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 McQuide, Ann Kempski, Spencer Allen, Scott Tromanhauser, 
Steven Elkins, Matthew Bunte, and Lori Smith.

Recent Episodes

EP531: Slaying the Three-Headed Monster of Health Plan Networks, With Evan Anderson
Relentless Health ValueSeptember 30, 2026
531
38:0634.88 MB

EP531: Slaying the Three-Headed Monster of Health Plan Networks, With Evan Anderson

Listen on Your Favorite App Today, Evan Anderson and I are talking about carrier networks, how they started, how it's going. Because irrespective of whatever the plan was at the very beginning, any given network, especially talking about the big status quo networks, has evolved into what I'll call a...

EP530: A Wildly Underappreciated Point: Overpaying for Infusions Means Overpaying for Stop-Loss Coverage, With Jake Velie and Keith Hartman, RPh
Relentless Health ValueSeptember 23, 2026
530
37:4534.56 MB

EP530: A Wildly Underappreciated Point: Overpaying for Infusions Means Overpaying for Stop-Loss Coverage, With Jake Velie and Keith Hartman, RPh

Listen on Your Favorite App Hello, all you Relentless Tribe members. Thanks for hanging with me this week. When a self-insured plan sponsor sees an infusion claim hit their high-cost case report, and a lot of these infusions are really expensive, so many of them hit the high-cost claim report. For a...

EP529: How Stark Law, Stipends, and Noncompetes Drive Hospital Consolidation, With Eric Bricker, MD
Relentless Health ValueSeptember 16, 2026
529
39:2936.14 MB

EP529: How Stark Law, Stipends, and Noncompetes Drive Hospital Consolidation, With Eric Bricker, MD

Listen on Your Favorite App Hello, all you Relentless Tribe members. Hey, thanks for being here with me every week, some of you every single Thursday. Give yourself a little round of applause, maybe silently and in your own head, depending on where you are. But yeah, you matter. You being here matte...

EP528: The Current State of Primary Care—Inevitable or Fixable? Will It Be Private Equity to the Rescue? With Yashaswini Singh, PhD
Relentless Health ValueSeptember 09, 2026
528
38:4935.53 MB

EP528: The Current State of Primary Care—Inevitable or Fixable? Will It Be Private Equity to the Rescue? With Yashaswini Singh, PhD

Listen on Your Favorite App Hello, all you Relentless Tribe members. Here's the backstory for this episode. Remember episode 519 with Lisa Rosenbaum, MD, where we played a high-stakes kind of game show called "Is the Current State of Primary Care an Absolute Inevitability, or Is It a Needless, Subop...

EP526: Generic Compliance Ratios, Pass-Through Contracts, and Other Pharmacy Plumbing, With Mark Cuban and Cora Opsahl
Relentless Health ValueAugust 26, 2026
526
20:1119.06 MB

EP526: Generic Compliance Ratios, Pass-Through Contracts, and Other Pharmacy Plumbing, With Mark Cuban and Cora Opsahl

Listen on Your Favorite App Hello, all you Relentless Tribe members. If you have listened to this show for any length of time, you know one of our favorite truths around here, which is where there's mystery, there's margin. But today, we aren't just here to point out the mystery. We're here to look ...

EP525: PMPM vs FFS—The Perverse Incentives Plan Sponsors Sometimes Miss, With Cristin Dickerson, MD
Relentless Health ValueAugust 19, 2026
525
16:3315.14 MB

EP525: PMPM vs FFS—The Perverse Incentives Plan Sponsors Sometimes Miss, With Cristin Dickerson, MD

Listen on Your Favorite App So, this one's gonna be a little bit different. Back last year, I sat down with Dr. Cristin Dickerson. She is the founding partner of Green Imaging , which is a physician-led radiology network doing direct contracting for imaging. And we talked about how imaging can run 6...

EP524: Beating Provider Network Pricing Games by Thinking About Buying Healthcare Like a Manufacturer Supply Chain, With John Quinn
Relentless Health ValueAugust 12, 2026
524
17:0215.59 MB

EP524: Beating Provider Network Pricing Games by Thinking About Buying Healthcare Like a Manufacturer Supply Chain, With John Quinn

Listen on Your Favorite App Hello, all you Relentless Tribe members. First off here, I would like to thank Casey Cormier for the really nice recurring donation. Thank you so much, Casey Cormier from  Stratis Group . Lately, traditional provider networks are increasingly being called into questi...

Listen and Follow

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