The Heart of Healthcare | A Digital Health Podcast

Health insurance has a Net Promoter Score of around 0-10 industry-wide, one of the lowest ratings of any industry. This is exactly why the founders of Oscar Health, with no background in healthcare and a distaste for the industry, started the company in 2012. Since then, Oscar has grown to 1.7 million members, gone public, and achieved profitability—all while receiving an NPS significantly higher than the industry average.

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In this month's Digital Health Download, Steve, Halle, and Michael take a deliberately optimistic look at key headlines in healthcare technology. From the impressive impact of AI scribing tools on physician satisfaction to encouraging survival rates among digital health unicorns from the ZIRP-era, the hosts highlights bright spots in an often challenging industry.

We cover:

🏆 Rock Health's 10th annual Consumer Adoption Surv...

Venture capital in healthcare has evolved from "the trailer park of venture investing" to a fundamental core tenant of the ecosystem, reflecting a quarter-century transformation of the entire industry.

In this episode, we sit down with Mohamad Makhzoumi, co-CEO of NEA, who shares his 25-year journey from unpaid intern to leader of one of the largest healthcare investment funds, offering his insights into the evolution of he...

One in four Americans relies on Medicaid, yet the program faces billions in federal funding cuts.

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Rajaie Batniji, co-founder and CEO of Waymark, about delivering tech-enabled community care to Medicaid patients.

We discuss what cuts to Medicaid could mean, the impact of "value veneers", and how predictive algorithms can overcome bias in healthcare delivery. Dr. Batniji also shares his perso...

In 2020, telemedicine company Teladoc acquired remote patient monitoring company Livongo for a record $18.5 billion, creating a $38 billion entity. Today, the combined company is worth less than a tenth of that.

Rebecca Mitchell, who spent years as a product leader at both companies, reveals how this landmark healthcare deal fell short of expectations despite strong underlying products, and what we can learn from it.

We also...

Startup capital accelerator and venture capital firm Y Combinator has a long history of backing healthcare startups, with a particular focus on technical founders tackling difficult problems. In this episode, YC partners Jared Friedman and Ankit Gupta share their insights on healthcare investment, the transformative potential of AI, and why they believe young, tactical founders will continue to disrupt the healthcare indus...

In this monthly healthcare news roundup, Halle and Steve break down the biggest healthcare headlines this month.

We cover:

🏥 How a $5/month medication subscription service is improving adherence and saving patients money

🧠 How microplastic levels in our brains have increased 50% in just eight years

⚕️ The viral beef between a surgeon and UnitedHealthcare

💉 Louisiana's decision to stop promoting vaccination and the politiciza...

From law school to leading one of healthcare's most successful value-based care companies, Oak Street Health co-founder Mike Pykos shares the story of building, scaling, and ultimately selling his company to CVS for $11 billion.

He reveals the challenges of scaling a new care model, the importance of focusing on outcomes over financials, and what it takes to transform American healthcare.

We cover:

🏥 Why Oak Street intention...

Full-body MRIs are a controversial and expensive screening tool that some believe could revolutionize early cancer detection, while others worry they create unnecessary anxiety and waste medical resources.

In this episode, we dive deep into this debate with Emi Gal, founder & CEO of Ezra, who is using AI to make full-body MRI screening faster, more accessible, and more accurate.

We cover:

🏥 What are full-body MRI scans, ...

From fast food drive-throughs to Netflix autoplay, many of America's favorite products are designed to maximize profits at the expense of our health. But Thomas Goetz, co-founder of Building H, believes there's a better way. In this episode about corporate responsibility and public health, the former WIRED editor explains why changing company behavior may be easier than changing consumer habits – and how a new health accou...

2025 has started with sobering reminders of healthcare's challenges, while also showcasing technology's potential to save lives. Join us for this week's episode as we analyze recent headlines:

🏥 UnitedHealth's first earnings report since CEO's murder

🔥 How the Watch Duty app is helping Californians navigate devastating wildfires

🏛️ FDA's flurry of new health protection rules

📊 A concerning new report on healthcare conso...

From selling deceased patients' body parts to denying cancer treatment over upfront payments, the Lown Institute's annual Shkreli Awards spotlight the most egregious examples of profiteering and dysfunction in American healthcare. Dr. Vikas Saini, President of the Lown Institute, walks us through 2024's (dis)honorees and what they reveal about the state of our healthcare system.

We cover:

🏆 The origin and impact of the Shkr...

In this bonus episode, Bessemer Venture Partners’ Healthcare and Life Sciences team shares the top industry developments they anticipate in the year to come.

We cover:

⚖️ The future of Obamacare under Trump

💊 Novel drug modalities

📊 Improved GLP-1 payment models

🏥 Caregiver workforce shifts

🤖 Multimodal clinical AI in practice

🔮 And more!

Join Bessemer Partners Steve Kraus and Andrew Hedin, and Vice Presidents Sofia Guerra an...

"Healthcare attracts a lot of good people, but it also attracts a lot of morally unscrupulous people who consistently demonstrate their willingness to do horribly unethical stuff to make a lot of money."

Join us for many mic-drop moments with recording artist-turned-healthcare-investor D.A. Wallach, who tells it like it is—but in a nice way only someone who grew up in the Midwest can.

From questioning the "doctor" honorific ...

As thousands of healthcare leaders descend on San Francisco for the annual JPM Healthcare Conference, Steve and Michael break down January's biggest stories in digital health. From unprecedented bipartisan scrutiny of PBMs to surprising patient satisfaction data and the industry's first major M&A deal of the year, 2025 is already shaping up to be transformative for healthcare.

We cover:

🏥 Why PBMs are suddenly in the cr...

Five-time Midas List investor Annie Lamont has seen every healthcare cycle since the genomics revolution. Now, as co-founder of Oak HC/FT and early investor in category-defining companies like One Medical, Athena Health, and Devoted Health, she believes 2025 could mark the return of animal spirits to healthcare investing. In this forward-looking conversation, Annie shares why AI might finally deliver on technology's promis...

From the return of "historic norms" in funding to the rise of AI and strategic pharma partnerships, 2024 was quite the year for digital health. Rock Health Advisory CEO Megan Zweig joins us on this episode to unpack a year defined by resilience, consolidation, and the 'revenge of the Goliaths.' We look at the funding data, reveal how the industry's unicorns survived their valuation hangovers, and share why 2024 might be re...

After building and selling Meebo, Seth Sternberg wanted his next venture to transform lives at scale. A decade later, Honor has become the world's largest in-home senior care network, delivering care to 35,000 US homes daily. In this candid conversation, Sternberg reveals how AI saved the company from near collapse in 2015 and why treating caregivers like true professionals creates better outcomes for everyone.

We cover:

🏠 ...

"There's been a degree of toxic positivity in US healthcare," says Dr. Sachin Jain, CEO of SCAN Health Plan. In this episode about healthcare's need for radical change, Dr. Jain challenges industry orthodoxy and calls for a leadership revolution. From Medicare Advantage turbulence to the failures of healthcare consolidation, he offers an insider's view of what needs to change.

We cover:

🔄 Why healthcare needs to move beyond...