{"id":5540,"date":"2026-08-31T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/startupjunkie.org\/?p=5540"},"modified":"2026-10-05T09:20:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T14:20:02","slug":"fuel-podcast-5-cutting-health-care-costs-for-self-funded-employers-with-kirat-kharode-of-healco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/startupjunkie.org\/ko\/fuel-podcast-5-cutting-health-care-costs-for-self-funded-employers-with-kirat-kharode-of-healco\/","title":{"rendered":"Fuel \ud31f\uce90\uc2a4\ud2b8 5: HealCo\uc758 Kirat Kharode\uc640 \ud568\uaed8\ud558\ub294 \uc790\uac00 \ubd80\ub2f4 \uc758\ub8cc\ube44 \uc808\uac10 \ubc29\uc548"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\uc720\ud29c\ube0c \ube44\ub514\uc624 \ud50c\ub808\uc774\uc5b4\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rzNheJAG548\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/share.transistor.fm\/e\/cd8ccda0\" width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><strong>\uc694\uc57d<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Employer health care costs have risen 70% over the last decade while wages have grown just 30%. Kirat Kharode, CEO and Founder of HealCo, joins the Startup Junkies Podcast&#8217;s Fuel Accelerator health tech series to break down why self-funded employer health plans are becoming unsustainable, and how HealCo&#8217;s governance layer helps route employees to lower-cost, high-quality care before costs spiral.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\uc774\ubc88 \uc5d0\ud53c\uc18c\ub4dc\uc5d0\uc11c\ub294:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Why self-funded health plans are under more scrutiny than ever<\/li>\n<li>The site-of-entry problem driving up specialty care costs<\/li>\n<li>How HealCo&#8217;s governance and routing model works<\/li>\n<li>What a real cost-savings diagnostic looks like for employers<\/li>\n<li>Why Northwest Arkansas is fertile ground for this kind of infrastructure<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This episode is part of our Fuel Accelerator series<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u23f1\ufe0f Chapters:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>00:18 \u2013 Welcome &amp; the Fuel Accelerator health tech cohort<br \/>00:42 \u2013 Meet Kirat Kharode, CEO &amp; Founder of HealCo<br \/>01:00 \u2013 20 years inside hospital C-suites\u00a0<br \/>01:26 \u2013 Inside the self-funded health plan landscape\u00a0<br \/>02:07 \u2013 Why costs are outpacing wages\u00a0<br \/>03:06 \u2013 Site of entry: where health costs really start\u00a0<br \/>04:02 \u2013 Specialty care and the $15K vs. $50K cost divide\u00a0<br \/>05:33 \u2013 HealCo&#8217;s origin story and validation lab\u00a0<br \/>06:36 \u2013 Building the governance layer and how employees benefit\u00a0<br \/>09:06 \u2013 Sponsor: RISE Arkansas\u00a0<br \/>09:33 \u2013 Validating the model &amp; where self-funded care is headed\u00a0<br \/>11:48 \u2013 HealCo&#8217;s 5-year vision, case studies &amp; broker demand\u00a0<br \/>15:49 \u2013 Why Northwest Arkansas, plus advice for CFOs\u00a0<br \/>18:50 \u2013 Connect with Kirat + episode wrap-up<\/p>\n<p>\u2014<\/p>\n<p>Connect with Kirat &amp; HealCo<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udd17<a href=\"https:\/\/www.healco.us\/\">https:\/\/www.healco.us\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udd17<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/kirat-kharode\/\">https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/kirat-kharode\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udfa7 YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts\uc5d0\uc11c Startup Junkies \ud31f\uce90\uc2a4\ud2b8\ub97c \uad6c\ub3c5\ud558\uc138\uc694. \ud83d\udc4d \uc774 \uc5d0\ud53c\uc18c\ub4dc\uac00 \ub9c8\uc74c\uc5d0 \ub4dc\uc168\ub2e4\uba74 \uc88b\uc544\uc694, \uad6c\ub3c5, \uadf8\ub9ac\uace0 \uce5c\uad6c\uc640 \uacf5\uc720\ud574\uc8fc\uc138\uc694.<\/p>\n<p>Startup Junkies \ud31f\uce90\uc2a4\ud2b8\ub294 \uc544\uce78\uc18c\uc758 \uae30\uc220 \ubc0f \uae30\uc220 \uae30\ubc18 \uc2a4\ud0c0\ud2b8\uc5c5\uc758 \uc131\uc7a5\uc744 \ubb34\ub8cc \ucf54\uce6d, \uc790\uae08 \uc870\ub2ec \uc548\ub0b4 \ubc0f \uc804\ubb38\uac00 \ub124\ud2b8\uc6cc\ud06c \uc81c\uacf5\uc744 \ud1b5\ud574 \uc9c0\uc6d0\ud558\ub294 RISE\uc758 \ud6c4\uc6d0\uc73c\ub85c \uc81c\uc791\ub418\uc5c8\uc2b5\ub2c8\ub2e4. \uc790\uc138\ud55c \ub0b4\uc6a9\uc740 RiseArkansas.org\uc5d0\uc11c \ud655\uc778\ud558\uc138\uc694.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udfa7 Startup Junkies \ud31f\uce90\uc2a4\ud2b8\ub97c \ud314\ub85c\uc6b0\ud558\uc138\uc694 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLDJDYh7-pd3x4ha7THQ6Y0bRu1P0RsDLj\">\uc720\ud29c\ube0c<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/5DvdrBGZkf26aFNenMmayC\">\uc2a4\ud3ec\ud2f0\ud30c\uc774<\/a>, \uadf8\ub9ac\uace0 <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-startup-junkies-podcast\/id1014096501\">\uc560\ud50c \ud31f\uce90\uc2a4\ud2b8<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Employer health care costs have risen 70% over the last decade while wages have grown just 30%. Kirat Kharode, CEO and Founder of HealCo, joins the Startup Junkies Podcast&#8217;s Fuel Accelerator health tech series to break down why self-funded employer health plans are becoming unsustainable, and how HealCo&#8217;s governance\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5999,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_meta_description":"Employer health care costs have risen 70% over the last decade while wages have grown just 30%. Kirat Kharode, CEO and Founder of HealCo, joins the\u2026","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/startupjunkie.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/startupjunkie.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/startupjunkie.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startupjunkie.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startupjunkie.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5540"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/startupjunkie.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5994,"href":"https:\/\/startupjunkie.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5540\/revisions\/5994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startupjunkie.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/startupjunkie.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startupjunkie.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startupjunkie.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5540"}],"curies":[{"name":"\uc6cc\ub4dc\ud504\ub808\uc2a4","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}