HealthBiz with David E. Williams David E. Williams

In this episode, Dr. Tamir Aldad, founder and CEO of Mindful Care, joins me to discuss strategies for addressing the challenges in mental health accessibility and costs. Dr. Aldad brings a unique blend of medical insight and business expertise, advocating for and implementing a model that integrates social impact with economic viability. He shares a tragic experience from his residency that exposed significant shortcomings in our mental healthcare system, which motivated the creation of Mindful Care.
Our discussion delves into the current issues faced by mental health providers, such as complex insurance reimbursement processes and the issue of patient selectivity due to high demand. We discuss the impact of social media and the role of virtual and hybrid care.
We  discuss Mindful Care's success to date, plans for expansion, and how input from referral partners and community feedback is crucial in reaching underserved populations.



Host David E. Williams is president of healthcare strategy consulting firm Health Business Group. Produced by Dafna Williams.

Menthol cigarettes, the FTC's attempts to boost competition in healthcare, the mental health of Jewish college students, and the TikTok ban. What do they all have in common?

Not much, except that they were all in the news this week and I chose to discuss them on a rare solo episode.

Don't like what you hear? Don't worry, I'll be back next week with a fresh guest.
Host David E. Williams is president of healthcare strategy consulting firm Health Business Group. Produced by Dafna Williams.

Massachusetts Association of Health Plans (MAHP) leader Lora Pellegrini got interested in policy and politics at a young age. She had the opportunity to work with luminaries like Ted Kennedy and John Kerry early in her career, as she rose to prominence in healthcare policy.
Our discussion focuses on critical issues such as pharmaceutical pricing and hospital efficiency in Massachusetts. We explore the regulatory challenges in drug pricing and the necessity for hospital systems to innovate and enhance performance. Lora provides expert analysis on the impact of major players like Steward Healthcare and Optum in the Massachusetts healthcare sector. 

She also shares the historical perspective on healthcare reform in Massachusetts, and issues a call for employers to re-engage in support of affordability as they did back in the days of RomneyCare.
Host David E. Williams is president of healthcare strategy consulting firm Health Business Group. Produced by Dafna Williams.

Ironically, patient care coordination itself is often uncoordinated. It's spread across multiple providers and administrators, causing frustration for care teams and patients.

Lumeon founder and CEO Robbie Hughes has developed an approach that makes the care journey more reliable rather than settling for the current craziness, where patients are expected to be satisfied as long as they get some time with a doctor.

One of the really interesting elements of this interview was the discussion of whether we should be willing to trade off some efficacy for reliability. For example, if we had a treatment path that was 80 percent as good but could be followed by 100 percent of the patients, would that be better than striving for the perfect solution that only 1 percent can attain?

From a population health perspective, the 80/100 calculus is probably correct, but most of us want to be in that 1 percent.  I've certainly had that experience myself of navigating the system with help from well-placed insiders plus my own knowledge of how things work.

Robbie is an avid reader who recommends The Experience Machine, Chip Wars, and Ultra-Processed People.
Host David E. Williams is president of healthcare strategy consulting firm Health Business Group. Produced by Dafna Williams.

Matthias Hoffman first became conscious of his vision as a teenager. He and his friends in Switzerland dreamed of becoming pilots (none actually did) but Matthias's hopes were dashed early on due to inadequate vision.

While pursuing electrical engineering degrees, he realized his strength was in building things. So he left academia and worked in a variety of vision and optical startups, eventually leading significant teams.

Many people who could benefit skip their eye exams, and for more than a decade entrepreneurs have been trying smartphone based eye exams and online eyeglass sales, often with virtual try-ons. But those have been failures. The exam interface is too complex and burdensome, and people want to try on their glasses at retail.

Eyebot is an automated eye exam designed to produce a prescription at the point of sale, i.e., retail stores. It takes 90 seconds and doesn't require the person being examined to do anything special. Eyebot has developed its own technology and eventually plans to expand beyond the basic exam to more advanced screening for things like glaucoma.

But Matthias stresses that Eyebot has no intention of taking away the jobs of eye care professionals.



Host David E. Williams is president of healthcare strategy consulting firm Health Business Group. Produced by Dafna Williams.

Most medical bills contain errors. Over-billing and outright fraud are far too common. What's a consumer to do? 

In this episode,  CEO Scott Speranza shares how HealthLock performs automated audits of medical bills by seamlessly connecting with the patient's health plan portal. We also discuss an exciting new partnership with MasterCard that gives many cardholders (including me) free access.

I connected my insurance to HealthLock and soon got a helpful audit of my claims (which turned out to be clean --thanks Harvard Pilgrim!)

Scott unravels the complexities of coordination of benefits --where he offers reflection on my experience with my dependents--, the significance of automated HIPAA authorizations, and provides practical insights for managing family healthcare. And he shares his views on the delicate balance of privacy and oversight. 

One thing he recommends (which providers hate) is to wait for a while to pay your medical bills since charges initially attributed to the patient may actually be covered in the end.


Host David E. Williams is president of healthcare strategy consulting firm Health Business Group. Produced by Dafna Williams.