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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2021

Why COVID Crushed Us: Former FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb Details America’s Botched Pandemic Response

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with former FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb whose new book outlines America’s epic failure in our response to the pandemic, leading to more than 700,000 deaths. “Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic” examines the inherent flaws at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public agencies that left us vulnerable to the raging pandemic. Dr. Gottlieb says the CDC and other agencies should be re-tooled to conduct more agile global disease surveillance, and that emerging therapeutics like Merck’s new oral COVID drug will be a game changer for treatment moving forward.
MONDAY, JULY 13, 2015

Sean Cavanaugh, Deputy Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

This week hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Sean Cavanaugh, Deputy Administrator and Director for the Center For Medicare at Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, where he oversees payment models for Medicare's 50 million users. Mr. Cavanaugh talks about the culture of innovation underway at CMS to promote new payment models that incentivize improved outcomes while promoting cost containment.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2020

CMS Administrator Seema Verma Talks Expansion of Telehealth, Development of COVID-19 Vaccine and Answers Recent Allegations

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome Seema Verma, Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under the Trump administration, a trillion dollar-a-year agency providing health coverage for 130 million vulnerable Americans on Medicaid and Seniors on Medicare. She discusses the agency’s dramatic transformation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including hundreds of waivers lifting restrictions for providers across the country, a swift expansion of telehealth adoption, and Operation Warp Speed’s quest to provide a safe and efficacious vaccine for widespread distribution, once it is approved. She also addresses recent allegations around agency spending questions.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2009

Conversations on Health Care explores Centering Pregnancy

Centering Pregnancy is a health care model that delivers quality care in a group setting and has shown to improve outcomes for mother and baby. Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter interview the founder of the model, Sharon Schindler Rising, who is a nurse midwife and Executive Director of the Centering Healthcare Institute.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

Disrupting the Generic Drug Market: Gary and Mary West Foundation CEO Shelley Lyford on Civica Rx Launch

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Shelley Lyford, CEO of the Gary and Mary West Foundation which is dedicated to reducing costs and improving care for America's seniors. She discusses the launch of Civica Rx - a not for profit entity that will supply low-cost generic drugs to a consortium of partner foundations and hospitals to disrupt monopolies and price gouging in the pharmaceutical industry.
MONDAY, MARCH 2, 2020

Pandemic Expert Dr. Sheri Fink on Reducing Harm From Coronavirus in US

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Sheri Fink, Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times Correspondent and one of the Executive Producers of “Pandemic: How to Avoid an Outbreak” on Netflix. She has covered numerous catastrophes, epidemcis and war zones, and shares her insights into public health interventions that reduce harm from pandemics, and how institutions and individuals must prepare to protect themselves.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015

Dr. Sherine Gabriel, Dean of the Mayo Medical School at the Mayo Clinic

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.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 2012

Dr. Sonia Ehrlich Sachs, Director of Health, Millennium Villages Project

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with Dr. Sonia Ehrlich Sachs, Director of Health, Millennium Villages Project at the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Dr. Sachs discusses the Millennium Project Goals to eliminate extreme global poverty by 2015. This model has greatly improved maternal and infant health outcomes in targeted regions of Africa through the use of community health workers, improved agriculture and nutrition, and development of local health systems.
MONDAY, MAY 26, 2014

Sonia Sarkar, Chief of Staff of Health Leads

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Sonia Sarkar, Chief of Staff of Health Leads, a national organization dedicated to creating a health care system that addresses all patients' basic resource needs as a standard part of quality care. She discusses Health Leads' deployment of college students in clinics across the country who assist patients in gaining resources to impact the underlying causes of poor health.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2011

Stephen Downs, Chief Technology and Information Officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Conversations on Health Care® focuses this week on a new initiative in health care that makes medical information accessible for patients. Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Stephen Downs from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation about the Blue Button initiative, a technology that has the capability to revolutionize the way patients engage with their health care.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2013

Steve Spear, MIT Sloane School of Management

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Steven Spear, PhD, Senior Lecturer at the Sloane School of Management at MIT and international expert on applying LEAN systems created by Toyota to improve production output and quality. Dr. Spear addresses the potential LEAN systems have for improving cost containment in health care, while improving outcomes.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2018

Where Will Healthcare be in 2020? Thomas Jefferson University's Dr. Steve Klasko Breaks Down His Vision of Healthcare Disruption

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Stephen K. Klasko, President and CEO of Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health System, on his efforts to transform health care. Dr. Klasko made bold changes to the University and its hospitals by implementing a startup mentality and making innovation a priority among the academic and clinical departments. He also discusses how creativity and compassion are the keys to that innovation and breaks down the next steps needed to transform the industry.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2019

2020 Democratic Presidential Contender Montana Governor Steve Bullock on Health Care, Climate Change and Gun Safety

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Montana Governor and 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate Steve Bullock. They discuss his views on strengthening the Affordable Care Act, protecting women's health rights, taking action on climate change, enacting sensible gun laws, and reducing the influence of dark money on American politics.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 2013

Steven Brill, Author of "Bitter Pill: Why Health Care Costs Are Killing Us"

This week, Mark and Margaret speak with entrepreneur and investigative journalist Steven Brill, author of the recent TIME Magazine expose on health care pricing, "Bitter Pill: Why Health Care Costs Are Killing Us". Mr Brill, founder of the Yale Journalism Initiative as well as Court TV, explores the root causes of inflated health care prices Americans are forced to bear, how the Affordable Care Act will play a role, and what might be done to bring those costs down.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2013

Kentucky Governor Steven Beshear

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Kentucky Governor Steven Beshear, the only Southern Governor choosing to both expand Medicaid in his state as well as create an online insurance exchange. He talks about why the exchange, called Kynect, is working so well and discusses the positive impact the Affordable care Act is poised to have on the state's economy as well as its public health.

MONDAY, JANUARY 19, 2015

Steven Brill, Author of <i>"America's Bitter Pill"</i>

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with attorney and author Steven Brill, whose latest book examines the creation of the Affordable Care Act. America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Health Care System examines the influence of the powerful health care lobby in blocking meaningful cost containment measures in the health care law.

MONDAY, AUGUST 3, 2015

Dr. Steven J. Stack, President of the American Medical Association

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Steven J. Stack, President of the American Medical Association the largest professional organization representing the nation's physicians and medical students. Dr. Stack addresses the medical profession's ongoing transformation with health IT and meaningful use, ICD-10 adoption and the need to redesign medical training to meet 21st century challenges in the health profession.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2019

25-64 Year Olds Are Dying Earlier and Here’s Why: Our Conversations with VCU’s Dr. Steven Woolf

This week on Conversations on Health Care, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Steven Woolf, Distinguished Chair in Population Health at Virginia Commonwealth University - and Health Equity Director Emeritus and Senior Advisor at the V-C-U Center on Society and Health. He talks about their just-released report – showing a decline in life expectancy among working aged adults in the US – a result of the lingering effects of the recession, the opioid crisis and other so-called deaths of despair. The data show this trend has been underway since the 1980’s and has now hit critical mass.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 2010

Stuart Altman, a leading health-care economist, on meeting the future demands under health-care reform.

Conversations on Health Care® turns its’ focus to the future challenges now that reform has passed. Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Stuart Altman, a leading health-care economist and professor of National Health Policy at Brandeis University, about the potential for reform to deliver on its’ goals.
MONDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2015

Stuart Altman, Ph.D, Heller School of Public Policy, Brandeis University

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.