Child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Melissa Perry and Demetrios Marousis, director of behavioral health at Highmark, Inc., join us to share their insights into Highmark's mission and its efforts to address the pressing issues in mental health and substance use disorder treatment through technology, partnerships, and compassionate care.  

Watch to learn about Highmark’s work to improve care for patients who struggle with substance abuse, the challenges of care delivery, the importance of health care literacy, and why they think technology is the biggest opportunity in health care.

At ARPA-H, a new federal agency aimed at pioneering ambitious health care initiatives, Dr. Ku is focused on addressing the crisis in rural health care through the PARADIGM program. The goal is to deliver advanced hospital-level care to every rural county in the United States by shifting from traditional hospital settings to advanced mobile health unit vehicles.   

Watch to learn more about the PARADIGM program and challenges in rural health care, Dr. Ku’s philosophy on health care design, and how health insurance plans and providers can collaborate to improve technology, communication, and access.

The nonprofit organization is also focused on mental health, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and existing social inequities. Anthony Signorelli, head of corporate partnerships at The Ad Council, joins us to share insights from the group’s various mental health initiatives, such as Seize the Awkward, which addresses youth suicide prevention, and Sound It Out, which helps parents talk to middle-schoolers about mental health. 

Watch to learn more about The Ad Council’s approach to mental health partnerships, including significant findings from recent campaigns, the cultural barriers that still exist when it comes to getting support, and the importance of changing the narrative around mental health.  

Check out the initiatives from the episode: 

https://seizetheawkward.org/ 

https://sounditouttogether.org/  

https://loveyourmindtoday.org/

One of the nation’s most respected health policy thought leaders and journalists, and a frequent speaker and commentator on television and radio, Dentzer joins us to talk about her work and APG’s commitment to value-based care. The organization advocates for patient-centered, coordinated, integrated health care, as well as the collaboration between physicians and health insurance providers.  

Watch to learn how accountability in terms of cost and quality is important to APG’s physician members, how Dentzer and her team use video to communicate the importance of value-based care, and why the next big thing in health is using technology to eliminate waste in the system.   

Check out APG’s “The Value of Value-Based Health Care” video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzzPES9kCGw.

LaShawn McIver, MD, MPH, AHIP’s senior vice president and chief health equity officer returns to the show and is joined by Pleasant Radford Jr., UCare’s inaugural health equity officer, to discuss the role health insurance plans play in advancing health equity, the importance of data collection, community engagement, and policy advocacy, and how to create systemic change to address health disparities.

Listen in for their thoughts on the importance of personalizing the work, being empathetic, and taking collective responsibility for advancing health equity. 

The mission goes beyond offering every New Yorker equitable access to quality health care, says President & CEO Dr. Talya Schwartz. It also includes finding innovative, compassionate ways to take on the city’s most complex health challenges and addressing physical and social barriers to health care, such as homelessness and mental health.  

Listen in for an insightful conversation on MetroPlusHealth's unique provider-owned model, focused on seamless integration and proactive care, and how Dr. Schwartz and her team are ensuring dignified access to quality health care.

Tuffin and Geraghty sat down with us to talk candidly about their responsibility to deliver the best, most convenient, and most affordable care and coverage to the people they serve. They also opined on what keeps them up at night — and shared a rare peek from the C-suite on the amazing things that happen when health insurance providers come together at AHIP to drive change, employing the most promising tools and tech on the market for delivering top-notch care in our country. 

Listen in for their thoughts on the next steps in health care transformation.

Eva Borden is the president of behavioral health for Evernorth, the health services business for Cigna Corporation. We sat down with Borden for an illuminating discussion on how to break down silos, de-stigmatize conversations around mental health needs and solutions, and how major companies are making a difference in access and affordability.  

Listen in to discover how Evernorth is integrating mental health and medical health services for better health care solutions.

Pooja Mittal, DO, chief health equity officer for Health Net, joined Conversations in Care host Robert Traynham for a conversation about health equity and Health Net’s work, including a first-of-its-kind health improvement project in Los Angeles County, California, that provides doulas for Black women through a community-based partnership.  

Hear more of Dr. Mittal’s thoughts on how to improve health equity, the power of community partnerships in addressing social determinants of health, and the importance of building relationships and connecting with the community. 

Dr. Michael Hochman, CEO of Healthcare in Action, a subsidiary of SCAN Group, joined us to talk about providing medical care, mental health and addiction treatment, and case management to unhoused populations in California while working to get them into stable housing.  

Watch to learn how Healthcare in Action provides sustainable homeless health care services using a managed care framework. Dr. Hochman shares some success stories of how his teams have been able to build trust with our most vulnerable populations and help transition approximately 100 formerly unhoused patients into homes.

Adam Abrams is a partner and Annalyse Keller is a managing director at Seven Letter, a strategic communications firm in Washington, D.C. We break down the agenda on Capitol Hill between now and end of year and when health care policy might come to the forefront of the national discussion.

Listen in for what to expect in health policy and legislation for the end of 2023 and beyond.

Darrell Gray, II, MD, MPH, is the president & CEO of Wellpoint Maryland, which is an affiliate of Elevance Health. We dove into Dr. Gray’s recent experience at Elevance Health as its chief health equity officer, to discover how we can help every American achieve their full health potential. 

Listen in for moving member stories that illustrate how health care pros are listening, learning, and acting to create change.  

Geeta Nayyar, MD, MBA, former chief medical officer at Salesforce, joined Conversations in Care host Robert Traynham for a conversation about how the health care industry can better educate the consumer, provide easier access to information, and build trust that will counteract all the misinformation.

Watch to learn more on why Dr. G believes misinformation is the issue of our generation, and how health care leaders will need to use digital transformation strategies — including social media, partnerships, influencers, and artificial intelligence — to make health information more easily accessible and palatable.

Dawn Maroney, president, markets, Alignment Health & CEO, Alignment Health Plan, and Hakan Kardes, chief technology & experience officer, Alignment Health, joined our Conversations in Care host Robert Traynham for a robust conversation on how we embrace the uniqueness of America’s seniors and develop creative ways to reach them with compassion and care under Medicare Advantage plans.

Watch to see how they’re making a difference through building clubs, bringing puppies to care facilities, hosting town halls to connect upwards of 11,000 seniors, offering free rides to dialysis, and sending cellphones to combat COVID loneliness.

We talk about it. We prioritize it. And we change the whole ecosystem of care to prevent, identify, and treat long before someone is in crisis. AHIP’s very own Robert Traynham was joined by Cara McNulty, DPA, president, behavioral health & mental well-being, CVS Health, for a new episode of Conversations in Care. This conversation, debuting on World Mental Health Day, showcases how CVS Health and Aetna drove down suicide attempts by 16.3% among their community members and what it takes to create lasting change. 

If you need immediate help, visit https://988lifeline.org/

AHIP’s very own Robert Traynham was joined by Eric C. Hunter, president & CEO of CareOregon, and Sachin H. Jain, MD, MBA, CEO, SCAN Health Plan and SCAN Group, for a thought-provoking and honest conversation about serving people who are economically disenfranchised, homeless, or otherwise vulnerable and disadvantaged as they struggle accessing care and treatment.

Highlights include the policies AHIP is watching in 2022, the challenges facing health care, and how health insurance providers are improving health care access and affordability for all Americans.