The Astonishing Healthcare Podcast

What actually happens after you hand your insurance card to the front desk at a doctor's office? On the pharmacy side, a claim clears in milliseconds. On the medical side, the same visit can trigger a weeks- or months-long odyssey of coding, clearinghouses, carve-outs, and paper claims before anyone knows what's owed. On this episode of Astonishing Healthcare , host Justin Venneri revisits the "st...

What happens when two consecutive years of double-digit drug spending growth collide with a wave of pricing legislation, executive orders, and policy turbulence? On the latest episode of Astonishing Healthcare, host Justin Venneri welcomes Michael Kleinrock , Director of Research Development at the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science, back to the show to find out and unpack the findings from IQ...

On episode 109 of Astonishing Healthcare , host Justin Venneri explores pharmacogenomics (PGx) with a trio of experts: Caitlin Munro, PharmD (Clinical Partnerships Lead, Judi Health); Haleh Campbell, PharmD (Clinical Programs Administration Manager, Judi Health); and Houda Hachad, PharmD (Vice President of Clinical Operations, Aranscia). Together, they break down what PGx is, why now is the right...

How can interoperability, policy, and technology come together to solve some of healthcare's most stubborn challenges? On episode 108 of Astonishing Healthcare , host Justin Venneri sits down with Brendan Keeler , Interoperability Practice Lead at HTD Health and author of the popular Health API Guy Substack. Brendan shares his journey from working at Epic Systems to becoming a leading voice in hea...

What makes a healthcare experience feel simple, trustworthy, and effective, even when the work behind it is anything but? On episode 107 of Astonishing Healthcare , host Justin Venneri sits down with Judi Health's Adam Murphy, Senior Director of Design, and Michelle Chambers, Director of UX/UI, to explore how thoughtful UX/UI design can transform healthcare from the inside out. Adam and Michelle s...

Julie Selesnick, Executive Director of Legal and Compliance at Judi Group, joins the Astonishing Healthcare podcast for an in-depth discussion on the Department of Labor's proposed rules aimed at enhancing PBM transparency. Julie shares the highlights of Judi Group's submitted comments and explains how the Department could help reshape the healthcare landscape, improve fiduciary practices, and dri...

Josh Golden, SVP of Strategy at Judi Health, returns to the Astonishing Healthcare podcast for a timely discussion about the world of drug pricing and what's shaking things up. Josh shares insights from his two decades of experience working with many of our country's largest employers and navigating [very heavy, sometimes scary] pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) contracts. He explains why the industr...

On this episode of the Astonishing Healthcare Podcast , we sit down with return guest Bridget Mulvenna, Vice President of National Business Development at Judi Health, to break down the biggest pharmacy drivers of 2026. Bridget offers insights into how plan sponsors and benefits brokers and consultants can strategically evaluate pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) by looking beyond unit costs and foc...

In this episode of the Astonishing Healthcare Podcast , we sit down with Amit Srivastava, Vice President and Head of AI at Judi Health and dive into the practical applications of artificial intelligence (AI) within the US healthcare system. Have you ever wondered how AI can streamline notoriously manual clinical workflows? Amit shares his extensive background in AI, from early government projects...

On this episode of Astonishing Healthcare , Lloyd Fiorini, General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer at Judi Health, returns to the studio for a discussion about the barrage of regulatory changes shaping the pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) landscape in early 2026. Within just two weeks, the Department of Labor announced new proposed PBM rules, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026 (CAA 2...

On this episode of Astonishing Healthcare , Judi Health's Mike Tate (VP, National Business Development) and Mark Pearce (Director, TPA Operations) join us in the studio to discuss the role of Third-Party Administrators (TPAs) in the self-funded employer market. As Mike explains, TPAs act as the "enforcers" of an employer's plan document, responsible for pulling everything together and ensuring cla...

For the 100th episode of Astonishing Healthcare , we welcomed AJ Loiacono, our co-founder and CEO, back to the show for a lively discussion about the evolution of our industry and business. What started as a transparent pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) in the "age of indifference" is now a more comprehensive health benefits manager (HBM), and we've entered the "era of acceptance." It's been an incr...

For Episode 99 of Astonishing Healthcare , we welcome Hannan Allen, SVP of Consultant Relations to the company and show! The discussion builds on Episodes 90 and 93, with Jim Winkler of Business Group on Health and Susana Villegas Spillman , respectively, by explaining why "pharmacy benefit consultants have a really tough job right now" and tackling some timely questions, including how has the rol...

This episode of Astonishing Healthcare features three members of The Judi Group 's leadership team: Jeff Hogan (Co-Founder & Managing Director), Chris Deacon (Director, Growth & Strategy), and Julie Selesnick (Director, Legal & Compliance). The Judi Group is a new venture - a premier advisory firm in healthcare on a mission to help companies evaluate the totality of their health vendor...

For Episode 97 of Astonishing Healthcare , we sat down with three team members who interned with Judi Health (Capital Rx) and recently joined our mission as full-time employees! Jakob Deel, Lisa Yu, and Bryan SebaRaj discuss their respective paths to Judi Health, from why they chose healthcare and how they found their internships to why they decided to join a newer, disruptive health tech company...

For Episode 96 of Astonishing Healthcare , Jason Barretto, our SVP of Government Programs, returns to the show for a discussion about what's happening on the health plan side of the business. As a company, we spend a lot of time talking about and showing how modern technology streamlines benefit administration workflows and overall operating efficiency, solves longstanding problems, and helps clie...

Episode 95 of Astonishing Healthcare features six previous guests on the show who share astonishing observations from 2025 and some bold predictions for the New Year! Industry veteran Jeffrey Hogan, our General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, Lloyd Fiorini, ERISA law expert Nick Welle, two of our clinical leaders – Sarra Izadi, PharmD, Chief Clinical Officer, and Bonnie Hui-Callahan, PharmD,...

We got the ball rolling in 2025 with this episode, and it ended up at the very top of the activity list, so we'll close out the year with it as well! Thank you, Dr. Eric Bricker for joining us in the studio for Episode 48 of the Astonishing Healthcare podcast . Known for his entertaining and educational videos covering all sorts of hot topics in and around healthcare and employer/employee benefits...

In this Best of '25! episode of the Astonishing Healthcare podcast , Lisa Ellerhorst (Sr. Director, Customer Care Operations) and Sonia Pettis (Manager, Customer Care Operations) discuss our approach to member care! Lisa and Sonia have been with Judi Health (Capital Rx) since 2020 and have helped Will Tafoya develop our unique contact center model from the ground up. Building on Episode 34 - Custo...

Episode 94 of Astonishing Healthcare features two members of our product team, Liya Lomsadze (Sr. Director) and Jake Mulkey (Director), who explain how building a next-generation pharmacy claim adjudication system ( Judi® ), known for its split-second accuracy and streamlined workflows, served as the perfect foundation for building a unified platform that now includes medical claims, and will inte...

Episode 93 of Astonishing Healthcare features Susana Villegas Spillman, who brings over 20 years of health benefits plan management experience to the studio for a discussion about what works, what’s broken, and what employer plan sponsors deal with day in and day out. This “unfiltered perspective” from the plan sponsor’s seat is welcome and timely. If you’re one of the increasingly large percentag...

The level of interest in Episode 84 of  Astonishing Healthcare  made this one an easy choice to lift it to "best of" status.  We'll be back with fresh new episodes in early December, and then we'll close out the year with two more Best of '25s.  For those of you who didn't check this one out, Josh Golden, SVP of Strategy, and RFP Content Manager, Nic Bolitho, joined host Justin Venneri in the stud...

In this episode of  Astonishing Healthcare , Judi Health's Sam Custer, who leads the member communications team, shares tips and insights on how to communicate effectively with plan members - around open enrollment and throughout the year. Sam last joined us for  Episode 39 , which highlighted how the communications and product teams collaborated to ensure we provide clear, compliant communication...

On Episode 91 of Astonishing Healthcare , we dove into the Workplace Intelligence Forecast for 2026 - The 10 Trends Businesses Need to Focus On ! Here at Judi Health, we obviously live in the health benefits world and generally focus on content revolving around the pharmaceutical supply chain (i.e., PBM), health tech, and the administration of employee benefits, more broadly... but there is A LOT...

For Episode 90 of Astonishing Healthcare , Jim Winkler, Chief Strategy Officer at Business Group on Health, joins us in the studio for a lively discussion about the results of their 2026 Employer Health Care Strategy Survey ! This annual study is packed with qualitative and quantitative information and highlights the top trends in employer-sponsored health care. Jim brings decades of experience to...