Off the Chart: A Business of Medicine Podcast

Medicare's Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction (WISeR) Model launched January 1, 2026, in six states, immediately drawing fire from physicians, patient advocates and members of Congress. In this episode, Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio), a co-sponsor of the Ban AI Denials in Medicare Act , explains why he believes the pilot needs to be stopped. He argues the model is less about reducing waste...

CMS's latest antifraud actions — withholding Medicaid funds from Minnesota, freezing enrollment for certain durable medical equipment suppliers and launching the CRUSH initiative — signal a broader shift in how the federal government plans to police health care fraud. In this episode, Pat Naples, J.D., senior associate at ArentFox Schiff, walks through the legal authority behind each of those acti...

When tariffs on medical devices and components were first announced, the initial figures were, as Casey Hite puts it, mind-blowing — potentially forcing Aeroflow Health to exit entire business lines. In this episode, Hite joins Medical Economics Managing Editor Todd Shryock to discuss how the medical device supply chain has been reshaped by tariffs, why physician practices are already feeling the...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is already driving workforce decisions at major companies, and health care practices, large and small, are not immune. In this episode, Christopher Mayer, J.D., a specialist in employment law with the firm Frier Levitt, explains how generative AI is being used to guide layoff decisions, why practice leaders can never simply accept what an AI tool recommends, and what t...

Health care fraud enforcement recovered more than $6 billion last year. Shannon Sumner, CPA, CHC, expects this year to be even larger. In this episode, Sumner, managing principal of PYA's Nashville office and the firm's chief compliance officer, explains how enforcement has shifted from targeting large health systems to going after individual physicians and practice leaders. She walks through the...

Nearly half of all physicians are now employed by or affiliated with a hospital system, and the forces behind that consolidation aren't slowing down. John Pack, vice president of health care finance at Mitsubishi HC Capital America, explains to Physicians Practice Managing Editor Keith A. Reynolds what's driving independent practices toward consolidation, and why mid-size practices in particular g...

Virtual care has reshaped medicine since COVID-19, but the shift to the screen comes with real trade-offs.   In this episode, Sarah Matt, M.D., MBA — practicing physician, health technology strategist, author of "The Borderless Healthcare Revolution" and a recent addition to the Medical Economics editorial advisory board — joins Managing Editor Todd Shryock to explore what's actually at stake when...

The Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) has been around since 2017, but that doesn't mean the program has gotten easier to navigate. Holly Black, project manager for regulatory affairs and compliance at Sightview Software — and often referred to as a "MIPS Geek Guru" — walks through the most consequential changes for 2026, including the removal of the three-point scoring floor for large pr...

Texas has long carried the highest uninsured rate in the country — but research by Texas 2036 found the reasons why are more complicated than most people assume. In this episode, Charles Miller, J.D., director of health and economic mobility policy for Texas 2036, unpacks what the organization learned when it went directly to uninsured Texans to ask why they hadn't enrolled in coverage many of the...

A new Wolters Kluwer survey of physician assistants found that 96% feel confident walking into patient interactions on day one, but 87% say they still need more training on artificial intelligence (AI). Kelly Villella, segment leader and director of product management at Wolters Kluwer Health, unpacks what those numbers mean for the practice managers responsible for hiring and onboarding PAs. She...

Osteopathic medicine has grown from a single school in the 1890s to 73 campuses across 36 states, now accounting for nearly 30% of all U.S. medical students. In this episode, Robert Cain, D.O., FACOI, FAODME, president and CEO of the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM), walks through the association's inaugural workforce and economic impact report , which found that ro...

Workplace violence in health care settings isn't just a safety issue — it's a financial and operational one. In this episode, Andrea Greco, SVP of healthcare safety at CENTEGIX, breaks down key findings from the company's 2026 Healthcare Trends Report , including why duress alerts now spike nearly 300% during morning hours, why hallways and exam rooms remain the most dangerous spaces in a practice...

It's no secret that health care has a staffing problem. But are patients really resorting to artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots when they can't get in to see a physician? Medical Economics Associate Editor Austin Littrell sat down with Rosemarie Aznavorian, D.N.P., RN, CENP, CCWP, CCRN, senior vice president of client services and chief clinical officer at MedPro Healthcare Staffing , to talk a...

Payment processing has become more complex for medical practices — and more vulnerable to fraud. Medical Economics Managing Editor Todd Shryock sat down with Stephanie O’Connor, director of merchant experience at Wind River Payments, to talk about the evolving risks tied to digital payment platforms in health care O’Connor explains how practices can unintentionally expose themselves to card testin...

In this episode, Keith Reynolds, managing editor of Physicians Practice , speaks with Katie Russell, J.D., partner at Brown Immigration Law in Cleveland, Ohio, about what recent shifts in immigration enforcement really mean for medical practices. Russell explains why enforcement has moved toward employer-focused compliance audits, particularly I-9 documentation and visa adherence. She outlines wha...

Rising patient acuity. Aging demographics. Tight margins. Artificial intelligence (AI) moving from buzzword to workflow tool. Medical Economics sat down with Shannon Sims, M.D., Ph. D., FAMIA, chief product officer at Vizient, and Matthew Bates, M.P.H., managing director at Kaufman Hall, to talk about Vizient's 2026 State of the Industry Report and what it calls a "reset" moment for U.S. health ca...

Medicare often pays dramatically different rates for the exact same service depending on where it’s delivered. That difference has helped fuel hospital acquisition of physician practices and reshaped the structure of U.S. health care. Medical Economics Senior Editor Richard Payerchin sat down with Christopher Whaley, Ph. D., associate professor in the Department of Health Services, Policy and Prac...

The health care system is changing quickly, and the legal and regulatory systems that govern it are struggling to keep up. Medical Economics Associate Editor Austin Littrell sat down with Richard Anderson, M.D., CEO of The Doctors Company and TDC Group, to talk about the organization’s annual predictions report, Healthcare on the Horizon: Predictions for U.S. Healthcare Through 2026 . Anderson exp...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is moving closer to patients, often before they ever step into the exam room. Tools like ChatGPT Health and other health-focused AI platforms are shaping how patients interpret test results, prepare questions and form expectations about care. Medical Economics Associate Editor Austin Littrell sat down with Amber Maraccini, Ph. D., M.A., vice president and head of healt...

Government funding deadlines, expiring coverage subsidies and temporary policy fixes are creating real-world disruptions for physician practices — often with little warning. Keith Reynolds, managing editor of Physicians Practice , sat down with Anders Gilberg, senior vice president of government affairs at the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), to talk about how recent federal policy dec...

When patients talk about what they want from a visit with their physician, the answer is often simpler than the system makes it feel: they want to feel understood. Melissa Lucarelli, M.D., FAAFP, a family physician, owner of Randolph Community Clinic and longtime editorial advisor for Medical Economics speaks with Ronald Epstein, M.D., FAAHPM, professor of family medicine and palliative care at th...

In 2026, physicians are facing a familiar mix of pressure — reimbursement uncertainty, rising labor and supply costs, staffing shortages and growing exposure to legal and cyber risk. Medical Economics Managing Editor Todd Shryock caught up with Peter Reilly, North American health care practice leader at HUB International, to talk about what those risks look like in practice, and which ones physici...

Rising minimum wages, fierce labor competition and persistent turnover are reshaping how physician practices operate — and higher pay alone isn’t solving the problem. Rihan Javid, D.O., J.D., a psychiatrist and co-founder and president of Edge, a remote staffing organization, about how staffing pressures are landing inside medical practices in 2026. Javid explains why small practices and rural hos...

Independent medical practices are facing more competition than ever — from hospital systems, urgent care chains, private equity–backed groups and other local practices just down the road. Medical Economics Content Vice President Chris Mazzolini sat down with Carl White, president and founder of MarketVisory Group, to talk about what it actually takes for independent practices to stay visible, rele...

Patients are making health decisions in a very different information environment — one shaped by social media, search engines, generative artificial intelligence (AI) and increasingly politicized medical claims. Medical Economics Senior Editor Richard Payerchin sat down with Colleen Denny, M.D., FACOG, chief ethics officer for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), to talk...