Founding A Healthcare Startup (with Russell Pekala)

"I think the more questions the employer asks, and just the deeper that they're willing to think about this and have already thought about it, the more they're able to buy into this mission." - Russell Pekala Russell Pekala, co-founder of Yuzu Health, joined me in studio for this week’s episode focused on controlling pharmacy costs and emergency claims. Yuzu Health is a startup in the TPA space aiming to change how the claims process work. Rather than having the member get care and then deal with lowering costs after the fact, Yuzu pre-adjucates claims when possible, issuing a credit card to members to pay for care and avoiding huge bills on the backend. In addition to the claims talk, Russell and I chatted about his Harvard days, what founding a dating app was like, and the ramen-related health accident that pushed Russell into the healthcare startup space. Chapters: 0:00 - Meet Russell Pekala 5:53 - Working On A Dating App At Harvard 08:26 - The Art and Science of Stop Loss Insurance 18:47 - Yuzu's Innovative Startup Health Insurance Solution 20:44 - How Did Yuzu Get Started? 21:45 - Improving Healthcare Transparency and Accessibility with Yuzu 28:48 - Navigating Pharmacy Costs with SmithRX 32:51 - Revolutionizing Emergency Claims in Healthcare 39:26 - Employers Seeking Alternative Healthcare Approaches 54:26 - Revolutionizing healthcare through predictive wearables 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: #healthcare #healthinsurance #startups #technology #costcontrol #pharmacy #employers #predictivedata #wearables #futureofinsurance #selffunded #podcast healthcare, health insurance, startups, technology, cost control, pharmacy, employers, predictive data, wearables, future of insurance, self funded, podcast