Matt Orht ~ Self Fund Health

Matt Ohrt and Jon Baran cofounded Self Fund Health to help brokers and employers be able to write their own healthcare success stories. 

Matt has served as an influential executive leader, working for companies such as Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Badger Mining (#1 Great Place to Work in America awards), and recently, as the Vice President of HR & Medical Services for Merrill Steel in Schofield, WI.

Matt became known in Wisconsin for his work at Merrill Steel as the VP of HR, in which he led the company on a five-year healthcare improvement journey to transform the health plan.  Outcomes included frozen premiums for 7 consecutive years, $5.5M in total cost savings (employees and their families saved $1.7M), reduced pharmacy costs, and reduced STD/LTD/Life costs.

In 2018 Matt founded the Healthcare Best Practice Group and in 2022, which today includes about 1,000 employers and 3200 free-market-minded individuals. 

Matt has received the following award recently:

• 2019 HR Professional of the Year in 2019 from CW SHRM;
• 2020 Healthcare Transformation Award from the Wisconsin Alliance;
• 2020 National Employer/Purchaser Healthcare Award from the National Alliance, an award previously won by Disney, Boeing, and Walmart;
• 2022 Be the Beacon Award from the FMMA;

In July 2023, Matt wrote a book called: “Save Your Company, Don’t Feed the Beast – The Employer Healthcare Success Formula”, which is helping employers, forward-thinking advisors, physicians, and all others who support group health plans find ways to control cost and maximize quality.    

Shane Purcell ~ Direct Access MD

Dr. Shane Purcell was born in Athens, GA and is a true Bulldog by birth. He graduated Mercer University School of Medicine after completing Armstrong State College in Savannah, GA. He went on to finish a family medicine residency in Anderson, SC were he continues to reside.

After completing residency, Dr. Purcell worked in private group practice for 3 years before opening his own cash-only primary care clinic in 2005.  As he built his cash-only clinic, he was also working part-time in a local urgent care facility. In 2008, he purchased a dormant medical clinic on the “wrong side of the tracks” and opened an urgent care and primary care clinic. Then in 2015, after gaining his freedom from third-party captives, Dr. Purcell along with a colleague formed the first direct primary care clinic in Anderson County.

Dr. Purcell is an active member in several medical organizations including Free Market Medical Association, DPC Alliance, and American Academy of Family Physicians. He is the former Chair of the Direct Primary Care Member Interest Group for the AAFP and a founding member of the Direct Primary Care Alliance. He currently serves as the Treasurer for the DPC Alliance.

Dr. Purcell is the author of Magic, Pixie Dust, and Miracles: A Guide to Direct Primary Care and Employers which shares how to connect DPC with employers of all sizes. He has spoken about this topic and DPC in general at the DPC Summit, Docs 4 Patient Care Nuts and Bolts conference, Hint Summit, AAFP FMX, Carolina’s Free Market Medical Association, TedexFurman and DPC Alliance Mastermind sessions. He continues to speak to residents and student groups about DPC as well.

Neer Patel ~ Virtuous Benefits

Neer Patel is an Engineer by degree but an Entrepreneur at heart. After helping build and grow his wife, Dr. Katriny Ikbal’s direct primary care practice called DirectMed DPC throughout Central Texas over the past 9 years by shielding patients from the broken healthcare system, he learned that the group health insurance system was also severely broken and started working with employer groups to teach them how to break free from it. This is when Neer met Angel Saucedo and Virtuous Benefits was founded in 2020. Virtuous Benefits is truly a full service agency that helps employers of all sizes across the country successfully implement ACA compliant healthcare insurance plans that are affordable, transparent and that provide employees and their families with the best quality DPC care they’ve ever had while minimizing and oftentimes eliminating their out of pocket costs along with reducing the employers health plan costs year over year.

Angel Saucedo ~ Virtuous Benefits

Angel Saucedo has been a health insurance advisor for over 15 years. He has worked for agencies of all sizes from startups to publicly traded companies.  As a published author he has always seen the value in constantly learning and finding creative solutions for his clients. Currently he is the Senior Partner at Virtuous Benefits, an insurance agency that incorporates DPC memberships into ACA compliant health plans that do not have any network restrictions. Virtuous Benefits has successfully helped many companies of all sizes across the country lower the cost of their health insurance by focusing employee education around DPC and Open Access health plans which have no network restrictions.  Angel understands the struggle that businesses face on a regular basis in order to maintain profitability as well as the tremendous impact that a comprehensive group benefits package can have towards a company’s success. He firmly believes that taking care of company employees is a fiduciary investment which creates a better work environment and increased productivity for the businesses that he serves.