Healthcare costs keep climbing, and yet patients and employers often feel powerless to change the system. What if outsiders—those not steeped in the traditions of healthcare—are actually the ones best positioned to fix it?

This special episode is a reshare from The Benefits Playbook podcast, where Halle joins Collective Health CEO Ali Diab. Together, they unpack what it takes to make health benefits simpler, more transparent, and more consumer-focused.

We cover:

🏥 The growing “consumer awakening” in healthcare and what it means for employers

🧾 How Ali’s personal fight with insurance denials led to building a new kind of health company

💡 Why outsiders can sometimes see solutions insiders overlook

🤖 Where AI can actually improve care—and where human advocates are still indispensable

💊 The GLP-1 dilemma for employers balancing access, equity, and cost

About our guest:

Ali Diab is the CEO and Co-Founder of Collective Health, the World’s leading independent third-party health benefit plan administrator (TPA), integrating AI-powered health plan administration, health benefit plan member navigation and advocacy, and digital benefits hub.

Ali has more than 25 years of experience leading high-growth technology organizations, and prior to co-founding Collective Health, was Vice President of Product Management and Business Operations at AdMob by Google. Previously, Ali held executive and management positions at Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, and Yahoo!. Ali is a graduate of Stanford and Oxford Universities and is a Member of the Board of Advisors of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR).

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