Working Healthcare

Hit play for a heart-forward look at how physicians lead, not just adapt, as healthcare consolidates. Working Healthcare host Meredith Hirsh sits down with cardiac electrophysiologist Dr. David Kenigsberg, who built a physician-guided cardiology practice in 2007, weighed the decision to sell to private equity and remains active in national advocacy. David explains the pressures reshaping medical p...

Kick off 2026 with a clear-eyed, occasionally snarky recap of what shaped healthcare in 2025 and what deserves your attention in 2026. Working Healthcare host Meredith Hirsh sits down again with her lifetime and business partner, Dr. Marc Hirsh, senior physician at The Hirsh Center. The dynamic duo breaks down expiring ACA enhanced subsidies, rising health insurance premiums and what patients may...

Uncover how pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) shape which medications patients can access as Meredith Hirsh sits down for an in-studio interview with independent rheumatologist Dr. Robert (Bob) Levin. In this Working Healthcare episode, Bob traces how PBMs gained power. He explains how they steer drug coverage decisions and shows how those choices ripple through exam rooms and infusion suites acros...

Step into the ever-changing world of healthcare as host Meredith Hirsh sits down with Lynette Byrnes, a longtime force in rheumatology operations. In this episode of Working Healthcare, Lynette explains how she helps teams tackle the day-to-day pressures of practice life and traces her path from imaging and gynecology to two decades guiding rheumatology practices. From her early involvement with t...

“Patient experience” is on every strategic plan, but Herold Figareau treats it like an operating system, not a slogan. In this episode of Working Healthcare, host Meredith Hirsh sits down with Herold, a former hospital concierge turned health system leader and consultant, to show how a hospitality mindset can transform care in hospitals and outpatient practices alike. They dig into hiring for atti...

Alcohol use is dropping, THC products are exploding and American healthcare is not ready for what comes next. In this episode of Working Healthcare, host Meredith Hirsh talks with her son, fermentation science student and winemaker Dalton Hirsh, about why wine has a long, metabolically familiar place in human history while today’s high potency cannabis poses new risks for brains, bodies and hospit...

Explore how the next generation of healthcare leaders is taking shape inside and outside the classroom. Host Meredith Hirsh and Neeraj Puro, director of health administration programs at Florida Atlantic University, dive into academic trends and shifting student expectations. They break down the gap between theory and practice, why internships and mentorships matter and how personality and problem...

Explore how Tara Gillespie rises from medical assistant to CEO as she leads a 17-location independent dermatology practice while staying connected to patient care. She explains how she manages acquisitions, integrates cultures across rural and metropolitan clinics, and builds scalable operations that keep her organization strong in a challenging reimbursement environment. Learn how Tara normalizes...

Tap into Working Healthcare as Meredith Hirsh discovers how Karen Ferguson turns patient stories into policy change. After decades running a rheumatology practice and analytics teams, Karen founded Our Stories Rx to collect, structure and aim patient narratives at the right policy windows. She explains how the project gathers stories and why organized evidence, not anecdotes, changes rules on prio...

Former Congressman and OB-GYN Dr. Michael Burgess joins Working Healthcare for a candid conversation about what’s really happening behind the scenes in American healthcare and what it’ll take to fix it. From ACA subsidies and Medicare reform to PBMs, 340B programs and physician-owned hospitals, Dr. Burgess shares insider insight from both the delivery room and the House floor. He and host Meredith...

Cut delays on Working Healthcare as host Meredith Hirsh interviews Mallika Khandelwal to expose how prior authorization, pharmacy routing and paperwork stall specialty starts and drain teams. Raised by two physicians and accepted to medical school, Mallika kept deferring before choosing the business side to make a bigger impact. She charts the path from Wall Street to clinic operations and why she...

In this Working Healthcare episode, Meredith Hirsh teams up with Ginger Allen, a powerhouse leader redefining physician advocacy, healthcare leadership and medical alliances. Together they flip advocacy from afterthought to engine as Ginger declares 2026 the year clinicians stop burning out and start owning the business of medicine. Forget the 1926 “doctor’s wife” — Ginger is a career-minded build...

Start fixing claim denials now on Working Healthcare as Meredith Hirsh presses Corey Feldman to show how they choke care and crush margins. After a medical billing nightmare left his family with nearly $1 million in charges, this solutions-driven entrepreneur and podcaster founded Protego Health and built AI workflows that help billing teams prevent denials and win appeals. Corey opens the payment...

Medicare Open Enrollment runs October 15 to December 7, and this episode sprints past the hype to arm you with clear, actionable guidance on Medicare Advantage. Listen to the latest Working Healthcare episode when Meredith Hirsh sits down with fierce patient advocate and practice administrator Jaime Fiore to dissect glossy extras, narrow networks and the real-world grind of prior authorization den...

Grab a coffee or tequila, whichever suits your mood and the time of day, to join Working Healthcare host Meredith Hirsh in a sit-down interview with Memorial Regional Healthcare vascular surgeon and longtime leader in organized medicine, Dr. Arthur Palamara. The episode starts where we typically finish, posing our final question: If you could create one change in our American healthcare system, wh...

Join Working Healthcare host Meredith Hirsh for a high-velocity conversation with Elizabeth Chabe, CEO of High Touch Group and author of The Giant’s Ladder. With venture capital cooling and NIH funding uncertain, the episode maps how life sciences and diagnostics startups prove value fast without burning cash. Elizabeth breaks down the rare disease diagnostic odyssey and argues for incentives that...

Step into a candid conversation with Working Healthcare host Meredith Hirsh and Florida Atlantic University College of Medicine Professor and Chair Dr. Allison Ferris.  From swelling Match classes to record debt, this episode asks whether a bigger training pipeline means truly practice-ready physicians. Should elite undergrads chase finance while medicine loses talent, or are admissions still rewa...

Press play as Jon Hickman tells Working Healthcare host Meredith Hirsh how juggling school and college athletics forged his leadership style. Follow Jon's path from all-conference track and field star and college football player to a 16-year career at Walgreens, where he built a foundation in patient care and executive management. Jon’s willingness to always raise his hand for new opportuniti...

Get the inside story as Meredith Hirsh sits down one-on-one with Fran Nachlas, a surgical nurse turned Boca Raton deputy mayor and current mayoral candidate, to explore how local leadership drives community health. Drawing on nearly 30 years in operating rooms, first on the floor then in leadership, Fran brings an outcome-first approach to city problem solving. She brings relentless energy, from s...

Join Working Healthcare’s Meredith Hirsh and Mike Chavez as they confront the drastic drop in physician-owned practices and the consolidation that drives costs higher. Meet revenue-cycle rebel Preston Alexander, founder of Forward Slash / Health and author of the “Healthcare Breakdown” newsletter, who dubs himself the “Taylor Swift of LinkedIn healthcare writing.” He argues progress comes from thr...

Hit play to hear how a rock-and-roll project manager became the founder trying to fix everyday healthcare chaos. Join Working Healthcare’s Meredith Hirsh as Steve Lewis recounts Bowe’s premature arrival at 34 weeks and the binder that sparked Nabu, a patient-controlled record built to unite scattered data. We dig into why 80% of information is forgotten between the exam room and the parking lot an...

Tune into this episode of Working Healthcare to learn how the One Big Beautiful Bill Act could reshape rural health care as Meredith Hirsh and Mike Chavez interview policy leader Carly Salamone. With a dozen years in rural hospital care, Carly is now President of Vantage Healthcare of Ohio where is leads policy for several member hospitals. She breaks down the bill’s proposals, its impact on hospi...

Hit play to hear how one nurse shattered ceilings on her way to the c-suite. In this episode of Working Healthcare, Meredith Hirsh and Mike Chavez sit down with Heather Woolf, Vice President of Operations at the Hospital for Special Surgery, for a powerful conversation on gender equity in healthcare leadership. Heather shares her bold journey from the bedside to the boardroom, revealing the system...

Discover how smart strategies and bold decisions are transforming independent healthcare. In this episode of Working Healthcare, Meredith Hirsh and Mike Chavez sit down in the studio with Sean Travers, a seasoned healthcare expert dedicated to helping practices achieve sustainable, service-driven growth. Together, with over 60 years of combined healthcare business experience, they explore the powe...

Press play on a real conversation about staying independent in a system built for giants. In this episode of Working Healthcare, Meredith Hirsh and Mike Chavez sit down with Dr. Matthew Mundwiler, a private practice rheumatologist from Columbus, Ohio, to talk about what it really takes to survive—and thrive—outside of corporate healthcare. With operational costs up, physician autonomy shrinking an...