On the latest episode of The Scope with Dr. K, Dr. Lawrence Kosinski and his guest, Elizabeth Mitchell, discuss how self-funded employers are seeking improved access to higher quality healthcare for their employees.

Mitchell is currently the President and CEO of the Purchaser Business Group on Health (PBGH), which focuses on mobilizing healthcare purchasers, elevating the role and impact of primary care, and creating functional healthcare markets to support high-quality affordable care/measurable impacts on outcomes and affordability.

“[Self-funded employers] are increasingly prepared to intervene in the care delivery system and more direct purchasing because, frankly, the people they hired to do it on their behalf have let them down,” said Mitchell, who previously served as the Senior Vice President of Healthcare and Community Health Transformation for Blue Shield of California, President and CEO of the Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement, and CEO of the Maine Business Coalition on Health.

The podcast, which airs on HealthcareNOW Radio, also explores how self-funded employers are bearing the brunt of their employees’ medical bills, and the major barriers that prevent self-funded employers from accessing patient data and outcomes.

“There is so little meaningful transparency [in data sharing] in the U.S. healthcare system,” Mitchell said. “It is very hard to get that information.”