Modern Healthcare's Healthcare Insider Podcast

Healthcare organizations continue to face pressure to control costs, improve operational performance and make smarter use of limited resources. Yet significant opportunities may remain untapped in areas such as indirect spend, purchased services and capital expenditures.

In this episode of Healthcare Insider, Shannon Mortland of the Modern Healthcare Content Studio speaks with Tom Swapp, senior vice president of indirect spend and purchased services at Vizient, about how health systems can rethink procurement to uncover savings and drive greater operational efficiency.

Digital pathology is changing how laboratories approach diagnostics, workflows and patient care. But realizing its potential requires healthcare leaders to look beyond the technology itself and consider its impact across the pathology service line.

In this episode of Healthcare Insider, Matthew Hanna, MD, vice president of pathology informatics at UPMC, discusses the evolution of digital and computational pathology and what these advances could mean for health systems in terms of care and financial performance.

Key takeaways:

• Explore the business case for digital pathology beyond direct reimbursement, including potential effects on workflow efficiency, slide management, recruitment and the broader patient care pathway.
• Learn how computational pathology and AI can help pathologists identify areas of interest, quantify biomarkers, prioritize cases and integrate increasingly complex diagnostic information.
• Discover how the pathologist's role is evolving as digital imaging, molecular data and computational outputs become more integrated into clinical decision-making.
• Hear practical steps for implementation, including workflow readiness, governance, infrastructure, baseline metrics and post-implementation performance measurement.

Gene Cavacini, president of U.S. Pharmaceutical Distribution at McKesson, is a diversified healthcare services leader dedicated to advancing health outcomes for patients everywhere.

In his role, Gene oversees distribution and customer service operations in the United States, supporting McKesson's customer and channel partnerships across manufacturers and providers, leading more than 7,500 employees tasked with delivering one-third of America's medicines.

In this episode of Healthcare Insider, we explore how distributors drive greater agility across the healthcare ecosystem, supporting access to emerging therapies and essential medicines for patients and communities across the country. You'll learn why the distributor's role is becoming increasingly critical to the future of healthcare.

In this episode of Healthcare Insider, Sarah Loeffler of the Modern Healthcare Content Studio speaks with Robert Stone, CEO of City of Hope, about the forces reshaping cancer care—and why expanding access to specialized expertise may be just as important as developing the next breakthrough.

Stone shares his perspective on how health systems can turn data and AI into better care, respond as treatments become more personalized and complex, and rethink collaboration to bring advanced cancer expertise to patients beyond the walls of major cancer centers.

Listen now for insights on the future of cancer care and the strategic decisions healthcare leaders face as science, technology and patient needs continue to evolve.

Featured guest:

Robert Stone, Chief Executive Officer, City of Hope

Aging infrastructure, deferred maintenance and poorly coordinated capital projects can create bottlenecks that affect everything from patient flow to an organization's ability to grow. Yet building something new isn't always the answer.

In this Healthcare Insider podcast, Gordian's Mark Kenneday shares his best advice for being more strategic with facility planning. Drawing on 40 years in healthcare facilities leadership, Kenneday explains:

• Ways addressing a bottleneck in one department can simply move the problem downstream
• How leaders can better connect capital planning to service-line strategy
• Why deferred maintenance should be viewed through the lens of operational risk—not just facility condition

Kenneday also shares a striking example from his own career: a $2 million flood-mitigation investment that helped keep one Texas hospital operational when Tropical Storm Allison struck just 13 days after the project went into use.

Listen to learn how healthcare leaders can better prioritize facility investments, protect continuity of care and get more value from the buildings they already have.

The No Surprises Act's independent dispute resolution process has become a costly and complex operational challenge, and the arbitration win rate tells only part of the story.

For health plans, the bigger question may be what happens before a dispute ever reaches a final determination. As IDR requirements evolve, documentation, eligibility decisions and day-to-day workflows can have significant implications for how efficiently disputes move through the process.

In this episode of Healthcare Insider, host Sarah Loeffler talks with Maisie Weir, VP of Strategic Solutions at Zelis, about what payers should be watching as the IDR landscape changes and ways reducing administrative friction could benefit both sides of the payer-provider relationship. They'll also discuss implications of new Zelis-commissioned research.

Listen to hear what a more effective approach to IDR could look like and where technology, process improvements and human expertise fit into the equation.

In this episode of Healthcare Insider with Modern Healthcare's Content Studio, host Sarah Loeffler speaks with August Boehnlein of Midmark Corporation about the latest accessibility requirements hitting ambulatory care organizations, what healthcare leaders should know about compliance with the 2017 U.S. Access Board standards and 2024 updates, and how providers can prepare for enforcement.

You'll learn:

• Why accessibility is becoming a strategic priority in ambulatory care
• The key requirements of the U.S. Access Board's medical diagnostic equipment standards
• What 2024's updates mean for equipment purchasing and future compliance
• How organizations can assess current equipment and build a practical compliance roadmap
• Why improving accessibility can enhance both regulatory readiness and the patient experience

As accessibility standards continue to evolve, healthcare organizations have an opportunity to plan ahead, improve care delivery and make informed investments that support both compliance and patient-centered care.

Military and veterans' health systems operate in some of the most complex, high-demand environments in healthcare. Their experience managing limited resources, coordinating care across large populations and adopting new technologies offers valuable lessons for health systems nationwide.

In this episode of Healthcare Insider, Modern Healthcare Content Studio host Shannon Mortland speaks with Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Telita Crosland, MD, MPH, MS, former director of the Defense Health Agency, and The Honorable David J. Shulkin, MD, former U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

The conversation explores how government-driven innovation, operational discipline and emerging care models can help healthcare leaders improve access, strengthen coordination and address challenges such as fragmented care and delayed diagnosis.

Value-based care continues to evolve as healthcare organizations balance new policy priorities, growing technology capabilities and the realities of delivering coordinated, patient-centered care.

In this episode of Healthcare Insider, host Shannon Mortland sits down with Dan Brillman, deputy administrator at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and director of the Center for Medicaid & CHIP Services (CMCS), and Dr. Rob Bessler, CEO of Honest Health, for a timely discussion on what's driving the next generation of value-based care.

Drawing on experience from both the public and private sectors, Brillman and Bessler explore how CMS is shaping policies that support coordinated care, the role of technology and data connectivity in improving outcomes, and the practical challenges health systems and physicians face as they transition to increasingly sophisticated value-based care models.

The conversation also examines how organizations can simplify risk for clinicians, invest strategically in infrastructure and prepare for the future of healthcare transformation.