Working Healthcare

In this Working Healthcare episode, Meredith Hirsh teams up with Ginger Allen, a powerhouse leader redefining physician advocacy, healthcare leadership and medical alliances. Together they flip advocacy from afterthought to engine as Ginger declares 2026 the year clinicians stop burning out and start owning the business of medicine. Forget the 1926 “doctor’s wife” — Ginger is a career-minded builder rebooting state medical alliances with real programs for real dual-career families. She breaks down how state and national alliances divide the work, turn relationships into results and back local wins with dollars and data. Expect a blunt playbook on growing membership with purpose, courting sponsors without selling out and giving $500 to your PAC—because a seat at the table beats being on the menu. If you’re a healthcare professional, physician leader or policy advocate, this episode is your blueprint to move policy faster and reclaim power in modern medicine. Girl Power!

Contact Meredith:
Website: meredithhirsh.com
Instagram: @workinghealthcare
Facebook: WorkingHealthcare
LinkedIn: @meredithfhirsh
YouTube: @WorkingHealthcare

Start fixing claim denials now on Working Healthcare as Meredith Hirsh presses Corey Feldman to show how they choke care and crush margins. After a medical billing nightmare left his family with nearly $1 million in charges, this solutions-driven entrepreneur and podcaster founded Protego Health and built AI workflows that help billing teams prevent denials and win appeals. Corey opens the payment integrity black box and pinpoints where insurers exploit process gaps. Use his tactics to tighten documentation, speed appeals and turn more claims into payments. Fix the process!

Contact Meredith:
Website: meredithhirsh.com
Instagram: @workinghealthcare
Facebook: WorkingHealthcare
LinkedIn: @meredithfhirsh
YouTube: @WorkingHealthcare

Medicare Open Enrollment runs October 15 to December 7, and this episode sprints past the hype to arm you with clear, actionable guidance on Medicare Advantage. Listen to the latest Working Healthcare episode when Meredith Hirsh sits down with fierce patient advocate and practice administrator Jaime Fiore to dissect glossy extras, narrow networks and the real-world grind of prior authorization denials that can delay drugs, derail surgeries and drain patience. We compare “free” vision and dental promises with the realities of formularies, risk scores and midyear plan changes, then map out what to do if you picked the wrong plan and how switching to Medigap really works. You’ll hear vivid exam-room stories, a one-minute policy fix wish list and a practical script for choosing Traditional Medicare when that’s the safer path. Whether you’re enrolling for yourself, guiding patients or helping someone you love, this fast, frank rundown helps you prepare questions for brokers, push back on denials and avoid costly surprises. Tune in for a smart checklist of must-ask questions, a lightning round that demystifies jargon and a pep talk that restores your confidence during the most marketed season in health care. Get ready to compare coverage with eyes wide open so you can pick a plan that protects healthcare care when it counts.

Contact Meredith:
Website: meredithhirsh.com
Instagram: @workinghealthcare
Facebook: WorkingHealthcare
LinkedIn: @meredithfhirsh
YouTube: @WorkingHealthcare

Grab a coffee or tequila, whichever suits your mood and the time of day, to join Working Healthcare host Meredith Hirsh in a sit-down interview with Memorial Regional Healthcare vascular surgeon and longtime leader in organized medicine, Dr. Arthur Palamara. The episode starts where we typically finish, posing our final question: If you could create one change in our American healthcare system, what would it be? We unpack how prior authorizations, narrow networks, step therapy and portal ping-pong drain time and delay care. Arthur traces what has shifted across five decades, from simpler benefits to today’s dense playbook, and names practical fixes he’d implement tomorrow, including smarter oversight and less punitive red tape. Arthur bestows his knowledge about Florida Blue and how it impacts patients and physicians. From Medicare Advantage’s growing footprint to the paperwork headache that keeps surgeons up late, we press for one change patients would feel right away. Be inspired!

Contact Meredith:
Website: meredithhirsh.com
Instagram: @workinghealthcare
Facebook: WorkingHealthcare
LinkedIn: @meredithfhirsh
YouTube: @WorkingHealthcare

Join Working Healthcare host Meredith Hirsh for a high-velocity conversation with Elizabeth Chabe, CEO of High Touch Group and author of The Giant’s Ladder. With venture capital cooling and NIH funding uncertain, the episode maps how life sciences and diagnostics startups prove value fast without burning cash. Elizabeth breaks down the rare disease diagnostic odyssey and argues for incentives that reward earlier, accurate detection. You’ll get pragmatic go-to-market tactics for regulated launches—what evidence to build first, where to find real partners and how to earn a hospital pilot. Because investors need guardrails, the discussion lays out due diligence questions to fund genuine breakthroughs instead of the next Theranos. Along the way, the conversation navigates science storytelling mistakes, physician-founder paths and budget-smart ways to keep timelines realistic. Cue this episode to learn how to craft credible stories, win smart capital and bring trustworthy diagnostics to patients faster. Be innovative!

Contact Meredith:
Website: meredithhirsh.com
Instagram: @workinghealthcare
Facebook: WorkingHealthcare
LinkedIn: @meredithfhirsh
YouTube: @WorkingHealthcare

Step into a candid conversation with Working Healthcare host Meredith Hirsh and Florida Atlantic University College of Medicine Professor and Chair Dr. Allison Ferris.  From swelling Match classes to record debt, this episode asks whether a bigger training pipeline means truly practice-ready physicians. Should elite undergrads chase finance while medicine loses talent, or are admissions still rewarding the right qualities to shape tomorrow’s internists? Allison digs into moonlighting realities, six-figure loans and how those pressures steer specialties, training and well-being. Get practical advice from a residency program director on what predicts readiness, how to teach differently and whether July is really as risky as the jokes suggest. Press play to learn what it will take to graduate doctors who are ready on day one. Scrub in and listen! 

Contact Meredith:
Website: meredithhirsh.com
Instagram: @workinghealthcare
Facebook: WorkingHealthcare
LinkedIn: @meredithfhirsh
YouTube: @WorkingHealthcare

Press play as Jon Hickman tells Working Healthcare host Meredith Hirsh how juggling school and college athletics forged his leadership style. Follow Jon's path from all-conference track and field star and college football player to a 16-year career at Walgreens, where he built a foundation in patient care and executive management. Jon’s willingness to always raise his hand for new opportunities propelled him into Big Pharma, with impactful roles at AstraZeneca and now Genentech. Hear his perspective on why Genentech stands out in supporting uninsured and underinsured patients, challenging the common narrative around pharmaceutical companies. Explore timely issues like 340B pricing, the urgent need for PBM reform, and how pharmacy services can expand to better serve diverse communities. Gain insight into the crucial work of the Board of Pharmacy, where Jon helps shape regulatory policy as one of nine key decision-makers. Join us as we celebrate the lessons of team sports, the passion behind pharmacy careers and the bold actions driving healthcare forward. Kick off now!

While Jon Hickman is on the Florida Board of Pharmacy and employed by a pharmaceutical company, the opinions expressed in this episode are his own.

Contact Meredith:
Website: meredithhirsh.com
Instagram: @workinghealthcare
Facebook: WorkingHealthcare
LinkedIn: @meredithfhirsh
YouTube: @WorkingHealthcare

Get the inside story as Meredith Hirsh sits down one-on-one with Fran Nachlas, a surgical nurse turned Boca Raton deputy mayor and current mayoral candidate, to explore how local leadership drives community health. Drawing on nearly 30 years in operating rooms, first on the floor then in leadership, Fran brings an outcome-first approach to city problem solving. She brings relentless energy, from seven Boston Marathons and three Ironman finishes to riding all 84 miles of Boca Raton’s bike map to engage residents block by block. Together they connect city decisions to public health, including clean water, storm preparation, EMS response times, parks and safe streets, protected bike lanes, zoning that welcomes clinics and life science jobs, and housing that lets caregivers live near the people they serve. If you care about how government meets real life, this conversation is for you. This is our moment! 

Contact Meredith:
Website: meredithhirsh.com
Instagram: @workinghealthcare
Facebook: WorkingHealthcare
LinkedIn: @meredithfhirsh
YouTube: @WorkingHealthcare

Join Working Healthcare’s Meredith Hirsh and Mike Chavez as they confront the drastic drop in physician-owned practices and the consolidation that drives costs higher. Meet revenue-cycle rebel Preston Alexander, founder of Forward Slash / Health and author of the “Healthcare Breakdown” newsletter, who dubs himself the “Taylor Swift of LinkedIn healthcare writing.” He argues progress comes from three bold levers: legislation; direct-pay and membership models that bypass middlemen. Preston hammers succession planning, warning that without affordable junior partner buy-ins, independence dies with founders. Meredith and Mike press on practical education, asking where the business of medicine fits in packed curricula and how to track the earliest cash-flow vital signs before a clinic suffocates. Find out which specialty is at the lowest percentage and which reigns the ruler of independent medicine and why. What are the first questions to ask when private equity flashes a fat check. Listen, question and act to reclaim the craft of medicine.

Contact Meredith:
Website: meredithhirsh.com
Instagram: @workinghealthcare
Facebook: WorkingHealthcare
LinkedIn: @meredithfhirsh
YouTube: @WorkingHealthcare

Hit play to hear how a rock-and-roll project manager became the founder trying to fix everyday healthcare chaos. Join Working Healthcare’s Meredith Hirsh as Steve Lewis recounts Bowe’s premature arrival at 34 weeks and the binder that sparked Nabu, a patient-controlled record built to unite scattered data. We dig into why 80% of information is forgotten between the exam room and the parking lot and how that fog fuels 1.5 million ER visits a year for medication-related injuries. Steve explains how Nabu’s early pilots in Australia help families coordinate care across clinicians, crises and borders while keeping privacy at the center. You’ll also hear why he believes American incentives still power health care innovation and where AI can finally connect the dots for caregivers who spend endless hours a week coordinating care and say paperwork and portal hopping is their top stressor. From working with entertainment legends Aerosmith, Lenny Kravitz and Tony Hawk to building tools for patients and parents, Steve brings candid lessons, setbacks and hope. Take action for the people you care for—listen, learn and share this Working Healthcare episode.

Contact Meredith:
Website: meredithhirsh.com
Instagram: @workinghealthcare
Facebook: WorkingHealthcare
LinkedIn: @meredithfhirsh
YouTube: @WorkingHealthcare