonathan Baran

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 expense of mission is not a democratic vote. Most people working inside these organizations don't fully know what's going on — and some are working against it every day. This short bonus clip, released alongside EP483 Part 1, is a plea on behalf of those people. Jonathan Baran, co-founder and CEO of Self Fund Health, makes the case that attacking stakeholders rather than incentive structures is both unfair and counterproductive — because we need the people inside these organizations to be part of the solution. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN ✅ Why Jonathan Baran's goal is to name behaviors and incentives rather than attack individuals — because understanding why a stakeholder behaves a certain way is the prerequisite to changing anything about how the system works ✅ Why the majority of people inside large healthcare organizations do not actually understand the full impact of what their organization is doing — and why healthcare reform depends on more of them figuring it out ✅ Why identifying completely with the stakeholder you work for is an obstacle to improvement: if every critique of an organization's incentive structure is taken as a personal attack, the conversation about root causes can't happen ✅ Why the RHV tribe — the people inside these organizations who are trying against personal and professional odds to do better for patients — are the knights in this story, and why they deserve to be honored rather than lumped in with the organizations whose leadership may be making different choices WHY THIS MATTERS This clip pairs with EP483 Part 1 on the healthcare flywheel. The flywheel analysis names what the incentive structures are doing. This clip names what they are not doing: determining the intentions of every individual inside those organizations. Charlie Munger's quote cuts both ways. Show me the incentives, and you can explain the behavior. But the behavior of an organization is not the same as the values of every person in it. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE EP483 (Part 1) with Jonathan Baran: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Other Apps === LINKS === 🔗 Show Notes with all mentioned links: Episode Page ✉️ Enjoy this podcast? Subscribe to the free weekly newsletter 🫙 Support the podcast with a small donation to the Tip Jar 🎤 Listen on Apple Podcasts 🎤 Listen on Spotify 📺 Subscribe to our YouTube channel === CONNECT WITH THE RHV TEAM === ✭ LinkedIn ✭ Threads ✭ Bluesky ✭ X 00:00 Introduction. 03:11 A brief background on Jonathan and Self Fund Health. 04:24 Why is it imperative that individuals stop identifying wholly with the organization that they work with? 05:48 Why is it important to be direct and call out the behavior without calling out the individual?