Government Policy: Recent Episodes

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Host: Charles Turck, PharmD, BCPS, BCCCP

Guest: A. Mark Fendrick, MD

With the relaunch of the Cancer Moonshot initiative, implementing strategies to overcome disparities in cancer screening is critical to reducing the rate of cancer mortality. Dr. Charles Turck joins Dr. Mark Fendrick to explore these disparities, and discuss the role of multicancer detection tests.

Host: Jacob Sands, MD

Guest: Edith Mitchell, MD, MACP, FCPP, FRCP

Appointed member to the President's Cancer Panel and Clinical Professor of Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University, Dr. Edith Mitchell, shares what the panel recommends to close gaps in cancer screening in the U.S.—with a focus on colorectal cancer—to improve access for all patients.

Host: Charles Turck, PharmD, BCPS, BCCCP

Guest: Emily Carroll, JD, MSW

The No Surprises Act aims to protect consumers from surprise medical bills. But how exactly does it go about doing that, and what’s the current status of its implementation? Joining Dr. Charles Turck to share progress and challenges associated with the No Surprises Act is Ms. Emily Carroll, a senior legislative attorney for the American Medical Association's Advocacy Resource Center.

Host: Charles Turck, PharmD, BCPS, BCCCP

Guest: Emily Carroll, JD, MSW

Guest: Heather McComas, PharmD

Guest: Chris Sherin

The prior authorization cost control process can be a burden on clinicians and lead to delayed treatment for patients. But the AMA’s recent advocacy efforts may help reform the process. Dr. Charles Turck meets with Emily Carroll, Heather McComas, and Chris Sherin to dive into these reforms and their impact at the state and federal levels.

Host: Charles Turck, PharmD, BCPS, BCCCP

To give us a better look into how counties and cities across the nation are reacting to the racial disparities in healthcare that were brought into the limelight by the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Charles Turck reviews the declaration made by officials in Ohio’s most populated county that racism is a public health crisis.

Host: Joshua Sharfstein, MD

Guest: Lainie Rutkow, PhD, JD

There have been varying responses to COVID-19 carried out across local, state, and federal governments in the US. But what powers does the government have at various levels in a pandemic and how does the law work when an enemy like COVID-19 “does not respect jurisdictional boundaries?” Law expert and Hopkins professor Dr. Lainie Rutkow talks to Dr. Josh Sharfstein about a range of legal issues, including what happens if states start suing each other.

Published April 8, 2020

Host: Linda Bernstein, Pharm.D.

Join pharmacist Dr. Linda Bernstein as she reviews the Drug Enforcement Administration’s recent proposals to improve the organization’s ability to oversee the production of opioids and further limit excess quantities of the medications that might be vulnerable to diversion for illicit distribution and use.

Host: Linda Bernstein, Pharm.D.

There are currently four gene therapy products approved by the FDA, and with the FDA anticipating that there will be many more approvals in the future, how can they continue advancing the field of gene therapy all while ensuring that these innovative products meet their strict standards for safety and effectiveness? Pharmacist Dr. Linda Bernstein breaks down their six new guidance documents.

Host: Linda Bernstein, Pharm.D.

As the number of novel coronavirus cases continue to rise on a national and global scale, how is the FDA responding? Pharmacist Dr. Linda Bernstein provides an overview of the FDA’s action plan with the overall goal of collaborating with interagency and international partners, product developers, and global regulators to speed up the development and availability of medical products needed to diagnose, treat, mitigate, and prevent such outbreaks.

Published March 27, 2020

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

Guest: Asim A. Shah, MD

Healthcare reform has become a leading debate in the media, with supporters of single payer systems touting projections of quality improvements and cost savings alongside other benefits. But what are some of the drawbacks of a one-size-fits-all? That’s the question psychiatrist Dr. Asim Shah addressed in a recent op-ed article from the Houston Chronicle he co-authored.

Host: Mario R. Nacinovich, Jr., MSc

Guest: Jodi L. Liu

Terms like single-payer, universal coverage, and Medicare for All often land at the center of political discussions andat times, get used interchangeably. But as Dr. Jodi Liu, Professor and Associate Policy Researcher at the Pardee RAND Graduate School, explains, these terms can carry different meanings, expectations, and projected impacts on healthcare systems.

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

Guest: David Himmelstein, MD

The subject of single-payer healthcare is at the forefront of practically every political discussion and debate. Providing unique perspectives on its strengths and setbacks is nationally-renowned advocate Dr. David Himmelstein.

Host: Mario R. Nacinovich, Jr., MSc

Guest: Michael Sparer, JD, PhD

How do we define single-payer healthcare at the national and state levels, respectively, and is either model even realistic for large scale implementation? Dr. Maichael Sparer, Professor and Chair in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Mailman School of Public Health, joins Mario Nacinovich to shed light on this topic.

Host: Mario R. Nacinovich, Jr., MSc

Guest: Liz Hamel

How has public opinion on the idea of a national single-payer healthcare model changed since the late 1990s? Liz Hamel, Vice President and Director of Public Opinion and Survey Research at the Kaiser Family Foundation is here to answer that exact question, as well as reveal the factors, like political party identification and word choice, that affect outlooks toward this type of healthcare model.

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

Guest: Kenneth Thorpe, PhD

In today’s polarized political climate, the road toward greater healthcare access, delivery, and cost coverage is still highly uncertain. So to help shed light on some of the merits and challenges of a single-payer model, Dr. Matt Birnholz sits down with Dr. Kenneth Thorpe, the Robert W. Woodruff Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management in the Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University.

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

Guest: Barbara A. McAneny, MD

There were a lot of changes made to the 2019 Medicare payment policies. Here to review what these updates mean—and what’s being done in response to them—is Dr. Barbara McAneny, President of the AMA.

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

Guest: Carol Vargo, MHS

Amid all the changes to quality reporting under MIPS, many hospital-based physicians are unsure about what effects, if any, there will be to their employment and compensation. Luckily, there are experts to help break down everything from performance-based changes to compensation accuracy, and providing a how-to guide for navigating the Quality Payment Program in the hospital setting is Carol Vargo, Director of Physician Practice Sustainability at the AMA.

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

Even though more and more physicians are becoming aware of the option to participate in the Quality Payment Program as a virtual group, many still may not have all the details needed to decide whether this is right for them—or how they can even go about joining one. To help clarify the confusion, Dr. Matt Birnholz is joined by Ashley McGlone, Washington Counsel for the AMA.

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

Alternative Payment Models, or APMs, were introduced as a way to reduce costs and improve patient care, but physicians have been slow to adopt this model. To address this issue, Dr. Matt Birnholz connects with Harold Miller, President and CEO of the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, who provides the details that physicians need to know regarding APMs and why Physician-Focused Payment Models could be the solution.

Host: Shira Johnson, MD

Guest: Laura Hoffman

Guest: Matt Reid

If you’re planning on participating in the Quality Payment Program in 2019, you may be wondering what you can—and should—be doing now to prepare for upgrading your electronic health records, or how this update could affect your computers and networks. If so, you’re not alone.

To help guide you through this process, Dr. Shira Johnson is joined by two AMA staff—Senior Health IT Consultant Matt Reid and Assistant Director of Federal Affairs Laura Hoffman—who answer these and other FAQs.

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

Guest: Koryn Rubin

With more and more physicians wondering what the new individual and group reporting measures mean for them and their practice, Dr. Matt Birnholz sat down with Koryn Rubin, Assistant Director of Federal Affairs at the American Medical Association, to break down these options.

Host: Alicia A. Sutton

Guest: Andrew Rosenberg, JD, MP

Guest: Thomas Sullivan

Join in as Andrew Rosenberg, JD, MP, Senior Advisor of CME Coalition and Thomas Sullivan, President, and Founder of Rockpointe, discuss how CE providers will be able to offer a PI-QI improvement activity under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). They will also address the MACRA law’s physician incentives for quality care under Medicare, a breakdown of the Quality Payment Program and CE Opportunities, the newly adopted QI CME Improvement Activity, and more!

Host: Alicia A. Sutton

Guest: Miriam Uhlmann, PhD

Guest: Samar Aboulsoud, MD, PhD, MSc Med Ed, FHEA, MAcadMEd

Due to research and studies, health care teams are improving and understanding cultural sensitivity issues and cultural competence. However, we still have much to learn. At the Alliance for Continuing Education in Healthcare Professions 2018 annual meeting, host Alicia Sutton interviewed Samar Aboulsoud, MD and Miriam Uhlmann, PhD about their presentation "A Means to an End: Achieving Patient Satisfaction Through Culturally Sensitive Communication".

In this discussion, Drs. Aboulsoud and Uhlmann discuss their personal and professional experience with educating health care teams to deepen the medical knowledge and clinical skills of those who provide holistic approaches for patient care. Furthermore, it will challenge clinician’s understanding of what affects their interactions and understandings that can impact patient care, compliance, and outcomes.

Host: Maurice Pickard, MD

Guest: Katherine Baicker

In early 2008, Oregon opened a waiting list lottery for a limited number of spots in its Medicaid program. From the 90,000 people who signed up, the state drew approximately 30,000 names of people who were allowed to apply to its Medicaid program. The results of this lottery have been studied over subsequent years, allowing researchers the ability to analyze the effect of expanding access to public health insurance on health care use and patient outcomes.

Host Dr. Maurice Pickard talks with Katherine Baicker, Dean and the Emmett Dedmon Professor at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. She is one of the leaders of the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment, which investigated the effects of the Oregon Medicaid lottery. They discuss some of the conclusions from this study, including how a person’s increased exposure to health care through insurance coverage appears to produce significant, multifaceted, and nuanced benefits to one's health.

Host: Alicia A. Sutton

Guest: Alvaro Margolis, MD, MS

Guest: Jann Balmer, PhD, RN, FACEHP, FAAN

From the annual meeting of the Alliance for Continuing Education in the Healthcare Professions in Orlando, Florida, join in as Alvaro Margolis, MD, MS, President and CEO of EviMed, and his colleague Jann Balmer, PhD, RN, FACEHP, FAAN, Director of CME at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, discuss how Facebook and other social network concepts and approaches can be used to promote social learning in health care teams, both for online and for combined online and face-to-face learning.

Host: John J. Russell, MD

Revolutionary advances in medical knowledge have caused doctors to become so focused on their narrow fields of expertise that they often overlook the simplest fact of all: their patients are suffering.

Dr. John Russell welcomes Dr. Thomas Lee, Chief Medical Officer at Press Ganey and author of An Epidemic of Empathy in Healthcare: How to Deliver Compassionate, Connected Patient Care That Creates a Competitive Advantage. Their discussion focuses on the growing divide between world-class medical treatment and compassionate care, and why the two are not mutually exclusive.

Many listeners may be familiar with the FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System or FAERS. Data in FAERS supports the FDA's post-marketing safety surveillance program for drug products and therapeutic biologic products. Recently, CDER's Office of Surveillance and Epidemiology created and released a tool that makes FAERS data easier to query and retrieve. This new interactive dashboard is designed to expand access of FAERS data to the general public.

Dr. Janet Woodcock, Director of the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, discusses the advantages of the tool as well as its limitations.

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

Guest: Matthew Fiedler

The future of the Affordable Care Act is uncertain. While there has been much talk about repeal and replace, legislative efforts to carry through with this initiative have failed to gain any bipartisan support and have since fallen short of passing.

Host Dr. Matt Birnholz sits down with Matthew Fiedler to discuss the latest issues involved in health care reform. Mr. Fiedler is a Fellow with the Center for Health Policy at the Brookings' Institution’s Economic Studies Program. Prior to joining Brookings, Fiedler served as Chief Economist of the Council of Economic Advisers, where he oversaw the Council's work on health care policy, including the ACA’s health insurance reforms, Medicaid expansion, and provider payment reform efforts.

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

A recent survey of one thousand practicing physicians in the US, conducted by KPMG and the American Medical Association, is shedding new light on knowledge gaps in preparing for MACRA and the Quality Payment Program, and what can be done to address those gaps moving forward.

Dr. Matt Birnholz speaks with Larry Kocot, Principal at KPMG and National Leader of the Center for Healthcare Regulatory Insight. Ross White, Manager for KPMG’s Center for Healthcare Regulatory Insight, and Carol Vargo, Director of Physician Practice Sustainability in the AMA Physician Satisfaction and Practice Sustainability Strategic Initiative Group about the results of this survey.

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP

Guest: Katherine Schneider, MD

What does MACRA mean to the clinical practice environment, and how will it impact your own practice? Dr. Katherine Schneider, President and CEO of the Delaware Valley Accountable Care Organization, discusses how MACRA is affecting physician practices. Host Dr. Brian McDonough joins her to outline what physicians can do to prepare for the changing landscape of payment through Medicare.

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

This discussion is dedicated to helping clinicians understand the “Pick Your Pace” option for Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) participation.How should physicians navigate these new reporting options to avoid any payment penalties, and what are the most effective first steps?

Host Dr. Matt Birnholz welcomes Dr. Kate Goodrich, Director of the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality under the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Dr. Goodrich also serves as CMS's Chief Medical Officer.

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

MACRA’ is one of the hottest buzzwords in clinical medicine and health policy today. But in a fast-changing legislative landscape, questions arise on the current and future directions for MACRA, as well as best practices for all of us going forward.

Host Dr. Matt Birnholz talks with AMA Washington Counsel, Ashley McGlone and Laura Hoffman, Assistant Director of Federal Affairs, about the top questions on MACRA that everyone wants to know.

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

Guest: James Capretta

On this episode of Voices From American Medicine, Dr. Matt Birnholz speaks with James Capretta, a Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, studying health care, entitlement, and US budgetary policy, as well as global trends in aging, health, and retirement programs. They discuss the future for American health care policy, and where health care professionals and the general public alike will go from here.

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP

Host Dr. Brian McDonough chats with Dr. John Barrasso, US Senator from Wyoming and former orthopedic surgeon, about the current state of health care policy as seen from the senate floor.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Chip Kahn, CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals which represents over a thousand of the nation's owner-operated hospitals. The long time health industry strategist speculates on changes to health coverage for millions of Americans under the GOP health reform bill, and what it might mean for the hospital industry and health care in this country.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Keith Boone, "Interoperability Guru" at GE Healthcare. Mr. Boone discusses his work developing standards for health information technology as a board member at HL7 International, and how HL7's new FHIR standards, as well as growth of Accountable Care Organizations, will accelerate the pace of interoperability in health care.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Katherine Hayes, Director of Health Policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, which has issued a report to Congress urging them to move slowly on repeal of safety net programs supported by the ACA. She warns that states and vulnerable populations will suffer consequences under repeal of support for CHIP as well as federal matching grants for the Medicaid expansion.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Allan Coukell, Sr. Director for Health Programs at the Pew Charitable Trusts, where he oversees the FDA, drug and medical device safety and the opioid crisis. He discusses suggested changes to the FDA made by the Trump Administration, and how best to promote reforms at the US Food and Drug Administration to better respond to 21st century advances in research and discovery.

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

Qualified Clinical Data Registries, or QCDRs, are keys to Medicare’s new payment system in that they collect clinical data for the purpose of patient and disease tracking. But what do we need to know about QCDRs, where to find them, the requirements for successful reporting and why they are so important for clinical practices? Host Dr. Matt Birnholz welcomes a panel of QCDR experts from the AMA. Dr. Kathleen Blake, Vice-President, and Lance Mueller, Manager, both serve as part of the AMA group that works on payment reform and healthcare quality. Koryn Rubin serves as Assistant Director of Federal Affairs at the AMA.

Host: John J. Russell, MD

Three out of four people addicted to heroin probably started on a prescription opioid, according to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the United States alone, 16,000 people die each year as a result of prescription opioid overdose. But perhaps the most frightening aspect of the prescription drug epidemic is that it’s built on well-meaning doctors treating patients with real problems.

Host Dr. John Russell chats with Dr. Anna Lembke, Chief of Addiction Medicine and an Assistant Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Lembke is the author of Drug Dealer, MD: How Doctors Were Duped, Patients Got Hooked, and Why It’s So Hard to Stop, exploring how the prescription drug epidemic is a symptom of a faltering health care system, the solution for which lies in rethinking how health care is delivered.

This week, Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter talk with President Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Dr. David Shulkin. Dr. Shulkin talks about the challenges he has faced coming from the private sector, the important role of the VA health care system, and ways that other issues such as housing play into health care access and delivery.

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

It's estimated that 80% of serious medical errors involve miscommunications between caregivers during the transfer of patients. But investigations are ongoing to identify the key issues behind these miscommunications, and how patient centered, value based care can address them.

Host Dr. Matt Birnholz speaks with Dr. David Badolato, family physician and founder and CEO of Life Laboratory, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization dedicated to research and education in quality models of care. Dr. Badolato authored an article published in Patient Safety and Quality Healthcare titled “The Patient-Family Journey From Outpatient to Inpatient: Improving Quality and Safety With the Outpatient EMR and PCP Collaboration.”

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with health policy expert Timothy Jost, Emeritus Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University School of Law, and frequent contributor to Health Affairs. Professor Jost examines the respective gains made and challenges faced in health insurance coverage and access to care under the Affordable Care Act, and his views on potential losses to millions of Americans with repeal and replacement of the ACA.

This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with renowned neuroscientist Dr. Adam Gazzaley, Director of the Neuroscience Imaging Center and Gazzaley Lab at UC San Francisco. Dr. Gazzaley discusses his closed loop system designed to improve brain function through personalized game design and feedback, which are already undergoing FDA clinical trials for therapeutic interventions for a number of brain disorders including ADHD, aging brain, PTSD and addiction.

Host: John J. Russell, MD

What if Americans put aside their differences and worked together to fix America's broken healthcare system? What changes need to be made in order to make health care both accessible and affordable without compromising excellent quality of care standards for patients? These and other crucial questions form premise behind the book We CAN Fix Healthcare: The Future is NOW.

Host Dr. John Russell sits down with Dr. Stephen Klasko, President and CEO of Jefferson University and Jefferson Health and author of We CAN Fix Healthcare: The Future is NOW.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Michael Leavitt, an advisor to President-elect Donald Trump's transition team and former secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services under President George W. Bush. They discuss anticipated changes in health policy under the new administration including the future of the Affordable Care Act, the role of community health centers, and the need for bipartisan cooperation.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Victor Dzau, President of the National Academy of Medicine (the former Institute of Medicine) a private, non-profit entity dedicated to tackling the nation's complex problems in medicine, technology and science. Dr. Dzau talks about the Academy's shift towards more cooperation between the scientific disciplines to advance evidence-based research that will inform the health care providers and policy makers around the country and the world.

Host: Maurice Pickard, MD

While modern medicine produces miracles, it also delivers care that is too often unsafe, unreliable, unsatisfying, and impossibly expensive. For the past few decades, technology has been touted as the cure for all of healthcare’s ills.

But medicine stubbornly resisted computerization – until now. Over the past five years, thanks largely to billions of dollars in federal incentives, healthcare has finally gone digital.

Yet once clinicians started using computers to actually deliver care, it dawned on them that something was deeply wrong. Why were doctors no longer making eye contact with their patients? How could one of America’s leading hospitals give a teenager a 39-fold overdose of a common antibiotic, despite a state-of-the-art computerized prescribing system? How could a recruiting ad for physicians tout the absence of an electronic medical record as a major selling point?

Logically enough, we’ve pinned the problems on clunky software, flawed implementations, absurd regulations, and bad karma. It was all of those things, but it was also something far more complicated. And far more interesting . . .

Written with a rare combination of compelling stories and hard-hitting analysis by one of the nation’s most thoughtful physicians, The Digital Doctor examines healthcare at the dawn …

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

The Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010 to provide more Americans access to affordable quality health insurance and to reduce health care spending. But have these goals actually been met, and if not, what will it take to get there?

On this episode of Voices From American Medicine, Dr. Matt Birnholz speaks with James Capretta, a Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, studying health care, entitlement, and US budgetary policy, as well as global trends in aging, health, and retirement programs. Mr. Capretta has directed several major studies, including one on reforming US healthcare according to market principles and consumer choice.

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

Guest: Robin Zon, MD, FACP

Value-based, patient-centered care has become the destination for all branches of medicine, and is the philosophy driving modern payment reform initiatives like MACRA. But the unique care delivery needs in each specialty challenge the notion that one payment model can serve everyone. And nowhere has this become more relevant than in the field of oncology.

Dr. Matt Birnholz joins Dr. Robin Zon, practicing oncologist and vice president and senior partner at Michiana Hematology-Oncology in South Bend, Indiana. Dr. Zon serves as Chair-Elect of ASCO's Government Relations Committee was Past Chair of the Clinical Practice Committee, which alongside other stakeholders at ASCO developed a Patient-Centered Oncology Payment (PCOP) model. Recently, Dr. Zon presented this information at the recent AMA House of Delegates meeting in June. She speaks to the phases of this model, how it can function as a defined APM under MACRA, and its demonstrated positive impacts on oncology care pathways.

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

Guest: Lawrence Kosinski, MD

The advancement of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) has catapulted Alternative Payment Models into the spotlight for identifying new value-based approaches to care. But questions persist as to the roles that specialists can and should play in the design and implementation of APMs, how these models will cut healthcare costs, and which administrative partnerships are needed to make them successful.

Dr. Lawrence Kosinski, a practicing gastroenterologist with The Illinois Gastroenterology Group, is pioneering one such APM that applies an innovative method for tracking patients between clinic visits. The model, called SonarMD, for which Dr. Kosinski is founder and Chief Medical Officer, provides a web-based platform that pings patients beyond practice settings to help get ahead of issues before they become emergencies.

[Read the Article]

According to a new study, euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (PAS) in the United States, Canada, and Europe are increasingly being legalized, but remain relatively uncommon. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania examined the legal status of both procedures and available data on attitudes and practices from the late 1940s to present day.

They found that public support for euthanasia and PAS in the United States had increased through the 1990s, but has since plateaued. More than 70 percent of cases of euthanasia and PAS worldwide involved patients with cancer. Typical patients are older, white, and well-educated. Motivations for requesting PAS include loss of autonomy and dignity, inability to enjoy life and regular activities, and other forms of mental distress. Pain is mostly not reported as the primary motivation.

Although the ethics and legality continue to be controversial, cases of these procedures remain relatively rare. Researchers did not find evidence that vulnerable patients have been receiving euthanasia or PAS at higher rates.

[Watch more videos of The JAMA Report]

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

From the floors of the Villanovans in Healthcare event at Villanova University, Dr. Matt Birnholz speaks with Jermaine Bromell, Founder and CEO of Better Health Network, a startup dedicated to providing health support services for underserved communities in partnership with faith-based organizations. The two discuss ways for companies and non-profits to better address health disparities in larger communities through direct support and targeted referral services.

This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Eric Dishman, newly appointed Director of the Precision Medicine Initiative Cohort Program at the National Institutes of Health. This initiative seeks to galvanize a million American volunteers to offer their electronic health information to be coalesced in a national database that will advance research in the discovery of disease cures and prevention.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Deven McGraw, Deputy Director for Health Information Privacy at the Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights, where she oversees compliance with HIPPA regulations governing portability of patient data, patient privacy concerns and the growing threat of health data breaches.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Katherine Baicker, PhD, the C. Boyden Grey Professor of Health Economics at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard. An expert on the health and economic impacts from gaining insurance coverage, she discusses her noted study of the Oregon Medicaid Experiment as well as the impact of the Medicaid Expansion under the Affordable Care Act.

Host: Tim Rush

The Veterans Health Administration operates one of the largest healthcare systems in the world, and provides training for a majority of American clinicians across all levels of practice. Joining host Tim Rush to discuss the state of the VA is Dr. David Shulkin, Under Secretary of Health for the United States Department Veteran Affairs. As the Chief Executive of the Veterans Health Administration, Dr. Shulkin leads the nation’s largest integrated health care system with over 1,700 sites of care, serving 8.76 million Veterans each year. Prior to being nominated by President Obama and being confirmed by the United States Senate as Under Secretary of Health, Dr. Shulkin served in numerous chief executive roles including serving as President at Morristown Medical Center, Goryeb Children’s Hospital, and Atlantic Rehabilitation Institute, and the Atlantic Health System Accountable Care Organization. Dr. Shulkin also previously served as President and CEO of Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City.

For more information on careers at VA, please visit http://www.vacareers.va.gov

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Mary Jo Assi, PhD, Director of Nursing Practice and Work Environment at the American Nurses Association which represents the nation's 3.4 million nurses. They discuss the expanding scope of the nursing work force in the ACA era, as well as the organization's current focus on workforce safety.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Michael Botticelli, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy at the White House. The nation's "Drug Czar" talks about ONDCP's quest to battle the rising tide of opioid addiction and overdoses, now the leading cause of accidental death in America, by targeting resources towards more effective treatments and interventions.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Marc Edwards, MacArthur Foundation Fellow and Virginia Tech-based Civil Engineer who uncovered the Flint water crisis, where residents were poisoned from high levels of lead and other contaminants through the municipal drinking water. Dr. Edwards discusses his efforts to uncover the crisis, and his team's efforts to mitigate the water contamination crisis and related health issues.

Guest: Anthony S. Fauci, MD

This week on Conversations on Health Care, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Fauci is world renowned for his work battling HIV/AIDS and discusses the current efforts at NIAID, along with other global agencies, to contain and control the Zika pandemic.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Dean Ornish, Founder and President of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute. He analyzes the new USDA nutritional guidelines and discusses the mounting empirical evidence linking sound nutrition and integrative medicine to the prevention and reversal of chronic disease.

Host: Frank Russomano

Interest in health policies related to drug pricing has spiked in recent times. While remarkable research discoveries have positively escalated the pharmaceutical industry with release of more novel drugs, the question on how drugs should be priced is continually resurfacing. How are high drug costs justified when they become financially inaccessible to many patients, and what measures are being put in place to address these access gaps?

Host Frank Russomano welcomes Andrew Rosenberg J.D. of the CME Coalition and Thomas Sullivan, President of Rockpointe Corporation and editor of Policy and Medicine, to discuss recent developments in drug pricing.

Host Frank Russomano welcomes Andrew Rosenberg J.D. of the CME Coalition and Thomas Sullivan, President of Rockpointe Corporation and editor of Policy and Medicine. - See more at: https://reachmd.com/programs/voices-from-american-medicine/all-things-educational-panel-discusses-independent-cme-sunshine-act-reporting/7901/#sthash.CkKA6uPe.dpuf

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Edward Ellison, Executive Medical Director and Chairman of the Board for the Southern California Permanente Medical Group. He is also National Sponsor of the newly-announced Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine which is being designed to train future clinicians based on Kaiser's coordinated care and value-based delivery model.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Aneesh Chopra, Co-Founder of Hunch Analytics, author of Innovative State: How New Technologies Can Transform Government. Appointed by President Obama as the first US Chief Technology Officer in 2009, he discusses the job of transitioning American government and health care into the digital age.

Host: Matt Birnholz, MD

The model of emergency medicine enshrines the principles of universality, portability, freedom of choice, and equity in care for all those who walk through the door. Yet despite accounting for only 2% of healthcare costs nationwide, emergency departments receives criticism for contributing to the financial crisis of American health care. Are these criticisms justified, or does the ED coversely represent a potential solution?

Joining Dr. Matt Birnholz to discuss emergency medicine's current and future roles in healthcare policy, accounting, and quality improvement is Dr. James C. Mitchiner, attending emergency physician at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor and clinical assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School. He is also medical director at Michigan’s federally designated health care quality improvement organization. Dr. Mitchiner received the Colin C. Rorrie Jr., PhD Award for Excellence in Health Policy for a career dedicated to advocating for more efficient, affordable healthcare in America.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Kana Enomoto, Acting Administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the division of the HHS dedicated to mental health disorders and addiction. She talks about SAMHSA's initiatives aimed at improving access to treatment, improving treatment outcomes and expanding the nation's behavioral health work force.

Host: Jennifer Caudle, DO

States are cracking down on physicians and pharmacies in an attempt to curb a nationwide epidemic of opioid abuse. While some measures are improving the situation in hard-hit areas such as Florida, opponents say that the new laws are also keeping needed medications out of the hands of patients. How are states responding to this dual-issue, and do the ends of diminishing drug overdoses justify the means of restricting drug access to those who need them?

Host Jennifer Caudle, DO welcomes guests Nick Schilligo and Mark Bailey, DO, PhD to Everyday Family Medicine to discuss the pros and cons of updated opioid prescription regulations nationwide. Mr. Schilligo is Associate Vice President of State Government Affairs for the American Osteopathic Association, while Dr. Mark Bailey is Professor of Neurology and Pain Medicine specialist at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. This program was recorded on site at the American Osteopathic Association's annual medical education conference, OMED2015 in Orlando, FL,

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Stuart Altman, PhD, Sol C. Chaikin Professor of National Health Policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. Dr. Altman is an expert on universal health coverage and discusses his recent work as Chair of the IOM Committee assessing progress on recommendations made in the 2010 Institute of Medicine Report on The Future of Nursing, which advocates for a stronger role for nurses in the expanding health care system.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Neel Shah, Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Harvard Medical School and Founder of Costs of Care, a global NGO dedicated to helping delivery systems provide better care at lower costs. He's also the co-author of Understanding Value Based Care, which seeks to promote cost awareness in the medical profession.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Harpreet Sood, Sr. Fellow to the CEO of the National Health Service of England. Dr. Sood addresses the strengths of the health systems of both the UK and the US, and discusses innovations in care delivery and public health initiatives that are poised to transform the quality of care in both countries.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Gary Cohen, 2015 MacArthur Fellow and Founder and President of Health Care Without Harm. His work is focused on motivating the health care industry to “do no harm” by reducing the use of toxic materials and fossil fuels to positively impact climate change.

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with Dr. Daniel Z. Sands, Founder of the Society For Participatory Medicine which seeks to advance the patient/provider experience through better health IT. Dr. Sands is one of the early developers of secure e-mail systems and patient portals for clinicians as well as patients, and advocates for transformation of the health care system through better integration of health IT.

This week, Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Raymond Hurd, Regional Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on the Medicare Open Enrollment period. He discusses the expanded number of plans available to seniors, and also warns of the threat of fraud and scams targeting the Medicare population.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Mollyann Brodie, Sr. Vice President of Executive Operations and Executive Director of Public Opinion Research at the Kaiser Family Foundation, where she oversees the non-profit's public polling efforts. Dr. Brodie conducts the Foundation's monthly tracking poll which charts the mood of the nation on a variety of health policies and provides unbiased polling data for policy makers.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Georges Benjamin, Executive Director of the American Public Health Association, on the need to support federal polices that serve to protect population health in the communities where people live.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. John Ball, VP Emeritus of the American College of Physicians and Chair of the Committee on Diagnostic Error in Health Care at the National Academies of Medicine, which determined that diagnostic errors are a major contributor to patient harm and need to be addressed by all stakeholders in the health care system.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Darshak Sanghavi, Director of the Preventive and Population Healthcare Models Group at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation which has launched the "Million Hearts" campaign to reduce cardiovascular disease. The 5-year campaign is CMS's largest experiment to date on pay-for-performance practice models and is supporting practices to follow the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association Risk Assessment guidelines to help patients avoid a million heart attacks or strokes.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Christine Cassel, President and CEO of the National Quality Forum, a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to improving health and health care through developing better health quality measures and data-sharing.

This week, Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Margaret Hamburg, Foreign Secretary for the National Academy of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences and recent Commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Hamburg discusses the changes initiated at the FDA under her leadership and the enormous challenge of keeping the nation's drug and food stream safe in a globalized supply chain.

This week, Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Tom Frieden, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since 2009. Dr. Frieden discusses the most pressing challenges at the CDC, including antibiotic-resistant infections, the opioid abuse epidemic, and the recent Ebola epidemic, as well as efforts underway to combat these public health threats.

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with Sean Cavanaugh, Deputy Administrator and Director of the Center for Medicare at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. He is responsible for overseeing the regulation and payment of Medicare fee-for service providers, privately-administered Medicare health plans, and the Medicare prescription drug program. Medicare provides health coverage to 50 million elderly and disabled Americans, with an annual budget of over $550 billion.

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with Dr. Eric Green, Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health, the world's largest organization dedicated solely to genomics research. Dr. Green was on the team that mapped the human genome and talks about new initiatives at NIH to create better platforms for storing and sharing big data in this new era of scientific research.

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with Dr Kenneth Brigham, cofounder and past director of the Emory/Georgia Tech Predictive Health Institute, on the future of predictive health. They discuss the use of genomics, biometrics, and nanotechnology to identify disease risks early in life and perhaps prevent the future onset of disease.

This week, hosts Mark and Margaret speak with Harvard professor Dr. C. Michael Gibson, Founder and Chairman of WikiDocs.org, an open source website designed to facilitate collaborative authoring of medical content within the international community of healthcare professionals.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Jim Daley, Director of IT for BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, and Immediate Past Chair of the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange or WEDI, a leading authority on the use of health IT to improve health care delivery and efficiency. Mr. Daley discusses the industry challenges of switching to ICD 10 coding for health billing, and why the switch is so vital to improving outcomes.

This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. William Dietz, Director of the Sumner M. Redstone Center for Prevention and Wellness at the Milken Institute of Public Health at George Washington University. Dr. Dietz is an internationally recognized expert on nutrition, prevention and obesity. He talks about the threat to public health and the economy posed by the obesity epidemic and efforts to combat the problem.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Leah Binder, Chief Executive Officer of the Leapfrog Group, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving safety in the hospital setting. She discusses the Leapfrog Hospital Survey and the Hospital Safety Score which coalesce patient safety data to rank hospitals for quality and safety across the country.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Jeffrey Borenstein, President and CEO of the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University and Editor-in-Chief of Psychiatric News, the journal of the American Psychiatric Association. He discusses their recent publication, "Understsanding Mental Disorders" which is a layperson's guide to diagnoses listed in the DSM-5.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Larry Chu, anesthesiologist and Professor at the Stanford School of Medicine. He is also Founder and Executive Director of Stanford Medicine X, a yearly conference created to bring providers, patient groups and designers together to catalyze the development of patient-centered health technologies.

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with Jeffrey Sachs, Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University. He is Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the Millennium Development Goals, having held the same position under former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He is also Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and is co-founder and Chief Strategist of the Millennium Promise Alliance.

Professor Sachs is widely considered to be one of the world's leading experts on economic development and the fight against poverty. His work on ending poverty, promoting economic growth, fighting hunger and disease, and promoting sustainable environmental practices, has taken him to more than 125 countries.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Robert Wachter, Associate Chair of the Department of Medicine at U.C. San Francisco. He is considered the founder of the "hospitalist" movement and is author of The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine's Computer Age which examines challenges being experienced in the rapid transition to digital medicine.

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with Dr. Rajiv Bhatia, founder and director of The Civic Engine, which assists civic leaders in strengthening the economic divers of health in communities. A physician, data scientist, and former Director of Occupational and Evironmental Health for the City of San Francisco, Dr. Bhatia has spent his career championing economic and environmental justice for low-income workers and families. Dr. Bhatia recounts the trajectory of this work, from the use of health impact assessments for advocacy for minimum wage increases and paid sick days laws to the deployment of environmental inspectors to monitor and enforce labor standards.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. John Lumpkin, Sr. VP and Director of Targeted Teams at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Dr. Lumpkin runs the RWJF project targeting childhood obesity and talks about the myriad strategies aimed reducing the obesity epidemic among the nation's children.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Sherine Gabriel, Dean of the Mayo Medical School at the prestigous Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, as well as a new medical school to be opened in Arizona. Dr. Gabriel talks about shifting their patient-centered medical training to incorporate 21st century needs including genomics, social determinents of health, and prevention.

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with John Nosta, founder and president of Nostalab, a digital health think tank. Mr. Nosta, is also a member of the Google Health Advisory Board and looks at the coming digital health trends, nanotechnology and genomics that are going to transform health outcomes of the future.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Adriel Bettelheim, Managing Editor for Health at CQ Roll Call/Economist which boasts the largest press corps on Capitol Hill. Mr. Bettelheim discusses the legislative landscape impacting the Affordable Care Act as well as the emerging payment reforms aimed at reducing health care spending.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Sara Collins, PhD, Vice President of Health Care Coverage and Access at the Commonwealth Fund, a non-partisan foundation dedicated to promoting a high-functioning health care system. Dr. Collins discusses the Fund's recent report showing a marked improvement in the reduction of the uninsured in America since the first open enrollment and the increased utilization of health care among the previously uninsured.

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP

The controversy over vaccinations and whether or not to regulate their administration has reached a boiling point in the United States with the recent measles outbreak originating in Disneyland, and prominent politicians like Senator Rand Paul and Governor Chris Christie have weighed in to support the anti-vaccine community's appeal for individual choice. What are the ethical, sociological, and political ramifications of these developments in the national vaccination debate, and how should the medical community respond? Joining Dr. Brian McDonough to discuss the vaccination controversy is Dr. Arthur Caplan, Professor and founding Director of the Division of Medical Ethics in NYU Langone Medical Center’s Department of Population Health.

Host: Frank Russomano

“One cannot understand policy without appreciating the philosophy that is driving it.” That’s a passage taken from author Philip Klein's book, Overcoming Obamacare: Three Approaches to Reversing the Government Takeover of Health Care. Mr. Klein is commentary editor of the Washington Examiner, where he writes about domestic politics and policy, and runs the opinion section. He joins host Frank Russomano to discuss strengths and limitations of the Affordable Health Care legislations, and the plausible alternatives that would need to be implemented before considering an overhaul of current policies.

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with cardiologist, genomics and telemedicine expert Dr. Eric Topol, Director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute. They discuss his latest book, The Patient Will See You Now: The Future of Medicine Is In Your Hands, in which he predicts the "medicalization of the smart phone" is poised to truly democratize medicine by putting the power of diagnostics and monitoring in the patient's own hands.

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with Steven Brill, journalist, entrepreneur, and author of Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Back-Room Deals, and the Fight to Fix our Broken Healthcare System. Mr. Brill's work has made national headlines upon its recent release, contending that the American healthcare system is woefully inadequate despite the country's $3 trillion dollar expenditure which outpaces than the next 10 biggest spenders combined.

Host: Ketan Sheth, MD, MBA

Guest: I. Leonard Bernstein, MD

The Joint Task Force on Practice Parameters for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Asthma has revised its allergy diagnostic testing parameters. What are the parameters trying to establish? What are the advantages of intracutaneous, skin prick, and in vitro testing for diagnosing allergies? Dr. I. Leonard Bernstein, co-director of the allergy research laboratory in the department of medicine at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, and co-author of the parameters, explores allergy diagnostic testing options with host Dr. Ketan Sheth.

Guest: Ronald M. Davis, MD

Host: Bruce Japsen

Medical spending in the United States is rising faster than our overall economy, and projections suggest this trend will continue. Rather than turn to cost controls or insurance companies to reign in the cost of health care, the nation's largest doctor group is drawing up its own strategies to contain spending and add value to our system. Dr. Ronald M. Davis, president of the American Medical Association (AMA), tells host Bruce Japsen about AMA strategies to contain medical spending.

Guest: Peter Bach, MD

Host: Bill Rutenberg, MD

As former senior advisor to administration centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services for Cancer initiatives, our guest Dr. Peter Bach talks with host Bill Rutenberg about lessons learned while working on behalf of Medicare and Medicaid. Some highlights of this interview include discussion about physicians' use of evidence-based medicine, coverage under evidence clause, pay for performance, no-bid contracts, DRG and more. Join us for a great discussion.

Guest: Beth Fuchs, PhD

Host: Paul Raeburn

Paul Raeburn talks to Washington health policy expert Beth Fuchs about the details of Senator Barack Obama's health care plan. They look at how Obama's plan differs from other democratic presidential candidates and what the strengths and weaknesses of the plan are.

Guest: Bill Richardson

Host: Paul Raeburn

Democrats have made healthcare reform a much higher priority than Republicans. And many of the Democratic candidates’ proposals are similar. But Richardson’s proposal differs in some important respects from those of the other Democrats. He would let Americans aged 55-64 to buy into Medicare. He would expand health care for young children and allow young adults up to 25 to remain on their family’s plan. He would pay for these expansions by streamlining administrative costs of healthcare and investing in prevention. Whether that would be enough to cover the costs of expanded coverage isn’t entirely clear. But we’re not here to tell you what Gov. Richardson thinks; we’re going to let him tell you, in his own words.

Guest: Donald Berwick, MD, MPP

Host: Bill Rutenberg, MD

How has our healthcare system gotten to its current fragmented state? Where are the opportunities to make the greatest impacts to improve the healthcare system? Join host, Dr. Bill Rutenberg in talking with healthcare expert Dr. Don Berwick, who is President and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

Guest: John Whittington, MD

Host: Mark Nolan Hill, MD

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement's Triple Aim Model is meant to be adopted by organizations wanting a strategic model to improve healthcare. In this segment, IHI's Dr. John Whittington talks about some of the organizations joining Triple Aim and what type of roles they play as 'Integrators.'

Guest: Sen. Hillary Clinton, JD

Host: Paul Raeburn

Join us for another in our special presidential editions of the Washington Health Report. We hear from Sen. Hillary Clinton about the details of her sweeping healthcare reform proposal. She explains the plan in depth in her own words.