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Welcome to The Healthy Bottom Line

A Podcast for Employee Benefits Professionals Focused on Better Health and affordability. Brent Smith’s journey into health care started when his first post-college employer offered an incentive to employees to complete their annual physical. Short on cash and buried in student loans—he went. That visit led to a diagnosis of Metabolic Syndrome and changed the course of his life. It sparked a deep curiosity about health in America, a personal commitment to wellness, and the realization that an employer’s benefits strategy can change lives.

Welcome to The Healthy Bottom Line

Healthcare

Food As Medicine

MarketScale
May 22, 2025
Brent Smith
Dr. Kofi Essel
Elevance Health
food insecurity
+more


Dr. Kofi Essel, community pediatrician and Elevance Health’s Food as Medicine Director, joins Brent to discuss how nutrition is becoming a central lever in both preventing and treating chronic disease. With millions of Americans living with diabetes, hypertension, and obesity, Dr. Essel explains how Elevance is building interventions that help members access high-quality food and nutrition education. The episode explores how food insecurity drives poor health outcomes across all communities—and how redefining food as a clinical tool can drive equity and cost savings. A powerful look at medicine that starts at the dinner table.

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