Medicare pays for activities, not outcomes. Jacob Shiff wants to change that. As chief AI and technology officer at the CMS Innovation Center, the R&D arm of Medicare and Medicaid, he helps direct an agency that he says spends roughly $2 trillion a year without the health outcomes to show for it. His answer is ACCESS, short for Advancing Chronic Care with Effective, Scalable Solutions, a new payment model that pays clinical organizations based on whether patients actually get better, measured by things like blood pressure, A1c, and depression symptoms.
Brenton and Jacob first met a decade ago at Flatiron Health, before Jacob founded a healthcare AI company and then went to work in government. Brenton and Galym ask what changes for a patient on Medicare, why fee for service often breaks down when software is the treatment, and whether an AI agent titrating blood pressure medication can be trusted.
Chapters:
0:00 Welcome to Venture Doctors
0:47 Introducing Jacob Shiff
1:25 Jacob Shiff's Path from Founder to the Government
3:29 The Listening Tour
7:51 The Access Model and How It Works For Patients
15:40 Expanding Beyond Medicare
19:17 AI Regulation and The Tempo Pilot
23:18 Government Service and Startup Speed At Scale
26:14 Advice for Founders Working with the Government
27:24 Underhyped Opportunities In AI And Healthcare
28:45 A Belief Most People Disagree With
29:57 What Jacob Is Digging Into Next
Stay in touch:
Web: www.lsvp.com
X: / lightspeedvp
LinkedIn: / lightspeed-venture-partners
Instagram: / lightspeedventurepartners
The content here does not constitute tax, legal, business or investment advice or an offer to provide such advice, should not be construed as advocating the purchase or sale of any security or investment or a recommendation of any company, and is not an offer, or solicitation of an offer, for the purchase or sale of any security or investment product. The views expressed by our guests do not necessarily represent the views of Lightspeed. For more details please see lsvp.com/legal.