The Collective Voice of Health IT, A WEDI Podcast

Provider leaders Michael Marchant (Sutter Health) and Michael Westover (Providence Health) share their real-world experiences implementing HL7 Da Vinci standards referenced in CMS-0057-F Final Rule and the impact these efforts are having on prior authorization workflows, interoperability, and value-based care. The discussion explores the challenges, lessons learned, and benefits of payer-provider collaboration to enable more efficient, real-time data exchange and improve the healthcare experience for all stakeholders.

From WEDI’s Spring Conference, Amy Gleason (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) and Ryan Howells (CARIN Alliance, Leavitt Partners) explore the vision behind the CMS Health Tech Ecosystem and its potential to transform how health data is accessed, exchanged, and used across the healthcare system. The discussion examines the value this approach could deliver for patients, providers, and innovators, while also highlighting how industry stakeholders can help build a more connected, interoperable, and consumer-centered digital health landscape.

Traditionally, Medicare-focused accountable care organizations (ACOs) and long-term care have struggled to align—leaving many facilities and residents without access to the benefits of value-based care.

In this episode, Mike Camacho of Sound Long-Term Care Management shares how his team is changing that—saving nearly $114 million for Medicare while reducing emergency department visits and hospitalizations. The conversation highlights how data-driven support, scalable care coordination, and provider engagement are making accountable care viable in residential settings—and what it will take to expand these models as the population ages.

Healthcare AI has a trust problem—but not the one most people are talking about. Many AI-enabled clinical products lack a structured, validated clinical knowledge layer, leading to outputs that drift and can’t be reliably trusted or acted on. In this episode, David Lareau, President and CEO of Medicomp Systems, explores the rise of deterministic AI and why it’s becoming essential infrastructure for healthcare innovation.

The conversation covers what’s missing in today’s AI stack, how a clinical knowledge layer enables more consistent and explainable results, and what leaders should look for when evaluating AI solutions.

As interoperability matures, the industry is shifting focus from connectivity to usability—ensuring data can move seamlessly across networks and support real-time decision-making. In this episode, Michael chats with Audacious Inquiry's Greg Farnum as he shares insights on the challenges and opportunities ahead, including the role of national frameworks like TEFCA, the importance of network-to-network exchange, and what success looks like in achieving truly actionable data.

Melissa Ursi, CEO and co-founder of Quoris, joins Michael to discuss how health systems can better navigate implementations, optimization, and workforce challenges. Drawing on experience across more than 100 organizations, she shares key lessons, common pitfalls, and strategies for building sustainable teams and maximizing technology investments.

In this episode, from a recently concluded WEDI virtual spotlight, industry leaders share a real-time look at CMS-0057F implementation testing, exploring where organizations stand today and the gap between technical conformance and real-world workflow readiness. The discussion highlights key challenges in scaling across trading partners, integrating prior authorization into clinical workflows, and what organizations must prioritize now to prepare for broader adoption.

Participants:

In this episode, Brian Robertson, Founder and CEO of VisiQuate, discusses why many healthcare organizations struggle to turn data into meaningful action and how to bridge the gap between analytics and real-world impact. He also shares insights on revenue cycle optimization, the realities of AI in healthcare, and what it takes to align data, operations, and strategy for better decision-making.

From the recently concluded Winter Forum, Michael is joined by Adam Harrison, Chief Business Development Officer at Manifest MedEx, and Dan Chavez, Executive Director of the Serving Communities Health Information Organization (SCHIO), to discuss their organizations’ new strategic affiliation and what it means for the future of data sharing in California.

Together, they explore how SCHIO and Manifest MedEx are building a more connected, person-centered data ecosystem—integrating clinical, behavioral, social, and claims data to support whole-person care. The conversation highlights the real-world impact on communities across Santa Cruz, the Bay Area, and beyond, including improved care coordination, greater health equity, and a more seamless patient experience.

From WEDI’s 2026 Winter Forum, Michael concludes this 2-part episode on how access APIs are improving the patient experience by making data easier to access, use, and share across care journeys.