Tuning In to The C-Suite

Managing Editor of Managed Healthcare Executive, Peter Wehrwein, had a discussion with William Shrank, M.D., a venture partner with Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm in Menlo Park, California, about how artificial intelligence's role is improving healthcare, where we are today with value-based care and the ongoing efforts of reducing waste in the healthcare space for this episode of the "What's on Your Mind" podcast series.

Shrank, a member of MHE's Editorial Advisory Board, also shared what has been "on his mind" as of late with Wehrwein. A topic that has been of focus includes personalized care and how it can result to better outcomes for that patient.

"We spend a lot of time thinking at a high level about how to optimize a health system, how to make sure patients have access to therapies and treatments and providers," Shrank said. "But the critical feature to anyone's health really has to do with 'what motivates them', 'what they get out of bed to focus on', what they want to be able to do that day, that week, that month, that year with their parents, their family, their children."
 
He added the barriers to health often aren't the issues that the healthcare system are focused on. 

"There's a whole host of things that impact one's ability to achieve their best health," Shrank said. "Trying to make sure we have a health system and a way of delivering care that really meets people where they are and understands what their motivations are, what means the most to them, what challenges they face, is the job of a really effective healthcare system."

Managed Healthcare Executive's Managing Editor Peter Wehrwein, and Editor Briana Contreras, had a discussion in July with Mostafa Kamal, president and CEO of Prime Therapeutics, an organization in which Kamal acquired this position in July 2023. Kamal addressed his newer role, plans for Prime, the company’s more recent acquisitions and previous partnerships and some of his thoughts on the multimillion gene therapies and price transparency from a PBM perspective. 

In this month’s episode, Briana Contreras, an editor of Managed Healthcare Executive, had the pleasure of catching up with MHE Editorial Advisory Board Member, Ateev Mehrotra, who is a professor of healthcare policy at Harvard Medical School and an Associate Professor of Medicine and Hospitalist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. What’s been on Ateev’s mind or has been a focus, lately, are most things in the digital health and telehealth space, as well as practice licensure in the U.S. Among many topics discussed in the conversation, Ateev shared his thoughts on the push for better virtual visit opportunities and the fact that insurers are now offering virtual first health plans with lower premiums.  

Welcome back to another episode of "Tuning In to the C-Suite," where Briana Contreras, an editor of Managed Healthcare Executive, had the pleasure of chatting with Cindy Gaines, chief clinical transformation officer at Lumeon. In the conversation the two mainly addressed how automation is filling in the gaps electronic health records are not able to meet and how these gaps are affecting staff, increased costs, workflows and more. 

Briana Contreras, an editor of Managed Healthcare Executive, spoke with Brian Adams, President and CEO of Tabula Rasa HealthCare, in this month's episode of Tuning In to the C-Suite podcast. In the episode, Brian and Briana got to chatting about value-based care and why the transition to this type of model has been slower than expected for some practices to adopt. Most of the discussion focused on Brian’s suggestion of simplifying and personalizing value-based care models to improve health outcomes for patients and reduce costs for organizations who’ve adopted these models.

In this episode, Briana Contreras, an editor with Managed Healthcare Executive, and Peter Wehrwein, managing editor of MHE, got to chatting with the newest editorial advisory board member, Jeffrey Casberg, who is vice president of Clinical Pharmacy at IPD Analytics. 

In the discussion, Casberg shared the most pressing or prominent issues on his mind, he explained what the drug life-cycle is at IPD, and what the latest is on drugs in the pipeline. Casberg also shared his predictions for Sarepta Therapeutics’ DMD drug for young children and Mounjaro’s Type 2 Diabetes Drug, and even touched on some common misconceptions he notices about drug approvals, pricing and cost.

Briana Contreras, an editor of Managed Healthcare Executive, spoke with Leah Dewey, vice president of clinical and consumer engagement operations at Cotiviti, in this month’s podcast episode. In our discussion, Leah talked about what she’s seeing as the process of Medicaid Redetermination is well underway and some of the issues affecting consumers, as many are at risk of losing coverage. Leah also shared best practices for health plans when reaching out to consumers and ways to keep members informed and engaged in the redetermination process.  

This month’s episode of the "What's On Your Mind" podcast series features President and CEO of CareOregon, Eric Hunter. MHE Managing Editor, Peter Wehrwein, and Editor, Briana Contreras, picked Hunter's brain to see what’s in fact on his mind when it comes to healthcare. Throughout the discussion, the MHE editors got an idea of enrollment or how Medicaid redetermination is going for CareOregon, and were even able to take a deeper look at the collaboration or “combination” underway between SCAN Health and CareOrgeon.

This month's episode of Tuning In to the C-Suite features Erica Jain, CEO & co-founder of digital health company, Healthie. In this discussion, Jain shared some of the challenges or things to avoid when creating a digital health startup, based on her journey with starting Healthie in 2016. She also addressed some best practices and tools that can help those working toward a digital health startup.

In this month’s episode of the "What's On Your Mind podcast," Peter Wehrwein, managing editor of MHE connects with the now Chief Clinical Officer of OptumRx Integrated Pharmacies, David Calabrese. In this conversation, David touches on his transition in January as OptumRx’s former chief pharmacy officer and market president of health plans and PBMs to his new role as Chief Clinical Officer where he now focuses more on things such as specialty pharmacy to home delivery — with an overall goal of creating whole-patient care. Throughout the conversation Calabrese also touched on the market’s hot topic of insulin prices and behavioral health services within the OptumRx community, among other topics.