How Lean Six Sigma and Community Collaboration Are Revolutionizing Health Benefits for Manufacturers

Welcome to "Relocalizing Health"! In today’s episode, host Dave Chase sits down with Russell DuBose, Vice President of Human Resources at Phifer Incorporated, for a powerful conversation on how one manufacturer reimagined healthcare costs as a supply chain problem, and solved it using Lean Six Sigma methodologies.

Rather than accepting healthcare as an uncontrollable expense, Phifer Inc. applied continuous improvement principles to overhaul their benefits, delivering results that have stunned the industry: five years of flat healthcare costs, scholarships for employees’ dependents, zero pharmacy copays for over 2,500 individuals, and childcare bonuses for hundreds of families. But it goes beyond cost containment, Russell DuBose built the foundation so other local employers could access these benefits and help create healthier, more resilient communities.

This episode dives deep into Phifer’s journey, including how they broke away from legacy broker models, embraced Health Rosetta principles, leveraged data-driven decision-making, and established onsite primary care and pharmacy access that drastically improved outcomes, especially during the COVID pandemic. You’ll also learn how this story is inspiring other manufacturers and local employers to rethink their approach to healthcare, and what’s coming next as advanced, individualized medicine becomes a reality.

Whether you’re a business leader, HR professional, or simply passionate about transforming healthcare, this episode will change how you think about what’s possible for your company and your community.

Timestamps:
00:00 "Reclaiming Healthcare: Community Solutions"
05:51 "Solving Healthcare with Lean Six Sigma"
10:04 "Transition to Transparent PBM Model"
12:07 "Advancing Precision Healthcare Systems"
15:11 "Building a Unified Healthcare Paradigm"
18:20 "Health Rosetta's Impact Initiative"
21:07 "Primary Care: The Key Engine"
24:37 "Eliminating Barriers to Care"
30:57 Healthcare Costs and System Failure
33:59 "Advancing Employer-Focused Healthcare Solutions"
36:51 Primary Care Investment Revolution
42:22 Precision Medicine Pathway Development
45:00 "Advocating Transparency in Healthcare"
47:31 "Modernizing Manufacturing: First Steps"
51:11 Empower Teams for Transformation

Quotes, Hooks, & Timestamps:
"Stronger communities make stronger companies and families."
— Dave Chase [00:02:50 → 00:02:54]

"As we move, we move into precision medicine and functional medicine, creating individual tailored healthcare 3.0."
— Russell DuBose [00:13:01 → 00:13:12]

"But because of this initiative in moving to a new model, we see such a unification of like minded self insured plan sponsors. We are unifying around core principles and it's being designed smartly."
— Russell DuBose [00:16:28 → 00:16:44]

"We can do things to make the current system suck a little bit less. But that's the tyranny of low expectations."
— Dave Chase [00:19:32 → 00:19:38]

"So we eliminated all co payments from our pharmacy. So in our pharmacy benefit, we do not charge co payments. We view that as a barrier to care."
— Russell DuBose [00:24:47 → 00:24:49]

"She went in for a missed, she missed her mammogram one year, she went into the clinic, has a relationship with them from the COVID years. They convinced her to get back into screening, back into diagnostics, had a primary care appointment, went the very next week on direct contract to imaging, no out of pocket cost whatsoever, was screened and was detected with cancer. We caught it so early in stage that she had a extremely successful outcome. And she is in full remission and living a great Life."
— Russell DuBose [00:29:38 → 00:30:17]

"Healthcare is not expensive and go through those stats, what's expensive is profiteering, price gouging, administrative bloat, fraud, and some inappropriate care. If you opt out of that, things become quite affordable."
— Dave Chase [00:32:35 → 00:32:48]

"That's not a typical thing you hear and it's, it's exciting to, to learn about it."
— Dave Chase [00:33:54 → 00:33:59]

"And now there is an entire community of local advanced primary care health centers popping up all over the community."
— Russell DuBose [00:36:06 → 00:36:17]

"If you look at most big changes in our country, whether it was the school system, police, fire, those actually all started very local and then had that same kind of dynamic."
— Dave Chase [00:39:49 → 00:40:03]

"We're such a big advocate of the Patients Deserve Price Tags act, we'll be on the Hill in two weeks lobbying for that change."
— Russell DuBose [00:45:11 → 00:45:21]

Learn More:

RosettaFest 2025 - https://rosettafest.org/

Health Rosetta - http://healthrosetta.org/

Nautilus - https://www.nautilushealth.org/

Kynexions - https://kynexions.com/

Dave Chase -   / chasedave  

Podcast Website - https://relocalizinghealth.com/

“Disclaimer: Informational only. Not medical advice. Consult your doctor for guidance.”