Philadelphia Employer Coalition Podcast Targets GLP-1s, Cancer Care

The Greater Philadelphia Business Coalition on Health (GPBCH) has used its Coalition Conversations podcast to give self-insured employers a working playbook for 2 of the costliest categories in commercial benefits: obesity management and cancer care.¹ Hosted by GPBCH's Tom Belmont, the series pairs employer benefits leaders with clinicians, researchers, and vendor executives to translate emerging evidence into plan-design decisions.

Series 1 Tackles the GLP-1 Surge

The coalition's first 3-part series focused on incorporating glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists into a sustainable obesity strategy. Episode 1 featured pharmacists from Employers Health, who walked listeners through the current GLP-1 landscape, including emerging disease states and delivery innovations shaping long-term plan design. Episode 2 drew on Aon's analysis of 50 million commercially insured lives alongside a Peterson Health Technology Institute white paper on digital-solution integration, highlighting how data can guide employer adoption decisions. The series closed with episode 3, which moved from data to execution: benefits teams from the City of Philadelphia and the City of Wilmington described how they built GLP-1 programs around data tracking, accountability, and interagency collaboration to drive measurable outcomes for municipal employees.

Series 2 Turns to Oncology Access

GPBCH's second series, Oncology Innovators, shifts to companies and organizations helping employers improve engagement, access, quality, and cost management across the cancer care continuum. In episode 4, SkinIO CEO Steve Bonner discussed his company's AI-enabled full-body skin imaging and mole-mapping platform, which pairs dermatologist-interpreted scans with a network of more than 600 dermatologists for rapid follow-up care. Bonner framed the technology as a way for employers to raise screening compliance and support earlier intervention.

The series' most recent installment, episode 5, centered on health literacy. Belmont spoke with Patrick Delaney, executive director of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Foundation, and Aileen Espiritu, benefits manager at Essity, about why employers should point employees toward public, evidence-based resources such as the NCCN Guidelines for Patients.² The conversation framed cancer as an employer issue with both direct and indirect costs, spanning claims spend, lost productivity, and workplace disruption, and argued that clear, trustworthy materials help employees navigate prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Delaney and Espiritu also discussed their prior collaboration and how the NCCN guidelines have informed Espiritu's approach to benefits communication.

A Resource for Benefits Leaders

Taken together, the 2 series reflect GPBCH's broader mission of equipping Greater Philadelphia–area employers with practical, evidence-based strategies for managing high-cost therapeutic categories. The obesity series leans on employer case studies and claims-based analytics, while the oncology series foregrounds patient-facing literacy tools and screening technology, suggesting a coalitionwide emphasis on pairing data with accessible, actionable resources for employees. Additional episodes in the oncology series are expected as GPBCH continues to profile vendors and clinical partners working across the cancer care continuum.

References

1. Podcast. Greater Philadelphia Business Coalition on Health. Accessed August 3, 2026. https://gpbch.org/podcast/
2. Episode 5 | The Cancer Care Conversation: Empowering Employees Through Information. Greater Philadelphia Business Coalition on Health. Accessed August 3, 2026. https://gpbch.org/podcast-episode-5