Get to the Root Podcast

What if employers stopped asking only how much healthcare costs and started asking whether it actually works?

In this episode, Gregg Farrar, CEO of Farrar Corporation, shares how his company moved from fully insured to self-funded health plans, and why addressing root causes, not just costs, is central to that strategy. He discusses educating a blue-collar workforce through the transition, and how his own experience with Root's comprehensive testing changed how he thinks about employee benefits.

How can employers tell whether a health care vendor’s results are real or simply based on flawed measurements?

In this episode of the Get to the Root podcast, Dr. Erica Armstrong speaks with Al Lewis, Founder and Validator-in-Chief of the Validation Institute, about improving transparency and accountability in health care vendor outcomes. Al shares how flaws in traditional outcomes measurement led him to challenge inflated savings claims and establish the Validation Institute, while explaining why Root Functional Medicine's results remained valid despite using a participant-versus-nonparticipant comparison. They also discuss Root's success in helping patients with autoimmune conditions reduce their reliance on high-cost specialty medications by addressing underlying causes. Al concludes by explaining how independent validation helps employers identify effective vendors, strengthen fiduciary due diligence, and provide employees with access to better care.

Tune in to learn why credible outcomes measurement matters and how independent validation can help employers make smarter health benefit decisions!

Get your own Root Cause Panel to uncover root potential causes and optimize health here!

About Al Lewis:

Al Lewis is the Founder and Validator-in-Chief of the Validation Institute, an organization that independently evaluates health care vendor performance and outcomes. Widely recognized as an authority on vendor outcomes measurement, he is the author of Why Nobody Believes the Numbers and co-author of Cracking Health Costs.

Al is also the Founder and Quizmeister-in-Chief of Quizzify, an employee health literacy platform that teaches people how to make informed health care decisions while avoiding unnecessary care. His work helps employers distinguish credible results from inflated claims and make better decisions about their health benefits.

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What if the future of employer health care depends less on shifting costs and more on helping people get healthier earlier? In this episode of Get to the Root, Kristen Rivers, SVP at Pareto Health, joins Dr. Erica Armstrong to discuss the growing pressure employers face as health care costs continue to rise. Kristen shares why traditional models often leave employers with limited options beyond raising deductibles or passing more expenses onto employees, and how self-funded models, better data, and transparency can help them move beyond band-aid fixes to address the root causes driving claims. Tune in to hear why proactive, personalized care can change lives, improve productivity, and help employers build smarter, more sustainable health plans.

About Kristen Rivers:

Kristen Rivers is the Senior Vice President of Sales at ParetoHealth, where she leads sales growth and strategic initiatives across the West Region. With nearly 20 years of experience in healthcare, she has seen firsthand the systemic challenges and biases employers face when trying to offer sustainable, effective health benefits. Her work focuses on helping employers regain control of their healthcare strategy, improving outcomes, and reducing unnecessary costs. Before joining ParetoHealth, Kristen spent more than a decade at UnitedHealth Group in sales and leadership roles, where she managed teams and developed business strategies that drove meaningful results. Today, she is passionate about creating a more equitable and efficient healthcare system by advocating for fairer practices, smarter plan design, and innovative solutions that empower employers and better support their people.

Things You’ll Learn:

Employers are reaching a breaking point as rising medical costs and high-cost therapies make traditional health plan strategies harder to sustain.

Fully insured and level-funded models often leave employers with few options beyond shifting more costs onto employees.

Self-funded models can give employers more flexibility, transparency, and control over the solutions they offer their teams.

Functional medicine can help address the root causes of chronic conditions by using deeper lab data, nutrition, lifestyle support, and personalized care.

Proactive health benefits can improve employee productivity, reduce long-term risk, and create stronger loyalty by giving people access to care they may not otherwise afford.

Resources:

Connect with and follow Kristen Rivers on LinkedIn.

Follow Pareto Health on LinkedIn and visit their website.

Follow Root Functional Medicine on LinkedIn and visit their website.

Get your own Root Cause Panel to uncover root potential causes and optimize health here!

What do the newly released Dietary Guidelines for Americans really mean for everyday health? On this episode of Get to the Root, Dr. Erica Armstrong sits down with Amy Masterson, Lead Dietitian at Root, to break it all down. They dive into the big updates on protein, vegetables, fats, and grains, as well as what the guidelines still miss. You’ll learn why personalization and tools like the Root Plate™ matter when applying population-wide guidance. Tune in to learn how to interpret the guidelines in a way that actually works in real life.

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In this episode, we talk with Allen Ahner, Root’s VP of Engineering, about how technology makes root cause medicine scalable for employers. We explore why functional medicine needs a dedicated platform, how RootOS supports consistent, protocol-driven care, and how we track engagement and outcomes at scale. This is a behind-the-scenes look at the infrastructure powering preventative and chronic condition care.

Resources:

Connect with and follow Allen Ahner on LinkedIn.

Follow Root Functional Medicine on LinkedIn and visit their website.

Get your own Root Cause Panel to uncover potential root causes and optimize health here!

Healthcare ROI starts with addressing what actually drives costs. Nearly 90% of employer healthcare spend comes from chronic conditions, many of which are preventable. In this episode, Dr. Emily Cordes, CMO at Root, explains how Root delivers real ROI for self-funded employers by reducing high-cost medications, cutting fragmented specialist care, and treating root causes through a doctor–dietitian care model—resulting in healthier employees and lower overall costs.

Resources

Connect with and follow Dr. Emily Cordes on LinkedIn.

Follow Root Functional Medicine on LinkedIn and visit their website.

Get your own Root Cause Panel to uncover root potential causes and optimize health here!

Check out Dr. Emily Cordes’s previous episode on the Get to the Root podcast here!

The loudest nutrition claims online often leave out the facts. In this myth-busting episode, Root dietitians Amy Masterson, Lauren Hanson, and Stephanie Nielsen cut through the noise with practical, science-based insights you can actually use. They share why quick fixes and viral trends spread so easily—and what really works instead. From the idea that all smoothies are healthy to confusion around seed oils, protein needs, and “sugar-free” foods, the team breaks down common myths with clarity and humor. A fast-paced Q&A covers even more hot topics like gluten-free diets, frozen produce, healthy fats, and coffee. Tune in to separate fact from fiction and build a balanced, sustainable way of eating that truly supports your health.

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In this episode, Spencer Smith, host of Self-Funded with Spencer and Senior Vice President of Sales at Pareto Health, shares how curiosity led him from insurance sales to a passion for self-funding. He reflects on insights gained from interviewing innovators and working with employers to design better health plans, highlighting why many are moving away from traditional insurance. Spencer also explores the cost crisis, the rise of captives, and how he sees root cause strategies, like functional medicine, reducing costs and creating healthier workplace cultures.

Follow Spencer on LinkedIn
Subscribe to Self Funded with Spencer

Dr. Bethanie Thompson, MD, IFMCP shares how we help people make real, sustainable lifestyle changes using Root tried and tested processes. She also describes several case studies where individuals have bounced around between specialists and ER visits for years before coming to Root and finding answers and healing. Dr. Thompson has a unique background in that she was first a primary care physician before becoming a functional medicine specialist at Root and she describes the differences in this episode.

In this episode of Get to the Root, Dr. Erica Armstrong sits down with Jennifer Wangler, VP of Technology at The Right Place. Jennifer shares her story, from starting in her family business to now leading Tech Week Grand Rapids and driving growth in the region’s tech ecosystem. The conversation covers the mission to double the tech workforce and how community-driven events like Tech Week GR showcase innovation and spark new connections across industries.

Resources:

Learn more about The Right Place.

Connect with Jennifer on Linkedin.