Hint Direct Primary Care Blog

Hint Summit 2D Session: Leading with Authenticity

Written by Chris Boulanger | September 18, 2020

Hint Summit 2D will feature 2 days of keynotes & breakout sessions designed to elevate Direct Primary Care and identify new opportunities. Over the next few days, we'll be sharing session descriptions on the Best Practices blog to give you a taste of what you can expect September 24-25.

Session: Building Your Brand, Telling Your Story 

Speaker: Marilyn Bartlett

Time: 2:15pm PT, September 25 

"I'm 67, so I could give a s***. What are they going to do, fire me?”

Meet Marilyn Bartlett — a self-described pushy 64-year old grandma who shook the world of insurance companies in Montana by relentlessly negotiating unprecedented health benefits costs for government employees. 

With its employee health plan in financial crisis, the State of Montana hired Marilyn, a former insurance insider, who questioned and pushed back against the status-quo system, including the behemoth industry players with vested interests in keeping costs high. Through on- or near-site primary care clinics, an overhaul of the State's pharmacy contracts, and facility contracts that utilized a metric based reimbursement model, Ms. Bartlett helped Montana move from RED to MILLIONS AHEAD. But the journey didn't start there. Hear about this courageous leader's journey and lessons learned along the way.

About Marilyn Bartlett

Ms. Bartlett's noteworthy accomplishments overseeing the State of Montana’s self funded health plan and passionate contributions to her constituents and industry has earned the respect of public and private leaders, alike. In 2018, she was named to the “50 World Greatest Leaders” list by Fortune Magazine. With a focus on primary care, hospital and pharmacy contracting, Marilyn’s self funded benefit design has become a blueprint for public entities and large association plans across the U.S. and led to her appointment as Senior Policy Fellow with the National Academy for State Health Policy.