EP151: Employers say, "Show Me the Money I'm Spending on Health Care," with Mike Dendy, Vice Chairman & CEO of Advanced Medical Pricing Solutions
September 14, 201730:56

EP151: Employers say, "Show Me the Money I'm Spending on Health Care," with Mike Dendy, Vice Chairman & CEO of Advanced Medical Pricing Solutions

Mike Dendy is Vice Chairman & CEO of Advanced Medical Pricing Solutions (AMPS), an Atlanta, GA-based health care cost management company, serving the self-funded (ERISA) payer community. Since joining the Company in 2005, Mike has overseen all aspects of AMPS management, ranging from sales and marketing, to finance and client relations. AMPS has seen organic growth of over 300% over the last 5 years and has continued to increase its offerings in the health care cost containment space. AMPS clients range in size from those in the Fortune 500 to mid-sized regional employers.

Prior to joining AMPS, Mike served as Chairman & CEO of HPS Paradigm Administrators Inc. from 1997 until its subsequent sale in 2004. HPS Paradigm is a health insurance Third-Party Administrator (TPA) serving corporate and government employer groups throughout the United States. During his tenure as CEO, HPS Paradigm experienced strong corporate growth, increasing on average 50% in fee income per year, while achieving industry leading EBITDA margins of over 22%. In 2000, Mike oversaw HPS’ business process outsourcing (BPO) relationship with Memorial Hospital of Savannah, Georgia, which at the time was one of Georgia’s largest hospital systems. Mike served as Executive Director of Memorial’s TPA, HMO, PPO, UR/UM and Case Management services provided for the benefit of Chatham County area employers.

From 1992-1997, Mike founded and managed Health Partners Services, Inc. (HPS), a brokerage and consulting firm, which specialized in stop-loss insurance, benefit plan design, provider negotiations, pharmacy benefit management, disease management, predictive analysis, and cost containment. HPS developed community health system plans in a number of southeastern US markets and grew consulting revenues to $600,000 annually.

Mike holds 2 master’s degrees, from Georgia State University in Business Administration (MBA), and Healthcare Administration (MHA) and bachelor’s degrees from the University of Georgia in both Journalism and Psychology. In addition to his graduate and undergraduate achievements, Mike attended executive management programs at Harvard’s Business, Public Health, and Law Schools. Mike serves on the Advisory Board for the Robinson College of Business and the School of Healthcare Administration at Georgia State University and is the former Board Chairman for the National Safe Care Campaign. Mike was awarded the School of Health Administration’s Healthcare Executive of the Year in 2015.


00:00 Easing into the “inflection point” for employee healthcare.
02:30 The motivations of an HR Manager vs. a CFO.
03:35 Investigating why costs are as high as they are.
03:45 The overall cost of Healthcare equation, and how to reduce those costs.
05:00 “How can an employer make an intelligent decision when they have no idea what they’re paying for services?”
06:40 “The only way you can really drive down the cost of healthcare is to find a way to purchase services less expensively.”
08:00 Defined Contributions Healthcare Plans.
11:30 How do you decide what to pay for?
16:00 Bundled Payments vs. Defined Contributions.
19:40 “There is a point when it’s fair for both the payer and provider.”
21:30 “Typically, the providers that cost less are better because they’ve figured out how to provide services more affordably.”
23:20 “Get a grip on where you are now.”
29:30 You can learn more at www.advancedpricing.com

healthcare,insurance,provider,payer,Employer,advanced medical pricing solutions,amps,
|
|

Episode Support Provided By

Special Thanks to Our 2026 Sustaining Monthly Donors

Marilyn Bartlett, Kimberly Carleson, Dylan Yahn, Benjamin Light, Matt McQuideAnn Kempski, Spencer Allen, Scott Tromanhauser, 
Steven Elkins, Matthew Bunte, and Lori Smith.

Recent Episodes

EP519: The Current State of Primary Care—Inevitable or Fixable? With Lisa Rosenbaum, MD
Relentless Health ValueJuly 08, 2026
519
40:0036.61 MB

EP519: The Current State of Primary Care—Inevitable or Fixable? With Lisa Rosenbaum, MD

Listen on Your Favorite App Hello, all you Relentless Tribe members. Today, let's start here. Right now, we are watching a very visible exodus of brilliant, consummate primary care (and other, honestly) physicians leaving traditional practice for concierge medicine or otherwise. For a full transcrip...

EP518: How Do You Explain the Difference Between an ASO Vendor and a TPA? With Claire Brockbank
Relentless Health ValueJuly 01, 2026
518
14:2513.2 MB

EP518: How Do You Explain the Difference Between an ASO Vendor and a TPA? With Claire Brockbank

Listen on Your Favorite App Dr. Alex Sommers: Hi. I'm Alex Sommers. I'm president of Astia Health, an advanced direct primary care organization, an emergency medicine and lifestyle medicine physician, as well as a licensed employer health plan advisor from Wisconsin. I'm curious how you explain the ...

EP517: The Business of Prior Auths: The 401-Level Financial Motive Behind Prior Auths
Relentless Health ValueJune 24, 2026
517
27:2325.07 MB

EP517: The Business of Prior Auths: The 401-Level Financial Motive Behind Prior Auths

Listen on Your Favorite App Hello, Relentless Health Value Tribe. Welcome to it. So, yeah … last week, I had a great conversation with Ophelia Johnson ( EP516 ) that is a companion show, I would say, to this one. So, listen to that one first. Listen to this one first. You do you. For a full transcri...

EP516: GLP-1s and Cash Pay From the Pharma Manufacturer Point of View, With Ophelia Johnson
Relentless Health ValueJune 17, 202644:0540.35 MB

EP516: GLP-1s and Cash Pay From the Pharma Manufacturer Point of View, With Ophelia Johnson

Listen on Your Favorite App Hello, all you Relentless Tribe members. Welcome to it. Today we have a show that will bend your mind in new directions. And yes, I have a head cold at a very weird time of year. I have trouble apparently doing things like normal people. Anyway, we talk a lot on this podc...

EP515: SNF (Skilled Nursing Facility) Fraud—Or Is It Fraud? With Michelle Cera, PhD
Relentless Health ValueJune 10, 202643:0739.47 MB

EP515: SNF (Skilled Nursing Facility) Fraud—Or Is It Fraud? With Michelle Cera, PhD

Listen on Your Favorite App Hello, all you Relentless Tribe members. Lately, I have been just obsessed with what's hiding in plain sight: the root cause glitches in how American healthcare is built. Not the symptoms now. Not the noise. The actual ground zero. I mean, what we call healthcare in this ...

EP514: Successfully Suing a Health System for Their Anticompetitive Contracts and Also Collecting Damages for Plan Sponsors and Members, With Matt Cantor
Relentless Health ValueJune 03, 2026
514
43:4340.02 MB

EP514: Successfully Suing a Health System for Their Anticompetitive Contracts and Also Collecting Damages for Plan Sponsors and Members, With Matt Cantor

Listen on Your Favorite App Hello, all you Relentless Tribe members. This is the third episode in our legal goings-on trifecta, starting with Doug Aldeen in episode 512 covering what amounts to the main reasons plan sponsors wind up suing their brokers or employee benefit consultants. For a full tra...

EP513: Revisiting Cunning Anticompetitive Hospital Contracts, With Brennan Bilberry

EP513: Revisiting Cunning Anticompetitive Hospital Contracts, With Brennan Bilberry

Listen on Your Favorite App If you are a large employer, union funds broker, fiduciary, or anyone responsible for a health plan that spends half of its dollars on hospital care (which most do), or if you have anything to do with policy or enforcement of policy, yeah … listen this week and next week....

Listen and Follow

Sponsored by Aventria Health Group
©2026 BD Bridges LLC. All Rights Reserved.