Relocalizing Health with Dave Chase How Lean Six Sigma and Community Collaboration Are Revolutionizing Health Benefits for Manufacturers
Nov 10, 2025
In a compelling discussion, Russell DuBose, Vice President of Human Resources at Phifer Incorporated, shares transformative strategies for employer-sponsored healthcare. He reveals how Phifer applied Lean Six Sigma to treat healthcare like a supply chain, achieving five years of flat costs and delivering zero pharmacy copays. Russell discusses building an onsite primary care center, improving health outcomes, and fostering community collaboration. His insights inspire manufacturers to rethink healthcare, emphasizing the power of transparency and individualized medicine.
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Healthcare As A Supply-Chain Problem
- Phifer treated healthcare like a supply-chain problem and applied Lean Six Sigma to study and redesign benefits.
- They replaced legacy assumptions with a Health Rosetta blueprint and a transparent PBM to control cost drivers.
Replace Legacy Brokers With Aligned Advisors
- Replace misaligned brokers with advisors who commit to progressive standards like Health Rosetta.
- Use PlanGrader to set stackable objectives and target the highest-impact benefit first.
Collective Action Multiplies Buyer Power
- Small employers gain leverage by unifying with like-minded self-insured sponsors to create collective purchasing power.
- Consortiums like Nautilus let a 2,500-member company act like a much larger purchaser.
