Health Care Rounds

Decades after the research that proved high-spending regions don't produce better care, and 20 years after the term "accountable care organization" was coined, the U.S. health care system still runs overwhelmingly on fee-for-service. The incentives haven't changed, and the results show it. Dr. Elliott Fisher, Professor of Health Policy at the Dartmouth Institute and the Geisel School of Medicine a...

Rural hospitals in the U.S. have been closing at a steady pace for over 50 years, and the country now has one of the lowest rates of acute hospital beds per capita among OECD nations. A five-year, $50 billion federal program aims to slow the bleeding, but it may only be a stopgap.  Dr. Tim Ferris, Vice President of the Health Care Practice at InterSystems and former National Director of Transforma...

U.S. health care spending keeps rising, quality scores keep climbing, and yet the care most Americans receive has barely improved. The measurement systems designed to drive better outcomes may be making things worse. Dr. Michael Chernew, Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School and former Chair of MedPAC, joins host John Marchica to examine why decades of quality measurement have...

Value-based care has been the defining promise of health care reform for two decades. Yet new evidence still takes an average of 17 years to reach standard clinical practice, payers and providers remain structurally misaligned, and most VBC models still prioritize payment mechanics over actual patient outcomes.  Don Calcagno, Founder of ValuesEdge and former Chief Population Health Officer at Advo...

Primary care physicians are burning out, and patients are paying the price. With the average primary care visit lasting just 15 minutes, the volume-based treadmill is pushing doctors out of the profession and leaving patients without meaningful, preventive care.  Larry Kutscher, CEO of MDVIP, joins host John Marchica to make the case for a fundamentally different model. They dig into why membershi...

Health care spends trillions treating disease, but far less preventing it. The gap between what we know works and what actually gets implemented may be the most expensive problem in medicine.  Dr. Barry Davis, physician, professor, and author of Preventioneers, joins host John Marchica to explore why prevention so rarely makes it from research to reality, and what it would take for health system l...

Value-based care has been the goal for decades. So why does it still feel like we're moving in slow motion? The answer may come down to data, incentives, and the willingness to cross what one industry veteran calls "the rickety bridge over a chasm of death."  David Snow, Chairman and CEO, Cedar Gate Technologies, an IQVIA Business joins host John Marchica to discuss why technology has finally caug...

Pediatric care is one of the most fragmented and underfunded corners of the American health system. Parents are left as de facto care coordinators, specialists work in silos, and children with complex needs fall through the cracks. What would it look like to actually fix that? Danish Qureshi, Founder and CEO, Zarminali Pediatrics joins host John Marchica to discuss the personal experience that spa...

On Chicago's West Side, a 100-year-old safety net hospital serves a community where the average life expectancy is 20 years shorter than it is just seven minutes away. Loretto Hospital collects 32 cents on the dollar, runs on 84% Medicaid, and still finds ways to innovate, collaborate, and show up for people that the rest of the system has left behind.  Tesa Anewishki, CEO, Loretto Hospital joins...

The VA is one of the largest integrated health systems in the country, but it operates unlike anything in the private sector. What can pharmacy leaders and health system executives learn from an organization that has embedded pharmacists into clinical care for decades, given them prescriptive privileges, and built virtual urgent care teams from the ground up?  Dr. Eric Scott, Former Chief of Pharm...

Physician leadership can make or break a health system. What does it really take to earn doctors’ trust and move an organization forward?  Dr. Jonathan Stallkamp, Chief Medical Officer of Main Line Health, joins host John Marchica to discuss building physician engagement, developing future clinical leaders, and strengthening culture inside a complex health system.   ===============================...

Regional health leaders are being asked to do the impossible right now: deliver on systemwide strategy while staying deeply responsive to the realities on the ground. In rural markets especially, the pressures around access, staffing, and infrastructure are forcing health systems to rethink what “care delivery” looks like in practice.  Natalie Baggio, President, Corewell Health South joins Health...

Independent community health systems are under increasing pressure as health care continues to consolidate. What does it really take to remain independent while continuing to deliver high-quality care at scale?  Dr. Allen Smith, President & CEO, and Dr. Sam Ash, CIO of South Shore Health join Health Care Rounds host John Marchica, to discuss maintaining independence as a community health system, b...

We’re ringing in 2026 with Mark Cuban!   Prescription pricing remains one of the most opaque and frustrating parts of the health care system, leaving employers, providers, and patients struggling to understand where costs come from and who truly benefits.   Mark Cuban joins Health Care Rounds to talk about why prescription pricing became so complex, how a lack of transparency drives higher costs,...

Health systems are facing unprecedented pressure as physician burnout, workforce shortages, population growth, and rapid technology adoption collide. Leaders are being asked to improve care quality, support clinicians, and transform delivery models all at once. Dr. Sowmya Viswanathan, Chief Physician Executive at BayCare Health System, joins Health Care Rounds podcast to discuss physician engageme...

Primary care sits at the center of American health care, yet clinicians face mounting burnout, shrinking margins, and a system that often rewards procedures over prevention. With physician shortages growing and patient needs rising, the future of primary care is at a crossroads.  Dr. Greg Whisman, Chief Medical Officer at CareMore Health, joins Health Care Rounds to discuss the pressures driving t...

Behind every headline about rising premiums is a deeper truth: our health care system is structurally unsustainable.  In this episode of Health Care Rounds Podcast, former US Secretary of Veteran Affairs, Dr. David Shulkin, explains why real reform requires more than subsidies and payment tweaks. We cover everything from misaligned incentives to lessons from the VA’s population-based model and wha...

Specialty pharmacy plays a critical role in patient outcomes, but health systems often struggle to manage operations effectively while maintaining continuity of care.  In this episode of Health Care Rounds, host John Marchica talks with Jigar Thakkar, PharmD, CEO of Longitude Rx, about how his company is helping leading health systems reimagine specialty pharmacy through technology, data integrati...

Across the country, health systems are chasing the promise of value-based care, but few have figured out how to make it work.  David Carmouche, MD, Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Transformation Officer at Lumeris, joins host John Marchica to discuss what it really takes to make value-based care work at scale.  ================================================  🎙 ABOUT DAVID CARMOUCHE D...

Burnout among health care workers remains a critical issue years after the height of COVID-19.  In this episode of Health Care Rounds, Dr. Adele Webb, Executive Dean of Healthcare Initiatives at Strategic Education, Inc. shares insights from a national survey of health care workers, revealing what’s really driving nursing burnout and how education can help retain talent. ==========================...

What does it take to lead 100,000 health care workers through constant disruption?  In this episode of Health Care Rounds, host John Marchica sits down with John D’Angelo, MD, FACEP, President & CEO of Northwell Health, to discuss his journey from physician to chief executive. Dr. D'Angelo shares critical lessons learned from managing COVID-19 surges, his vision for maintaining organizational cult...

Insurance denials are exploding, and they’re costing lives.   In this episode of Health Care Rounds, host John Marchica sits down with Neal Shah, CEO of CareYaya and Counterforce Health, to unpack the broken insurance system and the AI-driven surge in claim rejections. Neal shares how his personal caregiving experiences shaped his mission, why most patients never appeal, and how new tools can help...

Why do people trust Google and TikTok more than their doctors? Dr. Geeta Nayyar, MD, MBA, the author of Dead Wrong: Diagnosing and Treating Healthcare's Misinformation Illness, joins the show to break down how misinformation spreads, why patient trust continues to decline, and what health leaders must do to lead the cure.   ================================================    🎙 ABOUT DR. GEETA NAYY...

Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) play a pivotal role in drug pricing, yet their practices often remain shrouded in a black box of rebates, spread pricing, and misaligned incentives. In this installment of our Pharma Series, Alan Pannier, Senior Vice President of Product Strategy at SmithRx, breaks down how legacy PBMs use opaque contracts and vertical integration to drive up costs, why employers a...

Specialty pharmacy is big business. And while PBMs and big pharma dominate the spotlight, health systems are quietly carving out their own advantage.  In this episode of Health Care Rounds, host, John Marchica, sits down with Tim Affeldt, PharmD, Vice President, Specialty/Infusion Operations, Fairview Pharmacy Services, to unpack why health systems don’t just belong in specialty pharmacy - they ma...