SpendRule, healthcare’s first AI-native contract-to-payment integrity platform, today announced that Beth Graefe, EdD, joins the company as a strategic advisor. Graefe will guide SpendRule’s growth strategy and deepen its alignment with health system supply chain and finance priorities as the company expands its work in purchased services.
Graefe brings more than 20 years of experience in health system transformation, with a career built at the intersection of clinical excellence and financial performance. She has led more than 100 margin improvement initiatives nationwide and previously served as chief performance officer for a hospital consortium and as chief operating officer of an academic medical center-led joint venture. Her work has included physician engagement, supply chain transformation and technology-enabled performance improvement.
Healthcare Purchased Services – the roughly $360 billion category covering everything from laundry and food services to maintenance and clinical engineering – remains one of the least governed areas of hospital spend. Contracts routinely run hundreds of pages with tiered pricing, price escalators, rebates, incentives, and service-level terms that finance teams have no practical way to verify at the invoice level. SpendRule’s platform validates invoices against negotiated contract terms before payment is released, adding contract compliance as a fourth layer to the traditional three-way match.
“What excites me most about SpendRule is its ability to apply an AI-driven platform to one of healthcare’s most persistent problems: ensuring hospitals pay only what they actually negotiated,” said Graefe. “I am passionate about making healthcare more affordable, transparent, and accessible. SpendRule is unlocking savings in areas that have historically lacked visibility and control, and I look forward to supporting the team as they help reduce the cost of care.”
“Beth has spent her career where the most consequential margin decisions get made and has helped organizations turn those decisions into measurable results,” said Chris Heckler, co-founder and CEO of SpendRule. “Her operator perspective and deep understanding of healthcare transformation will be invaluable as we expand SpendRule’s impact across the industry and help more health systems stop overpayments before they happen.”
“Building AI that can truly enforce contract terms takes more than engineering. It takes a deep understanding of how supply chain and clinical teams actually operate inside a health system,” said Joseph Akintolayo, co-founder of SpendRule. “Beth has built these solutions from the operator’s seat, and her expertise will sharpen how our platform turns contract intelligence into decisions health system leaders can act on.”
In addition to her advisory work, Graefe is an author and speaker on clinical integration topics. She holds dual master’s degrees and a doctorate in organizational leadership, and serves as an adjunct professor at Texas Tech University and Grand Canyon University.
