If you’re running a healthtech company today, your Chief People Officer (CPO) is likely managing more strategic risk than almost any other executive on your leadership team.

Between rapidly rising healthcare benefits costs, growing pressure from CFOs to control spend, AI-driven workforce shifts, and retention challenges that vary dramatically by role, the people function has become one of the most complex (and consequential) parts of the business.

After speaking with CPOs across health tech, including peers and close colleagues, one thing is clear: we are not talking nearly enough about what these leaders are actually navigating day to day. The reality goes far beyond traditional HR metrics like engagement scores or time-to-hire.

As a long-time people leader, I wrote this piece because I often see founders building healthcare solutions for employers while overlooking what their own head of people is facing internally. If you want to understand the pressure points shaping workforce strategy in health tech right now, start with benefits.

For many employers, healthcare benefits have quietly become one of the largest cost centers on the balance sheet.

According to reporting from The Wall Street Journal, families now pay roughly $27,000 annually for health coverage. When employer contributions are factored in, benefits routinely land among the top three expenses, alongside payroll and technology.

This reality is especially painful for health-tech companies. These organizations sell healthcare solutions, which creates an expectation among employees that benefits will be generous, modern, and easy to use. At the same time, many health-tech companies are venture-backed, cash-conscious, and under constant scrutiny to demonstrate financial discipline.

CPOs are caught in the middle.

Employees expect best-in-class coverage with minimal out-of-pocket costs, especially when they work at a healthcare company. CFOs, meanwhile, are watching benefits inflation erode margins quarter after quarter.

The “safe” levers (passing costs to employees or reducing plan richness) are often not viable in competitive talent markets, particularly when recruiting engineers, product leaders, and clinicians. More innovative cost-containment approaches, such as self-funded plans or high-deductible health plans paired with HSAs, frequently trigger employee anxiety and mistrust.

CPOs are expected to navigate the financial complexity and the emotional response, often without sufficient data, infrastructure, or authority to meaningfully change outcomes.

For self-funded employers, healthcare claims data can be transformative. Medical and pharmacy claims reveal utilization patterns, high-cost conditions, and opportunities for smarter plan design.

Yet many People and HR leaders are not trained (or empowered) to use this data. Analytics has not historically been a core HR capability, even though benefits now demand the same rigor as any other major business investment.

The most effective CPOs are changing that.

One company I worked with treated employee education as a core cost-containment strategy. Benefits were positioned not as an annual open-enrollment task, but as a year-round employee resource.

The benefits team:

Employees were shown real cost comparisons, such as a $50 telemedicine visit versus a $1,500 emergency room visit, framed around both convenience and savings. Sessions were even branded as “Benefit Gems You Might Have Forgotten You Had.”

The result: more informed utilization and fewer surprise claims.

Another employer implemented remote monitoring programs for chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension, providing connected devices and nurse support. Leadership reviewed utilization data quarterly, identifying where education or plan design adjustments could reduce downstream costs.

The same company took a notably disciplined approach to GLP-1 medications. Rather than excluding coverage or relying solely on restrictive authorization, they covered GLP-1s with physician approval while tracking outcomes through a unified medical and pharmacy claims platform.

They are measuring whether higher pharmacy spend leads to:

GLP-1 coverage is being evaluated as a long-term health investment, not just a rising line item.

One CPO at a health-insurance startup made a decision many consultants advise against: moving to a self-funded plan with just 300 employees.

The result? $1.5 million in savings in the first year.

By building transparency into the plan (showing employees real prices and rewarding smart care choices with cash back), behavior changed. Families earned nearly $2,000 annually for shopping for care. Mental health utilization increased threefold due to broader access, while overall costs remained controlled.

Transparency replaced restriction, and trust replaced friction.

The most effective Chief People Officers are not reacting to finance…they are partnering with it.

Some meet weekly with CFOs to review benefits spend and utilization trends. When mental health claims rise, they examine correlations with emergency room usage and disability claims instead of defaulting to cuts.

Others describe their role as translating between two languages: finance and human impact. They start benefits discussions with market benchmarks and cost projections, then layer in retention, recruiting, and culture implications.

Benefits are treated like any other strategic investment; with measurable returns.

The CPO role has evolved into one of the most complex leadership positions in health tech.

Companies that recognize this, and equip their people leaders with data, authority, and a true seat at the table, gain a lasting competitive advantage. They invest in analytics, plan for change management, and involve CPOs early in strategic decisions.

If you’re a CEO or founder, the question isn’t whether this job is hard. It’s whether you’re giving your Chief People Officer the tools they need to succeed.