Inside Angle

In order to practice medicine, doctors have to take and pass board certification exams to prove they are current in their field. Dr. Richard Baron, president and CEO of the American Board of Internal Medicine and the ABIM Foundation, reveals the importance of these exams beyond testing medical knowledge. He shares ideas about the future of primary care, quality measurement and what it truly means...

When U.S. business leaders noticed that their employees in other countries were getting better care and outcomes for less cost than in the U.S., they knew something needed to change. Enter the Primary Care Collaborative (PCC), a not-for-profit, multi-stakeholder organization dedicated to sharing best practices to support the growth of high performing primary care. Ann Greiner, president and CEO of...

How can we fix the U.S. health care system so that it is both less costly and provides better patient outcomes? It's a complicated question with no easy answer. One solution is to invest more in high quality primary care, with an emphasis on continuity of care that fosters a partnership between providers and patients. Chris Koller, president of the Milbank Memorial Fund, shares how the organizatio...

Have you ever created a bucket list? Has overwork and burnout prevented you from realizing those dreams? Ben Nemtin wrote the book "What Do You Want To Do Before You Die?" to remind us to step back from the day to day and focus on helping ourselves and others achieve lifelong dreams.

The health care industry is changing. Is your organization keeping up? Best selling author, inventor and technologist Nicholas Webb explores the trends disrupting the current state of health care and details three things that hospitals and clinics can do to prepare for survival.

Employers are fed up with the current health care system. They recognize that high quality care means a healthier workforce and are looking to hospitals, health systems and health plans to move faster on health reform. Elizabeth Mitchell, president and CEO of the Purchaser Business Group on Health, discusses her organization's innovative work redesigning care delivery and driving affordability.

Why are health care costs so much higher in the U.S. compared with other countries? In his new book "Never Pay the First Bill: And Other Ways to Fight the Health Care System and Win," investigative reporter and author Marshall Allen shares stories from real people dealing with high medical bills and details concrete steps for how individuals and employers can challenge the system.

Care guidelines and protocols are designed to address discreet aspects of health, not necessarily the complexities of the human condition. When  Dr. Elvin Geng of Washington University in St. Louis realized standard rules and practice were preventing him from addressing a complicated issue for a patient, he recognized the situation called for more discretionary decision making, evidence of what ou...

At its core, health care is fundamentally about relationships. Yet, over the last several decades, care delivery has evolved into a transactional model reinforced by EHR tick boxes, shift work and the notion that clinicians are interchangeable. Dr. Christine Sinsky, Vice President for the American Medical Association, discusses her research on physician burnout and the connection between better pa...

Our nation's health care delivery system falls short when it comes to disease prevention and health promotion. Can we embrace the idea of health "holism" -- treating the whole person, not just the physical symptoms of a disease -- into our modern care delivery and payment systems? In this episode, Wayne Jonas, MD, describes how to bring primary care back to the forefront of the U.S. health care mo...

How do we provide physicians with the right resources to meet the needs of the people they serve? What will it take to ensure the best possible care when social factors hinder successful outcomes? In this episode, Dr. Bob Phillips, Executive Director of The Center for Professionalism & Value in Health Care with the American Board of Family Medicine, discusses the value of using community vital sig...

Among the many lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, one thing is clear: Whether it's gaps in our public health system or obstacles to adoption of telemedicine, the way we finance health care in the U.S. doesn't always match what we want from health care. Rebecca Etz, Ph. D., a cultural anthropologist with Virginia Commonwealth University and a leading expert on integrating mental and behavi...

What might a better value-based payment model look like and what tools do we need in order to create that model? Dr. Gordon Moore discusses a vision for the future of value-based care with Kenton Johnston, PhD, MPH, dissecting the topics of risk adjustment, quality measures, accountable care organizations and more.

How can small physician practices be supported in their work? In what ways can practices grow their voice to get the attention of payers and ultimately realize the goals of value-based care? In this episode, Dr. Jen Brull discusses taking her practice in Plainville Kansas on a journey of continual improvement that led her to a national role as vice president of clinical engagement for Aledade, a c...

Better patient outcomes depend on high quality primary care, but primary care providers often don't get the data they need to fully understand the unique needs of their patients. In this episode, Beth Bortz, president and CEO of the Virginia Center for Health Innovation, explores how the right data in the hands of PCPs can move the needle on payment and delivery system reform.

Founded in 1963 as a health and beauty store, CVS has evolved over its 50-year history, but always maintained a focus on making health care local and accessible. In this episode, Dr. Dan Knecht of CVS Health discusses how the company's 2018 acquisition of Aetna is driving innovative, new programs where CVS clinical pharmacists are applying health plan data to identify gaps in care, improve medicat...

Health care procedures can be risky for certain cohorts of patients. How can we identify these patients are and weigh the benefits and risks of performing certain procedures? In this episode, Dr. Victoria Sharp explores the idea of a frailty index, which scores patients based on key frailty factors to determine good candidates for surgery or other procedures. Could a frailty index provide a more w...

One silver lining of these COVID-19 times? The willingness to be inventive, try new approaches and invest resources in improving care outcomes. In this episode, Samantha Olds Frey, CEO of the Illinois Association of Medicaid Health Plans, describes what happened when health plans came together with Illinois Medicaid to support members facing unprecedented challenges arising from the pandemic.

Nationwide, emergency departments struggle with super utilizers, those patients who come into the ED as often as once a day. How can hospitals reduce utilization to bring down costs and still improve outcomes? Jason Greenspan, MD, associate chief medical officer with Emergent Medical Associates describes a breakthrough approach to care management.  

What problems can be solved when health plans collaborate with each other rather than compete? In this episode, we explore Project Link, a new forum that brings health plans together to understand the impact of social determinants of health (SDOH) on their members. In this episode, Michelle Jester, Executive Director of Social Determinants of Health for America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), des...

Telemedicine has been around for a long time, but many health care organizations made the first moves into telehealth with the COVID-19 public health emergency. Even before the pandemic, Washington DC-based Unity Health Care devised a telemedicine strategy that targeted underserved populations. How has the pandemic impacted Unity's program and will its current initiative become the new norm? Drs....

In his New York Times best-selling book "The Price We Pay," Dr. Marty Makary discusses the worsening crisis of high health care costs and the impact on quality of care. Is price transparency the answer? Listen to the latest podcast episode for Dr. Makary's perspective and hear about his work as a Johns Hopkins surgeon and professor of public health, where he is researching ways to bridge the divid...

Electronic health records give providers an enormous amount of information, but finding relevant patient information can be like finding a needle in a haystack. The result: cognitive overload for providers, leading to wasted time and physician burnout. In this episode, 3M User Experience (UX) Design Team Lead Anna Abovyan explores ways to reduce the cognitive load on physicians by designing techno...

The COVID-19 pandemic has put extraordinary stress on state Medicaid budgets. Enrollment is increasing, along with direct and indirect costs, at a time of declining state revenues. What can be done to mitigate these issues? CareMore Health, an integrated health plan and care delivery system for Medicare and Medicaid patients, is moving away from fee-for-service incentives to provide comprehensive...

During this time of COVID-19, we've seen a striking increase in the use of telemedicine services. The Inside Angle podcast revisits an episode featuring telemedicine pioneer Barb Johnston, co-founder and CEO of HealthLinkNow , a network of clinicians providing mental health services to patients online. With nearly two decades of experience in implementing telemedicine programs, including the creat...