When employers look at all of the point solutions that are out there to add to their list of employee benefits, the top three should be…

1. Primary care
2. Primary care
3. Primary care

As a family medicine physician with an extensive background in advanced primary care, our guest today knows how true this is not just in theory, but in practice. Her work these days is getting employers to see the import of this investment as well. In her role as Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Marla McLaughlin partners directly with employers to identify workforce health priorities, design targeted strategies and apply real-time clinical insights to improve outcomes.

Dr. McLaughlin has dedicated her career to expanding access to high-quality primary care, guiding patients to the right care at the right time and fostering trusted patient-provider relationships. She believes the most effective healthcare combines technology with human-centric care to improve outcomes and experiences. McLaughlin brings that perspective and passion to Castlight Health and Vera Whole Health, where she plays a pivotal role in strengthening clinical operations, improving care quality and enhancing both patient and care team experiences.

“Let’s inspect what we expect.”

What a powerful statement. If we expect cost transparency, let’s inspect what those costs have been to date. If we expect freedom of choice, let’s evaluate how that has worked for employees up to this point. And let’s expect an “and” approach instead of an “or” approach. As I say often these days, the devil is in the details, so it only makes sense that we put some energy and effort into inspecting what those details are and have been so we can expect what they will be in the future. That’s exactly the goal and role of today’s guest.

Jeff Bak is the President of Imagine360, whose mission is to reduce health plan costs for employers, employees and their families. He has three decades of experience in managing and growing healthcare services companies. Prior to Imagine360, Jeff served as the global practice leader of the Health, Life Sciences & Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) division for Wipro Limited, and was the president and CEO of HealthPlan Holdings (HPH)—a leading healthcare solutions business.

Medicare for all. Not socialized medicine, just a single, government-run system that provides healthcare.

Is it possible? Or even viable? Our guest this week on the Creating a New Healthcare podcast believes so. In fact, he sees it as the only way to ultimately address the affordability problem with healthcare, particularly for high cost conditions like cancer. In today’s episode, we talk with Dr. Troy Brennan about his book, The Transformation of American Health Insurance: On the Path to Medicare for All, and why a single payer, government system is needed, and how the changes the current administration has made to our public health systems is taking us backwards, not forward.

Troyen Brennan is an Adjunct Professor at Harvard Chan School of Public Health. He was formerly the Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for CVS Health and Aetna. Before that, he was the President of the Brigham and Women’s Physician Organization and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He was also Professor of Law and Public Health at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health. Brennan was formerly the Chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. He has published six books and over 600 articles.