Healthcare is Hard: A Podcast for Insiders
Healthcare is Hard: A Podcast for Insiders views healthcare transformation through the lens of prominent leaders across the industry. Through intimate one-on-one discussions with executives, policy advisors, and other “insiders,” each episode dives deep into the pressing challenges that come with changing how we care for people. Hear the unique perspectives of these industry leaders to get a better understanding of what is happening today, the challenges across the healthcare ecosystem, and how innovation is really shaping the future of healthcare delivery.
Episodes
77 episodes
Where Medicare Stands—And Where It’s Headed with Aetna’s Dr. Ali Khan
Dr. Ali Khan has spent his career at the intersection of medicine, public policy, and value-based care. He’s also been at the forefront of some of the country's most innovative care delivery models—from Iora Health and CareMore to Oak Street He...
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Episode 77
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49:25
Opportunities in Oncology (Part 3): Getting Deep Into Patient Care with Mass General Brigham’s Head of Radiation Oncology
The first two episodes in this Healthcare is Hard podcast series on “Opportunities in Oncology” explored the relationship between academic medical centers and community care, with guests
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Episode 76
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37:19
Opportunities in Oncology (Part 2): Balancing Cutting-Edge Research and Community Care
Dr. Harlan Levine began his career practicing internal medicine but soon moved into business leadership roles at national healthcare organizations to help improve the dysfunction with payer-provider relationships that he experienced firsthand a...
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Episode 75
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40:47
Opportunities in Oncology (Part 1): The Intersection of Clinical Care, Business and Policy
There’s been a massive gap in oncology where people who have been responsible for a dramatic increase in the standard of care have lacked a solid understanding of the business, payment and policy constructs required to deliver it. Dr. Stephen S...
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Episode 74
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48:19
Election Implications (Part 4): Forecasting For Healthcare As The Second Trump Administration Takes Shape
Elements of the new Trump administration are coming into focus as announcements of key healthcare appointments and nominations provide indications for what the market can expect starting in January. To dissect the impact these changes might hav...
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36:09
Election Implications (Part 3): JP Morgan’s Read on Trump 2.0 and What’s Next for Healthcare
Healthcare was not a major focus during the 2024 election where other key issues drove most of the discussion. This left a vacuum around specific healthcare policies and what to expect from a second Trump Administration. With few details availa...
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Episode 72
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45:44
Election Implications (Part 2): This Wall Street Analyst Agrees, “Healthcare is Hard”
With the White House and Congress up for grabs this election, anticipation in the healthcare industry is high. Shifts in healthcare policy will influence how care is paid for and delivered, which will of course influence the flow of investment ...
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Episode 71
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30:42
Election Implications (Part 1): Angst, Uncertainty and an Urge for Calm from Maverick Health Policy’s Julie Barnes
Julie Barnes has made a career helping health plans, tech vendors, investors and others in the healthcare space decipher health policy. She’s a former Hill staffer who earned her law degree and spent a decade in corporate law serving healthcare...
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Episode 70
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45:42
What’s the Difference Between Innovation and Performance Improvement?
OSF HealthCare stands as a model health system for those who want to do innovation right. One of the defining characteristics of the Peoria, Illinois-based system is how it aligns innovation with operations for everyone – all 24,000 employees a...
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Episode 69
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38:00
Help or Harm? How CHAI is Mitigating the Risk of AI in Healthcare
With great power comes great responsibility and in healthcare, those words may have never held more meaning than they do with the advent of artificial intelligence. AI most certainly has the power to transform healthcare, and those in the indus...
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Episode 68
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54:30
Live from DHIS East: Mass General Brigham CIO, Christopher Coburn
Chris Coburn has been driving health system innovation for decades. He is currently chief innovation officer at Mass General Brigham (MGB), the nation’s largest academic research enterprise with over $16 billion in annual revenue, 1.5 million p...
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Episode 67
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44:17
Reinventing Pharmacy (Part 3): Optum Rx CEO, Dr. Patrick Conway, Brings the PBM, Provider and Payer POV
Optum Rx serves more than 62 million people, processes 1.6 billion prescriptions and generates more than $110 billion of revenue annually. Dr. Patrick Conway, CEO of Optum Rx, is the third and final guest in a series of Healthcare is Hard episo...
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Episode 66
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40:32
Reinventing Pharmacy (Part 2): Dr. Troyen Brennan Disputes the False Narrative of Good vs. Bad Actors
In the first of a series of episodes exploring opportunities for innovation in the pharmacy space, Mark Cuban offered perspective from an outsider...
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Episode 65
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42:49
Reinventing Pharmacy: Mark Cuban Says Trust Is Missing Across Healthcare. Here’s What He’s Doing About It
Mark Cuban built a career disrupting industries and creating new ones. Now, his sights are set on healthcare. There’s no secret ingredient to Mark’s success. As the world sees very publicly on Shark Tank, his style is the opposite of ke...
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Episode 64
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43:34
Is Innovation Stuck in Healthcare? Two Brothers Get to The Bottom of It
In most industries, innovation leads to an improved product or service while ultimately helping to lower cost. Healthcare is the exception. Despite a constant pursuit of new science, technology, operational efficiencies, business models and mor...
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Episode 63
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46:21
Putting Trust at the Center of Healthcare Transformation: Press Ganey CEO, Pat Ryan
Through its work with more than 41,000 healthcare facilities and the industry’s largest database of patient feedback, Press Ganey gives organizations the data and insights they need to put the human experience at the center of healthcare.
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Episode 62
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36:20
Deciphering the New Normal (Part 4): Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts’ Chief Strategy Officer, Sukanya Soderland
This is the final episode in a four part series with heads of strategy at providers and payers from across the healthcare ecosystem to explore “the new normal” in a post-COVID operating environment. For this episode Keith Figlioli welcomed Suka...
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Episode 61
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37:02
Deciphering the New Normal (Part 3): Humana’s Chief Strategy & Corporate Development Officer, Dr. Vishal Agrawal
The previous two episodes of Healthcare is Hard explored the “new normal” from the provider perspective with heads of strategy at an innovative regional health system,
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Episode 60
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38:16
Deciphering the New Normal (Part 2): CommonSpirit’s Chief Strategy Officer, Sheri Shapiro
CommonSpirit Health is one of the nation’s largest integrated health systems comprising 142 hospitals and 2,200 care sites across 24 states. Three years ago, at the height of the pandemic,
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Episode 59
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41:11
Deciphering The New Normal With OhioHealth’s Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer, Michael Krouse
There are many reasons why central Ohio is a fertile ground for innovation and why the areas surrounding Columbus are ideal for testing new approaches to consumer behavior. It’s a diverse city with five Fortune 500 companies and 19 Fortune 1,00...
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Episode 58
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40:28
Not Just a Side Gig: Government Contracting Takes Commitment, Says Booz Allen Hamilton COO, Kristine Martin Anderson
Before taking responsibility for operational performance of Booz Allen Hamilton – the $9+ billion technology and consulting leader with 32,000+ employees worldwide – Kristine Martin Anderson built a career pioneering healthcare IT. Most notably...
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Episode 57
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40:10
Is AI Policy a Bigger Undertaking Than Meaningful Use? Kristen McGovern Thinks So
Earning a Presidential Management Fellowship after law school gave Kristen McGovern firsthand experience working inside many of the agencies and offices that drive U.S. healthcare policy. Over a two year period with the Department of Health and...
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Episode 56
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38:07
AI Hype vs. Reality: A Conversation With Nuance (Microsoft) CSO, Peter Durlach
Peter Durlach grew up around computers and was exposed to innovative technology at an early age by his father, who helped run a lab in the electronics department at MIT. After graduating college in the 1980s, Peter caught the entrepreneurial bu...
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Episode 55
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48:21
Scaling Up (Part 2). How Dr. Rasu Shrestha is Steering AI & Innovation After the Megamerger that Created Advocate Health
Many physicians today choose to pivot their careers and apply their clinical knowledge to the innovation and digital transformation side of healthcare. Dr. Rasu Shrestha was an early pioneer of this trend and as he explains, went from “the dark...
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Episode 54
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49:39
Follow the Money: Harvard Professor & MedPAC Chair, Michael Chernew, Illuminates the Causes & Consequences of Healthcare Spending
Understanding healthcare spending growth in America is a critical component of any initiative attempting to improve care quality and affordability. This holds true for every person or organization focused on improving healthcare – from policy m...
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Episode 53
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41:57
