The Next Big Thing in Health

The fear of judgment or disapproval is one of the biggest hurdles people face when seeking mental health and substance use disorder treatment. Highmark Inc., a Blue Cross Blue Shield health and wellness organization, is helping break that stigma with innovative solutions. One of those solutions is a "digital front door," which allows members to interact with their benefits privately, assess their symptoms, and connect with care providers virtually. 

Child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Melissa Perry and Demetrios Marousis, director of behavioral health at Highmark, Inc., join us to share their insights into Highmark's mission and its efforts to address the pressing issues in mental health and substance use disorder treatment through technology, partnerships, and compassionate care.  

Watch to learn about Highmark’s work to improve care for patients who struggle with substance abuse, the challenges of care delivery, the importance of health care literacy, and why they think technology is the biggest opportunity in health care.

What if doctors could think like designers? Can that change the way we deliver health care services in terms of products, services, and spaces? Long before he joined the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), Dr. Bon Ku was an expert in health care design, combining creativity with scientific rigor and advocating for doctors to think like designers. 

At ARPA-H, a new federal agency aimed at pioneering ambitious health care initiatives, Dr. Ku is focused on addressing the crisis in rural health care through the PARADIGM program. The goal is to deliver advanced hospital-level care to every rural county in the United States by shifting from traditional hospital settings to advanced mobile health unit vehicles.   

Watch to learn more about the PARADIGM program and challenges in rural health care, Dr. Ku’s philosophy on health care design, and how health insurance plans and providers can collaborate to improve technology, communication, and access.

For more than 80 years, The Ad Council has addressed significant social issues in the United States through powerful communication strategies. From Smokey Bear to “Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk,” the Ad Council has brought together marketers, advertisers, nonprofits, and government agencies to address critical social issues. 

The nonprofit organization is also focused on mental health, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and existing social inequities. Anthony Signorelli, head of corporate partnerships at The Ad Council, joins us to share insights from the group’s various mental health initiatives, such as Seize the Awkward, which addresses youth suicide prevention, and Sound It Out, which helps parents talk to middle-schoolers about mental health. 

Watch to learn more about The Ad Council’s approach to mental health partnerships, including significant findings from recent campaigns, the cultural barriers that still exist when it comes to getting support, and the importance of changing the narrative around mental health.  

Check out the initiatives from the episode: 

https://seizetheawkward.org/ 

https://sounditouttogether.org/  

https://loveyourmindtoday.org/

The mission for America’s Physician Groups (APG) is “taking responsibility for America’s health.” Not only is APG’s mission bold and aspirational, but so is APG President and CEO, Susan Dentzer.  

One of the nation’s most respected health policy thought leaders and journalists, and a frequent speaker and commentator on television and radio, Dentzer joins us to talk about her work and APG’s commitment to value-based care. The organization advocates for patient-centered, coordinated, integrated health care, as well as the collaboration between physicians and health insurance providers.  

Watch to learn how accountability in terms of cost and quality is important to APG’s physician members, how Dentzer and her team use video to communicate the importance of value-based care, and why the next big thing in health is using technology to eliminate waste in the system.   

Check out APG’s “The Value of Value-Based Health Care” video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzzPES9kCGw.

As a major player within the health care system, health insurance plans are uniquely positioned to advance health equity in terms of how we design and pay for the benefits that bring better health and wellness care to everyone — no matter who you are, or where you live.

LaShawn McIver, MD, MPH, AHIP’s senior vice president and chief health equity officer returns to the show and is joined by Pleasant Radford Jr., UCare’s inaugural health equity officer, to discuss the role health insurance plans play in advancing health equity, the importance of data collection, community engagement, and policy advocacy, and how to create systemic change to address health disparities.

Listen in for their thoughts on the importance of personalizing the work, being empathetic, and taking collective responsibility for advancing health equity. 

New York is the largest city in the United States – and no borough, neighborhood, or community is quite the same. The city and its diverse populations need tailored, hyperlocal, hyper-focused health coverage designed for them – a challenge for which MetroPlusHealth has risen to the occasion. 

The mission goes beyond offering every New Yorker equitable access to quality health care, says President & CEO Dr. Talya Schwartz. It also includes finding innovative, compassionate ways to take on the city’s most complex health challenges and addressing physical and social barriers to health care, such as homelessness and mental health.  

Listen in for an insightful conversation on MetroPlusHealth's unique provider-owned model, focused on seamless integration and proactive care, and how Dr. Schwartz and her team are ensuring dignified access to quality health care.

Host Robert Traynham sits down with Matt Salo, founder & CEO of Salo Health Strategies, for a candid conversation on how collaboration among Medicaid, AHIP, and health insurance providers is improving health care outcomes and access — and ensuring that the program is effective, affordable, and accountable.

What will it take to make health care more integrated, accessible, and patient centric? It starts with collaboration, innovation, and technology, says AHIP President and CEO Mike Tuffin and Pat Geraghty, chair of the AHIP Board of Directors and president and CEO of GuideWell and Florida Blue.  

Tuffin and Geraghty sat down with us to talk candidly about their responsibility to deliver the best, most convenient, and most affordable care and coverage to the people they serve. They also opined on what keeps them up at night — and shared a rare peek from the C-suite on the amazing things that happen when health insurance providers come together at AHIP to drive change, employing the most promising tools and tech on the market for delivering top-notch care in our country. 

Listen in for their thoughts on the next steps in health care transformation.

How do we think about the mind in relationship to the body, our environment, and those around us? And how can we make sure the people who need support — particularly when it's focused on mental health — are able to get the care they need?  

Eva Borden is the president of behavioral health for Evernorth, the health services business for Cigna Corporation. We sat down with Borden for an illuminating discussion on how to break down silos, de-stigmatize conversations around mental health needs and solutions, and how major companies are making a difference in access and affordability.  

Listen in to discover how Evernorth is integrating mental health and medical health services for better health care solutions.

There have never been so many pathways to getting quality health care — but barriers still exist. Disparities are real for many people, including those in racial and ethnic minorities, less privileged socioeconomic communities, and underserved rural populations.  

Pooja Mittal, DO, chief health equity officer for Health Net, joined Conversations in Care host Robert Traynham for a conversation about health equity and Health Net’s work, including a first-of-its-kind health improvement project in Los Angeles County, California, that provides doulas for Black women through a community-based partnership.  

Hear more of Dr. Mittal’s thoughts on how to improve health equity, the power of community partnerships in addressing social determinants of health, and the importance of building relationships and connecting with the community.