The Collective Voice of Health IT, A WEDI Podcast

From WEDI’s 2026 Winter Forum, Michael chats with three payer representatives who discuss how access APIs are improving the patient experience by making data easier to access, use, and share across care journeys.

Michael is joined by Erin Richter Weber (Chief Policy & Research Officer) and Kristine Burnaska, PhD (Sr. Director, Insights Research and Measurement) from CAQH to unpack the 2025 CAQH Index Report, exploring where administrative simplification is delivering real results, where inefficiencies persist, and what the data signals for payers, providers, and health IT leaders. Erin and Kristine also introduce CAQH's Index Pro tool, an interactive analytics platform that turns Index data into personalized business intelligence.

Part 2 of a 2-part episode on Information Blocking

From a December 2025 WEDI virtual spotlight, a panel of health IT leaders break down the current state and the future of regarding information blocking, and how organizations can stay compliant while moving interoperability forward.

The panel:

The moderator is Jeff Coughlin, Director, Federal Affairs, American Medical Association

This is a 2-part episode:

From a December 2025 WEDI virtual spotlight, a panel of health IT leaders break down the current state and the future of regarding information blocking, and how organizations can stay compliant while moving interoperability forward.

The panel:

The moderator is Jeff Coughlin, Director, Federal Affairs, American Medical Association

Michael Lunzer , Founder and CEO of Itiliti Health visits the podcast to break down the real-world impact of CMS-0057, the challenges of turning interoperability policy into practice, and where healthcare organizations can unlock value beyond compliance—today and in the years ahead

From WEDI’s 2025 National Conference and moderated by Sequoia Project’s Zoe Barber, leaders from Epic, eHealth Exchange, and KONZA discuss their progress as designated QHINs, highlighting key milestones, lessons learned, and the real-world challenges of standing up TEFCA infrastructure. The conversation explores operational realities such as onboarding, identity management, and governance, along with the tangible value participants are beginning to see from nationwide exchange. The panel also shares current and emerging TEFCA use cases and looks ahead to the policy and technical advancements needed to scale adoption and fully realize the promise of interoperable, trusted data exchange.

Participants:

From WEDI's 2025 National Conference, Beth Davis from Veradigm Payerpath moderates a discussion on the role of intermediaries in CMS-0057F. The participants:

Happy New Year from WEDI!

Michael offers some quick bites from our top 3 most downloaded episodes of 2025:

#3: Rethinking Value-Based Care: Why Children Can't Be Left Behind (Taylor Beery, Imagine Pediatrics, Ep 219)

#2: Electronic Health Records- An Integral Partner in Health Care Accessibility (Prerana Laddha, Epic, Ep 189)

#1: Bridging the Data Gap- The Role of Standards & Technology in Genomic Data Exchange (Dr Sandy Rolfe, Optum, Ep 188).

Be sure to listen to these episodes in their entirety by visiting our podcast page, www.wedi.org/category/podcasts

In this episode (from our National Conference), moderated by WEDI Chair Merri-Lee Stine (Aetna) and featuring Steve Berkow (InterSystems), Anna Taylor (MultiCare), and Stephan Rubin (Optum), we dive into the real-world state of CMS 0057 implementation, bringing together perspectives from payers, vendors, providers, and the HL7 Da Vinci implementer community. Our guests unpack where progress is being made, where complexity has crept in, and why testing, trust, and simplicity are critical to success. From navigating multiple players and messy real-world data to lessons learned from incremental implementation, the conversation highlights practical solutions that can move the industry forward. We close with a look ahead to 2026 and what the 0057 landscape—and broader interoperability environment—may look like as policy, technology, and collaboration continue to evolve.

This episode, from our November National Conference, explores one of healthcare’s most persistent challenges: how hospitals and health plans can move from operating at cross-purposes to truly rowing in the same direction. Our guests are Danielle Lloyd, SVP of Private Market Innovations and Quality Initiatives, AHIP and Molly Smith, Group VP for Public Policy, American Hospital Association.

Led by moderator Stephan Rubin from Optum, Danielle and Molly dig into the misconceptions that providers and payers often hold about each other and discuss how better data transparency, shared incentives, and policy alignment — including recent CMS rules such as 0057F — can help bridge long-standing divides. The 3 examine the future of prior authorization, the promise and limits of interoperability initiatives like TEFCA and the CMS Aligned Network, and why value-based care still struggles to scale despite years of policy focus. Finally, they look ahead to the role of AI, automation, and emerging data standards in reshaping care delivery and payment, and ask what real payer-provider collaboration must look like to deliver a more seamless, efficient, and patient-centered healthcare system.