Chris Mathew, Chief Growth Officer at Well-Genie, joins Craig Andrews to reveal how his father’s tragic and avoidable death shaped his mission to transform American healthcare. With deep family roots in Kerala and a legacy of firstborn leadership, Chris channels that sense of duty into helping employers radically cut costs while increasing wellness benefits for their teams.

Chris doesn’t just talk cost savings—he proves it. Well-Genie offers unlimited $0 generics, discounted brand-name drugs, and wellness programs that bypass traditional insurance models. The results? Employers cut healthcare spend by up to 50% while improving retention with life-enhancing benefits like childcare and college scholarships.

His leadership is rooted in advocacy. Chris believes employees need champions in a system that prioritizes paperwork over people. By creating real alternatives to the broken status quo, he's helping businesses escape the trap of year-over-year rate hikes—and he's inviting others to do the same.

Want to learn more about Chris Mathew’s work? Check out their website at https://www.well-genie.com.

Connect with Chris Mathew on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismathew/.

Key Points with Timestamps

• [00:00:55] Introduction to Chris Mathew and his mission at Well-Genie.
  
  

• [00:01:33] Why rising healthcare costs are suffocating businesses.

• [00:03:00] Chris shares his Texas roots, Indian heritage, and family values of tradition and leadership.

• [00:11:00] The American dream and the courage it took for Chris's father to pursue it.

• [00:12:00] The heartbreaking story of his father’s preventable death and the lack of advocacy in healthcare.

• [00:15:00] Why the system is stacked against primary care physicians and patients alike.

• [00:17:00] Breaking the myth: how more services can actually lower costs.

• [00:18:59] Creating employer-driven health ecosystems that drive down costs and increase employee retention.

• [00:21:28] Shocking stats on rising family premiums and why it’s unsustainable.

• [00:23:00] How Well-Genie’s five-part wellness plan removes cost and increases access.

• [00:25:22] Real-world savings: $39 million reclaimed for one employer, $9 million returned to employees.

• [00:27:00] Exposing the role of pharmacy benefit managers and their hidden markups.

• [00:28:37] The “cartel” dynamic of health insurance and how it keeps prices inflated.

• [00:30:55] Preventing little problems from becoming big ones—why delayed care is costly.

• [00:32:00] Craig affirms Chris’s work as a “life raft” in a collapsing healthcare system.

• [00:32:20] Chris offers an open door: “Are you curious?” If so, reach out.

Transcript

00;00;05;20 - 00;00;30;20
Craig Andrews
I was in a coma for six weeks while the doctors told my wife I was going to die. When I woke up, she told me the most fantastic story. My team kept running the business without me. Freelancers reached out to my team and said, we will do whatever it takes. As long as Craig's in the hospital. I consider that the greatest accomplishment in my career.

00;00;30;23 - 00;00;51;07
Craig Andrews
My name is Craig Andrews and this is the Leaders and Legacies podcast where we talk to leaders creating an impact beyond themselves. At the end of today's interview, I'll tell you how you can be the next leader featured on this show.

00;00;51;10 - 00;00;55;24
Craig Andrews
Today I want to welcome Chris Mathew. He is the chief growth

00;00;55;24 - 00;01;27;06
Craig Andrews
officer at Well-Genie. They're a company that transforms the way employee employers support their teams through innovative and non-insurance wellness benefits. He has a passion for scaling high impact services and a track record in growth strategy. And you know, as a broader level, for those who have been listening to the podcast, you know, that we've had a number of people on that are doing new and different things in the health care space.

00;01;27;09 - 00;01;32;27
Craig Andrews
And if you're a business owner, your health care expenses are going up significantly.

00;01;33;00 - 00;01;47;27
Craig Andrews
As a matter of fact, it's probably the number two, or at least the number three line item in your budget. And it's going up probably faster than your revenue. And so this is something to an end because it will make a difference to your business.

00;01;47;29 - 00;01;49;25
Craig Andrews
Chris. Welcome.

00;01;49;27 - 00;01;53;01
Chris Mathew
Howdy, Greg. Thanks for having me.

00;01;53;03 - 00;02;04;16
Craig Andrews
That's funny to say how the end. So for those are listening on radio, I'm looking at an Indian face and I'm hearing a very Texas greeting, a very A&M greeting in your your and your,

00;02;04;16 - 00;02;05;09
Craig Andrews
maroon,

00;02;05;09 - 00;02;06;11
Craig Andrews
vest.

00;02;06;14 - 00;02;10;26
Craig Andrews
But you're, you're you're from Texas, but you're not from Texas.

00;02;10;28 - 00;02;11;10
Chris Mathew
Yeah.

00;02;11;13 - 00;02;13;03
Chris Mathew
Well, I'm I'm all of the above.

00;02;13;06 - 00;02;14;13
Chris Mathew
I am a malayali.

00;02;14;13 - 00;02;18;21
Chris Mathew
My family is originally from Kerala, the very southern tip of India.

00;02;18;24 - 00;02;22;25
Chris Mathew
But I'm born and raised in Texas. My brothers and I are first generation born here.

00;02;22;28 - 00;02;30;07
Chris Mathew
I did actually. I went to Texas A&M. How do big thing for us. And listen, my whole life, my boys everywhere we go.

00;02;30;13 - 00;02;44;19
Chris Mathew
We now live in Kentucky, actually. But even here we say howdy. And my boys say, how do people. Because what we've found, Greg, is what do you say? How do you people that just it's hard for them not to be able to say hi back or howdy back. And,

00;02;44;21 - 00;02;47;13
Chris Mathew
at least it is for us.

00;02;47;15 - 00;02;56;10
Craig Andrews
Y you know, it's like how there's a unique greeting frame by who graduated from A&M. And when I hear that, I think I'm probably talking to an A&M grad.

00;02;56;13 - 00;03;00;10
Craig Andrews
Why do you think that's not used elsewhere in Texas?

00;03;00;13 - 00;03;11;25
Chris Mathew
I don't know. You know, so much of Texas A&M is about tradition. Which is a weird thing because that's kind of a common theme throughout a lot of my life. There's a lot of tradition.

00;03;11;28 - 00;03;21;23
Chris Mathew
Family is just part of that, that Aggie Land culture and the tradition there in Aggie Land. But for me, it just it brings me joy to say hi to people.

00;03;21;26 - 00;03;31;09
Chris Mathew
And, and I go out of my way to say hi to people and hello to people because I, I appreciate when someone does that for me. And so I always try to do that for others.

00;03;31;12 - 00;03;39;22
Chris Mathew
There's a lot of great traditions that come out of Texas A&M, but but how does definitely one that I use on a daily basis all the time.

00;03;39;24 - 00;03;43;19
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Now, Carol,

00;03;43;21 - 00;04;02;06
Craig Andrews
is a fascinating part of India. And, you know, for us, for us Americans, you know, we see this big country and we're like, okay, there's a whole bunch of Indians there. We don't understand the difference between different parts of India, but the little bit that I've learned, Kerala is absolutely fascinating.

00;04;02;08 - 00;04;11;12
Chris Mathew
It is. It is fascinating. India is fascinating. You know, I don't know the exact number of how many different languages are spoken today. It's over 20 different languages.

00;04;11;15 - 00;04;27;07
Chris Mathew
So it's one country, but it is a massive country as well. So Kerala is from the very it's on the very southern tip on the western tip. So the way kind of you think about India coming down to a point on the western part of that point is the state of Kerala.

00;04;27;10 - 00;04;36;13
Chris Mathew
And there are so many interesting facts. For example, Kerala is a democratically elected communist government.

00;04;36;16 - 00;04;37;19
Craig Andrews
Oh that's weird.

00;04;37;22 - 00;05;04;08
Chris Mathew
Open elections all the time. Lots of parties run. The communist government works and it works. There. Because there really is this concept of taking care of each other, taking care of your neighbor. That is prevalent throughout the state of Carol. Carol also has this is a remarkable number an over 90% literacy rate throughout Kerala.

00;05;04;10 - 00;05;05;15
Craig Andrews
Which is the highest in India.

00;05;05;16 - 00;05;29;27
Chris Mathew
It's the highest in India, which is wild. When you like, think about what would be. What would Texas be like? What would our country be like if we had a 90% literacy rate in in our communities? It'd be remarkable. And so for for the reason that happened, there's there's a lot of schools. Everyone is given free education. And because of that, a lot of those schools are from the church community.

00;05;29;29 - 00;05;39;04
Chris Mathew
So the largest concentration of Christianity throughout all of India is in Kerala. Now, even in Kerala, Christianity is still the third,

00;05;39;07 - 00;05;43;04
Chris Mathew
most popular religion is still Hinduism. It's still,

00;05;43;04 - 00;05;56;11
Chris Mathew
Islam and then Christianity. But the way that the missions and missionaries from way back when came, they all set up schools and all of the kids in Kerala get to go and have this great education.

00;05;56;11 - 00;06;02;27
Chris Mathew
And so because of that, education is absolutely the key to be able to climb out and to rise above,

00;06;02;27 - 00;06;05;00
Chris Mathew
your previous situation.

00;06;05;03 - 00;06;29;00
Chris Mathew
So everyone in Kerala gets this education, and because of that, there's a lot of tolerance for Christianity. And again, there's a coexistence of the Christian churches, the Eastern Orthodox churches, the Muslim temples and the Hindu temples, that there's just this dance where it all kind of it all works, you know, throughout the rest of India, you've got a very large Hindu population.

00;06;29;03 - 00;06;47;21
Chris Mathew
It's it's hilarious when when we go back to India, which we go back often because, again, the majority of my family is still there. My dad came here in 1971 to pursue the American Dream, but he was the oldest of nine. All of his brothers and sisters remained back in Kerala. And so I have lots of first cousins and

00;06;47;21 - 00;06;50;11
Chris Mathew
same thing with my mom as well.

00;06;50;13 - 00;07;02;00
Chris Mathew
When we go back, we see this great dance of all these different religions and languages that take place. But there's also a lot of tourism that comes to Kerala because it's a beautiful part of the country.

00;07;02;03 - 00;07;19;21
Chris Mathew
But also because in Kerala, because Christianity is is accepted there, a lot of people come to Kerala to be able to eat meat because we eat meat and to have a drink and to have a good time and to let loose a little bit, because lots of the other parts of the country don't necessarily indulge in that.

00;07;19;21 - 00;07;25;15
Chris Mathew
So there's a really it's a phenomenal place. I hope someday you get the chance to go. It's,

00;07;25;15 - 00;07;27;13
Chris Mathew
it's really beautiful.

00;07;27;15 - 00;07;34;29
Craig Andrews
Well, and from what I understand, the first Western boot print was on a beach in Kerala.

00;07;35;02 - 00;07;38;23
Craig Andrews
As opposed to elsewhere, and. Well.

00;07;38;26 - 00;07;48;23
Chris Mathew
I've not heard that story, but but yes, I that makes total sense to me. So, you know, the storyline, the narratives that that I've heard in my life growing up, when Saint Thomas left,

00;07;49;01 - 00;07;55;23
Chris Mathew
Syria, the first place that he kind of came to spread Christianity was a very southern tip of Kerala,

00;07;55;26 - 00;07;58;17
Chris Mathew
that brought lots of other travelers and lots of other,

00;07;58;21 - 00;08;00;18
Chris Mathew
folks that followed in those footsteps.

00;08;00;18 - 00;08;08;19
Chris Mathew
So it would it would absolutely make sense to me that the first, boot footprint could have been on a Kerala shore.

00;08;08;21 - 00;08;11;14
Craig Andrews
The thing was, Vasco de Gaulle,

00;08;11;20 - 00;08;23;16
Craig Andrews
I forgot as I forgot the part after Gama, but, yeah, he that's that was something I read. And basically Columbus was looking for India and just didn't realize it was a whole nother ocean away.

00;08;23;20 - 00;08;26;06
Chris Mathew
Like it's from wrong Indians.

00;08;26;08 - 00;08;26;27
Craig Andrews
Yeah.

00;08;27;00 - 00;08;27;28
Chris Mathew
Yeah.

00;08;28;01 - 00;08;32;08
Craig Andrews
Oh, cool. And so your dad, your dad moved to the U.S. when he was,

00;08;32;08 - 00;08;33;28
Craig Andrews
in 1971.

00;08;34;00 - 00;08;41;00
Chris Mathew
Yeah. So his uncle had come in 1970, and his uncle was the youngest,

00;08;41;02 - 00;08;42;26
Chris Mathew
of his family.

00;08;42;29 - 00;08;47;22
Chris Mathew
And my actual grandfather was his eldest brother. My grandfather had helped,

00;08;47;25 - 00;08;58;08
Chris Mathew
all of his siblings try to rise up and find pathways to be able to pursue all the things that they wanted to as a tribute to his oldest brother.

00;08;58;10 - 00;09;03;09
Chris Mathew
My great uncle sponsored my dad to come to the U.S. in 1971. My dad had,

00;09;03;12 - 00;09;14;23
Chris Mathew
as the oldest kind of the way in India. If you're the oldest, you're going to inherit everything, right? And then if your responsibility, Craig is the oldest, it's your responsibility. Then take care of the rest of the family. My,

00;09;14;26 - 00;09;16;09
Chris Mathew
great grandfather was the oldest.

00;09;16;09 - 00;09;23;10
Chris Mathew
My grandfather was the oldest. My dad was the oldest. I'm the oldest. And now my, my 11 year old son is the oldest. So this,

00;09;23;10 - 00;09;24;20
Chris Mathew
generation is just, you know,

00;09;24;22 - 00;09;26;26
Chris Mathew
firstborn being boys.

00;09;26;29 - 00;09;39;12
Chris Mathew
My grandfather helped his youngest family that, his younger siblings, that great uncles sponsored. My dad. My dad knew if I leave India, I'm leaving the birthright of what I.

00;09;39;14 - 00;09;42;24
Chris Mathew
You know, I'm. I'm not going to inherit the family business,

00;09;42;27 - 00;09;46;24
Chris Mathew
because I want to chase this American dream. And for him, that was that was,

00;09;46;24 - 00;09;49;29
Chris Mathew
a worthwhile endeavor. So my grandfather,

00;09;50;02 - 00;09;59;10
Chris Mathew
my father's father, split up the family business to the rest of the brothers. My dad was given the opportunity to come to the US and chase the American dream.

00;09;59;10 - 00;10;26;28
Chris Mathew
And I'm here to tell you that I'm the product. I. I'm, you know, by no means am I living the 1% of the U.S., but I'm living the 1% of the world. Given just one generation ago. My parents are from what were back then. Villages. They're small communities and cities now. Maybe I don't even know if we call them a city quite yet, but where I could have absolutely just been a kid,

00;10;27;01 - 00;10;33;14
Chris Mathew
grown up on a dirt road, kicking a soccer ball without shoes on like I see back in Kerala all the time.

00;10;33;17 - 00;11;00;15
Chris Mathew
And there's a lot of modernization that's happened in the last 40 years, but that could have very easily been my life. My parents came here, they chased the American dream. They sacrificed a lot to do that, leaving everything they've ever known. My brothers and I think about this like, I think about this a lot. Do I have the courage to give up everything that I know and move to the opposite side of the world, to chase a possibility of a dream?

00;11;00;18 - 00;11;24;15
Chris Mathew
I don't know if I have that kind of courage. I mean, I want to say that, you know, maybe it's inherent in us, but I have courage in some ways. You know, I'm an entrepreneur, and so that I'm a risk taker, my family, they they were risk takers. And it worked out. My brothers and I again, are all doing different things, but all have found great passion in what we're doing and have also found a way to earn,

00;11;24;15 - 00;11;32;15
Chris Mathew
a decent living and provide for our families and still take care of and support a lot of our family back home in India, which is the ultimate gift.

00;11;32;17 - 00;11;37;20
Craig Andrews
Wow, wow. Well, what's what's your dad doing now?

00;11;37;22 - 00;11;40;03
Chris Mathew
My dad is actually passed. Oh.

00;11;40;05 - 00;11;41;06
Craig Andrews
I'm sorry.

00;11;41;08 - 00;11;43;02
Chris Mathew
That's okay. You didn't know?

00;11;43;05 - 00;11;44;16
Chris Mathew
My father passed.

00;11;44;16 - 00;12;02;00
Chris Mathew
In February. Will be 12 years and in a way, his passing is part of the catalyst of why I do what I do now. And I have a lot of different, startup experiences. But my father passed away when he should not have,

00;12;02;03 - 00;12;07;09
Chris Mathew
my dad went to his his primary care doctor that he had a relationship with for 25 years.

00;12;07;11 - 00;12;26;27
Chris Mathew
He went in feeling really terrible, complaining of chest pain, went in, saw his doctor, shared all that and said, hey, can we do an EKG? They found any they did the EKG, they found the right bundle blockage. But the physician dismissed it, said, it's not a big deal. There's 20% of people are walking around with this. It's not that big of a deal problem.

00;12;26;27 - 00;12;44;17
Chris Mathew
Greg. When an over 65 year old diabetic whose father died of a heart attack comes in complaining of chest pain, and you do an EKG and you find the right button, the blockage, you send that patient to the hospital right away. Hindsight is what it is. But that's not what happened.

00;12;44;20 - 00;12;53;16
Chris Mathew
My dad, my dad had. He was dismissed, sent home, came back a few days later complaining like, I really feel terrible.

00;12;53;19 - 00;13;12;00
Chris Mathew
They gave him some cough sirup with codeine to say this. This should help. But you'll be fine. He came back in for a third visit. This is ten days now. After the first time, he'd come in and says, I really feel I'm feeling terrible. They put a pulse oximeter on it, right? You know, the finger clip.

00;13;12;03 - 00;13;29;07
Chris Mathew
And they could not identify his pulse. They still dismissed it and sent him home. To not identify someone's pulse is a shocking. It should be a shocking alarm. You should be able to be like, this is a red flag here. Something's going on. But

00;13;29;09 - 00;13;34;24
Chris Mathew
there's a ceremony. That night, my wife and I were having dinner. I called my dad.

00;13;34;26 - 00;13;47;28
Chris Mathew
He sent me the voicemail, but he sent me a text saying, hey, I'm just. I'm too tired to talk. I feel really bad. I feel like I'm done. And I wrote back, you're not dying. I'm going to see you tomorrow.

00;13;48;01 - 00;13;54;24
Chris Mathew
An hour later, my mom called and dad was gone. This that has obviously rocked my world.

00;13;54;24 - 00;14;11;24
Chris Mathew
Brought my whole family's world. The thing that I've taken away from it that I now use as fuel and energy. And what I'm doing today with, well, genius. It all distills down to advocacy for people, especially in their health care.

00;14;11;26 - 00;14;15;19
Craig Andrews
Yeah. And I can tell you personally,

00;14;15;22 - 00;14;22;28
Craig Andrews
I mean, I think we've talked a little bit about my story. It's it's a miracle that I'm alive. I should be dead. And,

00;14;23;01 - 00;14;36;13
Craig Andrews
and thankfully, my wife was in the hospital advocating for me. I mean, they missed blood transfusions and things like that. And the only reason I got those was she was there advocating.

00;14;36;16 - 00;14;40;22
Chris Mathew
And so grateful that your wife was able to do that for you. Yeah.

00;14;40;22 - 00;15;00;09
Chris Mathew
I think advocacy is is critically important, right. For my dad, then a 25 year relationship, he wasn't going to question his doctor. Also, culturally, there's just there's some things that, you know, physicians are and and I'm I'm pro physician. I'm all about physicians being wildly successful in this,

00;15;00;11 - 00;15;02;12
Chris Mathew
ecosystem of health care.

00;15;02;14 - 00;15;25;17
Chris Mathew
They were not going to challenge the physician. My mom wasn't going to challenge a physician. Truth be told, I didn't know about any of this that was taking place until after the fact. So it was hard to be able to to know what to do, especially given the status of health care. Today, when you go see your doctor or most people go see their doctor, that doctor's looking at a screen, and it's not because they don't want to have a relationship with you, right?

00;15;25;18 - 00;15;47;15
Chris Mathew
I, I look at primary care in particular. If you choose to be a primary care teacher, it's like this. It's like a similar pathway if you're choosing to be a firefighter or a teacher, that you're not doing it to make all the money in the world. You're doing it to make incredible impact for people. So that primary care physician, I believe she got into this to create relationship and connection with people.

00;15;47;17 - 00;16;10;26
Chris Mathew
But the system around primary care and physicians and health care is has been by put into place with huge insurance companies and huge companies and big, complicated pharmacy companies that have put all this regulation where a physician is moving at this crazy rate, they barely have the opportunity to really connect with you, because that's primary care doctor to make the dollars and cents makes sense.

00;16;10;28 - 00;16;25;13
Chris Mathew
They got to see 40 patients a day. I will never be convince Greg that anyone can say that quality care is being rendered to 40 people a day. It's just right. It's it's just too transactional, right?

00;16;25;16 - 00;16;36;23
Chris Mathew
An advocate is a person that can be able to slow things down and help you navigate these things and ask right questions and be able to make sure that you're getting the second opinions and you're getting the clarity and understanding.

00;16;36;23 - 00;16;44;22
Chris Mathew
And, you know, I wish I could have done that for my dad. I wish I could do that to take away that pain for my family. I can't,

00;16;44;25 - 00;16;50;25
Chris Mathew
my pathway is now trying to do this so that other people don't have to go through the same thing.

00;16;50;27 - 00;17;05;02
Craig Andrews
So here's here's what I'm I'm struggling will help me get through this. So you mentioned that you take cost out of health care and everything I'm hearing. It sounds like more services. When I think more services, I'm thinking more cost.

00;17;05;09 - 00;17;09;01
Chris Mathew
Yeah. They seem like they're in total contradiction.

00;17;09;04 - 00;17;31;02
Chris Mathew
And I get that. The reality is that's because we've all been conditioned by the big insurance carriers that everything has to be incredibly expensive when the reality is there are smart ways to have direct contracts, there are smart ways to be able to increase services and dramatically lower costs. Here's a prime example.

00;17;31;04 - 00;17;33;05
Chris Mathew
I was listening to a podcast yesterday.

00;17;33;08 - 00;17;34;29
Chris Mathew
Dave Chase from the Health Rosetta,

00;17;35;05 - 00;17;39;22
Chris Mathew
organization Health Workers that is doing amazing things. He was interviewing a,

00;17;39;22 - 00;17;51;04
Chris Mathew
VP of HR for a manufacturing company called Pfizer in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. They've gone down this path and manufacturing in particular, doesn't always have necessarily the best risk,

00;17;51;07 - 00;17;53;02
Chris Mathew
of employee population.

00;17;53;04 - 00;18;13;26
Chris Mathew
So, no, normally manufacturers can just expect their premiums to go up every single year. Like always, this organization put together these types of strategies and tools that some of which we have here. Well, Jeanie and for five years they have flat renewals. And then this next year they're having a 7% decrease.

00;18;13;28 - 00;18;15;24
Craig Andrews
So flat meaning the price didn't go up.

00;18;15;28 - 00;18;35;17
Chris Mathew
The prices did not go up. It stayed flat. But they offered more services. And not only do they offer more services now, again this next year, they're expecting a 7% decrease in their health plan spend. But here's the most amazing part. This VP of H.R talked about how they now offer scholarships to the employees children's to go to college.

00;18;35;19 - 00;18;59;16
Chris Mathew
They offer childcare for the employees who have young children that need childcare services. They were able to implement multiple million dollar machine upgrades to their organization. And they're providing all of this because they put their hand on the wheel and said, we are going to help steer and control the cost of our health care because they've done that.

00;18;59;22 - 00;19;24;09
Chris Mathew
They've essentially lowered their health care spend by nearly 40 or 50%. That is creating this ecosystem for them, that manufacturer, to be an employer of choice. But what I love even more about this gentleman and this health project, a mindset is it doesn't have to just be limited to one employer and one group of employees. What if we build a whole community like this?

00;19;24;11 - 00;19;47;14
Chris Mathew
What if we created a community owned health plan? What if we had lots of businesses like this? In my opinion, this is economic development 3.0. If we can put really smart health care solutions in place, then all of the employers can say, we want to recruit the very best and the brightest talent out there. And one of the ways you do that to recruit and retain is offer an incredible benefit package.

00;19;47;18 - 00;19;59;29
Chris Mathew
But if you're incredible, benefit Package offers great health care solutions and you can add these incredible things like college tuition for your employees and their their young students, childcare,

00;20;00;02 - 00;20;15;14
Chris Mathew
additional services to be able to make life richer for your employees, you're going to not only retain these people, but you're going to create a line of people that want to come work for you and become an employer of choice, which is absolutely the goal.

00;20;15;16 - 00;20;23;08
Craig Andrews
So what does now? And that makes so much sense? That makes incredible sense. And the,

00;20;23;08 - 00;20;41;15
Craig Andrews
you know, it's I think to everybody it's clear health care costs are just going up astronomically. And you know, I'm for businesses. You know, I the numbers I hear most businesses are seeing 20, 25% year on year increases on their health costs.

00;20;41;17 - 00;20;59;11
Craig Andrews
And unless their profit dollars are growing more than that, more than 20, 25% a year, they've got a problem. What are you guys doing? Was was well, Jeannie, do what's your engagement?

00;20;59;13 - 00;21;28;23
Chris Mathew
The the the I want to comment on one thing. The Kaiser Family Foundation just put out a survey, but maybe last month or first thing this month. Just in the last six weeks. And part of what they highlighted was that family premiums for family health insurance have gone up 365% in the last 25 years. Yeah. And so that's not that's also with employers taking some of that cost as well.

00;21;28;25 - 00;21;48;08
Chris Mathew
So it's not that the employers are giving all of that increased cost to the family. The employers have been taking some of that burden. But then shifting a lot of that for a family to have a 365 today, I think the numbers around a family can expect about $26,000 a year that they're going to spend on health insurance premiums, credit.

00;21;48;08 - 00;22;13;26
Chris Mathew
That doesn't mean that they're even using the insurance, right? Because you still got to hit your deductible. And then when you do hit your deductible, you still got to pay the 20% coinsurance. So then all of a sudden it's like, you know, when people delay care, I feel people, I don't feel great, but I feel fine. I feel good enough because I don't have $8000 or $6000 or $10,000 from that family high deductible health plan.

00;22;13;29 - 00;22;34;24
Chris Mathew
I can't hit that. Right. So I'm paying this $26,000 for insurance on the off chance that I get hit by a truck and I got something that'll cover me if I end up in a really bad situation. So what? All that screams to me is that this is unsustainable, and it is robbing people of the chance for their own American dream.

00;22;34;26 - 00;22;38;03
Chris Mathew
And that is what we're trying to be able to combat.

00;22;38;05 - 00;22;40;23
Craig Andrews
Yeah. So what do y'all do was well, you do.

00;22;40;25 - 00;23;03;04
Chris Mathew
So there's we are. And you mentioned this really. We're a nontraditional wellness platform. We're not traditional insurance. Nothing that well, Janie does hits a traditional insurance health plan. So a company pays premiums and the insurance company pays the claims. If the claims are higher than the premiums, they're going to come back and say so. Sorry, Greg, I got to give you a 25% increase.

00;23;03;06 - 00;23;32;13
Chris Mathew
But what if we can actively remove spend from those health plan claims? Then the employer is in that position to say, I want to negotiate premium reductions for the employer, but also for the family. So the way that we do that is across five areas. And and our program covers an employee and four household members. So five people are covered for the five things that we do, the first thing we do is we offer unlimited generic medications for $0.

00;23;32;15 - 00;23;54;17
Chris Mathew
You go to any local pharmacy, you show the well to any card. You pick up, your acute medication, you pay $0 if you're taking a chronic care medication. We're going to mail that chronic medication directly to you, a 90 day supply. And again you're going to pay $0 for it. Our formulary is not all generic medications, but it's represents 93% of the most prescribed generics.

00;23;54;23 - 00;24;13;05
Chris Mathew
So while it's not all it's more than just a majority. And again, all of that $0 second thing we do is we offer brand medications for 30 to 60% off what the traditional standard rates are that are happening across the country. The way we do that is we source with one of the three largest,

00;24;13;08 - 00;24;18;24
Chris Mathew
pharmacy wholesalers here in the US, and we also have the opportunity for,

00;24;18;27 - 00;24;24;07
Chris Mathew
personal importation from a brick and mortar pharmacy in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

00;24;24;10 - 00;24;41;28
Chris Mathew
So we're not sourcing from India or China or Turkey or Israel or anywhere else. Right? It's coming from just our friends north of the border. If that employer is open to that, if they're not, then we source just directly in the US. But again, the quick example I'll give you, there's one particular state that,

00;24;41;28 - 00;24;49;14
Chris Mathew
an employer that has 70,000 employees, we did a data analysis on their brand medications there.

00;24;49;14 - 00;25;22;22
Chris Mathew
And this is remarkable. Greg, on just 12 medications, we're going to help this employer recapture $39 million annually. And we're going to return $9 million annually back to those employees who are taking those 12 medications, because we wipe out their co-pay. That's the amount of markup that is in this industry right now, that we can neutralize those things and help that employer reinvest those funds back into their core agenda of growing their business and taking care of their people.

00;25;22;24 - 00;25;25;24
Craig Andrews
Now, is some of that like,

00;25;25;26 - 00;25;30;18
Craig Andrews
there is a drug and I'm not going to say the name on the podcast, but deals with,

00;25;30;18 - 00;25;32;16
Craig Andrews
oh, like skin issues.

00;25;32;19 - 00;25;45;27
Craig Andrews
And the one that was the prevailing drug went off patents. They, they just made a twist to the formula and they rolled out the new one. Are you getting people off the new one onto the one that just rolled off?

00;25;46;04 - 00;26;08;21
Chris Mathew
No, sir. So are the medications, the 12 brand medications that we're going to deliver for this employer? It's the exact medications. It's it's seven from the same manufacturer. It's the same box. It's the same dosage. It's not a biosimilar. It's not a compounded version of the drug. It is the brand medication just not delivered.

00;26;08;24 - 00;26;18;04
Chris Mathew
1,000% markup of what traditional PBMs and the current status quo allows drugs to get created.

00;26;18;06 - 00;26;19;16
Craig Andrews
And you just show you some lingo.

00;26;19;16 - 00;26;26;24
Chris Mathew
PBM pharmacy benefit managers, which act as a third party intermediary,

00;26;26;27 - 00;26;50;07
Chris Mathew
they're supposed to be looking at making sure that a pharmacy can obtain a certain medication from a drug manufacturer at a reasonable rate. The ugly truth is that there are there's so much markup. I can offer you a 20% discount, and that sounds great, but not when I've marked up the initial drug 10,000%.

00;26;50;10 - 00;27;08;12
Chris Mathew
So 20% discount sounds great, but what was the original cost? And that's the kind of stuff that's being hidden and and masked throughout this industry. This is why health insurance on the premium on the carrier side, but also on the pharmacy side, is an a runaway train. Right now.

00;27;08;15 - 00;27;31;04
Craig Andrews
Yeah. I mean, one of the things that I've learned as I've interviewed you and others on the podcast is one of the things that's driven up. The cost was the medical loss ratio, which basically says, and I know there's two different numbers, let's just deal with the 80% number. Basically 80% of premiums have to go to claims. Right.

00;27;31;08 - 00;27;53;21
Craig Andrews
And so the health care exacts, you know, the insurance exacts they won't get pay raises. So the only way for them to get pay raise is to jack up the claims and pay out more in claims. But my understanding is that there's some some of the pharmacy benefit managers that have are in kind of cahoots, you know, maybe even earned by,

00;27;53;21 - 00;27;57;15
Craig Andrews
I think there's one that actually owns one of the major, you know, was,

00;27;57;15 - 00;27;59;14
Craig Andrews
bukas, you know, one of the major,

00;27;59;17 - 00;28;01;04
Craig Andrews
insurers.

00;28;01;06 - 00;28;08;01
Craig Andrews
And so there's no limitation, there's no medical loss ratio on the pharmacy benefit managers. They just run the profits through that.

00;28;08;03 - 00;28;37;12
Chris Mathew
That's right. So it's not just one, Greg. All the bukas on a PBM. They have this what they call vertical integration. What I referred to. And this may seem too extreme, but it's it's more like a cartel. They're they're completely undermining what the principles of this were all set up for was to increase access to care and make it easier for people to go pursue health care and prevent little things from becoming big things.

00;28;37;14 - 00;28;54;00
Chris Mathew
But this thing has been a runaway train. The medical loss ratio, they're only allowed to make 15 to 20% profit. Well, if you're only allowed to make 15 to 20% profit, let's just say on $1 million. And I want to make more than just 20% on $1 million. But then I need I need to make the pie bigger.

00;28;54;01 - 00;29;01;15
Chris Mathew
I need to make a $10 million. Well, okay. Great. We we were successful. How do we make that 10 million? 100 million? How do we make it now?

00;29;01;18 - 00;29;07;25
Chris Mathew
4.5 trillion, which is actually the number is actually even higher than 4.5 trillion,

00;29;07;28 - 00;29;15;02
Chris Mathew
on what we spend in health care in the US, which is wild given the, the ranking of the outcomes that we have.

00;29;15;02 - 00;29;39;21
Chris Mathew
But you're right, the unintended consequence of the medical loss ratio is that people have now allowed themselves to just blow up the cost of claims. And so this increasing premium increase for all of us makes no sense. But also, none of us thought there's anything we can do about it. There are a lot of business owners and CEOs and CFOs are like, what choice do I have?

00;29;39;23 - 00;29;55;00
Chris Mathew
I could I can jump from one buca to the next, I can leave Blue Cross and I can go to United. And then next year I'm going to leave. You know, I didn't go to Cigna and the year after I'll just go to anthem and and then you just keep doing this move because someone's going to say, hey, I got to give you a 25% increase.

00;29;55;02 - 00;30;31;11
Chris Mathew
And then when they settle on a 14% increase, you think you won. Yeah. What you don't realize is why. Who justify the 25% increase? Based on what? Based on the drug that you were taking that they were charging you $80,000 for, that you could have purchased for $400. I know that seems insane and ridiculous, but the markup on some of these medications I've seen, an 80,000 drug and $80,000 drug for one, one dose that we can we can deliver for $3,600.

00;30;31;13 - 00;30;55;08
Chris Mathew
Yeah, that's a massive difference, right. And all of those things, those little things add up to the big things. And what we're trying to do is we're trying to prevent that financially, but also for the medical, for the for the human side of it. I want to prevent little things from becoming big things. I want someone to be able to go see a physician and get the appropriate care, get the right care at the right time, in the right place, and for the right price.

00;30;55;11 - 00;31;19;27
Chris Mathew
That's the goal of what well, Jeanie is doing. There's there's three other solutions that we have. But when we to bring all five of our solutions together, we're increasing access to care. And we're removing the cost per we offer unlimited utilization across all five of our solutions. So there's not a cap on it. And also I've removed the barrier of entry because there's no cost to the home.

00;31;19;29 - 00;31;32;07
Chris Mathew
Right. And so when you can do remove those things then you can make it easier for people to access care and not delay care. And and when you delay care, that's when that little thing becomes the big thing. Because

00;31;32;07 - 00;31;48;04
Chris Mathew
that high, you know, that high blood pressure pill that we could start taking right now could prevent ten months from now, Chris having a massive heart attack and ending up in the hospital for four days, having surgery, not only the financial impact, the emotional impact on Chris and his family and everything else that happens from that.

00;31;48;04 - 00;31;49;25
Chris Mathew
So.

00;31;49;28 - 00;31;54;27
Craig Andrews
Well, Chris, this is this is really I mean, this is fascinating. I love what you're doing.

00;31;55;00 - 00;32;02;20
Craig Andrews
I've told other people like you that I believe you're building the life raft. The trajectory we're on, it's not sustainable.

00;32;02;22 - 00;32;07;19
Craig Andrews
Medicare is going to be insolvent in 2032. And,

00;32;07;23 - 00;32;14;14
Craig Andrews
and so we need to turn the curve around, and you're one of the people doing it, and you're doing it for businesses.

00;32;14;17 - 00;32;18;13
Craig Andrews
How can people reach you?

00;32;18;15 - 00;32;19;28
Chris Mathew
Really? These very easy.

00;32;19;28 - 00;32;20;24
Chris Mathew
Chris.

00;32;20;27 - 00;32;25;02
Chris Mathew
Well, hyphen jeannie.com is my email. I want to,

00;32;25;02 - 00;32;43;06
Chris Mathew
there is no conversation I'm not willing to engage in. My requirements are simply. Are you curious? Is there a way to to stop this runaway health care train the expenses that are taking place? If you're curious, that's all I ever need, you know, because then we can talk through it.

00;32;43;08 - 00;33;04;21
Chris Mathew
If people have resolved, like, listen, the juice is not worth the squeeze. Like, I know I'm overpaying for my my health care and charging my employees more and but that's not my problem. I'm not here for that population of people, because there's only so much that we can do. Right? If people are curious and are saying this is no longer sustainable, I want to do more for my people.

00;33;04;21 - 00;33;10;17
Chris Mathew
But also I expect more from my organization. I'm available. My email,

00;33;10;20 - 00;33;29;11
Chris Mathew
I've been on LinkedIn for a long time, so I'm just LinkedIn.com forward slash and forward slash. Just Chris Mathew. And as a malayali from Kerala, my last name is spelled a little different. Mathew is only with one T and no s, so just on LinkedIn, just Chris, Mathew, Matt.

00;33;29;14 - 00;33;37;02
Chris Mathew
Between those two places, I'm try to be somewhat active on LinkedIn, but I'm I'm, I live in my inbox a lot and

00;33;37;05 - 00;33;45;13
Chris Mathew
again, I love to show people that there is a way to be able to do more and pay less. And I think that it's,

00;33;45;13 - 00;33;48;25
Chris Mathew
it's a way to really, again, reinvigorate the American dream that I,

00;33;48;29 - 00;33;51;22
Chris Mathew
I've been very blessed to experience firsthand.

00;33;51;24 - 00;33;55;08
Craig Andrews
Well, Chris, thanks for sharing your story. Leaders and legacies.

00;33;55;10 - 00;34;03;14
Chris Mathew
Thank you, Greg, appreciate you.

00;34;03;16 - 00;34;25;06
Craig Andrews
This is Craig Andrews. I want to thank you for listening to the Leaders and Legacies podcast. We're looking for leaders to share how they're making the impact beyond themselves. If that's you, please go to Ally's for me.com/guest and sign up there. If you got something out of this interview, we would love you to share this

00;34;25;06 - 00;34;27;01
Craig Andrews
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00;34;27;03 - 00;34;50;13
Craig Andrews
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00;34;50;15 - 00;34;58;20
Craig Andrews
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00;34;58;20 - 00;35;09;01
Craig Andrews
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