Épisodes

  • 175 - Why Health Insurance Is Becoming Unaffordable for the Middle Class

    175 - Why Health Insurance Is Becoming Unaffordable for the Middle Class
    Jan 31 2026
    Vic and Marcus break down the ripple effects of a major winter storm in Nashville before covering a wide range of healthcare and tech developments, including rising ACA premiums as subsidies expire, corporate layoffs and their impact on insurance markets, venture funding for virtual autism therapy, Medicare Advantage rate pressure, insurer earnings declines, strong performance from major health systems, the growth of direct-to-consumer healthcare brands, Amazon and One Medical’s expansion into at-home diagnostics, consolidation in employer-sponsored primary care, the long-term realities of GLP-1 weight loss drugs, new FDA-approved treatments for presbyopia, Tether’s aggressive gold accumulation strategy, rapid advances in AI agents, open-source frontier models, and the economic and societal implications of accelerating artificial intelligence.Links00:00 - Intro4:23 - Health Insurance Is Now More Expensive Than the Mortgage for These Americans WSJ9:09 - Amazon to Lay Off Around 16,000 Corporate Employees WSJ10:50 - AnswersNow Raises $40M to Expand Access to Autism Therapy MedCity16:50 - Trump Administration Proposes Keeping Steady the Rates Medicare Pays Insurers WSJ18:02 - Investors Assumed Medicare Advantage Was Safe Under the GOP. They Were Wrong. WSJ22:39 - UnitedHealth revenue climbs in 2025, though profit continues to fall Healthcare Dive23:33 - Elevance Health sets 'prudent' 2026 guidance as it navigates ongoing cost, utilization pressures Fierce Healthcare25:06 - HCA Healthcare unveils bullish 2026 guidance despite $600M-$900M ACA exchanges hit Fierce Healthcare26:16 - Cleveland Clinic CEO: Budget overperformance in 2025 paves way for growth Fierce Healthcare28:02 - Hims & Hers uses another Super Bowl ad to tackle healthcare affordability Fierce Healthcare33:13 -At-home testing company Reperio teams up with Amazon One Medical on preventive care Fierce Healthcare34:34 - Employer-focused primary care companies Premise Health, Crossover Health announce merger plans Fierce Healthcare37:10 - Here’s What Happens when you stop taking Ozempic and Wegovy (Wall Street)39:28 - Presbyopia Eye Drop From Startup Tenpoint Gets FDA Approval (Medcity News)41:29 - Tether is buying up to $1 billion of gold per month and storing it in a 'James Bond' bunker CoinDesk45:26 - The Adolescence of Technology Dario Amodei 51:51 - Clawdbot sheds skin to become Moltbot, can't slough off security issues Register56:00 - Moonshot AI releases open-source Kimi K2.5 model with 1T parameters Silicon Angle
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    1 h et 1 min
  • 174 - Why Executives Are Winning With AI While Workers See Nothing

    174 - Why Executives Are Winning With AI While Workers See Nothing
    Jan 24 2026

    Vic hosts a solo episode covering volatility in the stock market tied to geopolitical tensions, a detailed breakdown of 2025 inflation data and how price increases vary by consumer category, congressional movement on healthcare funding and PBM reform, proposed multi-year extensions for telehealth and hospital-at-home programs, ARPA-H’s call for AI-driven cardiovascular care solutions, UnitedHealthcare’s plan to rebate ACA profits to members, the New York Stock Exchange’s move toward tokenized 24/7 trading, Amazon’s launch of an AI health assistant for One Medical members, and new survey data revealing a widening gap between how executives and workers experience productivity gains from AI.

    Links
    00:58 - Stocks Rally After Trump Announces Framework for Greenland Deal WSJ

    1:51 - The 2025 Inflation Numbers Are Finally In. Here’s the Good and Bad News. WSJ

    3:48 - The Trump administration is creating clinical AI agents with a 3-year FDA approval timeline Fierce Healthcare

    4:40 - Telehealth, hospital-at-home set to receive multiyear extensions in recent funding proposal Feirce Healthcare

    6:44 - UnitedHealth CEO Hemsley says insurer will rebate ACA profits to consumers Fierce Healthcare

    8:15 - NYSE to Launch 24/7 Trading Platform for Blockchain-Based Securities WSJ

    10:11 - Amazon launches health AI chatbot for One Medical members Healthcare Dive

    11:50 - CEOs Say AI Is Making Work More Efficient. Employees Tell a Different Story. WSJ
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    17 min
  • 173 - The $5 Trillion Healthcare Problem and Why AI Is Stepping In

    173 - The $5 Trillion Healthcare Problem and Why AI Is Stepping In
    Jan 17 2026
    Vic is joined by guest host Paul Kappelman to break down the latest signals shaping healthcare and the economy, including inflation trends, slowing job growth, housing market movement, healthcare spending exceeding $5 trillion, Medicare Advantage investigations, payer scrutiny, hospital labor strikes, and major pharma M&A. The episode also covers at-home cancer care, digital health’s growing divide, new federal healthcare proposals, shifting nutrition guidelines, flu treatment advances, data interoperability battles, and how AI agents from OpenAI and Anthropic are beginning to reshape clinical workflows, consumer health access, and everyday work.4:12 - Pace of Inflation Held Steady in December; Consumer Prices Up 2.7% on Year WSJ5:19 - America’s Job Market Has Entered the Slow Lane WSJ7:54 - Home Sales in December Jump 5.1%, Biggest Gain in Nearly 2 Years WSJ10:26 - This Startup Wants to Bring Cancer Patients' Care at Home WSJ15:44 - 2025 year-end digital health funding overview: A tale of two markets Rock Health13:51 - US healthcare spending climbed 7.2% in 2024: 8 things to know Beckers17:55 - White House: The Great Healthcare Plan White House website20:58 - RFK Jr.-Backed Dietary Guidelines Say to Avoid Processed Foods, Double Protein WSJ22:19 - UnitedHealth Used Aggressive Tactics to Boost Medicare Payments, Senate Report Finds WSJ23:56 - Kaiser Permanente to pay $556M to settle Medicare Advantage fraud claims Fierce Healthcare25:24 - UnitedHealthcare unveils pilot to accelerate payments to rural hospitals Fierce Healthcare26:15 - Nearly 15,000 Nurses Go on Strike at Major New York City Hospitals NYTN/A - Walmart Launches Digital Healthcare Platform to Cut Prices on Some Health Items WSJ27:48 - Epic sues health information network over alleged medical record misuse Healthcare Dive31:58 - Boston Scientific to snap up thrombectomy specialist Penumbra in deal valued at $14.5B Fierce Healthcare33:09 - The Flu Is Surging. How Antivirals Can Help. WSJ35:22 - Polymarket, Dow Jones Partner to Display Prediction-Markets Data in Dow Jones Content WSJ37:33Advancing Claude in healthcare and the life sciences Anthropic website38:32 - Example Claude for MRI Interpretation X40:10 - OpenAI acquires healthcare startup Torch to build out ChatGPT Health Fierce HealthcareN/A - OpenEvidence makes the case for AI-powered 'medical super-intelligence' Fierce Healthcare42:17 - Google Gemini Partnership With Apple Will Go Beyond Siri Revamp MacRumors44:00 - Anthropic’s new Cowork tool offers Claude Code without the code Tech Crunch44:49 - Claude Cowork X
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    56 min
  • 172 - AI Is Quietly Taking Over Healthcare and Most People Have No Idea

    172 - AI Is Quietly Taking Over Healthcare and Most People Have No Idea
    Jan 10 2026
    Vic and Marcus open the year by unpacking how shifting political power, market dynamics, and AI acceleration are reshaping healthcare and the broader economy. They discuss Wall Street’s continued dominance, job market signals, venture capital strategies, and how AI is redefining everything from drug discovery to prescription renewals. The episode covers policy changes around vaccines, women’s health screening, federal funding freezes, hospital consolidation, payer pressure on providers, and the growing role of consumer wearables. They also examine OpenAI’s deepening move into healthcare, the risks and limits of clinical AI, Nvidia’s expanding dominance, and what these forces mean for entrepreneurs, healthcare operators, and patients navigating a rapidly fragmenting system.Links6:54 - Dow Extends Rally, Closing Above 49000 for First Time WSJ11:22 - The number of available jobs in the US just hit its lowest level in more than a year CNN16:18 - Venture Firm Antler Made Over 400 Investments Last Year—and Just Reloaded With $160 Million WSJ 20:29 - HRSA endorses at-home screening recommendations for cervical cancer Fierce Healthcare24:15 - CDC Pares List of Recommended Childhood Vaccines WSJDoctronic receives approval to use AI to renew medical prescriptions with no doctor involved. X28:39 - Utah has become the first state to allow AI to renew medical prescriptions with no doctor involved34:09 - (Wrong Link) Health Dept. to Freeze $10 Billion in Funding to 5 Democratic States40:31 - FDA paves way for more consumer wearables, AI-enabled devices to hit the market Fierce Healthcare43:44 - 340B rebate pilot put on hold in temporary win for hospitals Healthcare Dive45:52 - UnitedHealthcare raises bar for doctors to get paid for radiology services Healthcare Dive51:32 - 21,000 New York nurses to launch strike Jan. 12 Fierce Healthcare52:27 -New Jersey healthcare giant poised to acquire another hospital Healthcare Dive53:29 - Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy Pill Now Broadly Available Across U.S. WSJ54:21 - AbbVie Near Deal for Revolution Medicines WSJ55:28 - Eli Lilly Nears Deal for Biotech Ventyx WSJ56:19 - Eli Lilly, AI Drug-Discovery Company Nimbus Partner on Oral Obesity Treatment WSJ57:22 - Introducing ChatGPT Health OpenAI59:34 - 40M users turn to ChatGPT daily for health questions: OpenAI Fierce Healthcare1:04:38 - Hospitals Are a Proving Ground for What AI Can Do, and What It Can’t WSJ1:11:06 - Nvidia Unveils Faster AI Chips Sooner Than Expected WSJ1:14:29 - Lego Smart Play hands-on: Using Smart Brick technology to get kids to play together
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    1 h et 21 min
  • 171 - Is AI Actually a Bubble or the Most Misunderstood Technology of Our Time?

    171 - Is AI Actually a Bubble or the Most Misunderstood Technology of Our Time?
    Dec 20 2025
    Vic and Marcus break down rising unemployment and cooling inflation, debate whether the Fed is behind the curve, and unpack what those signals mean for markets heading into next year. They cover major healthcare funding rounds across pediatrics, cardiology, and AI-enabled front offices, examine payer losses and policy shifts impacting subsidies and gender-affirming care, and analyze FDA clearances pointing to renewed medical innovation. The conversation expands into crypto and AI, including JPMorgan’s tokenized money fund, prediction markets, OpenAI’s government partnerships, and mounting concerns over an AI bubble, enterprise adoption, and the future of energy, jobs, and economic power.Links00:00 - Intro2:04 - U.S. Unemployment Rose in November ​Despite Job Gains WSJ3:44 - Inflation Eased to 2.7% in Report Distorted by Government Shutdown WSJ4:41 - Clarity Pediatrics lands $14.5M to treat childhood obesity Modern Healthcare6:15 - Leona Health: $14 Million Seed Funding Raised And WhatsApp AI Copilot For Doctors Launched Pulse 2.07:46 - Wearlinq secures $14M to scale wireless heart monitor MobiHealth9:52 - Auxira Health Secures $7.8M for Virtual Cardiology Platform MedCity10:41 - Valerie Health Raises $30M Series A to Bring AI Front Office to Independent Provider Groups Fox4011:44 - Wall Street Gets a Taste of Blockbuster Stock-Market Debuts Ahead WSJ13:09 - House passes healthcare affordability bill without subsidy extension Fierce Healthcare14:53 - HHS moves to cut federal funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to minors Fierce Healthcare16:43 - FDA clearances: BlueWind Medical, Bendit Technologies Modern Healthcare18:41 - Highmark posts $24.6B in revenue through Q3 as utilization pressures persist Fierce Healthcare19:25 - UnitedHealthcare to hold off on remote patient monitoring policy Modern Healthcare20:13 - Kaiser pulls plans from Georgia insurance exchange Modern Healthcare21:44 - New York doles out $300M to fund health IT, hospital cybersecurity projects Fierce Healthcare23:24 - GSK Gets FDA Approval for New Severe Asthma Drug With a Dosing Advantage MedCity24:00 - Cencora to acquire majority stake in OneOncology for $5B Fierce Healthcare25:35 - JPMorgan Steps Further Into Crypto With Tokenized Money Fund WSJ26:43 - Coinbase Joins With Kalshi to Enter the Surging Prediction-Markets Business WSJ31:37 - The Political Skirmish Over Trump’s AI Order Is Just the Beginning WSJ34:06AI-Themed Stocks Take More Hits, Sending Nasdaq Lower WSJ45:49 - CoreWeave’s Staggering Fall From Market Grace Highlights AI Bubble Fears WSJ48:09 - OpenAI in Talks to Raise $10 Billion From Amazon, Use Its Chips Bloomberg50:02 - Google Says Its New Gemini 3 Flash AI Model Is Better and Faster Than 2.5 Pro CNET51:30 - Deepening our collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy OpenAI
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    59 min
  • 170 - The Fed’s Quiet U-Turn: Repo Stress, Surprise QE, and What It Means Next

    170 - The Fed’s Quiet U-Turn: Repo Stress, Surprise QE, and What It Means Next
    Dec 13 2025
    Vic and Marcus cover the Fed’s 25 bps rate cut, dissenting votes, questions around jobs data, and renewed balance-sheet expansion tied to repo stress. They break down key healthcare and VC moves including AI-driven patient communications, mental health platform expansion, pediatric and NICU innovation, obesity-drug updates, and major payer and policy developments, plus notable market shifts spanning CVS, CMS, FDA actions, and accelerating AI adoption across healthcare and finance.Links00:42 - Fed Cuts Rates Again, Signals It May Be Done for Now WSJ1:47 - Fed Chair Jerome Powell Says U.S. May Be Drastically Overstating Jobs Numbers WSJ3:42 - Fed to Resume Net Asset Purchases With $40 Billion in Securities This Month WSJ8:58 - Aradigm launches out of stealth with platform for cell, gene therapy benefits Fierce Healthcare9:26 - General Catalyst Leads $50M Round to Expand Radial’s Interventional Psychiatry Network BH BusinessN/A - Subsense raises $10M for neurotech Axios10:09 - AngelEye Health Raises $9M Series C to Bring AI-Driven Insights to the NICU HIT11:47 - Origin Therapy, a Fairfax, Va.-based enabler of private practice pediatric speech LinkedIn12:46 - Parallel: $20 Million Series B Raised After Students Achieve 98% IEP Goal Success Pulse 2.014:01 - Artera clinches $65M in funding to build out AI agents for patient communication Fierce Healthcare18:43 - Senate health bills fail as exchange subsidy expiration nears Modern Healthcare19:32 - HCA, Tenet, UHS receive FTC letter over noncompete agreements Modern Healthcare20:53 - Texas files antitrust suit against Epic over health data Modern Healthcare21:42 - What medtech firms can learn from Whoop’s warning letter Healthcare Dive24:41 - CMS targets chronic care, nutrition in ‘MAHA’ Medicare payment model Modern Healthcare26:10 - CVS Health Boosts Guidance, Expects Momentum to Continue WSJN/A - CVS to launch ‘engagement’ platform in gamble on consumer, industry interest Healthcare Dive26:55 - Minnesota petitions to seize control of troubled UCare Modern Healthcare 28:11 - Major Weight Loss and Knee-Pain Relief Seen With New Eli Lilly Drug NYT28:59 - Pfizer’s Appetite for More Obesity Meds Leads to $150M Deal for Oral GLP-1 Drug From China MedCity29:18 - J.P. Morgan taps Solana for Galaxy’s tokenized corporate bond issuance Cointelegraph31:27 - Coinbase Expands Reach of Stablecoin-Based AI Agent Payments Tool Coindesk32:17 - Gemini wins CFTC approval for prediction market, may expand into crypto futures, options and perps The Block33:57 - Athenahealth integrates Dragon Copilot AI assistant as Microsoft moves deeper into ambulatory care Fierce Healthcare34:40 - Healthcare in the biggest AI vertical mkt today by a lot X36:10 - OpenAI updates ChatGPT after "Code Red" scramble Axios40:05 - Anthropic and Accenture Strike AI Deal Targeting Business Clients WSJ42:24 - Disney Agrees to Bring Its Characters to OpenAI’s Sora Videos NYT
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    50 min
  • 169 - The AI Breakpoint | Why Healthcare Leaders Must Leave the “Cage” Now

    169 - The AI Breakpoint | Why Healthcare Leaders Must Leave the “Cage” Now
    Dec 6 2025

    Vic and Marcus cover Marcus’s recent keynote to community health centers, the industry’s struggle to break out of legacy regulatory thinking, and why AI is becoming essential as labor and funding decline. They analyze unreliable jobless-claim data, Powell’s rate-cut outlook, and how AI is reshaping the relationship between labor, productivity, and corporate earnings. They discuss CMS rolling back staffing mandates, vaccine-policy debates, the extension of hospital-at-home, and Humana’s move into employer drug-cost management. The episode highlights HIMSS & Hers expanding into diagnostics, the rising burden of caring for aging parents, Texas buying Bitcoin, Google challenging OpenAI, Anthropic’s Opus 4.5, and character.ai restricting teen companion bots.

    Links

    7:20 - Jobless Claims Fell to New Recent Low Per Labor Department WSJ

    11:31 - Fed Chair Powell’s Allies Provide Opening for December Rate Cut WSJ

    26:13 - HHS repeals staffing mandate for long-term care Healthcare Finance

    31:18 - FDA adopts agentic artificial intelligence in latest push to infuse AI into agency Fierce Healthcare

    ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) STRATEGY HHS

    FDA Official Pledges New Vaccine Standards WSJ

    33:05 - House votes to extend acute hospital care at home Healthcare Finance

    35:39 - Mark Cuban's Cost Plus Drugs, Humana exploring partnership to tackle employer drug costs Fierce Healthcare

    38:38 - Hims & Hers expands into diagnostics, moves into Canada as it evolves DTC telehealth platform Fierce Healthcare

    39:48 - ‘We Had No Idea What Was Coming’: Caring for My Aging Father NYT-op

    46:19 - Texas Puts $10M Into Bitcoin as BTC Fights to Hold $78K Support Coin Paper

    47:19 - OpenAI Declares ‘Code Red’ as Google Threatens AI Lead WSJ

    50:35 - Anthropic introduces cheaper, more powerful, more efficient Opus 4.5 model ArsTechnica

    53:35 - Teens Are Saying Tearful Goodbyes to Their AI Companions WSJ
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    57 min
  • 168 - The Hidden Medicaid Crisis No One Is Ready For

    168 - The Hidden Medicaid Crisis No One Is Ready For
    Nov 22 2025

    Vic and guest host Dr. Kam Matthews cover the week’s major healthcare, policy, and AI stories, including Medicaid funding threats, provider-network gaps, economic updates, new VC raises, and major clinical and pharma developments. They discuss wealth-tax proposals, insurer policy changes, hospital system financials, new maternal and SDOH AI tools, obesity-drug price cuts, and breakthroughs in cancer and antiviral treatments, closing with updates on AI market shifts, Nvidia’s earnings, and Google’s Gemini release.

    Links

    4:25 - Hiring Defied Expectations in September, With 119,000 New Jobs WSJ

    6:51 - WellBeam closes $10 Million Series A to Transform Clinical Interoperability and Care Coordination between Acute and Post-Acute Providers GlobeNewswire

    9:01 -FamilyWell Health Secures $8 M Series A Led by Maryland’s New Markets Venture Partners Amid National Expansion CityBiz

    10:22 - Thrivory Raises $3.5M in Equity Funding; Up To $25M in Credit Funding FinSMES

    11:36 - Function Health Hits $2.5B Valuation With $298M Series B MedCity

    14:40 - The California Campaign to Introduce a First-of-Its-Kind Billionaire’s Tax WSJ

    21:25 - When the G.O.P. Medicaid Cuts Arrive, These Hospitals Will Be Hit Hardest NYT

    23:38 - Jury orders Apple to pay Masimo $634M in patent fight Healthcare Dive

    25:31 - Humana, Epic collaborate to automate insurance verification, patient check-in Fierce Healthcare

    27:22 - Medical orgs press Anthem to pull back out-of-network care policy Fierce Healthcare

    29:41 - Aetna unveils new conversational AI navigation tool for members Fierce Healthcare

    31:48 - Medicaid Insurers Promise Lots of Doctors. Good Luck Seeing One. WSJ

    36:30 -Cigna to launch new transparent health plan called Clearity Fierce Health

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    1 h et 10 min