Claims Denied: A Hospitalogy Podcast

By Blake Madden

Join one man’s quest to learn everything there is to know about the business of healthcare.

Blake Madden and friends cut through the fluff to talk shop with influential healthcare leaders across inno... more

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FAQs about Claims Denied: A Hospitalogy Podcast:

How many episodes does Claims Denied: A Hospitalogy Podcast have?

The podcast currently has 33 episodes available.

Claims Denied: A Hospitalogy Podcast episodes:

September 22, 2026 CMS Isn't Asking Anymore: Inside the Mandatory Bundle Era (with Tim Elliott, CEO of Navvis)
Second time's the charm! Blake welcomes back Navvis CEO, Tim Elliott, for a new conversation that goes deeper than round one.
Blake and Tim get into why CMS finally ditched its "voluntary" posture on value-based care, what actually happens in the first 60 days when a mandatory bundle lands on a health system, and why specialists, not just primary care, are now squarely in CMS's crosshairs.
They also cover physician enterprise 2.0, where AI is actually moving the needle on burnout (spoiler: it's not just ambient scribes), and Tim's read on what health systems get wrong heading into 2027.
Genuinely one of Blake's favorite VBC conversations this season.
And if you missed Tim's first appearance on Claims Denied from June 2026, be sure to check out that episode here.
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Navvis partners with health systems and health plans to deliver real performance improvement across value-based care and fee-for-service models.
⁠⁠⁠⁠https://navvishealthcare.com/vbc⁠⁠⁠⁠
---
For expert analysis on healthcare M&A, strategy, finance, and markets, join 68K+ readers of Blake Madden’s Hospitalogy newsletter. Subscribe here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hospitalogy.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Like our podcast? Check our previous episodes of Claims Denied here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hospitalogy.com/podcast/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Be sure to leave us a review, and share our podcast with colleagues.
---
Follow Tim Elliott on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-elliott-b246aa151/

Follow Blake Madden on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakecmadden/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
...more
58min
September 15, 2026 Mentorship, Physician Entrepreneurship, and Owning the Pipes: Dr. Ramon Lizardo's Journey Through Scaling Tele911
Blake sits down with Dr. Ramon Lizardo, ER doc turned three-time operator turned investor, and former CEO of Tele911. This one goes places Blake didn't plan for.
Ramon shares his impressive journey: Getting into medical school on a single borrowed application he found in his backpack a month later. He left a $300K+ clinical job for $40K base and a $25K bonus, with debt. Then he built a company that turned Baltimore, Fort Worth, and San Francisco into cities where calling 911 puts a physician on your screen in 37 seconds. When the Key Bridge collapsed, the city called him at 3 a.m. and asked him to go live early.
Blake pushed him on the physician hierarchy, on why nobody teaches doctors how money works, and on the digital health profitability problem. He also told Blake, on the record and before anyone else, where he's going next.
Ramon even suggested a working title for the episode: "Health Tech Physician-founder Can't Control His Children" (His five-year-old and eight-year-old were negotiating a treaty in the next room the whole time.)
This is the best kind of episode. Genuine, honest, and one not to miss!
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Navvis partners with health systems and health plans to deliver real performance improvement across value-based care and fee-for-service models.
⁠⁠⁠⁠https://navvishealthcare.com/vbc⁠⁠⁠⁠
---
For expert analysis on healthcare M&A, strategy, finance, and markets, join 68K+ readers of Blake Madden’s Hospitalogy newsletter. Subscribe here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hospitalogy.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Like our podcast? Check our previous episodes of Claims Denied here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hospitalogy.com/podcast/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Be sure to leave us a review, and share our podcast with colleagues.
---
Follow Ramon Lizardo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramonlizardomd

Follow Blake Madden on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakecmadden/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
...more
58min
September 08, 2026 Primary Care's Choke Point Was Never Knowledge (with Matic and Catalyst Health Group)
We're doing something special with this latest episode of Claims Denied. Blake packed up and drove out to Plano, TX on a 100 degree August morning to record this one live on site, and the location is half the story: Matic's team works out of a suite inside Catalyst Health Group's headquarters. That's not a real estate footnote. That's the business model.
Blake sits down with Calvin Carter, CEO and co-founder of Matic (https://maticinside.ai/), and Dr. Chris Crow, CEO and co-founder of Catalyst Health Group (https://www.catalysthealthgroup.net/).
Calvin spent 15 years at Bottle Rocket building consumer apps for Chick-fil-A, Southwest, and half the news networks in America before an algorithmic trading side project put him next to Dr. Alex Shepherd, an engineer with a PhD in adversarial training for hallucinations who decided to go to medical school because "finance is a zero-sum game."
The group gets into why Dr. Crow thinks every lab-built AI product is just the EMR story repeating, why he called direct primary care a cottage industry born of burnout rather than a model worth scaling, and what happens to a physician's panel when you stop making them the bottleneck.
Dr. Crow also went on record with "Natty or bust" for the Texas Longhorns, and Blake is ready to hold him to it!
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For expert analysis on healthcare M&A, strategy, finance, and markets, join 68K+ readers of Blake Madden’s Hospitalogy newsletter. Subscribe here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hospitalogy.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Like our podcast? Check our previous episodes of Claims Denied here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hospitalogy.com/podcast/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Be sure to leave us a review, and share our podcast with colleagues.
---
Follow Calvin Carter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/calvincarter/
Follow Dr. Chris Crow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drcrow/
Follow Blake Madden on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakecmadden/⁠⁠
...more
1h 16min
September 01, 2026 Handl Health and the Death of Cost Shifting (with Ahmed Marmoush, Co-founder and CEO of Handl Health)
Blake sits down with Ahmed Marmoush, CEO and co-founder of Handl Health, fresh off their Series A funding, and this one covers the full arc of where employer-sponsored insurance is heading.
Ahmed's path is unlike any guest we've seen on Claims Denied: From a clinical pharmacist in New Zealand's single-payer system, to a consultant alongside the country's former Director General of Health, to an $800 bill for a routine physical in LA that turned into a company. (They offered him 50% off if he paid within a few days. He compared it to haggling in an Egyptian street market. He's not wrong.)
They get into why cost shifting is dead, how variable copay plans really work, what's inside Handl's value index, and why Ahmed is betting on being the enablement layer between brokers and carriers instead of building yet another health plan.
If you touch benefits strategy, brokerage, or health plan ops, this one's worth the commute.
---
Navvis partners with health systems and health plans to deliver real performance improvement across value-based care and fee-for-service models.
⁠⁠⁠https://navvishealthcare.com/vbc⁠⁠⁠
---
For expert analysis on healthcare M&A, strategy, finance, and markets, join 68K+ readers of Blake Madden’s Hospitalogy newsletter. Subscribe here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hospitalogy.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Like our podcast? Check our previous episodes of Claims Denied here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hospitalogy.com/podcast/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Be sure to leave us a review, and share our podcast with colleagues.
---
Follow Ahmed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahmed-marmoush-25169961/

Follow Blake Madden on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakecmadden/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
...more
55min
August 18, 2026 The End of Managed Care? How Northwell Built a $2.5B Direct Contracting Machine (with Nick Stefanizzi, CEO Northwell Direct)
Blake sits down with Nick Stefanizzi, CEO of Northwell Direct (https://northwelldirect.northwell.edu/) — the man running the most ambitious direct-to-employer play in the country.
Since going live in 2022, his team has built a platform serving 70+ employers and unions, 300K members, and $2.5B in medical spend, with 97% retention. Then they landed 32BJ: 20% validated savings, $46M in year one, live as of April.
Blake and Nick get into all of it — why Northwell runs Direct as a standalone company (Nick literally negotiates rates against his own parent system), what they rented instead of built, how the 32BJ deal came together in 10 weeks, and what happens to managed care when health systems stop asking permission.
If you're a health system exec, benefits leader, or union fund trustee, this one's required listening.
---
Navvis partners with health systems and health plans to deliver real performance improvement across value-based care and fee-for-service models.
⁠⁠https://navvishealthcare.com/vbc⁠⁠
---
For expert analysis on healthcare M&A, strategy, finance, and markets, join 68K+ readers of Blake Madden’s Hospitalogy newsletter. Subscribe here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hospitalogy.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Like our podcast? Check our previous episodes of Claims Denied here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hospitalogy.com/podcast/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Be sure to leave us a review, and share our podcast with colleagues.
---
Follow Nick on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickstefanizzi/

Follow Blake Madden on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakecmadden/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
...more
57min
August 11, 2026 Insurance Is the Inflation: Your Health Plan Costs the Same as a Tesla Model Y, and What Collective Health is Doing to Fix it
This episode hits the affordability crisis head-on, as Blake sits down with Ali Diab, CEO and co-founder of Collective Health (https://collectivehealth.com/).
Ali started the company after his own hospital claim got denied, and has spent the decade since building what he calls the “Stripe” of healthcare benefits — for employers today, and potentially insurers and health systems tomorrow.
In this episode, Ali makes the case that health insurance itself is the real inflationary catalyst in American healthcare.
Ali doesn't do the polite version. He calls the MLR a cost-plus contract, compares network "discounts" to markdowns off the Neiman Marcus price, and told me about the time he was charged $340 in coinsurance for a $125 knee brace on his own company's plan.
We dig into why self-insurance and direct contracting are eating the fully-insured market alive, why small employers are legally boxed out of self-funding, and why he thinks healthcare pricing needs an SEC.
Also: World Cup takes. Ali's a winger-turned-number-nine and I broke two leg bones playing this sport, so we earned the tangent.

Follow Ali Diab on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alidiab/
Follows Collective Health on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/collectivehealth/home/
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Navvis partners with health systems and health plans to deliver real performance improvement across value-based care and fee-for-service models.
⁠https://navvishealthcare.com/vbc⁠
---
For expert analysis on healthcare M&A, strategy, finance, and markets, join 68K+ readers of Blake Madden’s Hospitalogy newsletter. Subscribe here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hospitalogy.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠
Like our podcast? Check our previous episodes of Claims Denied here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hospitalogy.com/podcast/⁠⁠⁠⁠
Be sure to leave us a review, and share our podcast with colleagues.
Follow Blake Madden on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakecmadden/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
...more
59min
August 04, 2026 25K Patients Deep and Zero Physician Equity: Inside MGB and Regent's Site-of-Service Bet, and their New ASC Ownership Playbook
For this week's episode, Hospitalogy's Blake Madden puts two people on opposite ends of the same handshake into one virtual room: Travis Messina, CEO of Regent Surgical, and Niyum Gandhi, CFO of Mass General Brigham (MGB), who runs one of the most-watched integrated systems in the country.
Nominally, this episode is about ASCs. Really, it's about what a system does when it could build anything itself — and chooses to partner instead.
Blake walked in carrying a grudge from his valuation days, when every ASC cap table he cracked open had physician ownership baked in like it was law. Niyum spent 20 minutes calmly arguing the opposite.
They also get into MGB's $3B insurance arm (don't call it a provider-sponsored plan to his face), a 25,000-patient endoscopy wait list, robots doing oncology, and the best AI adoption framework Blake's heard a CFO articulate.
Travis also reminded Blake that his Geogia Bulldogs bounced Blake's Texas Longhorns during the College World Series — which Blake is choosing to forgive.

Follow Travis Messina on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/travis-messina-4460565/
Follow Niyum Gandhi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niyum-gandhi/
Follow Mass General Brigham on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mass-general-brigham/
Follow Regent Surgical on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/regent-surgical/

Navvis partners with health systems and health plans to deliver real performance improvement across value-based care and fee-for-service models.
⁠https://navvishealthcare.com/vbc⁠
---
For expert analysis on healthcare M&A, strategy, finance, and markets, join 68K+ readers of Blake Madden’s Hospitalogy newsletter. Subscribe here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hospitalogy.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠
Like our podcast? Listen to previous episodes here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hospitalogy.com/podcast/⁠⁠⁠⁠
Be sure to leave us a review, and share our podcast with colleagues.
Follow Blake Madden on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakecmadden/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
...more
1h 13min
July 28, 2026 Addiction Treatment and Why Your Claims Data Is Lying About Gambling Disorder
Featuring: Elliott Rapaport (Founder of Birches Health) and Dr. Doug Nemecek (Senior advisor with Birches Health and former Cigna/Evernorth CMO)
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This episode with two experts in the mental health space (Elliott Rapaport, Founder of Birches Health, and Dr. Doug Nemecek, a senior advisor with Birches Health and former Cigna/Evernorth CMO for behavioral health) was one of the more eye-opening conversations Hospitalogy’s Blake Madden has had on payor behavioral spend.
Think about this: 39 states + DC have legalized online gambling, FanDuel and DraftKings are sponsoring everything that moves, and yet payors will tell you they don't "see" the gambling disorder volume in their claims data. That's because it's getting coded as depression or anxiety. F63.0 never makes it to the bill.
Blake, Doug, and Elliott get into the real prevalence numbers (a recent Pennsylvania study puts roughly a third of the state somewhere on the gambling-risk spectrum), why specialty networks for behavioral process addictions are about to follow the same pattern Equip ran in eating disorders, and what AI actually does in this model (spoiler: it's not replacing the therapist).
Blake also pushed Elliott on the "anti-capitalism" of building a clinical model that explicitly wants patients to use you less over time. Elliott’s answer was sharp.

Follow Birches Health on LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/bircheshealth/⁠
Follow Doug on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglasnemecek/
Follow Elliott on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/er1/
---
Navvis partners with health systems and health plans to deliver real performance improvement across value-based care and fee-for-service models.
https://navvishealthcare.com/vbc
---
For expert analysis on healthcare M&A, strategy, finance, and markets, join 68K+ readers of Blake Madden’s Hospitalogy newsletter. Subscribe here: ⁠⁠⁠https://hospitalogy.com/⁠⁠⁠
Like our podcast? Listen to previous episodes here: ⁠⁠⁠https://hospitalogy.com/podcast/⁠⁠⁠
Be sure to leave us a review, and share our podcast with colleagues.
Follow Blake Madden on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakecmadden/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
...more
1h 2min
July 21, 2026 AvoMD’s Series A and the Bet That Epic Doesn't Eat Everything (with Yair Saperstein, MD MPH)
Hospitalogy's Blake Madden sits down with Yair Saperstein, MD MPH — co-founder and CEO of AvoMD — fresh off the company's Series A close in Q1.
Yair makes the case that the real prize in clinical AI isn't the AI scribe, it's the operating system living inside the EHR itself, and why he thinks most of primary care ultimately gets replaced by AI voice chatbots, at-home labs, and wearables.
Blake also pushes Yair on the Open Evidence valuation question (politely sidestepped), how AvoMD sells differently to academic systems versus rural hospitals, and the "avoid the 800-pound gorilla" go-to-market strategy against Epic.
Plus: what Dr. Oz told a ViVE crowd about agentic AI being in front of every patient by 2028 — and a closing piece of life advice that somehow involves Frogger.
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Navvis partners with health systems and health plans to deliver real performance improvement across value-based care and fee-for-service models.
https://navvishealthcare.com/vbc
---
For expert analysis on healthcare M&A, strategy, finance, and markets, join 68K+ readers of Blake Madden’s Hospitalogy newsletter. Subscribe here: ⁠⁠⁠https://hospitalogy.com/⁠⁠⁠
Like our podcast? Listen to previous episodes here: ⁠⁠⁠https://hospitalogy.com/podcast/⁠⁠⁠
Be sure to leave us a review, and share our podcast with colleagues.
---
Follow Blake Madden on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakecmadden/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
...more
53min
July 14, 2026Inside US Heart and Vascular: Cardiology's Independent Integration Play and When Private Equity Works
Featuring: Emily Rash (COO) and Dr. Neil Gheewala (CMO of Value-Based Care), US Heart and Vascular
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Is 3-6 weeks really how long patients should have to wait to see a cardiologist?
That's the national average — and it's the exact inefficiency Emily Rash (COO) and Dr. Neil Gheewala (CMO of Value-Based Care) at US Heart and Vascular are betting they can fix. Blake Madden sat down with them for a refreshingly candid conversation about what actually separates an integrated cardiology platform from a bunch of practices bolted onto a cap table.
In this episode:
The Ares + Rubicon Founders dual capital structure — arguably the sharpest specialty-VBC sponsor pairing out there

The "AIR" framework (autonomy, independence, representative governance), and why the third leg is the one most rollups get wrong

Why cardiology might be the cleanest specialty fit for value-based care, full stop (no structural fee-for-service conflict the way a hospital has)

Neil's actual pitch to RFK Jr. for a "Level 6" reimbursement category for ambulatory IV diuretics (CMMI, this one's free)

Where cardiology bifurcates in the next five years: outpatient access groups vs. hospital-based acute care
If specialty VBC, physician governance, or the cardiology rollup wave are anywhere on your radar, this one's worth the listen.
---
Navvis partners with health systems and health plans to deliver real performance improvement across value-based care and fee-for-service models.
https://navvishealthcare.com/vbc
---
For expert analysis on healthcare M&A, strategy, finance, and markets, join 68K+ readers of Blake Madden’s Hospitalogy newsletter. Subscribe here: ⁠⁠⁠https://hospitalogy.com/⁠⁠⁠
Like our podcast? Listen to previous episodes here: ⁠⁠⁠https://hospitalogy.com/podcast/⁠⁠⁠
Be sure to leave us a review, and share our podcast with colleagues.
Follow Blake Madden on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakecmadden/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
...more
54min

FAQs about Claims Denied: A Hospitalogy Podcast:

How many episodes does Claims Denied: A Hospitalogy Podcast have?

The podcast currently has 33 episodes available.