Vic and Marcus break down revised GDP data and slowing economic growth, rising concerns around private credit exposure across banks and pensions, and the long-term decline in labor force participation driven by aging demographics and immigration policy. They discuss the evolving job market as AI creates new roles and skill demands, while also examining venture activity including Yuzu Health’s funding and broader digital health investment trends. The episode covers major healthcare policy shifts like Medicare Advantage rate changes, California’s stance on private equity in medical practices, and health system performance driven by scale. They also explore breakthroughs in osteoarthritis treatments, ongoing challenges with nurse burnout and workforce retention, and increasing cybersecurity risks in healthcare platforms. The conversation expands into pharma developments, GLP-1 market expansion, and direct-to-consumer healthcare models. Finally, they dive deep into AI’s accelerating impact, including data center pushback, emerging policy frameworks, quantum security risks, and the implications of next-generation AI models capable of exposing widespread system vulnerabilities.

Links

Story 1: Economic Rundown

1:07 - US economy grew a sluggish 0.5% in fourth quarter, government says, downgrading previous estimate AP

1:47 - Insurers’ $1 Trillion Buildup in Private Credit Is Leaving Regulators in the Dust WSJ

4:04 - Why More People Are Dropping Out of the Job Market WSJ

6:20 - The New Jobs Being Created by AI WSJ

Story 2: Q1 VC Growth & AI firms enter Health

8:27 - Yuzu Health Raises $35M in Series A Funding FINSMES

9:46 - Q1 2026 funding overview: Capital continues concentrating and four other market signals Rock Health

12:02 - Anthropic acquires stealth AI startup Coefficient Bio in $400M deal: reports Fierce Healthcare

Story 3: CA Limiting PE in Healthcare

13:18 - California AG Urges Walling Off Medical Practices From Private Equity Rob Bonta stakes out a strict position on private equity’s roe in healthcare WSJ

Story 4: HHS moves

19:05 - CMS finalizes higher Medicare Advantage rates for 2027 in gift to insurers Healthcare Dive

20:57 - Federal Agency Unveils Three Potential Osteoarthritis Treatments NYT

Story 5: Advocate Improved Financials

22:45 -  Advocate Health improves to 4% operating margin, $4.6B bottom line across 2025 Fierce Healthcare

Story 6: Nurse Job Satisfaction

24:55 - Nurses' job satisfaction stumbles after post-pandemic gains: survey Fierce Healthcare

Story 7: Hims Cyber Attack

27:35 - Hims & Hers says limited data stolen in social engineering attack Healthcare Dive

Story 8 - 2 Acquisitions

29:20 - Gilead to buy cancer biotech Tubulis for more than $3 billion Stat

29:56 - Neurocrine to Buy Soleno, Nabbing Drug for Relentless Hunger Disorder WSJ

Story 9 - GLP-1 wars

30:54 - Novo Nordisk Launches Higher-Dose Wegovy Weight-Loss Shot in U.S. WSJ

31:23 - Eli Lilly launches oral GLP-1 drug across US through Lilly Direct, telehealth providers Fierce Healthcare 

Story 10 - Using AI for Health Data Analysis

32:11 - I Uploaded My Blood Work to AI. Am I Oversharing? WSJ

Story 11 - Q-Day Getting Close

35:11 - Cloudflare targets 2029 for full post-quantum security Cloudflare

Story 12-OpenAI Advising World Governments while States Resist Data Centers 

38:09 - Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age: Ideas to Keep People First OpenAI

41:48 - These Cities and States Are Taking Aim at Data Centers WSJ

Story 13 - Anthropic Glasswing & Mythos

45:00 - Anthropic Set to Preview Powerful ‘Mythos’ Model to Ward Off AI Cyberthreats WSJ

49:43 - Anthropic Teams Up With Its Rivals to Keep AI From Hacking Everything Wired

Vic and Marcus recap the Jumpstart Health Summit, including a workshop where non-technical founders built full AI-driven products and an agentic investment bank in under 48 hours, followed by key discussions from the summit on healthcare transformation, AI infrastructure, venture capital evolution, and leadership changes at Jumpstart Health. They break down major economic signals including declining job openings, stock market performance, and rising risks in private credit markets, then analyze healthcare policy shifts targeting hospital pricing practices and UnitedHealthcare’s push into AI-driven member tools. The episode also covers major pharma momentum led by Eli Lilly across acquisitions, GLP-1 advancements, and AI-powered drug discovery, alongside emerging trends in crypto-backed mortgages, agentic commerce, and Coinbase’s expanding role in financial infrastructure. They close with a deep dive into AI disruption, highlighting a two-person billion-dollar company, open-source model acceleration, security risks, and breakthroughs that could reshape hardware demand and the future of work.

Links

Story 1 Jobs and Equity market

11:37 - U.S. Job Openings and Hiring Fell in February WSJ

18:10 - Here’s What Worked During a Rough Quarter for Markets WSJ

Story 2 Private credit watch

19:17 - What Banks Stand to Lose From the Private-Credit Mess WSJ

Story 3 VC rundown

23:14 - WHOOP Secures $575M, Reaches $10B Valuation MedCity

Story 4  DOJ v NY Pres

25:21 - Justice Department Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against NewYork-Presbyterian WSJ

Story 6 UHG launches AI Companion

30:12 - UnitedHealthcare launches Avery, a generative AI companion for members Fierce Healthcare

Story 7 1st Reimbursement for Robot Companion

32:22 - Intuition Robotics secures Medicaid coverage for social AI robot ElliQ in Washington State Fierce Healthcare

Story 8 Eli Lilly moves

37:21 - Eli Lilly to Buy Centessa Pharmaceuticals for Initial $6.3 Billion WSJ

37:55 - Eli Lilly Gets Speedy FDA Nod for Oral GLP-1 Drug, a Competitor to New Novo Nordisk Pill MedCity

38:52 - Eli Lilly reaches $2.75 billion deal with Insilico to bring AI-developed drugs to the global market CNBC

Story 9 Web3 rundown

39:54 - Fannie Mae to Accept Crypto-Backed Mortgages for the First Time WSJ

41:54 - Coinbase’s AI payments system joins Linux Foundation, gathers support from Google, Stripe, AWS and others Coindesk

45:57 - Coinbase clears key regulatory hurdle in bid to bolster its stablecoin business CNBC 

Story 10 1st $B - 2 person AI startup is healthcare

47:24 - How A.I. Helped One Man (and His Brother) Build a $1.8 Billion Company NYT

Story 11 Antropic

50:27 - Anthropic Races to Contain Leak of Code Behind Claude AI Agent WSJ

51:19 - Claw Code Launches Open-Source AI Coding Agent Framework With 72,000 GitHub Stars in First Days 24-7

Story 12 Google

54:00 - Google announces Gemma 4 open AI models, switches to Apache 2.0 license ArsTechnica

56:30 - Google now lets you direct avatars through prompts in its Vids app TechCrunch

57:00 - Google’s TurboQuant Breakthrough Just Rewrote the AI Playbook Yahoo 

Vic and Marcus discuss rising energy costs and their ripple effects across the economy, declining tourism, and ongoing financial pressure tied to global instability. They break down major healthcare funding deals including telehealth weight loss platforms and AI governance in health systems, along with payer struggles and pharmaceutical acquisitions. The episode explores legal shifts around social media liability and Section 230, contrasting platform responsibility with internet infrastructure. They cover policy updates in Medicaid and rural hospital funding, trends in tokenized financial markets, and AI developments across healthcare, enterprise, and consumer platforms. The conversation closes with a deep dive into the evolution of AI agents, digital workers, and the shift toward autonomous systems that could redefine how individuals and companies operate. 

Links

Story 1 - Energy prices

2:34 - How Americans Are Navigating Higher Energy Costs on Every Front WSJ

Story 2 - VC Rundown

5:42 - GLP-1 unicorn raises $200 million from Tom Brady, others Axios

7:48 - Qualified Health locks in $125M in fresh funding to scale enterprise AI at health systems Fierce Healthcare

Story 3 - Section 230 Challenged

9:16 - Meta and YouTube Lose Landmark Social-Media Addiction Trial WSJ

16:24 - Supreme Court Limits Liability for Internet Service Providers WSJ

Story 4 - Peds Wrap-around payment model

Story 5 - Cash available for Rural Health systems

23:27 -  Rural hospitals could apply for temporary interest-free construction, renovation loans under new bipartisan bill Fierce Healthcare

Story 6 - Higmark results

24:45 - Highmark reports $175M net loss for 2025 as financial headwinds batter health plan Fierce Healthcare

Story 7 - 2 Pharma Deals

25:10 - Merck Reaches Nearly $6 Billion Deal for Cancer Biotech Terns WSJ

26:03 - Gilead Sciences gains opportunity for immune system reset with $1.7B Ouro acquisition MedCity  

Story 8 - Dance therapy

27:33 - Tango Therapy: How the Dance of Passion Is Helping Parkinson's Patients NYT

Story 9 - Tokenized Stocksl

29:04 - NYSE Partners With Securitize to Develop 24/7 Tokenized Securities Platform WSJ

Story 10 - OpenEvidence expands product offereing

29:53 - OpenEvidence rolls out AI medical coding feature Fierce Healthcare

Story 11 - Optum using AI to reduce Fraud

32:05 - A look at how Optum Rx is using AI to address pharmacy fraud, waste and abuse Fierce Healthcare

Story 12 - OpenAI moving to enterprise

33:56 - OpenAI Scraps Sora Video Platform Months After Launch WSJ

35:23 - OpenAI abandons yet another side quest: ChatGPT’s erotic mode TechCrunch

37:46 - OpenAI sweetens private equity pitch amid enterprise turf war with Anthropic, sources say Reuters

Story 13 - Google’s Gemini coming to Siri

41:59 - New details on Apple-Google AI deal revealed, including Gemini changes: 9to5 mac

Story 14 - Google releases Figma Competitor

44:52 - I 'Vibe Designed' a Website in Minutes Using Google Labs' Stitch Tool CNet

Vic and Emily Evans discuss the Fed holding rates and the declining influence of monetary policy, Turquoise Health’s $40M raise and the shift toward payment infrastructure, and the broader slowdown in healthcare spending growth. They explore consumer-driven healthcare models, political tensions around insurance and affordability, and upcoming policy shifts. The episode also covers vaccine policy changes, cancer immunotherapy efforts, CMS’s new wearable-driven care model, the rise of ketamine prescriptions, crypto regulation clarity, tokenized markets, AI’s expanding role in healthcare and business, and the growing challenge of trust in an era of synthetic media.

Links

Story # 1 Fed Meeting

00:59 - Fed Holds Rates Steady as Iran War Clouds Outlook WSJ

Story # 2: Price transparency deals 

6:05 - Turquoise Health raises $40M to power healthcare contracts, payments Fierce Healthcare

Story # 3 Payers still in Crosshairs

19:56 - Democratic senators detail plans to take on 'Big Insurance' Fierce Healthcare

Story # 4 Vaccine Drama

27:18 - Federal court blocks RFK Jr.’s moves to upend US vaccine policy, Healthcare Dive

27:29 - Health Groups Hailed a Vaccine Ruling, but Their Relief May Be Short-Lived NYT

29:34 - HHS Has a Potential Solution for Cancers That Keep Coming Back: Vaccines WSJ

Story # 5 ACCESS program

31:24 - Discussion of the ACCESS program CMS website

Story # 6 Sutter’s expansion

37:01 - Sutter, Allina Health to form $26B nonprofit system 

Story # 7 Ketamine risks

38:56 - She Hoped Ketamine Would Rewire Her Brain. She Didn’t Live to See It Work. WSJ

Story # 8 Tokenizing Equities

42:24 - SEC and CFTC unveil new crypto guidance declaring most digital assets are not securities The Block

46:26 -  

Story # 9 Maven Intelligence

49:39 - Maven Clinic expands AI capabilities with genAI agent built on OpenAI, Google LLMs Fierce Healthcare

Story # 10 MS v. OpenAI

52:53 - Microsoft Looking To Sue OpenAI Over New Amazon Deal: Here's Why Free Press

Story # 11 1st AI Actor

1:02:45 - Val Kilmer Resurrected by AI to Star in ‘As Deep as the Grave’ Movie Variety

Vic and Marcus discuss the latest macro forces shaping healthcare and technology, starting with inflation trends, rising oil prices, and how geopolitical tensions involving Iran could impact global markets and supply chains. They examine how healthcare has become the primary driver of U.S. job growth while questioning whether the industry can sustain the broader labor market long term. The conversation covers venture funding activity including AI healthcare startups, maternal health investments, and the growing debate over massive venture rounds in the AI era. They also analyze major industry developments such as CVS and Aetna resolving Medicare Advantage investigations, the acquisition of Talkspace by UHS to expand behavioral health services, and Novo Nordisk’s ongoing struggles in the GLP-1 market. The episode closes with a wide-ranging discussion on tokenized financial markets, the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure, big tech’s increasing control over healthcare through platforms like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, and how AI may become the new front door to healthcare access.

Story # 1 CPI, War & Healthcare jobs

1:50 - Inflation Holds Steady, but Iran War Threatens to Boost Prices WSJ

4:33 - Escalating Hormuz Crisis Raises Specter of Prolonged Closure WSJ

6:05 - Health Care Has Become the Lifeblood of the Labor Market NYT

Story # 2 VC deals

10:17 - New Medicaid-focused doula provider Malama launches with $9.2M Fierce Healthcare

12:17 - Amigo AI Raises $11M to Close the Gap Between Healthcare Demand and Clinical Capacity AlleyWatch

12:59 - Nitra Rakes In $187M to Simplify the Business of Running a Healthcare Practice MedCity

Story # 3 Changes (again) at FDA

21:07 - Vinay Prasad, controversial FDA leader, to again depart agency Healthcare Dive

Story # 4 Aetna settlement

22:52 - Aetna to pay $117.7M to settle Medicare Advantage upcoding allegations: DOJ Fierce Healthcare

Story # 5 Health Systems Bullish

23:59 - Despite insurers' expense pains, Tenet Healthcare is securing healthy commercial rates through 2027 Fierce Healthcare

25:29 - Why UHS Is Acquiring Talkspace for $835M MedCity

Story # 6 Novo

27:48 - Novo Nordisk to Sell Weight-Loss Drugs Through Hims & Hers WSJ

29:07 - FDA Warns Novo Nordisk of Unreported Side Effects Tied to GLP-1 Patients WSJ

Story # 7  Tokenizing Wall Street

29:47 - Nasdaq Partners With Kraken in Plan for 24/7 Tokenized Stock Trading WSJ

31:31 - Tokenized Stocks Are Coming to a Market Near You: Five Things to Know WSJ

Story # 8  Big Tech AI in Healthcare

33:18 - Oracle Shares Jump as AI Demand Outpaces Supply WSJ

35:17 - Microsoft unveils Copilot Health as an AI health companion for consumers Fierce Healthcare

37:32 - CVS, Humana & More Are Turning to Google’s AI Models MedCity

40:15 - Amazon One Medical CMO: AI Is the Front Door to Healthcare MedCity

Marcus and Vic break down a turbulent week across geopolitics, markets, technology, and healthcare, starting with escalating conflict involving Iran and the economic volatility rippling through global markets. They examine rising uncertainty in the economy, the growing push for European tech independence from U.S. platforms, and how reliability concerns are driving companies toward self-hosted AI models. The conversation moves into financial risk as private credit giants like Blackstone face redemption pressure, the legal chaos surrounding $130B in tariff refunds, and several major healthcare venture deals including Sage, Third Way Health, KeyCare, and Grow Therapy. They also explore policy shifts such as RFK Jr.’s push to add nutrition to medical education, payer industry developments including potential sanctions against Elevance, leadership changes at Cigna, CVS partnering with Google for a new consumer health platform, and Eli Lilly going direct to employers with obesity drugs. The episode closes with a deep dive into crypto’s accelerating integration with traditional finance, OpenAI’s Pentagon controversy and the lukewarm reception to GPT-5.4, and a broader look at how companies from Oracle to Morgan Stanley to Colgate are restructuring their workforces around AI.

LInks

Story # 1 Economy Volatility

5:59 - Stock Market Today: Dow Drops 1.6%, Oil Pushes Above $80 WSJ

11:37 - Blackstone Played Down Private-Credit Risks. Now It’s Been Hit. WSJ

17:02 - Judge Orders Government to Begin Refunding More Than $130 Billion in Tariffs WSJ

Story # 2 VC deals

19:56 - Sage: $65 Million Raised For AI-Powered Senior Care Platform Pulse 2.0

20:24 - Third Way Health Secures $15M to Streamline Front-Office Operations for Medical Practices MedCity

21:07 - KeyCare raises $27.4M to scale Epic-integrated virtual care platform Mobi Health

22:28 -  Grow Therapy Raises $150M to Expand Employer, Health System Partnerships MedCity

Story #3  Medical Shools add Nutrition 

23:59 - How Kennedy Is Trying to Revamp Medical School NYT

26:21 - Dozens of medical schools meet RFK Jr.'s call for greater nutrition education Fierce Healthcare

Story # 4 Payor Rundown

31:10 CMS threatens Elevance with Medicare Advantage sanctions Healthcare Dive

30:07 - Cigna Names Brian Evanko CEO as David Cordani Retires WSJ

31:10 - CVS unveils Health 100, its new Google-powered consumer engagement platform Fierce Healthcare 

Story # 4 Lilly Extends Advantage 

33:36 - Eli Lilly launches its direct-to-employer platform for obesity drugs Fierce Healthcare

Story #5  Web3 migrating into Traditional Finance

34:53 - Kraken Becomes First Crypto Firm to Win Access to Fed’s Core Payments System WSJ

39:01 - NYSE owner invests in crypto exchange OKX at $25bn valuation X

40:04 - Trump sides with crypto firms in trillion-dollar battle with banks over stablecoin yield CNBC

Story #6 Open AI

47:09 - OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Defends Pentagon Work to Staff, Calls Backlash ‘Really Painful’ WSJ

49:05 - OpenAI introduces GPT-5.4 with more knowledge-work capability ArsTechnica

Story #7 AI Corp Reorgs

53:26 - Oracle Reportedly Plans Thousands Of Layoffs Amid Growing AI Spend Stockwits

54:56 - Morgan Stanley Lays Off 2,500 Employees Across All Divisions WSJ

56:09 - The AI Evangelist Shaking Up a 220-Year-Old Toothpaste Maker WSJ

Vic and Marcus unpack a chaotic week across AI, markets, healthcare, and crypto. They begin with a viral Substack post outlining a “2028 Global Intelligence Crisis” that triggered market volatility and reignited debate over mass white-collar job displacement. They examine Block’s decision to cut more than 40% of its workforce amid AI-driven efficiency gains and debate whether entrepreneurship will replace traditional employment. The conversation moves through new AI startups transforming medtech sales and credentialing, automation in healthcare front offices and pathology, and escalating Medicaid and ACA policy shifts that could impact deductibles and medical debt. They discuss ongoing GLP-1 coverage battles, pharma competition between Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, and enforcement actions against payer ghost networks. The episode also covers stablecoin growth, Coinbase’s expansion into U.S. stock trading, and the rise of agent-to-agent AI payments. They close with a high-stakes clash between the Trump administration and Anthropic over military AI use, exploring brand integrity, national security, and the future relationship between AI companies and the federal government.

Links

Story #1 AI Fears Shake Market

1:25 - THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS Substack

7:32 - Jack’s announcement X

Story #2 VC Deals

13:57 - MedScout Raises $10M and Launches AI Agents for MedTech Commercial Teams Healthcare Dive 

15:24 - Altman-backed startup Verifiable rolls out AI agent to automate credentialing Fierce Healthca

17:24 - Third Way Health raises $15M for front-office AI Axios

18:12 - Coral Care Raises $13M to Scale In-Home Pediatric Therapy MedCity

Story #3 Feds Pause $ for MN

18:49 - Vance Announces Pause of Nearly $260 Million in Minnesota Medicaid Funding WSJ

22:54 - CMS unveils new initiatives aimed at cracking down on healthcare fraud Fierce Healthcare 

Story #4 Health costs Rise & State Law Changes

24:27 - New A.C.A. Plans Could Increase Family Deductibles to $31,000 NYT

25:26 - State lawmakers seek restraints on wage garnishment for medical debt Fierce Healthcare

Story #5 Payer Legal Fights

28:00 - Worker did not plausibly argue obesity was a disability, 1st Circuit finds Healthcare Dive

30:44 - New York secures more than $2.5 million from EmblemHealth over ghost networks Healthcare Finance

Story #6 Novo Turn aournd or not?

31:29 - Novo Nordisk Shares Plunge After Obesity Drug Fails to Beat Zepbound WSJ

32:32 - Eli Lilly’s Zepbound Gets FDA OK for Multi-Dose Pen WSJ

Story #7  Web3 Wakes up

33:51 -   Circle Internet’s Quarterly Profit Surges on Stablecoin Demand WSJ

36:50 -   Coinbase Pursues ‘Everything Exchange’ Concept With US Stock Trading Debut PYMNTS

Story #8  Health AI expansions

40:20 - OpenEvidence releases AI-integrated dialer feature to expand its reach with clinicians, Fierce Healthcare

41:21 - Labcorp expands PathAI pact to roll out digital pathology platform in US Healthcare Dive

Story #9  Anthroopic

42:20 - Hegseth gives Anthropic until Friday to back down on AI safeguards, Axios

44:19 - Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War Website

In this episode of Health Further, hosts Vic and Marcus discuss the latest healthcare VC activity including Daffodil Health’s $16.3M raise for AI claims automation and Anterior’s $40M round accelerating AI adoption in health plans, followed by a deep dive into leadership shakeups at HHS, the resignation of a top FDA scientist amid concerns about political influence, and RFK Jr.’s continued restructuring at the CDC. They examine the rollout of the CMMI Access Model and what it signals about AI-first and tech-enabled care in rural America, review financial turnarounds at Community Health Systems, CommonSpirit, and Ascension, unpack conflicting diagnostic standards in Alzheimer’s disease and emerging drug repurposing research, and close with a discussion on NYU Langone’s prediction of fully autonomous clinical AI within five years and OpenAI’s acquisition of OpenClaw, exploring both the productivity upside and significant security risks of autonomous AI agents. 

Story #1   2 AI for Payors VC Deals

1:25 - Daffodil Health raises $16.3M for AI claims automation  MobiHealth

2:18 - Anterior Closes $40 Million to Accelerate Health Plan AI Adoption, Bringing Total Funding to $64 Million Healthcare IT

Story #2   HHS Leadership Changes

4:12 -   Top FDA Scientist Explains Why He Quit After Getting a Promotion From RFK Jr. WSJ

9:33 - RFK Jr. Continues Leadership Shake-Up, Placing Top Lieutenant in Charge of CDC WSJ

Story #3   ACCESS gains Payor Commits

13:25 - Payers sign pledge to join CMMI ACCESS Model Fierce Healthcare

Story #4   Health System Results

17:17 - Community Health Systems wraps 2025 with narrow gains, flagging same-store volumes Fierce Healthcare

19:46 - CommonSpirit's volume gains, efficiency initiatives fuel 'noticeable' quarterly performance  bump Fierce Healthcare

21:02 - Ascension posts net profit as it looks to outpatient growth Healthcare Dive

Story #5   Alzheimer’s

22:15 - Why Doctors Can’t Agree on How to Diagnose Alzheimer’s WSJ

26:02 - Viagra and shingles vaccine show surprising promise against Alzheimer’s  Science Daily

Story #6   No HITL?

28:03 - NYU Langone Health: We’re Close to Clinical AI with No Human in the Loop MedCity

Story #7   OpenClaw Acquhire

31:32 - This Viral AI Project Went From Side Hustle to Coveted Prize in Three Months WSJ

Vic and Marcus break down January’s unexpected jobs uptick and why healthcare continues to dominate employment growth while capital outpaces labor across the broader economy. They analyze record market caps for major tech companies, the widening gap between corporate earnings and wages, and what that means for the future workforce. The episode explores two unicorn care navigation startups taking opposite approaches, new ACA policy shifts expanding non-standard plan options, and accelerating interoperability through TEFCA. They unpack the 340B rebate battle, mounting rural hospital closures, robotics in maternity care, Humana’s aggressive Medicare Advantage growth strategy, payer layoffs and restructuring, Novo Nordisk’s escalating fight with Hims & Hers, and a major Anthropic funding surge alongside revelations that its AI model exhibited blackmail behavior during testing—leading to a broader discussion about alignment, control, and whether AI is still just a tool. 

Links

Story #1 Jobs, Hiring and share of Profits

1:10 - U.S. Hiring Starts the Year at a Strong Pace NYT

3:44 - The Big Money in Today’s Economy Is Going to Capital, Not Labor WSJ

Story #2 Two Approaches to Care Navigation 

7:57 - Solace Health Reaches Unicorn Status by Taking the ‘Homework’ Out of Care Navigation MedCity

9:27 - Care navigation startup Garner Health scores $118M series D at $1.35B valuation Fierce Healthcare

Story #3 Policy Continues to Move Fast

11:32 - CMS plans to roll back limits on nonstandard ACA plan options Fierce Healthcare

15:20 - 500M records exchanged through TEFCA, federal health IT office boasts Fierce Healthcare

17:59 - HHS drops controversial 340B rebate pilot Healthcare Finance

19:49 - Senate Questions Health Care Firm for Profiting Off Program Meant for Poor NYT

Story #4 Humana

22:16 - Humana Reports Wider Quarterly Loss, Expects 2026 Earnings Decline WSJ

24:07 - Humana CEO hints at upcoming primary care deal Beckers

25:47 - Humana could end 2026 as the largest Medicare Advantage insurer Healthcare Dive

Story #5 Signs of Recovery in Payors

26:45 - CVS Profit, Revenue Climb as Turmoil Continues in Health-Insurance Sector WSJ

27:32 - Oscar posts $443M loss in 2025, but CEO says company is poised for 2026 profitability Fierce Healthcare

28:41 - Cigna to lay off 2,000 workers worldwide Healthcare Dive 

Story #6 Rural Healthcare

30:17 - 2026 rural health state of the state Chartis

33:24 - Alabama’s ‘Pretty Cool’ Plan for Robots in Maternity Care Sparks Debate KFF

Story #7 IP Wars Escalating

38:22 - Novo Nordisk Escalates Fight Against Hims & Hers WSJ

38:56 - Hims cancels plans to sell compounded GLP-1 pill after FDA backlash Helthcare Dive

Story #8 Anthropic

40:49 - Anthropic Superbowl Ad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQRu7DdTTVA 

41:36 - Anthropic Raises $30B At $380B Valuation In Second-Largest Venture Funding Deal Of All Time Crunchbase

41:46 - Anthropic subscription surge cuts into OpenAI's lead Axios

45:18 - Mrinank Sharma Resigns X

46:30 - Daisy McGregor Safety Coments

In this episode, Vic and Marcus break down a sharp tech stock selloff driven by AI disruption, examine how AI is reshaping software, venture capital, and healthcare operations, and discuss major funding rounds in cardiology and women’s health. They analyze sweeping healthcare policy moves from the Trump administration, including drug pricing, PBM reform, telehealth expansion, and changes to addiction recovery funding. The conversation also covers payer performance with a focus on Cigna, winners and losers in pharma earnings, ongoing nursing workforce strain, Epic and Optum’s expanding AI tools, and the risks and realities of autonomous AI agents as new platforms rapidly emerge. 

Links

3:42 - Intensifying Tech Slide Sends Nasdaq to Worst Two-Day Drop Since April WSJ

5:38 - AI Won’t Kill the Software Business, Just Its Growth Story WSJ

11:44 - Chamber gets a $60M jolt to power value-based care for cardiology practices Firece Healthcare

13:46 - Women's health clinic Midi Health closes $100M series D as it aims to scale a national healthcare company Firece Healthcare 

16:29 - TrumpRx Is Set to Go Live on Thursday NYT

17:06 - Trump signs $1.2T spending package that funds HHS, enacts PBM reforms, telehealth and hospital-at-home measures Firece Healthcare

18:01 - One-quarter of Medicaid doctors don’t actually treat Medicaid patients Healthcare Dive

18:22 - HHS plans to invest $100M to support addiction recovery and address homelessness Firece Healthcare

25:32 -  Cigna reports better-than-expected Q4 financial results Healthcare Finance

27:25 - FTC reaches 'landmark settlement' with Cigna's Express Scripts Healthcare Finance

28:31 - Eli Lilly Profit Rises as Weight-Loss Drug Demand Surges WSJ

28:39 - AbbVie Revenue Rises on Immunology Growth WSJ

28:53 - GSK’s Specialty Medicines Drive Solid Results WSJ

29:43 - Wegovy Maker Novo Nordisk Forecasts Steep Sales Drop in 2026 WSJ

30:22 - Merck Expects Slower Earnings Growth As It Spends on Acquisitions WSJ

30:53 - Pfizer Sales Fall on Continued Lower Covid-19 Drug Demand WSJ

34:05 - Nurses Get Bitten, Spat on, Thrown. That’s Why We’re on Strike. NYT-op

35:18 - Tethered to Tech, Nurses Suffer Digital Compassion Fatigue Medscape

36:05 - The evidence based ROI of wellness starts with building a culture that heals the healers Wolters Kluwer website

41:25 - Epic rolls out AI charting tool as scribe market heats up Healthcare Dive

43:52 - Optum unveils 2 new AI-powered tools for digital prior authorization Firece Healthcare

45:38 - Moltbook: Maybe this isn't a good idea YouTube

53:44 - The Moltbook Experiment Failed YouTube