Breaking Health

 When Bill Taranto pitched the Global Health Innovation (GHI) Fund, he envisioned an independent venture that mimicked a private firm but maintained the backing and power of a big health company. The Fund's partnership with Merck allows them to make groundbreaking investments in the digital health space. Following what is often known as "ecosystem investing," the GHI Fund matches tw...

After several deployments in the Middle East as a US Air Force Pilot, Unite Us CEO Dan Brillman served as a trusted confidant and aid to fellow veterans looking to secure housing, employment, sustenance, and healthcare. However, he became increasingly frustrated with the fragmented and ineffective system most veterans navigate to secure social services and health resources. As a result, Brillman c...

While the pandemic may have dramatically advanced our virtual care ambitions, even pre-pandemic many people noted that care outside of the hospital resulted in improved outcomes for some groups of patients. In a recent conversation at the Digital Healthcare Innovation Summit, leaders in care delivery for a variety of patient needs—as well as payer representatives—explored how innovative care model...

Sid Viswanathan doesn’t believe that a pre-existing passion is essential to entrepreneurial success, instead he recommends choosing an area with plenty to learn. “Find something you can spend a lot of time obsessing over,” he told the Breaking Health podcast. When he co-founded Truepill, Viswanathan didn’t know much about healthcare, but now it is a passion. “It’s such a meaty industry; there’s so...

Enam Noor has been an entrepreneur since he graduated from college with a degree in computer programming. After honing his skills in digital analytics and digital workflow, he’s taking what he learned and applying it to the healthcare field. His company, Insightin Health, brings vast healthcare data to bear on care decision-making, empowering health plans to use data as an asset—not just an operat...

Reimbursement coverage for behavioral health services hit a milestone in 2008 when Congress passed the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) which required insurers to equalize coverage for behavioral health and medical health benefits in terms of co-pays, deductibles, lifetime caps and access to providers. Fast forward to present day when demand for behavioral health services out...

“A lot has happened in healthcare in the past two years,” Lucienne Ide, Founder and CEO of Rimidi, says. “We went from a miniscule adoption of telemedicine—much less remote monitoring—to now everybody’s looking at the future and saying, ‘This is here to stay. How are we going to do it in a scalable and sustainable way?’” Rimidi has the plan. Ide’s focus is patients with chronic diseases. Episodic...

Doctors making house calls might seem like a relic of the past, but the act of caring for patients in their own home is experiencing a revival. Only this time, it’s highly dependent on technology. This special episode features a panel discussion from a Digital Healthcare Innovation Summit (DHIS) Spotlight Episode earlier this year. Moderated by Ellen Herlacher, Principal, LRVHealth, this panel off...

Like many healthtech leaders, Walter Jin didn’t start his career in this industry. He began as an investment banker and then joined what was a much smaller Carlyle Group based in Washington DC in the 90’s. The firm had originally focused on aerospace defense but wanted to diversify, and since Walter happened to be doing healthcare deals for them, he was then asked to start their healthcare group....

John Kao is a seasoned entrepreneur and executive. After beginning his career at FHP International, he then started four other companies in succession: Secure Horizons USA, PacifiCare Health Systems, The TriZetto Group, and CareMore Medical Enterprises, before then being compelled to found Alignment Healthcare. Alignment’s origin is a bit more personal to John though, as the business idea arose fr...

Mark Frank has what he calls “professional ADD.” He naturally likes trying different things and building new skills, which is ultimately what led him to become an entrepreneur. Even while serving in the Army after college, Mark still found entrepreneurial aspects as a platoon leader; after all, he was responsible for everything his unit either did or didn’t do. He used to think of himself as an op...

After losing his Holocaust-survivor dad as a result of three medical errors at a US academic hospital, Raphael Rakowski was driven to start Medically Home. Trained as an engineer who then successfully launched a few prior companies, Raphael was prepared to try to address the problem of high fixed cost burdens at medical facilities that he felt affected quality of care. He and his co-founders start...

As a former Partner at Deloitte, Rajeev Ronanki established and led Deloitte's Life Sciences and Healthcare Advanced Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, and Innovation practices. He then was offered a chance to join Anthem and lead their transformation to becoming a digital-first enterprise. Rajeev viewed this a great opportunity to help transform healthcare, so he accepted the position. How...

Having been both an operator and an investor in the healthcare industry, Fay Rotenberg knows the challenges and silos all too well. She was encouraged when she first met the co-founders of Firefly Health though. Initially, she had agreed to meet with them 1 day per week, then that grew to 2 days per week, then 3, and before she knew it, she joined the company as President and CEO about 3 years ago...

In his final rotation at Harvard Medical School, Andrew was baffled by how many patients were googling their symptoms to make decisions about whether to seek care. Things became personal though when his own father hesitated and waited too long to seek medical attention while experiencing a mini stroke (thankfully he survived). Andrew became convinced that there had to be a way to reduce the effort...

Having started working in the healthcare space directly after graduating, Bryan quickly learned the ins and outs of health insurers, broker distribution, and self-insurers. After a decade in the industry, Bryan decided to pivot to a much smaller company and became both the CEO and just the 3rd employee at RxBenefits in 2005. He then realized the opportunity to help smaller, self-insured companies...

While working as a graduate student intern for a clinical documentation company, Jeff discovered his passion for the healthcare industry. He stayed there for 10 years and benefited from strong mentoring and development opportunities before seeing the company through its exit. Fast-forward 6 years- after another successful exit as a senior manager at a different business- Jeff was introduced to the...

Starting out as a minor league baseball broadcaster, Ben Albert realized he was better at the business side of his role than the on-air aspect. He then landed at a healthcare consulting company and became hooked on healthcare- so many silos and opportunities for automation! After a successful exit at the helm of Care Team Connect, Ben decided to start and lead Upfront Healthcare to help patients n...

Host Steve Krupa chats with Aver CEO Bill Nordmark about Bill’s career in the healthcare payer and reimbursement space, including his decision to take over the reins at Aver. Hear Bill share helpful insights on retrospective vs. prospective payment systems and how he is leading Aver on the quest to increase quality of care while reducing costs by helping payers expand and bundle payment programs.

Steve sits down with Zipari Founder and CEO, Mark Nathan to discuss how his career set him up for entrepreneurship, as well as the motivation and inspiration for starting a health insurance consumer experience platform. Mark shares the challenges associated with taking a homegrown business technology and creating generally available software and gives his best advice for entrepreneurs starting a c...

Greg discusses his early days as a professional musician and shows how creativity and problem-solving helped transition his career into software development, and led him to working in healthcare, helping providers and patients by innovating payment data. He discusses developing new, data-enabled products and using advancements in tech to expand a company footprint.  

No fan of traditional PBMs, Steve Krupa talks with Jake Frenz, founder and CEO of SmithRx, creator of a new tech-based PBM player.

Breaking Health Host Steve Krupa catches up with Peter Foley, founder and CEO of LetsGetChecked, a company that’s empowering patients to monitor their own health through diagnostic tests. Hear how Foley and his team built patient convenience into a powerful business. 

Chris Molaro calls his six years in the US Army leading a Field Artillery platoon his biggest honor. But he says his “biggest leadership failure” came after his platoon redeployed back home. In this episode of the Breaking Health podcast, Host Steve Krupa connects with a young veteran who is using inspiration from a tragic loss of one of his soldiers to depression to improve mental healthcare for...

Our Host Steve Krupa has a visitor. Aetion CEO Carolyn Magill pops by Steve’s office at HealthEdge to explain how Aetion raised a round of capital it wasn’t seeking. She also delves deeply into how Aetion’s analysis of different types of data – genomic, socioeconomic, EHR’s – can change how healthcare is delivered and how are costs covered. You can WATCH this Breaking Health podcast interview here...