Employers sit at the center of the U.S. health system as the primary funders of coverage for more than 150 million Americans, yet they struggle with rising costs, fragmented vendors, and uneven outcomes. In this episode, we talk with Dan Mendelson, MPP, CEO of Morgan Health at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Founder and former CEO of Avalere Health. We explore his journey from health policy to now leading Morgan Health’s efforts to improve the quality, affordability and equity of employer-sponsored healthcare. We’ll learn how Morgan Health evaluates the employer market, where they’re placing investment bets, and how they are testing new care models inside JPMorgan’s own benefit. We then turn to Washington: Dan shares his take on the policy currents that matter most for employers and innovators over the next few years.

• Dan Mendelson, CEO, Morgan Health
• LinkedIn
• Forbes Contributions
• Avalere Health
• Balanced Budget Act of 1997
• Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co.
• Continuation of Health Coverage (COBRA)
• Vera Whole Health, Central Ohio Primary Care
• Centivo
• Embold Health
• Cigna Healthcare
• Quantum Health
• Thyme Care
• 60 Minutes, “$2 million gene therapy could save her baby’s life. But insurance wouldn’t pay”
• PBM Alternatives
• Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs)
• Individual Coverage Healthcare Reimbursement Accounts (ICHRA)

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The FDA’s Accelerated Approval Program (AAP) aims to bring promising, potentially life-saving medicines to patients sooner by allowing approvals based on surrogate endpoints while requiring timely confirmatory evidence. In this episode, we speak with Bridget Doherty, MPH, MS (Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine), and Jeff Allen, PhD (Friends of Cancer Research). Bridget discusses her team’s review of the AAP’s real-world impact, showing that hundreds of thousands of meaningful life-years have been gained for patients. Jeff shares findings from work strengthening biomarkers as reliable surrogate endpoints—helping define when increased speed can still preserve scientific rigor. We also explore the core access challenge: how payer coverage and utilization management help or hinder patients the AAP is designed to serve. We close with practical policy steps to ensure that earlier regulatory access truly leads to better outcomes for people who need treatments most.

• Bridget Doherty, MPH, MS, Johnson & Johnson

• Jeff Allen, Friends of Cancer Research

• J&J Center for U.S. Healthcare Policy Research

• Friends of Cancer Research

• Accelerated Approvals in Oncology Tracker

• Drug Development Dashboards

• 30 Years of Accelerated Approval: Data-Driven Insights

• Analysis of FDA Biomarker Qualification Program

• Original JNCCN Study

• How Gleevec Transformed Leukemia Treatment

• Immunotherapy

• Surrogate Endpoints

• Confirmatory Trials

• Years Gained from the FDA Accelerated Approval Program (2024)

• Circulating Tumor DNA (ctDNA)

• ctMoniTR Project

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In this episode, we talk with Richard Xie, Senior Health Economist at RA Capital, and Gunnar Esiason, Senior Director of Patient Engagement at Raven (RA Capital Ventures), about value frameworks in pharma. We unpack how Generalized Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (GCEA) builds on traditional Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (CEA) and differs from ICER’s model. The conversation explores what these approaches mean for pricing, access, and patient voice—especially in rare and high-innovation settings.

Through the Cidara CD388 flu drug case, we discuss how assumptions shape value and trade-offs from manufacturer and patient perspectives. The episode highlights how evidence, incentives, and outcomes align—or conflict—in today’s system, and what reforms could better connect value frameworks to affordability and equitable access.

• Richard Xie, Senior Health Economist, RA Capital Management
• Gunnar Esiason, MBA, MPH, Senior Director, Head of Patient Engagement and Patient-Centered Innovation, Raven (RA Capital Ventures)
• Patient-Centered Value Assessment Models
• Episode 26: Sarah Emond, ICER
• Peter Kolchinski, The Great American Drug Deal
• NICE (UK)
• CDA (Canada)
• Australia CHAP
• Trikafta
• ICER Report on Cystic Fibrosis
• No Patient Left Behind
• GCEA Calculator
• Boomer Esiason Foundation
• Aurora Biosciences
• Most-Favored-Nation Drug Pricing Order

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