The Beat

What if the biggest opportunity in healthcare reimbursement is finally having a clear view of what “fair” actually looks like?

In this episode, Dilpreet Sahota, CEO and founder of Trek Health, discusses how his company is helping health systems and health plans turn price transparency data into a strategic tool for payer negotiations. He explains why publicly available reimbursement data is still difficult to use in practice, how AI can simplify both massive pricing datasets and highly complex payer contracts, and why providers need a clearer benchmarking strategy as reimbursement pressures continue to shift. He also shares his perspective on trust, validation, and explainability in AI, along with a future vision in which providers negotiate with greater clarity, and patients can better predict the true cost of care before receiving services.

Tune in to learn how better reimbursement intelligence could reduce friction, strengthen negotiation strategy, and increase transparency for both providers and patients.

About Dilpreet Sahota:

Before launching Trek Health, Dilpreet held roles across healthcare growth, analytics, operations, and research, including work at Big Health, Health IQ, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Stanford University School of Medicine. He holds an M.Sc. from Stanford University and a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.

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Healthcare payments are often discussed as a transparency problem, but the deeper issue is structural fragmentation across contracts, claims, remittances, and workflows.

In this episode, Ted Ferrin, Senior Vice President of Payments Innovation at Zelis, explains how the acquisition of Rivet is bringing provider-facing payment intelligence into Zelis’s broader infrastructure. He discusses why achieving financial clarity between payers and providers has been so difficult due to fragmented systems and legacy technology. Ted highlights that true transparency goes beyond simply displaying data and requires meaningful, actionable insights. He also shares how tools like Claims Insights and Zap Edge embed intelligence into payment workflows to reduce rework, improve visibility, and create a smoother experience for providers, payers, and patients.

Tune in and learn how better payment intelligence could help turn transparency from a buzzword into real operational trust. 

About Ted Ferrin:

Ted Ferrin is Senior Vice President of Payments Innovation at Zelis, where he focuses on building solutions that improve healthcare payments and strengthen financial clarity for providers. He joined Zelis through its acquisition of Rivet, the company he founded and led as CEO for more than eight years. Before Rivet, Ted held leadership and sales roles at Canopy, Instructure, and Qualtrics. His work has centered on building organizations, products, and customer-focused growth strategies, with a particular passion for making healthcare more efficient and easier to use for providers. He studied psychology and business management at Brigham Young University. 

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AI in healthcare is moving fast, but what does real, operational impact actually look like? In this episode, host Sandy Vance chats with Aditya Bansod, CTO and co-founder of Luma Health, and Michelle Winfield-Hanrahan, RN BSN MHA MSN about this very topic. They share how the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences is scaling AI beyond the call center and into complex, high-friction workflows like fax processing and patient access. From backfilling missed appointments to transforming referral intake, this conversation dives into what it takes to build trust, move quickly, and turn AI into measurable results across an entire health system.

Aditya Bansod is CTO and co-founder of Luma Health. With a lifelong passion for building software, Bansod leads Luma Health’s technical vision and strategic direction for building a Patient Success Platform that empowers healthcare providers to serve their patients better and improve healthcare outcomes. With over 15 years of experience as a product management leader developing mobile solutions at Adobe and Microsoft, and at venture-backed start-ups, Bansod made the transition from B2B software solutions to healthcare in 2015 to have a meaningful and measurable impact on how providers use mobile technologies to engage with and communicate with their patients.

Michelle Winfield-Hanrahan, RN BSN MHA MSN, is a seasoned healthcare clinical operations executive with over 20 years of experience in optimizing patient access, improving patient engagement, and streamlining clinical operations. Throughout her career, Michelle has demonstrated a strong ability to lead cross-functional teams and implement strategic initiatives that enhance the patient experience, increase operational efficiency, and drive sustainable growth.

In her current role as Chief Clinical Access Officer and Associate Vice Chancellor of Access at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Michelle oversees patient access and flow from both the outpatient and inpatient setting, ensuring seamless patient flow and appointment scheduling, reducing wait times, and improving overall patient satisfaction. She has spearheaded innovative solutions that leverage technology to enhance patient communication and engagement, ensuring that patients remain informed, involved, and empowered throughout their healthcare journey.

Michelle is dedicated to driving innovation in healthcare operations and is committed to making quality healthcare more accessible and efficient for all.

Healthcare is drowning in documentation and fragmented data, but what if the system worked for clinicians rather than against them?

In this episode, Dr. Richa Gupta, Vice President of Care Transformation at Ambience Healthcare, explains how Ambience provides a layer of intelligence on top of electronic medical records to optimize clinician workflow and patient interactions. Ambience’s ambient listening system captures physician-patient interactions, supports documentation, and ensures accurate coding and billing, boosting clinician satisfaction and reducing revenue leakage. ROI is driven by high clinician utilization, validated outcomes, and measurable improvements in documentation burden, coding accuracy, and physician retention. In 2026, Ambience is expanding across the full care continuum, including ambulatory, emergency, and inpatient settings, offering a platform that surfaces real-time insights and enhances patient care.

Tune in to hear how Ambience is transforming physician workflows and delivering real ROI across the care continuum. 

About Dr. Richa Gupta:

Dr. Richa Gupta, Vice President of Care Transformation at Ambience Healthcare. Dr. Gupta partners with hospital leaders to apply AI to the most complex clinical and operational challenges in health systems. She brings more than two decades of experience leading projects and teams at large academic medical centers.

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Healthcare technology should quietly remove friction and reduce burden so clinicians can focus on what matters most: caring for patients in a more human way.

In this episode, Lisa Gulker, Chief Nursing Officer at Oracle Health and Life Sciences, discusses how Oracle is rethinking healthcare technology by building AI directly into the foundation of its systems rather than layering it on as an afterthought. She explains how this approach can help clinicians spend less time in the chart, reduce workflow fragmentation, and make technology feel more seamless in the care experience. Lisa also shares how Oracle is applying these capabilities across providers, life sciences, and payers, creating opportunities to accelerate research, improve clinical trial matching, streamline prior authorization, and reduce administrative burden across the ecosystem. Throughout the conversation, she brings a nurse leader’s perspective to a central question in healthcare innovation: how do we use technology to make care feel more human, not less?

Tune in and learn how embedded AI could reshape the healthcare experience for clinicians, staff, researchers, payers, and patients alike. 

About Lisa Gulker:

Lisa Gulker is Chief Nursing Officer at Oracle Health, where she helps bring the voice of clinicians into product strategy, innovation, and healthcare transformation. With a background that spans nursing, informatics, analytics, and clinical operations, she has spent her career helping health systems use technology more effectively to improve care delivery and workforce engagement. Before becoming Chief Nursing Officer, Lisa served as Vice President of Product Management and Strategy at Oracle, and previously held senior leadership roles at Cerner, Tenet Healthcare, and Detroit Medical Center, where she focused on clinical transformation, data stewardship, and value realization. She works closely with executive leaders, data science teams, and engineering groups to align innovation with the realities of care delivery. Lisa holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice from Wayne State University and brings a strong blend of clinical, strategic, and operational expertise to healthcare innovation. 

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As digital change accelerates across healthcare, payors face an urgent need to modernize how they communicate, educate, and engage. The AI-Orchestrated Experiences portfolio from Adobe and IBM represents a new paradigm where data, design, and intelligence work seamlessly together to improve outcomes for every stakeholder.

In this episode of the AI at Health series on The Beat Podcast, host Sandy Vance sits down with Melissa Geissler, Partner for Healthcare and Life Sciences Strategy and Transformation at IBM, and Ted Roman, Healthcare and Life Sciences Digital Strategy Principal at Adobe, to unpack one of the most exciting partnerships in healthcare AI right now. Together, IBM and Adobe are building AI-orchestrated experience solutions that help payers deliver personalized, seamless, and scalable member experiences without the white-glove price tag. From helping members find the right health plan to automating prior authorization and appointment booking, this episode is a must-listen for any payer, provider, or health tech leader who wants to understand where consumer experience in healthcare is headed next. 

Ted Roman, PhD, brings over a decade of expertise in healthcare and life sciences research, management, technology, operations, and digital strategy to Adobe. He is a principal in the Digital Strategy Group, serving organizations globally pursuing more interconnected experiences. Prior to Adobe, Ted served the needs of Highmark Health and McKinsey & Company's clients. He holds a PhD in Computational Biology from the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. He also earned bachelor's degrees in computer science and mathematics from Case Western Reserve University.

Melissa Geissle is a Partner at IBM, leading Public Market activities, where she applies experience strategy and service design to solve complex innovation challenges and leads a diverse team of designers, researchers, analysts, and strategists to help organizations create meaningful stakeholder connections while improving market outcomes. Over two decades, she has partnered with healthcare, life sciences, government, and nonprofit organizations to define and execute digital health initiatives, applying data-driven insights and ecosystem platform capabilities to redefine strategic marketing, service, and digital engagement functions. Melissa holds a BA in Economics from Bates College and an MBA from Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, and has participated in global corporate citizenship initiatives across the UK, South Africa, and Poland.

In this episode of the Cybersecurity at Vibe series on The Beat Podcast, host Sandy Vance sits down with Shreesh Bhattarai, Director of HITRUST at A-LIGN, for a candid and practical conversation about one of the most misunderstood topics in healthcare cybersecurity. With nearly a decade of experience building one of the highest-volume HITRUST assessment practices in the market, Shreesh breaks down the difference between checking a compliance box and actually being secure, walks through the three levels of HITRUST certification, and shares what organizations need to do right now to prepare for an AI-driven future. Whether you are just starting your compliance journey or managing nine certifications with a team of five, this episode has something for you.

Shreesh Bhattarai is Director and HITRUST Practice Lead at A-LIGN, where he works at the intersection of cybersecurity assurance, regulatory pressure, and business growth. Since 2017, he has led more than 500 HITRUST certifications and assessments across healthcare, digital health, and high-growth technology organizations. Shreesh partners directly with CEOs, CISOs, and executive teams navigating increasing scrutiny from regulators, customers, and third parties. He is known for challenging the “check-the-box” compliance mindset and reframing HITRUST as a strategic trust mechanism — one that strengthens security posture, accelerates enterprise sales, and reduces third-party risk friction. He leads a national team of security professionals within A-LIGN’s HITRUST practice and regularly speaks on the evolution of compliance in healthcare at forums including ViVE, Health and HITRUST Collaborate. Prior to A-LIGN, he was part of the audit practice at Ernst & Young, focusing on SOX 404 and SOC engagements.

Consumer healthcare is entering a new phase where patients are no longer just looking for convenience. They are looking for affordability, transparency, and provider relationships that actually feel continuous and personalized.

In this episode, Dr. Myra Ahmad, CEO of Mochi Health, discusses how her company is building a comprehensive care platform that goes well beyond GLP-1s and weight management. She explains how Mochi combines providers, pharmacies, and software infrastructure in a marketplace model that gives patients more treatment visibility, supports tailored care plans, and expands access to affordable medications with or without insurance. Dr. Ahmad also shares why price transparency matters more than ever as more patients move into high-deductible plans, how operational efficiency and AI can help keep care affordable, and why the next chapter of telehealth will belong to solutions that reduce friction while preserving the provider-patient relationship.

Tune in and learn how consumer health platforms can make care more accessible, more transparent, and more aligned with what patients actually want. 

About Myra Ahmad:

Dr. Myra Ahmad is the CEO of Mochi Health, a telehealth and digital care platform focused on delivering personalized, accessible, and affordable care through certified providers. She earned her MD from the University of Washington School of Medicine and holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Wellesley College. Before leading Mochi Health, Dr. Ahmad built a strong background in research through roles at UCSF, the MIT Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, and the MIT Sloan Fellows Program in Innovation and Global Leadership. Her experience spans clinical research, consumer behavior, and healthcare innovation, giving her a multidimensional perspective on how to expand access while improving the patient experience.

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In this episode of the Interop Now at Vibe series on The Beat Podcast, host Sandy Vance sits down with Adam Luff, VP of Product Solutions at Infor, and Jesse Evans, Product Director for Infor FHIR Services, for a deep and practical conversation about why semantic interoperability is the make-or-break factor for AI in healthcare. 

With decades of experience between them, Adam and Jesse explain why organizations that skip the data normalization step are building on a foundation that will eventually collapse. From prior authorization workflows to longitudinal patient records, this episode is essential listening for any healthcare leader who wants to understand what AI-ready infrastructure actually looks like.

Adam Luff has been with Infor for six years and has spent about 20 years in the provider space. Before Infor, he worked at a company that manufactures large MRI and CT machinery. He focuses on business impact with provider organizations.

Jesse Evans has been at Infor for about 10 years, first as a Principal Solutions Architect and now as Product Director for Infor FHIR Services. He has been in the healthcare enterprise industry for about 20 years, with deep expertise in integration engines, interoperability, and FHIR standards.

In this episode, host Sandy Vance sits down with Dan Shur, Chief Product Officer at Carenet Health, to talk about what it really takes to guide patients and members through one of the most frustratingly fragmented systems in the world. With over 30 years in the healthcare industry spanning payers, providers, and health tech & services companies, Dan brings a grounded, pragmatic perspective to the AI conversation. From the myth that everyone wants to talk to a chatbot to the importance of letting humans be human, their conversation is a must-listen for healthcare leaders who want to use AI to drive real outcomes without losing the empathy that puts the “care” in healthcare.

Dan Shur leads product strategy and innovation at Carenet Health, where he helps healthcare organizations use smarter technology to improve outcomes.

With over 30 years in healthcare and health tech, Dan has worked across health plans, provider systems, and startups. He is always focused on turning big ideas into practical solutions. Before Carenet, he founded Aloha Value Advisory, helping early-stage companies find their footing, and previously served as Chief Product Officer at Quantum Health, where he helped scale and modernize the business.

Throughout his career, including roles at Cigna, EmblemHealth, Progyny, Cloudbreak Health, and GuideWell’s Venture Group, Dan has built a reputation for driving innovation that delivers results.