Inside Angle

Founded in 1963 as a health and beauty store, CVS has evolved over its 50-year history, but always maintained a focus on making health care local and accessible. In this episode, Dr. Dan Knecht of CVS Health discusses how the company's 2018 acquisition of Aetna is driving innovative, new programs where CVS clinical pharmacists are applying health plan data to identify gaps in care, improve medication adherence, and help patients manage chronic conditions like diabetes--all with the goal of helping people make progress on their unique health journeys.

Health care procedures can be risky for certain cohorts of patients. How can we identify these patients are and weigh the benefits and risks of performing certain procedures? In this episode, Dr. Victoria Sharp explores the idea of a frailty index, which scores patients based on key frailty factors to determine good candidates for surgery or other procedures. Could a frailty index provide a more well rounded view of a patient's health, leading to better outcomes?

One silver lining of these COVID-19 times? The willingness to be inventive, try new approaches and invest resources in improving care outcomes. In this episode, Samantha Olds Frey, CEO of the Illinois Association of Medicaid Health Plans, describes what happened when health plans came together with Illinois Medicaid to support members facing unprecedented challenges arising from the pandemic.

Nationwide, emergency departments struggle with super utilizers, those patients who come into the ED as often as once a day. How can hospitals reduce utilization to bring down costs and still improve outcomes? Jason Greenspan, MD, associate chief medical officer with Emergent Medical Associates describes a breakthrough approach to care management.

What problems can be solved when health plans collaborate with each other rather than compete? In this episode, we explore Project Link, a new forum that brings health plans together to understand the impact of social determinants of health (SDOH) on their members. In this episode, Michelle Jester, Executive Director of Social Determinants of Health for America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), describes innovative approaches to solving SDOH challenges achieved through health plan communication and collaboration.

Telemedicine has been around for a long time, but many health care organizations made the first moves into telehealth with the COVID-19 public health emergency. Even before the pandemic, Washington DC-based Unity Health Care devised a telemedicine strategy that targeted underserved populations. How has the pandemic impacted Unity's program and will its current initiative become the new norm? Drs. Angela Diop and Andrew Robie discuss the present and future of Unity's telemedicine services and detail strategies your organization can use to bolster its telehealth efforts.

As health care organizations face unprecedented challenges brought on by the pandemic, how can they plan for a post-COVID-19 world? In this episode, Matt Eyles, President and CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), discusses new approaches AHIP members are taking to ensure continued coverage and address surprise billing, while focusing on the big picture issues of social determinants of health and systemic racism -- all while working within state budgets that have been strained by the pandemic. What interventions will have the greatest impact, both today and in the future?

As health care organizations face unprecedented challenges brought on by the pandemic, how can they plan for a post-COVID-19 world? In this episode, Matt Eyles, President and CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), discusses new approaches AHIP members are taking to ensure continued coverage and address surprise billing, while focusing on the big picture issues of social determinants of health and systemic racism -- all while working within state budgets that have been strained by the pandemic. What interventions will have the greatest impact, both today and in the future?

In his New York Times best-selling book "The Price We Pay," Dr. Marty Makary discusses the worsening crisis of high health care costs and the impact on quality of care. Is price transparency the answer? Listen to the latest podcast episode for Dr. Makary's perspective and hear about his work as a Johns Hopkins surgeon and professor of public health, where he is researching ways to bridge the divide between cost and quality.

Electronic health records give providers an enormous amount of information, but finding relevant patient information can be like finding a needle in a haystack. The result: cognitive overload for providers, leading to wasted time and physician burnout. In this episode, 3M User Experience (UX) Design Team Lead Anna Abovyan explores ways to reduce the cognitive load on physicians by designing technology that is intuitive, easy to use, and helps, not hinders patient care.