Spring Health and Alma just merged? This is a moment we can’t ignore.

This quick-hitter episode breaks down the implications of this merger, without the hype and without the headlines. Our hosts, Chris and Melissa, dive into what this consolidation really means for payers, providers, and most importantly, patients.

They explore how modern EAPs, payer infrastructure, and direct-to-consumer mental health platforms are starting to converge, and why this signals a major shift in the mental health ecosystem heading into 2026.

No hot takes in this episode. Instead, a thoughtful, grounded analysis of where the market is going, and what innovators should be thinking about now.

Melissa and Chris also zoom out to talk about founder journeys, creativity under pressure, and what is giving them hope right now - because healthcare innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

Join the Conversation:

We continue to grow a community of healthcare innovators, founders, operators and thinkers. If you’re scoping, building, or wrestling with big ideas in healthcare, you’re not alone.

Join our Discord community, and connect with people who get it

Subscribe for more conversations at the intersection of healthcare, innovation, and humanity

#HopePowerandHealthcare

Hosts:Chris Hemphill - Chris’s 17 years in healthcare technology have spanned sales, operations, data science IC, and AI leadership. Chris couples this with a focus on health equity and serves as the NYU McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy Research Fellow for Healthcare AI. Chris’s currently leads Modular Feedback, which focuses on helping healthcare innovators find and build thoughtful AI use cases: https://modularfeedback.com

Melissa Reilly - Melissa spent the last 20 years leading innovations at major payers: UnitedHealth Group(Optum Ventures), Aetna, and Evernorth/Cigna. She’s helped drive and commercialize multiple startups in AI & consumer testing, and she is now driving product and commercialization for healthcare innovators full-time. She brings industry expertise as well as a background in law, negotiation, & real estate. Her company’s name is STLTH.

Production:Edited by Alyssa SchrollMusic by Chris Hemphill

Behind every healthcare leader is a story. A story about why they chose their work, and why they stay.

In this week’s episode of Hope, Power and Healthcare, Chris and Melissa reflect on a powerful conversation with Ben Gonzalez, System Lead for Behavioral Health at Geisinger, whose recovery journey intersects with his art, photography, leadership, and purpose-driven healthcare innovation.

Through Ben’s story, the episode explores why so many people working in behavioral and digital mental health aren’t here by accident - they’re here because of lived experience.

This is one episode you’ll want to watch, not just listen to - featuring Ben’s stunning photography and moments captured in nature, that bring the conversation to life.

Chris and Melissa also open up about their own journeys, what brought them into mental health, what keeps them here and how working inside complex healthcare systems have shaped their perspectives on life.

This is a conversation about what fuels us when the world feels heavy, and how hope shows up, through people who refuse to give up.

We want to hear from you:

What brought you into healthcare or mental health care? And what fuels you to stay?

Learn more about Ben Gonzalez’s journey here:

https://www.pbs.org/video/bens-story-portrait-long-term-recovery-uvzyud/

Hosts:Chris Hemphill - Chris’s 17 years in healthcare technology have spanned sales, operations, data science IC, and AI leadership. Chris couples this with a focus on health equity and serves as the NYU McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy Research Fellow for Healthcare AI. Chris’s currently leads Modular Feedback, which focuses on helping healthcare innovators find and build thoughtful AI use cases: https://modularfeedback.com

Melissa Reilly - Melissa spent the last 20 years leading innovations at major payers: UnitedHealth Group(Optum Ventures), Aetna, and Evernorth/Cigna. She’s helped drive and commercialize multiple startups in AI & consumer testing, and she is now driving product and commercialization for healthcare innovators full-time. She brings industry expertise as well as a background in law, negotiation, & real estate. Her company’s name is STLTH.

Production:Edited by Alyssa SchrollMusic by Chris Hemphill

You don’t need to change who you are to lead. You need a system that can grow and change with you.

In this week’s episode of Hope, Power and Healthcare, our hosts Melissa and Chris are joined by two special guests - Dr. Sarah Adler, Founder & CEO of Wave Life and Allison Holzer, Founder & CEO of Aha2Impact, for a thoughtful conversation about neurodivergent leadership, innovation under pressure, and building cultures that actually work for real humans.

This episode is a masterclass in how leaders can stop forcing themselves into systems that weren’t designed for them, and how to start building something better.

Because neurodivergence isn’t something to be “fixed”, it’s something to be leveraged.

🔗About our Guests:

Dr. Sarah Adler is the Founder & CEO of Wave Life; a virtual mental health solution that offers evidence-based care through personalized mental health programs. She is also a Stanford-trained clinical psychologist, as well as a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford.

Read More about Dr. Adler and Wave Life here: https://www.wavelife.io/home2

Allison Holzer is the Founder and CEO of Aha2Impact; a firm dedicated to blending human psychology, with innovation and strategy, to empower leaders and organizations to achieve transformational change. With over 20 years of experience, she brings a deep understanding of human motivation and performance, to every engagement.

Read More about Allison and Aha2Impact here: https://www.aha2impact.com/

Subscribe for more conversations at the intersection of Hope, Power and Healthcare

🗨️Join our Discord Community:

https://discord.gg/E9Zu2SBa

#HopePowerHealthcare #NeurodiversityAtWork #HealthcareFounders #TheFutureofHealthcare

Hosts:Chris Hemphill - Chris’s 17 years in healthcare technology have spanned sales, operations, data science IC, and AI leadership. Chris couples this with a focus on health equity and serves as the NYU McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy Research Fellow for Healthcare AI. Chris’s currently leads Modular Feedback, which focuses on helping healthcare innovators find and build thoughtful AI use cases: https://modularfeedback.com

Melissa Reilly - Melissa spent the last 20 years leading innovations at major payers: UnitedHealth Group(Optum Ventures), Aetna, and Evernorth/Cigna. She’s helped drive and commercialize multiple startups in AI & consumer testing, and she is now driving product and commercialization for healthcare innovators full-time. She brings industry expertise as well as a background in law, negotiation, & real estate. Her company’s name is STLTH.

Production:Edited by Alyssa SchrollMusic by Chris Hemphill

What does it take to move healthcare forward? Beyond hype, beyond panels, beyond pitch decks?

In one of our last episodes from 2025, Chris and Melissa reflect on a week that spanned Ivy League campuses, founder wins, and uncomfortable truths about innovation, ethics, and the true power in healthcare.

From judging early-stage research at Yale, to moderating a digital health marketplace panel at Dartmouth, this conversation explores what happens when clarity meets courage and why mission-driven leadership matters more than ever.

This episode gives a reminder that healthcare only changes when science, ethics, and humanity move together.

We want to hear from you!

Drop your thoughts in the comments, share your favorite Christmas movie, and try your LLM prompt discussed in the episode:

“Give me a summary of what you learned about me in 2025, including my wildest dreams and questions. What growth patterns do you see, and what do you predict for next year?”

Subscribe and Like for weekly conversations on the future of healthcare.

Join our Community on Discord:

https://discord.gg/E9Zu2SBa

#HopePowerHealthcare #MentalHealthInnovation #EthicalAI #FutureofHealthcare

Hosts:

Chris Hemphill - Chris’s 17 years in healthcare technology have spanned sales, operations, data science IC, and AI leadership. Chris couples this with a focus on health equity and serves as the NYU McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy Research Fellow for Healthcare AI. Chris’s currently leads Modular Feedback, which focuses on helping healthcare innovators find and build thoughtful AI use cases: https://modularfeedback.com

Melissa Reilly - Melissa spent the last 20 years leading innovations at major payers: UnitedHealth Group(Optum Ventures), Aetna, and Evernorth/Cigna. She’s helped drive and commercialize multiple startups in AI & consumer testing, and she is now driving product and commercialization for healthcare innovators full-time. She brings industry expertise as well as a background in law, negotiation, & real estate. Her company’s name is STLTH.

Production:Edited by Alyssa SchrollMusic by Chris Hemphill

The 2025 Conference Season is over, and our hosts are TIRED.

In this episode, the indefatigable team of Chris Hemphill and Melissa Reilly are improvising their way through the chaos of event stacking and post-conference recovery.

Chris and Melissa sit down, and talk about their time together at the “Super Bowl of mental health technology” - Behavioral Health Tech 2025, and their takeaways from the week with some of their favorite innovators.

The two talk about innovation becoming increasingly challenging. With market consolidation and first-movers, new entrants must be sharper than ever to compete against venture-backed players.

Melissa and Chris reflect on gratitude, community, and the major personal transitions of the last year; finding more joy and freedom as entrepreneurs, even if they are “always on”.

As 2025 is coming to an end, we want to thank all of our fam for being on this journey with us. Tell us what you’ve learned from us this year, and how we can continue to empower all you innovators in healthcare.

Join our Discord Community! Our Hope, Power and Healthcare Discord Community is growing by the day. Click the link below to join our conversations:https://discord.gg/k2DYEHUN

Hosts:Chris Hemphill - Chris’s 17 years in healthcare technology have spanned sales, operations, data science IC, and AI leadership. Chris couples this with a focus on health equity and serves as the NYU McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy Research Fellow for Healthcare AI. Chris’s currently leads Modular Feedback, which focuses on helping healthcare innovators find and build thoughtful AI use cases: https://modularfeedback.com

Melissa Reilly - Melissa spent the last 20 years leading innovations at major payers: UnitedHealth Group(Optum Ventures), Aetna, and Evernorth/Cigna. She’s helped drive and commercialize multiple startups in AI & consumer testing, and she is now driving product and commercialization for healthcare innovators full-time. She brings industry expertise as well as a background in law, negotiation, & real estate. Her company’s name is STLTH.

Production:Edited by Alyssa SchrollMusic by Chris Hemphill

Have you missed us? Because we’ve missed YOU!

In our Halloween episode, our hosts, Chris Hemphill (Johann Sebastian Bach) and Melissa Reilly (ChatGPT 5.0), are back to tackle collapsing systems, sky-high medical costs, and the wild world of AI-assisted software development.

Chris and Melissa dive into the tough conversations affecting everyone, particularly the unsustainable nature of healthcare costs - with the average medical bill per family now reaching $27,000.

The two also ponder the question, “are LLMs the future of programming?”. Chris breaks down the concepts of vibe coding and trash coding, which involve letting an LLM develop code for an entire system.

Melissa and Chris both share highlights from their recent events, and what they’re excited for in the upcoming weeks.

As always, thank you for tuning in, fam!

Links from today’s episode:AI used in billing battle with health system, reducing bill from almost $200k to $33k - http://threads.com/@nthmonkey/post/DQVdAD1gHhw

AI Billing Arms race covered by STAT: https://www.statnews.com/2025/10/31/health-insurer-ai-fights-hospital-ai-coding-billing/

Bach Remix from beginning of episodehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3c1zmuK_cA

Extreme Makeover Home Edition, The Gaudet Family, S1E21:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1073411/

Hosts:Chris Hemphill - Chris’s 17 years in healthcare technology have spanned sales, operations, data science IC, and AI leadership. Chris couples this with a focus on health equity and serves as the NYU McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy Research Fellow for Healthcare AI. Chris’s currently leads Modular Feedback, which focuses on helping healthcare innovators find and build thoughtful AI use cases: https://modularfeedback.com

Melissa Reilly - Melissa spent the last 20 years leading innovations at major payers: UnitedHealth Group(Optum Ventures), Aetna, and Evernorth/Cigna. She’s helped drive and commercialize multiple startups in AI & consumer testing, and she is now driving product and commercialization for healthcare innovators full-time. She brings industry expertise as well as a background in law, negotiation, & real estate. Her company’s name is STLTH.

Production:Edited by Alyssa SchrollMusic by Chris Hemphill

Hope, Power and Karaoke?

This week, our hosts come together, in the middle of conference season, to create their own Conference Survival and Thrival Guide.

This episode is essential for innovators who are trying to make a dent in the world, and get their product seen and heard by the right people, especially at industry gatherings.

Melissa gives some of her best tips and tricks on maximizing your time, leveraging your connections, and being open to unplanned conversations and experiences.

Chris and Melissa also tackle the topic of rising costs and systemic barriers that are taking a toll on the healthcare environment. Sharing posts from LinkedIn about driving costs for both medical expenses and operational expenses.

This episode is your “one-stop shop” for all things conferencing, you won’t want to miss it.

Links from today’s episode:

Hosts:Chris Hemphill - Chris’s 17 years in healthcare technology have spanned sales, operations, data science IC, and AI leadership. Chris couples this with a focus on health equity and serves as the NYU McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy Research Fellow for Healthcare AI. Chris’s currently leads Modular Feedback, which focuses on helping healthcare innovators find and build thoughtful AI use cases: https://modularfeedback.com

Melissa Reilly - Melissa spent the last 20 years leading innovations at major payers: UnitedHealth Group(Optum Ventures), Aetna, and Evernorth/Cigna. She’s helped drive and commercialize multiple startups in AI & consumer testing, and she is now driving product and commercialization for healthcare innovators full-time. She brings industry expertise as well as a background in law, negotiation, & real estate. Her company’s name is STLTH.

Production:Edited by Alyssa SchrollMusic by Chris Hemphill

Are you defining your elite capacity?

This week, we are diving deep into the exhaustion crisis that’s plaguing achievers, leaders and innovators. Hosts Chris and Melissa welcome author, speaker, and Elite Energy Coach, Bree Bacon, to resupply our fam with personal strategies needed to keep showing up for yourselves.

Bree introduces herself and her debut book, Your Elite Energy. Her guide to combating personal burnout, while replenishing your energy using both research and her own experiences.

She walks us through her own “crash and burn” experience as a corporate executive, triggered by the intense pressure of balancing her demanding career with personal losses and the arrival of her miracle baby.

Our conversation with Bree highlights a critical truth: we are not robots, we are humans.

Connect with Bree Bacon and Your Elite Energy!

Find Bree’s book, Your Elite Energy here:

https://www.amazon.com/Your-Elite-Energy-Blueprint-Vitality/dp/B0FCC6WHQF

Visit her website below for social links and accelerator programs:

https://www.breebacon.com/

Listen to music by Bree here, or wherever you get your music:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/6xFrzxxxlIwIXWn7xIsmQL?si=CZtYri1SSgecHhGU6uSocQ

https://music.youtube.com/channel/UCWBPIZE55NINsMuPPHnCBsQ

Listen to music by Bree’s husband, Neil Bacon here, or wherever you get your music:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/1DT6EgWljxtu3KO6oJHqah?si=wubqPooTTTa3qQvH5CfmoA

Neil’s new song, “Like No Other”:https://open.spotify.com/track/4efsopOHAZmpCAeYu46OMO?si=eecb4e0dc7fc4d47https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=p8tbzarnPiY

Hosts:Chris Hemphill - Chris’s 17 years in healthcare technology have spanned sales, operations, data science IC, and AI leadership. Chris couples this with a focus on health equity and serves as the NYU McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy Research Fellow for Healthcare AI. Chris’s currently leads Modular Feedback, which focuses on helping healthcare innovators find and build thoughtful AI use cases: https://modularfeedback.com

Melissa Reilly - Melissa spent the last 20 years leading innovations at major payers: UnitedHealth Group(Optum Ventures), Aetna, and Evernorth/Cigna. She’s helped drive and commercialize multiple startups in AI & consumer testing, and she is now driving product and commercialization for healthcare innovators full-time. She brings industry expertise as well as a background in law, negotiation, & real estate. Her company’s name is STLTH.

Production:

Edited by Alyssa SchrollMusic by Chris Hemphill

Dropping the gate, re-anchoring and recharging.

We’re back for another one, as our hosts Melissa and Chris embrace the good chaos, flexibility and agility that defines both building innovation and navigating life. From the annual frenzy of open enrollment, to the importance of owning your expertise and the challenges of thoughtful AI deployment. 

Our hosts tackle the reoccurring theme of “Don’t Gatekeep Yourself”, prompted by a recent LinkedIn post from Cristina Farr. This post discussed accomplished, professional women who often decline opportunities to be featured publicly. Exploring why it happens, and calling on the HPH fam to own your expertise and to recognize you were selected for a reason!

Melissa and Chris also share thoughts on the current, tangible, impacts of the government shutdown. With promises to explore the long-lasting cuts and irreversible changes this event may cause in a future episode. 

Don’t Miss:

The Ending Clinician Burnout Summit runs November 6th-7th: Register now with code HPHFAM for a 25% discount.

If you’re attending HLTH 2025 in Las Vegas, come meet Melissa at the Zeel Medical Massage Booth!

Let us know in the comments: Have you ever turned down a speaking or thought leadership opportunity even though you were perfectly capable? We want to hear your stories, and help hype you up!

Links from Today’s Episode:

Christina Farr’s LinkedIn Post:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/christinafarr_im-not-enough-of-an-expert-on-that-but-activity-7379866782116880385-RNOG?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAACqbWVsBkhGoGa8Cmor_yxuFhE7QCgblxB4

As always, Join Our Conversation, with like-minded innovators and HPH fam! https://discord.gg/CcaqGFag

Hosts:Chris Hemphill - Chris’s 17 years in healthcare technology have spanned sales, operations, data science IC, and AI leadership. Chris couples this with a focus on health equity and serves as the NYU McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy Research Fellow for Healthcare AI. Chris’s currently leads Modular Feedback, which focuses on helping healthcare innovators find and build thoughtful AI use cases: https://modularfeedback.com

Melissa Reilly - Melissa spent the last 20 years leading innovations at major payers: UnitedHealth Group(Optum Ventures), Aetna, and Evernorth/Cigna. She’s helped drive and commercialize multiple startups in AI & consumer testing, and she is now driving product and commercialization for healthcare innovators full-time. She brings industry expertise as well as a background in law, negotiation, & real estate. Her company’s name is STLTH.

Production:Edited by Alyssa SchrollMusic by Chris Hemphill

Welcome back fam! After much traveling for both of our hosts, Chris and Melissa are back to dive into a massive week, spanning policy, cutting-edge predictive AI, and real-world innovation.

This episode is all about the power healthcare leaders and innovators have to transform systems, starting with accountability and transparency.

Chris details his incredible speaking opportunity, in Washington D.C. at the Congressional Black Caucus, and shares the problem of bias with algorithms trained on existing healthcare data, often reflecting historical injustices.

Melissa pivots to Dr. Eric Topal’s analysis of a groundbreaking new approach to predictive modeling, using a transformer architecture. But, the fundamental hurdle remains: the current fee-for-service system, doesn’t effectively pay for prevention.

Lastly, our hosts revisit the Jobs to be Done framework, applying this gold-standard to the interviewing process, to avoid biased answers.

As always, Join Our Conversation, with like-minded innovators and HPH fam! https://discord.gg/CcaqGFag

Links from Today’s Episode:

Primary Prevention in Medicine (Dr. Eric Topal, Ground Truths):

https://erictopol.substack.com/p/dawn-of-a-new-era-of-primary-prevention

Panel from NAACP:

• Dr. Craig Watkins: https://journalism.utexas.edu/faculty/s-craig-watkins

• Dr. Nicole Turner Lee: https://www.brookings.edu/people/nicol-turner-lee/

• Dr. Tony Price

• Dr. Chris Pernell: https://www.drchrispernell.com/

  
  

Jobs to Be Done Theory from the Christensen Institute:

https://www.christenseninstitute.org/theory/jobs-to-be-done/

Hosts:Chris Hemphill - Chris’s 17 years in healthcare technology have spanned sales, operations, data science IC, and AI leadership. Chris couples this with a focus on health equity and serves as the NYU McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy Research Fellow for Healthcare AI. Chris’s currently leads Modular Feedback, which focuses on helping healthcare innovators find and build thoughtful AI use cases: https://modularfeedback.com

Melissa Reilly - Melissa spent the last 20 years leading innovations at major payers: UnitedHealth Group(Optum Ventures), Aetna, and Evernorth/Cigna. She’s helped drive and commercialize multiple startups in AI & consumer testing, and she is now driving product and commercialization for healthcare innovators full-time. She brings industry expertise as well as a background in law, negotiation, & real estate. Her company’s name is STLTH.

Production:Edited by Alyssa SchrollMusic by Chris Hemphill