Working Healthcare

Pharmacy benefit managers sit between your doctor and your drug, yet almost no one understands how they really operate. In this re-release of Episode 5, Meredith Hirsh and guest Alerie Stiles strip away the jargon and expose the vivid, real-world impact of PBMs on patients, physicians and independent practices. Alerie shares her unconventional path from cold-calling EHR demos to shadowing more tha...

Most people think a doctor’s visit ends when they walk out of the exam room. It doesn’t. That visit triggers a maze of prior authorizations, coverage rules, coding decisions and payer tactics that can make or break a medical practice months or even years later. On this episode of Working Healthcare, host Meredith Hirsh sits down with Chris Acevedo, CEO of Acevedo Consulting, who grew up watching h...

When Chad Perlyn was four, his parents drove through the night to say goodbye to a baby who was not expected to live. A young pediatric surgeon walked into the waiting room, laid out an impossible choice then walked back out hours later with a smile that meant one thing: the baby survived. That moment set Chad’s life in motion. On this episode of Working Healthcare, host Meredith Hirsh sits down w...

At 10 years old, Loubna Noureddin runs from her home in Sierra Leone as gunfire explodes, clutching fear and leaving her teddy bear behind. In the jungle, hungry and exhausted, she follows the smell of barbecue and realizes the feast might be her. Cannibals wait. A stranger who should be the enemy steps in instead and saves her life.  That is where her story of leadership starts. Not in a boardroo...

What happens when an industry built on science and data refuses to act on its own evidence? Host Meredith Hirsh sits down with Holley Miller, a veteran health tech strategist whose 40-plus years navigating medical device adoption, robotic surgery and emerging technology has given her a clear-eyed view of why healthcare is structurally designed to protect the status quo even when it underperforms....

What happens when the people treating trauma are quietly drowning in it themselves? On Working Healthcare, host Meredith Hirsh sits down with Lindse Murphy, behavioral health executive, board-certified behavior analyst and founding CEO of a statewide nonprofit advancing women in leadership, to explore what it really costs to lead in healthcare without doing what she calls the heart work. Lindse gr...

What happens when the thing that broke you isn't the hard work but everything around it? On Working Healthcare, host Meredith Hirsh sits down with Dr. Alen Voskanian, physician, author and palliative care specialist, to explore what's really driving burnout in American medicine. Alen arrived in the U.S. at 19 as a refugee with no doctors in his family and no roadmap, just determination....

If we are insured and spending nearly half a trillion dollars a year on prescription drugs, why are patients still standing at the pharmacy counter being told no? This episode of Working Healthcare follows that money. Host Meredith Hirsh sits down with Tesh Khullar, founder and CEO of Prism TPO and co-founder of HouseRx who has spent his career inside drug distribution, oncology data and specialty...

What if the real problem isn’t that women “can’t handle it,” but that the system never considered them in the first place? On this episode of Working Healthcare, host Meredith Hirsh sits down with leadership coach and former chief people officer Sadie Wackett. She spent decades as the only woman at the table in male-dominated industries. Drawing from her experience navigating IVF, international re...

What happens when two physical therapists sitting on their couch realize the entire delivery model for their profession is broken? On Working Healthcare, host Meredith Hirsh talks with Ashok Gupta, Doctor of Physical Therapy and founder of TheraNow, about building a virtual physical therapy platform that now serves major hospital systems across the country. Ashok traces the journey from a website...

Is private equity helping physician practices survive or quietly redefining the future of independent medicine? Host Meredith Hirsh sits down in her Delray Beach podcast studio with Anna Sobkiv, Executive Director, Healthcare Services, J.P. Morgan Commercial Banking, to examine one of the biggest forces reshaping healthcare today. Anna draws on her experience advising physicians and healthcare bus...

What separates an entrepreneur from a CEO, and why does that distinction matter in healthcare today? Host Meredith Hirsh talks with RCG Intel co-founder and CEO Joe Luminiello about how leadership must evolve as healthcare companies grow and scale. With more than four decades of biopharma experience, Joe explores the tension between vision and execution, the difference between authority and power,...

Question why prevention keeps losing to profit in American healthcare. In this episode of Working Healthcare, host Meredith Hirsh sits down with Dr. Maryna Yudina to explore how her journey from Ukraine to the United States shaped the way she sees cost, incentives and value in medicine. Now working in preventive brain health and neurofeedback, Maryna shares where the U.S. gets it right, where it f...

Step into one of healthcare’s most expensive blind spots: the patients who quietly fall out of care while busy practices struggle to keep up. On this episode of Working Healthcare, Meredith Hirsh talks with Paul Harris about what happens when missed follow-up, broken workflows and weak reactivation systems go unchecked. What looks like a scheduling problem is often something far more serious — del...

Lean in and make space for this week’s Working Healthcare episode, closing out Women’s History Month for a reason. Most weeks, host Meredith Hirsh interviews guests to uncover the inner workings of the American healthcare system because we can’t fix what we don’t understand. This episode shifts format and offers a behind-the-scenes listen to the work Meredith does off-mic, where the conversation i...

Why are so many Americans sick, exhausted and trapped in a healthcare system that rewards treatment over prevention? In this thought-provoking episode of Working Healthcare, host Meredith Hirsh sits down with Dr. Patricia Boulogne, author of Why Are You Sick, Fat and Tired?, to explore the five pillars of health and the daily habits driving chronic illness across America. A chiropractor and acupun...

Be ready to rethink how you hire, lead and retain in healthcare as Working Healthcare host Meredith Hirsh sits down with Dan Neissany. Learn how a physical therapist turned author, healthcare business strategist and podcast co-host built a leadership framework that links accountability to culture, performance and retention. Follow Dan’s journey from patient care to advising healthcare leaders on o...

When you find a mentor who still has more to teach than time to retire, you hit record. Host Meredith Hirsh sits down for a candid, fireside-style conversation with Charles Haberkern, CEO of Rheumatology Specialty Center in the Philadelphia area, as he shares how he builds leaders who act with confidence, own deadlines and make decisions without constant permission. He walks through practical less...

Pull back the curtain on prior authorization and find out why it keeps derailing care. Meredith Hirsh sits down with SamaCare CEO and founder Syam Palakurthy to unpack how the process shows up in real life, from administrative overload to vague denials that strain physician autonomy and patient trust. They get into the data behind claim denials, what those numbers signal and what they still fail t...

Cut through the noise and step into the real fight for patient access, where persistence and smart operations decide what care actually reaches people. In the latest Working Healthcare episode, host Meredith Hirsh speaks with Georgia Bonney, a seasoned consultant, biologic access advisor and practice manager whose work spans multiple medical specialties and nonstop change. Georgia is a first-gener...

Listen now to understand the health care staffing shortage beyond doctors and nurses. Open roles are stacking up. Teams are stretched thin. It’s about the allied health professionals who keep care moving — EMTs, medical assistants, phlebotomists, imaging techs, respiratory therapists and more — and how their shortages are quietly straining every hallway, lab and clinic. In this episode of Working...

Step into the gym where burnout, insurance friction and true prevention collide. In this Working Healthcare episode, host Meredith Hirsh sits down in-studio with personal trainer and entrepreneur Carolina Romero, who left Goldman Sachs, rebuilt her career and grew Fit Golfer Girl to more than 250,000 Instagram followers. Romero breaks down the real mechanics of a career change, from earning fitnes...

Step into the exam room where staffing shortages, soaring demand and scope-of-practice battles collide. In the latest Working Healthcare episode, host Meredith Hirsh sits down in-studio with ARNP Rachael Busch-Feuer. With a physician dad and a registered nurse mom, Rachael reveals what pulled her toward the nurse practitioner path. Then comes the surprisingly charged question: Is it advanced pract...

Step inside the playbook behind the nation’s largest independent rheumatology practice and hear what it really takes to scale while staying physician owned. In this episode of Working Healthcare, host Meredith Hirsh talks with Dr. Nehad Soloman, chief medical officer and one of 14 physician-owners of Arizona Arthritis & Rheumatology Associates, about how the group grew from 10 physicians to 24...

Recognize Human Trafficking Awareness Month by learning how child trafficking can hide in plain sight throughout clinical care. In this special Working Healthcare episode, host Meredith Hirsh speaks with Love146 Chief Programs and Strategy Officer Erin Williamson, a clinical social worker with 20+ years protecting exploited children. Erin explains how trafficking shows up in everyday healthcare se...