Health Tech Nerds Radio

In this episode, Health Tech Nerds Kevin and Martin interview Thyme Care President and COO Bradford Diephuis about the U.S. oncology market, highlighting rapid therapeutic advances alongside outdated care delivery and misaligned “buy and bill” incentives that tie practice economics to drug margins.  They discuss Thyme Care’s growth and care model: contracting with risk-bearing payers and entities...

Opioid addiction remains a major U.S. public health crisis despite overdose deaths falling back toward 2019 levels, and Ophelia leaders Zach Gray and Dr. Arthur Robin Williams discuss expanding access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT) via a virtual-first model.  Gray describes founding Ophelia after losing someone to overdose and argues MAT resembles long-term medication plus counseling but h...

Stedi founder Zach Kanter joins fresh off a $50M raise to explain the role of clearinghouses in healthcare, why the Change Healthcare cyberattack forced the industry to pay attention, and why legacy incumbents are incompatible with where healthcare is going. For more from Health Tech Nerds, subscribe to our weekly newsletters: https://www.healthtechnerds.com/subscribe

Cityblock's CEO Toyin Ajayi joins to make the case that AI should be deployed in Medicaid first, not last. With 60% of healthcare AI investment going toward revenue cycle and risk adjustment, she argues we're using the technology to deepen an inflationary spiral instead of solving the hardest problems. She breaks down how value-based care creates the right incentives to change that. For more from...

The Grand Roundup | March 30, 2026 A packed hour of health tech news: Kevin and Martin recap AHIP (the mood was grim), break down the MA final rates notice dropping any day now, and dig into the peptide/longevity boom reshaping consumer health. Plus two live guest interviews — Toyin Ajayi of Cityblock Health on why AI should be built for Medicaid first, not last, and Zach Kanter of Stedi on their...

Kevin is joined by HEP Managing Partner, Ezra Mehlman , and Executive Partner, Tom Cassels , to discuss findings from Health Enterprise Partner’s annual LP survey of ~150 health system and health plan executives.  They highlight widespread but shallow AI adoption which has the potential to widen gaps between best-in-class organizations that redesign processes, and laggards that “slap on” tools.  T...

When it comes to the social safety net, America’s public schools are a critical hub for connecting needs with resources, regardless of whether they’re adequately staffed or resourced for this herculean task. Across the country, administrators, teachers, counselors, and perhaps if they’re lucky, a social worker or a nurse, find themselves helping students and their families navigate housing insecur...

Kevin interviews Ashul Govil , Chief Medical Officer and Co-founder of Story Health by Innovaccer and a Sutter Health cardiologist, about Story Health’s evolution from virtual cardiology care powered by health coaches to an AI-forward model after joining Innovaccer.  Ashul says their focus has been closing gaps in episodic, brick-and-mortar care by reaching patients at home, publishing outcomes, a...

Kevin O’Leary and Martin Cech discuss a proposed cross-market mega merger between Sutter Health and Allina Health, including the combined scale, planned $2B regional investment, and skepticism that such mergers improve quality or lower costs despite claimed efficiencies. They’re joined by John Zutter , CEO of Lantern , who explains Lantern’s distributed “surgeons of excellence” approach versus tra...

Martin talks with Dr. Chris Cogle , author of the recently released book Public Startup and health care policy expert, about how Medicaid agencies sit at the intersection of medicine, policy, quality, data, finance, and operations to improve care for millions while managing limited taxpayer resources.  They discuss Medicaid as an under appreciated innovation lab, what makes pilots succeed or fail,...

At a very high level, the problems of the American healthcare system are: The US spends a lot more money than it takes in from tax revenue, quite a bit of which is on healthcare either through government funded programs or “tax expenditures” like the tax exclusion for employer sponsored programs Like most services oriented professions, healthcare is subject to Baumol’s cost disease : “There is no...

Tom Friedman became executive director of the North Carolina State Employee Health Plan in January 2025, covering the plan’s 775,000 active and retired members and its 55-person team managing $5.5B in spend. Friedman says the plan faced major projected deficits ($500M in 2026 and $1.4B in 2027) after years without premium or benefit changes, depleted reserves, and limited population health investm...

This week’s Grand Roundup covers Devoted Health’s hiring signals and strategy, including 47 open roles (many clinical), a 700-clinician medical group, 200,000 encounters last year, and claims of 5,000 “AI agents,” sparking questions about productivity and a potential path toward a virtual, national Kaiser-like model. The discussion then shifts to torts and product liability, using McPherson v. Bui...

Tim Fitzpatrick , founder of Signals Group , joins to discuss innovation and value-based care (VBC) in nephrology.  He outlines how CMMI kidney models have evolved from focusing on ESRD hospitalizations (CEC) to home dialysis and transplant incentives (ETC) and now earlier-stage CKD transitions (KCC), citing reported improvements like higher optimal starts, home dialysis use, and preemptive transp...

Any conversation about value-based care in pediatric populations would be incomplete without talking about children with high medical complexity. The reality of caring for children with high medical complexity and the barriers their families face is under-discussed, and so is the hard problem of financing their care– it’s 6% of the population and 40% of the spend according to this note from the Ch...

The episode covers a busy Monday in healthcare and markets:  Universal Health Services announced it will acquire Talkspace to expand outpatient behavioral health and virtual care, raising questions about Talkspace’s largely non‑W2 therapist model and the modest premium paid.  Hims and Hers and Novo Nordisk unexpectedly reengaged after a broken partnership and lawsuit, with Hims curtailing compound...

A little noticed aspect of the bipartisan PBM reform bill is strengthening of the “any willing pharmacy” provisions of Medicare. To talk about what “any willing pharmacy” means in practice, why it was included in the PBM reform bill, and broader discussion on medically integrated dispensing and the policy environment, we’re joined by two pharmacist-leaders at House Rx : Denali Cahoon , Chief Pharm...

In this episode of Health Tech Nerd Radio, Kevin speaks with Bruce Greenstein , the Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health, and Will Shrank , the Co-Founder and CEO of Aradigm , about how state Medicaid programs are preparing for the coming wave of cell and gene therapies. The conversation covers state and federal roles, innovative payment models (including Louisiana’s earlier “Netflix mo...

In this episode, Justin Mares , CEO of Truemed , discusses why preventative care is widely supported but hard to finance due to limited ROI data compared to pharmaceuticals. He explains TruMed’s mission and business model: infrastructure that helps qualified individuals use tax-free HSA/FSA dollars for evidence-backed lifestyle interventions—such as fitness, sleep products, and medically tailored...

After spending about as much time on the State of the Union as the President spent on health care in the speech, Kevin and Martin talked about a busy week in the health care public markets including some analyst skepticism around Humana’s 2026 margin guidance and MA MLR dynamics; Hims financial results and burgeoning investor distrust; and GoodRx’s role as a pharma channel. They touch on Option Ca...

Kevin interviews John Kao , CEO of Alignment Health , after the company reported earnings that beat the high end of guidance across membership, revenue, gross profit, and EBITDA.  Kao explains Alignment’s provider-alignment model: guaranteeing PCP revenue via monthly payments, stratifying members so an interdisciplinary “Care Anywhere” team manages the highest-risk 10% at home, and sharing data ba...

Purva Rawal and Liz Fowler, along with their co-authors, have written a several recent forefront articles in Health Affairs that are timely given all the attention to Medicare and MA right now. The one that’s been on our mind lately is “ Reengineering ACOs to Make Medicare Competitive ,” and we're excited to welcome them to share their thoughts on improvements to the program and recent development...

Oren Shatken and Romanos Fessas , co-founders of Jukebox Health , join us to discuss how home-based interventions can improve outcomes and reduce costs for long-term services and supports (LTSS) populations. They explain the economics of LTSS and dual-eligible members, why keeping people safely at home matters, and how occupational therapist–led assessments and home modifications can drive measura...

Martin and Kevin discuss three ways the government has tried to spend less money on healthcare: the Inflation Reduction Act, The No Surprises Act, and ACCESS.  They highlight what we learned from public companies this week including Grail’s stock drop after an NHS study missed its primary endpoint and reimbursement concerns; Talkspace’s shift from consumer to B2B; and Community Health Systems’ div...

The conversation covers Omada’s views on the ACCESS program and the recently announced reimbursement rates, how they’re thinking about using technology to scale their care operations, plus the new cholesterol program they just announced.  For more from Health Tech Nerds, subscribe to our weekly newsletters: https://www.healthtechnerds.com/subscribe