Podcasts about CMS

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Latest podcast episodes about CMS

Podcast – Kitchen Sink WordPress
Podcast E629 – When the Workload Quietly Doubles or Triples!

Podcast – Kitchen Sink WordPress

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 16, 2026 10:58


This week I Talk About When the Workload Quietly Doubles or Triples! [powerpress]

Smart Agency Masterclass with Jason Swenk: Podcast for Digital Marketing Agencies
Burned Out Agency Owner to AI Architect: The Real Shift Founders Must Make With Austin Armstrong | Ep #888

Smart Agency Masterclass with Jason Swenk: Podcast for Digital Marketing Agencies

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 15, 2026 29:23


Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training How are you protecting yourself from the real risk of owner burnout? Agency owners often burn out because they built a business that depends entirely on them. Today's featured guest is a former agency owner turned AI SaaS founder. He'll unpack what really caused his agency collapse, what he learned from it, and how he rebuilt from a completely different role. Austin Armstrong is the owner of Syllaby, a tool for social media marketing that helps users create their very own realistic digital clone to personalize their marketing efforts, allowing them to forge a deeper connection with their audience. Austin spent over a decade in the agency world, working his way up from intern to running an agency before launching his own. For a while, it worked, until the cracks appeared. His agency was built around organic marketing and heavily centered on his personal brand. High months meant hiring fast. Low months meant wondering if payroll would clear. When a few large clients (that accounted for about 60% of monthly revenue) churned, the instability became unbearable. So Austin made his tech pivot and moved to starting Syllaby, which also came with a role pivot. More recently, he just released his first book Virality and is the co-founder of the upcoming AI marketing World conference. In this episode, we'll discuss: From agency failure to early AI adopter Why the founder bottleneck is emotional The founder evolution model AI exposes weaknesses Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources This episode is brought to you by Wix Studio: If you're leveling up your team and your client experience, your site builder should keep up too. That's why successful agencies use Wix Studio — built to adapt the way your agency does: AI-powered site mapping, responsive design, flexible workflows, and scalable CMS tools so you spend less on plugins and more on growth. Ready to design faster and smarter? Go to wix.com/studio to get started. Making the Decision to Be an Early Adopter When he started Syllaby, Austin could already see the writing on the wall with AI. He was already not happy navigating the agency world, so the question was, "Do I want to place a bet as an early adopter of this technology? Potentially cannibalizing my own agency?" He spoke with several clients and business owners and came to the conclusion that most people hire an agency because they know they need to create content to be relevant, but didn't know how to pick the right topics, and in many cases didn't want to be on camera. They needed help staying consistent and accountable. Some of them don't even have the money to hire an agency, but still have a message and an expertise to share. So Austin started to look for ways to automate those processes using AI. The Founder Bottleneck Is Emotional Before It's Operational The emotional weight of the unraveling of Austin's agency was real. Nightmares about client complaints. Constant vigilance. Inability to disconnect. Eventually, he decided to make a bet on AI and launched Syllaby, an AI-powered content platform designed to automate much of what agencies manually execute, from topic discovery to scripting to publishing. Now, looking back, he sees his agency's failure came from several mistakes. It wasn't bad marketing or lack of demand. It was structural dependency. The agency relied on: His personal brand His client relationships His decision-making His emotional capacity When large clients churned, revenue collapsed because concentration risk hadn't been designed out of the model. When delivery required nuance, he couldn't step away because "he stirred the pot." This is the Operator trap. The Founder Evolution Model Most founders believe they own an agency. In reality, the agency owns them. What is supposed to happen as your agency evolves is that your role in it evolves as follows: Operator → Manager → Architect → CEO → Owner At the Operator level: Sales depends on you. Delivery depends on you. Escalations go to you. Pricing goes through you. And when you focus on one area, another suffers. Systems Create Freedom But They Also Create Identity Shifts As the owner, being needed feels good and letting go feels disorienting. Austin acknowledged this tension. In his agency, clients wanted him. Even with SOPs, some work required nuance. Some of it was ego. Some of it was positioning. Some of it was hiring the wrong people in the wrong seats. Having learned his lesson, things look very different in his SaaS company, where he can rely on strong partners, defined ownership, AI-supported workflows, and clear decision rights. Now he can disappear for two weeks, go skiing with family, speak at events, and the business doesn't break. AI Exposes Weakness All over the industry owners agree that AI isn't replacing strong agencies. It's exposing weak ones. At Syllaby, Austin has integrated AI so much is hard to think where he DOESN'T use it. He automates what many agencies sell manually: SEO-based topic discovery Script generation Video creation Scheduling and publishing For smaller businesses, this lowers the barrier to entry. For agencies, it creates leverage. Which tool are owners using? This varies from time to time. What you should be doing is testing them all out to see which ones work better for you, as well as creating a brief with all the information you'll need in case you decide to migrate to a different tool. Jason calls this his "AI Operating Brief", a master document loaded with: Company positioning Customer data Success stories CRM insights Transcripts Strategic principles Once embedded into AI tools, it eliminates repetitive context-setting and removes founder bottlenecks. Austin does something similar with what he calls his "Austin Codex", years of content, frameworks, and intellectual property housed inside AI models. The result is institutional memory without constant founder involvement. Time Audits Reveal the Hidden Ceiling Austin is a big fan of the full-time audit exercise: For one to two weeks, document: Every task Start and end times Whether it's mandatory or optional Your enjoyment level The dollar value of your time The outcome is uncomfortable. Once you're done, you'll see which $10 tasks eating $1,000/hour time, the emotional drain disguised as "important work", and the distractions masquerading as urgency. He outsourced email management, calendar coordination, travel booking — all consolidated into a daily executive summary delivered where he actually spends time. Not because he can't do it, but because he shouldn't. The bigger lesson: you don't scale an agency… you outgrow your role. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

Hospice Explained Podcast
179 Hospice Is About Living: Honest Conversations, Palliative vs. Hospice, and Supporting Nurses with Gina Harris MSN, MSQT

Hospice Explained Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 15, 2026 30:42


179 Hospice Is About Living: Honest Conversations, Palliative vs. Hospice, and Supporting Nurses with Gina Harris MSN, MSQT Host Marie Betcher, a registered nurse and former hospice nurse, interviews Gina Harris MSN, MSQT, Chief Clinical Officer at Marisol Health in South Carolina, about hospice education and reducing fear around end-of-life care. Gina shares her career path from mortgage banking to 25 years in nursing, including critical care leadership and work as a CMS-certified surveyor, and explains how hospice nursing is emotionally demanding and often undervalued. The conversation centers on the need for honest communication about dying, including a story of a woman with recurring cancer who pursued a third major surgery before choosing hospice and dying days later, highlighting "chasing normal" and the limits of prognostic estimates. Gina describes hospice as support for living with comfort and dignity, outlines palliative care versus hospice, and explains how Marisol trains staff through in-services, role playing, interdisciplinary visits, and certification. 00:00 Welcome and Disclaimer 00:29 Meet Host Marie 00:45 Introducing Gina Harris MSN, MSQT 02:11 Gina's Nursing Journey 04:09 Why Hospice Matters 06:05 Coaching Nurses to Talk 08:29 Chasing Normal Story 13:42 Hard Truths and Hospice 18:21 Hospice Is About Living 20:23 Palliative vs Hospice Care 23:32 Training Staff for Truth 26:44 Hospice as a Choice 28:15 Signing Up and Opting Out 29:42 Closing Thanks and Location 30:21 Final Wrap Up   https://mirasolhealth.org/   If you want to help, you can donate to help support Hospice Explained at the Buy me a Coffee link   https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Hospice  Hospice Explained Affiliates & Contact Information Buying from these Affilite links will help support this Podcast.  Maire introduces a partnership with Suzanne Mayer RN inventor of the  cloud9caresystem.com,  When patients remain in the same position for extended periods, they are at high risk of developing pressure injuries, commonly known as bedsores. One of the biggest challenges caregivers face is the tendency for pillows and repositioning inserts to easily dislodge during care.(Suzanne is a former guest on Episode #119) When you order with Cloud 9 care system, please tell them you heard about them from Hospice Explained.(Thank You) Marie's Contact Marie@HospiceExplained.com www.HospiceExplained.com   Finding a Hospice Agency 1. You can use Medicare.gov to help find a hospice agency, 2. choose Find provider 3. Choose Hospice 4. then add your zip code This should be a list of Hospice Agencies local to you or your loved one.

See You Now
Insight 25: Nurse Well-Being is Foundational to Patient Safety

See You Now

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 14, 2026 7:16


More than 25 years after To Err Is Human put patient safety on the national agenda, the crisis persists. The WHO estimates that 1 in 10 patients worldwide experiences harm during medical care, and half of it is preventable. And yet one foundational factor remains overlooked: the well-being of the people delivering care. With more than half of nurses reporting burnout and hundreds of thousands expected to leave the profession, the workforce crisis and the patient safety crisis are now one and the same.  In this Insight from Episode 123: Safer Together | The Architecture of a Movement, Donald Berwick, MD, MPP, FRCP, President Emeritus and Senior Fellow at IHI and former Administrator of CMS, and Patricia McGaffigan, RN, Vice President at IHI and President of the Certification Board for Professionals in Patient Safety, make the case that healthcare must look beyond its own walls, drawing on lessons from aviation and other industries, to build cultures where psychological safety, dignity, and the freedom to speak up are the foundation of safe care. Not sentiment but essential reality. 

LARRY
Something UNBELIEVABLE Is Happening To Medicare That 35 Million Seniors Don't Know

LARRY

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 14, 2026 12:05 Transcription Available


Medicare Advantage cuts could hit seniors hard. Larry O’Connor speaks with Darren Grubb of Medicare Advantage Majority about CMS’s proposed 2027 rate increase, rising health care costs, Medicare funding, senior affordability, and what these changes could mean for premiums, deductibles, out-of-pocket costs, and access to doctors. This is a major warning for seniors, caregivers, and families counting on Medicare benefits. SHOP OUR MERCH: https://store.townhallmedia.com/ BUY A LARRY MUG: https://store.townhallmedia.com/products/larry-mug Watch LARRY with Larry O'Connor LIVE — Monday-Thursday at 12PM Eastern on YouTube, Facebook, & Rumble! Find LARRY with Larry O'Connor wherever you get your podcasts! SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/7i8F7K4fqIDmqZSIHJNhMh?si=814ce2f8478944c0&nd=1&dlsi=e799ca22e81b456f APPLE: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/larry/id1730596733 Become a Townhall VIP Member today and use promo code LARRY for 50% off: https://townhall.com/subscribe?tpcc=poddescription https://townhall.com/ https://rumble.com/c/c-5769468 https://www.facebook.com/townhallcom/ https://www.instagram.com/townhallmedia/ https://twitter.com/townhallcomBecome a Townhall VIP member with promo code "LARRY": https://townhall.com/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast
Accelerating Quality and Access at Hackensack Meridian Health with Dr. Jose Azar

Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 14, 2026 25:36


In this episode, Jose Azar, MD, Executive Vice President and Chief Quality and Clinical Service Line Officer at Hackensack Meridian Health and Professor of Medicine at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, discusses launching the Agile Institute to rapidly implement evidence based care and drive systemwide culture change. He shares how physician led collaboratives, CMS five star performance, and AI enabled access strategies are advancing quality, safety, and equitable access across the network.

Turn on the Lights Podcast
Who Sets the Table for Quality Measurement in U.S. Health Care? with Brenna Rabel & Michelle Schreiber

Turn on the Lights Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 13, 2026 48:32


How do we decide what “good care” looks like, and who gets to choose the scorecard? In this episode of Turn on the Lights, Kedar Mate speaks with Dr. Michelle Schreiber of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and Brenna Rabel of Battelle about how quality measures are developed, adopted, and applied across Medicare and Medicaid programs. They explore why measurement is essential for accountability, patient choice, and improvement, while also acknowledging its vulnerability to politics, feasibility constraints, and “teaching to the test.” Using diabetes and sepsis as examples, they explain how performance cutoffs are established, why “all-or-none” measures often face resistance, and what makes complex measures difficult to report and score. The conversation also addresses efforts to reduce reporting burden, including CMS's shift from broader MIPS reporting toward MIPS Value Pathways and the expansion of digital quality measurement through FHIR-enabled eCQMs. They conclude with a forward-looking discussion on how artificial intelligence could reduce manual chart abstraction and advance quality measurement, particularly as patient-reported outcomes play a larger role in shaping the future of value-based care. Tune in to hear how measures shape what health systems prioritize, what gets improved, and what “value” could look like in the future. Resources: Connect with and follow Dr. Michelle Schreiber on LinkedIn. Follow CMS on LinkedIn and explore their website! Connect with and follow Brenna Rabel on LinkedIn. Follow Battelle on LinkedIn and explore their website! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Health Affairs This Week
FDA & Rare Disease Drugs: Why Policy and Politics Are Heating Up

Health Affairs This Week

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 13, 2026 13:36 Transcription Available


Health Affairs' Jeff Byers welcomes Deputy Editor Leslie Erdelack back to the pod to break down recent turbulence at the FDA following the departure of Vinay Prasad, whose decisions around rare‑disease gene therapies courted controversy. They explore the fast‑growing rare disease therapeutics market, why traditional clinical trials often don't work for ultra‑rare genetic conditions, and the new FDA draft guidance for rare disease drug development. On March 24th, join us for our upcoming Insider exclusive event focusing on pharmacy benefit manager reform with Harvard Medical School's Benjamin Rome.Become an Insider to get access to this event, trend reports, cheat sheets, and exclusive newsletters.Related Articles:FDA vaccines chief who ran afoul of pharma to depart (Politico)Rare Disease Therapeutics Market to Surpass US$ 495.27 Billion by 2033 as Gene Therapy, RNA-based Drugs, and Biologics Transform Patient Care (PR Newswire)FDA NEWS RELEASE: FDA Launches Framework for Accelerating Development of Individualized Therapies for Ultra-Rare Diseases FDA illuminates new approval pathway for bespoke gene editing therapies (Fierce Biotech)One Pivotal Trial, the New Default Option for FDA Approval — Ending the Two-Trial Dogma (The New England Journal of Medicine)

Agent Survival Guide Podcast
Medicare GLP-1 Bridge Demonstration

Agent Survival Guide Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 13, 2026 16:19


The Friday Five for March 13, 2026: Headline Quick Hits AI & Critical Thinking CMS Notification: 1.3 Million MBI Reassignments 2026 Medicare Part D Enrollment Stats Medicare GLP-1 Bridge Demonstration   Get Connected:

WP Tavern
#208 – Behind the Scenes at the CloudFest Hackathon

WP Tavern

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 11, 2026 26:10


In this WP Tavern episode, Nathan Wrigley explores the CloudFest Hackathon, an event bringing together open source enthusiasts to collaborate on innovative projects in just three days. Carole Olinger, the Hackathon lead, details the organising process and project selection, talking about cross-CMS collaboration and sustainability. Contributors like Javier Casares, Matthias Pfefferle, Milana Cap, and others share their diverse projects, ranging from AI-enhanced tools to accessibility solutions. The episode covers the energy, teamwork, and lasting impact of the Hackathon on the open web community. Go listen.

The Seven Figures Or Bust Podcast!
Episode 204 - What Does The Elevance Sanction Mean?

The Seven Figures Or Bust Podcast!

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 11, 2026 59:20


Learn how to sponsor the Seven Figure Medicare Agent Summit:https://sevenfiguremedicareagentsummit.com/On this episode of the Seven Figures or Bust Podcast, we break down NABIP updates and CMS compliance actions.

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Hospice Insights: The Law and Beyond
PPEO Playbook: The High-Stakes Game Hospices Can't Afford to Lose

Hospice Insights: The Law and Beyond

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 11, 2026 24:43


In this episode, Husch Blackwell's Claire Postman joins host Bryan Nowicki to discuss CMS's provisional period of enhanced oversight (PPEO) program that has now expanded to six states. From the basics to the fallout, they unpack who is subject to PPEO, what it involves, and how to avoid and handle the worst-case consequences of a PPEO gone awry.

Agent Survival Guide Podcast
CMS Announces Part D Savings & 2027 Maximum Fair Prices for 15 New Medicare-Negotiated Drugs

Agent Survival Guide Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 11, 2026 15:06


Don't miss the 2nd round of Medicare Part D negotiated drug prices. Get the details on the prescriptions and savings for Medicare beneficiaries in 2027.   Read the text version   Get Connected:

Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Accelerating Quality and Access at Hackensack Meridian Health with Dr. Jose Azar

Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 10, 2026 25:36


In this episode, Jose Azar, MD, Executive Vice President and Chief Quality and Clinical Service Line Officer at Hackensack Meridian Health and Professor of Medicine at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, discusses launching the Agile Institute to rapidly implement evidence based care and drive systemwide culture change. He shares how physician led collaboratives, CMS five star performance, and AI enabled access strategies are advancing quality, safety, and equitable access across the network.

Older Adult to Geriatric Nutrition Answers
Pressure Injury Through Nutrition: RD Tools for Wound Recovery

Older Adult to Geriatric Nutrition Answers

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 10, 2026 27:08


Episode Overview: In this practical episode of the Long Term Care RD podcast, Michelle breaks down a real-world sample nutrition care plan for a resident with a stage 3 pressure injury. Drawing from over a decade in SNFs, we cover the Nutrition Care Process step-by-step, MDS requirements, and tips to make your documentation survey-ready while supporting better healing for your older adults. Whether you're juggling MDS deadlines or looking for quick interventions to boost protein intake, this episode is designed to save you time and build your confidence in geriatric wound care.Key Takeaways:How to craft a specific Nutrition Diagnosis (PES statement) for increased protein/energy needs tied to wounds.Setting measurable goals for healing, weight maintenance, and intake — with geriatric nuances like potential weight gain.Multi-layered interventions: From fortified foods and ONS to interdisciplinary referrals (e.g., OT for positioning).Monitoring strategies to stay proactive on quality measures and prevent burnout.A ready-to-adapt sample chart note in SOAP format for your own residents.Resources Mentioned:Downloadable Your FREE RD Starter Kit!: Grab the full example we discussed, including the resident briefing, NCP details, MDS section, and chart note. Available as a free teaser on https://fantastic-frost-95925.myflodesk.com/ggnskwevs8 — perfect for quick reference in your facility.Full Wound Healing Toolkit in Clinical Nutrition Central: For even more depth, join the membership to access downloadable templates for all wound stages, PES statement guides, charting libraries, monthly updates on CMS regs/PDPM, and a community forum for LTC RDs. Designed by someone who's been in your shoes, for RDs working with older adults. Check it out at https://clinicalnutritioncentral.comRelated Blog Post: "Wound Care Dietitian - Step by Step Practical Advice" — Read it free at https://longtermcarerd.com/wound-care-the-dietitians-role2/.Thanks for Listening! If this episode helped you feel a bit more equipped for those wound care challenges, share it with a fellow RD and subscribe for more practical geriatric nutrition tips. Got questions or episode ideas? Drop a comment on the blog or join us in Clinical Nutrition Central. You've got this — let's keep supporting our seniors together.Hosted by Michelle Saari, MS, RD LongTermCareRD.com | ClinicalNutritionCentral.com

Entrepreneurs on Fire
From $500k in Debt to The high-ticket Sales Queen: The Mindset Shifts That Changed Everything with Vivian Weyll

Entrepreneurs on Fire

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 9, 2026 23:11


Vivian Weyll, known as The Sales Queen, is a speaker and entrepreneur teaching psychology-driven influence that helps leaders and salespeople sell, lead, and communicate with authenticity and alignment. Top 3 Value Bombs 1. Real sales success comes from influence and alignment not pressure or hustle. 2. Your income is a direct reflection of your nervous system's capacity to hold wealth. 3. When you stop chasing success and start embodying authority, opportunities come to you already sold. Check out Vivian's website to learn sales psychology, neuroscience, and influence from the inside out - Vivian Weyll Sales Queen Sponsors HighLevel - The ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies. Learn more at HighLevelFire.com. 50 - Join JLD on his free '50 days to something' video series on YouTube and create something special in 50 days! Framer - A website builder that offers real-time collaboration, a robust CMS with everything you need for great SEO, and advanced analytics that include integrated A/B testing. Get started building for free today at Framer.com/fire. For 30% a Framer Pro annual plan use code FIRE!

Podcast – Kitchen Sink WordPress
Podcast E628 – WordPress Ideas That Were Too Early!?

Podcast – Kitchen Sink WordPress

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 9, 2026 11:12


This week I Talk About Products/Services Being Ahead Of Their Time [powerpress]

The Seven Figures Or Bust Podcast!
Episode 203 - What Is Really Going On At NABIP?

The Seven Figures Or Bust Podcast!

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 9, 2026 59:36


Learn how to sponsor the Seven Figure Medicare Agent Summit:https://sevenfiguremedicareagentsummit.com/Welcome to the Seven Figures or Bust Podcast — the show built for ambitious insurance agents who refuse to think small. Hosted by Christian Brindle, this podcast dives into Medicare strategy, business building, industry updates, compliance changes, mindset, leadership, and everything it really takes to scale to seven figures and beyond.Whether we're breaking down CMS changes, reacting to industry news, interviewing top-performing agents, or sharing real-world lessons from the front lines, the goal is simple: help you grow a sustainable, profitable insurance business the right way.If you're serious about winning in the Medicare space and building long-term freedom, you're in the right place. Let's get to work.

Agent Survival Guide Podcast
5 Strategies to Sell More ACA Products

Agent Survival Guide Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 9, 2026 9:10


Do you know the strategies to meet your ambitious sales goals this OEP? We share the five tips that will have your clients trusting you with their insurance needs for years to come.   Learn How to Survive OEP Join Ritter on HealthSherpa with Code FB05  

ASCO eLearning Weekly Podcasts
Exercise as Medicine: Strategies for Integrating Exercise into Cancer Care

ASCO eLearning Weekly Podcasts

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 9, 2026 18:59


Dr. Pedro Barata and Dr. Kathryn Schmitz discuss evidence-based exercise oncology programs, how to incorporate exercise into cancer care and connect the right patient to the right program, and ultimately build a culture of exercise in oncology. TRANSCRIPT Dr. Pedro Barata: Hello, and welcome to By the Book, a podcast series from ASCO that features compelling perspectives from authors and editors of the ASCO Educational Book. I'm Dr. Pedro Barata. I'm a medical oncologist and a clinical trialist at the University Hospital Seidman Cancer Center and an associate professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. I'm also happy to serve as a deputy editor for the ASCO Educational Book. Today, we'll be talking about exercise. We have plenty of evidence that exercise benefits symptoms, improves the quality of life of patients, and actually has been shown to reduce risk of recurrence of cancer but also improve survival. And I think that's increasingly clear as data emerges. Today, I'm delighted to be speaking to Dr. Kathryn Schmitz. She's a leading expert on integrating exercise into cancer care. Dr. Schmitz serves as the deputy director of the University of Pittsburgh Hillman Cancer Center and also a professor of hematology-oncology at University of Pittsburgh Medical School. She's the senior author of a fantastic article in the ASCO Educational Book that's titled "Implementation Science as the Secret Sauce for Integrating Exercise Screening and Triage Pathways in Oncology." She also led a really compelling piece that just got published in JCO titled "If Exercise Were a Pill, We'd All Prescribe It to Patients With Cancer. But It's Not" So I'm thrilled to have Dr. Schmitz joining us today and helping us explore evidence-based exercise oncology programs, how to incorporate exercise into cancer care, and also how to connect the right patient to the right program.  So with that, welcome, Dr. Schmitz. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us. Dr. Kathryn Schmitz: Thank you for the opportunity. Dr. Pedro Barata: One of the highlights of ASCO last year and practice changing, in my opinion, data out of The New England [Journal of Medicine] is called the CHALLENGE trial. It did provide high level evidence that a structured, supervised exercise program could improve both disease-free survival and overall survival. This is a study in the GI world, but I think it got a lot of attraction and attention beyond the GI world, across solid tumors, really. Could you give us a little brief recap of that trial and what have you seen as being the impact in practices around oncology? Dr. Kathryn Schmitz: So, CHALLENGE was very exciting. Prior to CHALLENGE, there were any number of observational studies that indicated that there was a relationship between being more physically active and reduced recurrence and improved overall survival for colon cancer in particular. You know, notably, in 2006, Jeff Meyerhardt published two papers in the same journal, of the same issue of JCO, showing very, very similar data from two very large studies. And those were studies number five and six in this area. You know, there's a lot of evidence observationally, but we don't generally change clinical practice on the basis of observational data. So, we were all waiting very impatiently for the results of the CHALLENGE trial. And it was very exciting to be in the front row when the results were reported out and to be part of the group with a standing ovation for the authors when it was presented. To summarize, 889 colon cancer patients, stage II and III, were randomized into either a structured exercise program or a health education control comparison group and followed for an average of 7.9 years. And the structured exercise group had a 27% reduced risk of recurrence and a 38% improvement in overall survival. One of the things that's really notable about this is that what we typically expect is that when we go from the observational literature to the clinical trial literature, that we expect effects to go down. We expect to see a larger effect in the observational than in the RCT land, and that did not happen here. We actually see an effect that matches what we've seen in observational literature, which is really, really exciting.  And, you know, one of the reasons why this has been so exciting across not just GI but other cancers is the notable finding of a reduced risk of second primaries. So, they only observed two breast cancer second primaries in the treatment group and 12 in the comparison group. And overall, they reduced the second primaries occurrence, hazard ratio was 0.5, a 50% reduction of second primaries, which is just remarkable. It really got everybody very, very excited. And now the big question, of course, is, all right, how do I do this? How do I make this happen?  The thing to note is that what they did in CHALLENGE is probably not doable in your clinic tomorrow. It's a heavy intervention. The number of touchpoints from staff is extensive, and the amount of time needed from staff for the coaching and supervised exercise is extensive as well. The criteria for getting people into the program required that people go through a series of blood tests and imaging tests that would just simply not be possible for the average community oncologist. So I'm guessing that you're going to ask me some questions about how we do this. Dr. Pedro Barata: Right. That's a fantastic segue. That's exactly right. Walk us through maybe starting by, what does that mean? Dr. Kathryn Schmitz: The first thing to say is I have to go back to the observational literature. And the observational literature shows really compellingly that we have a strong reduction of breast cancer recurrence and mortality from being more physically active, prostate cancer recurrence and mortality, and colon cancer recurrence and mortality. I find it very difficult to believe in this day and age, in our current environment, if you will, that we are ever going to have the equivalent of CHALLENGE for prostate or for breast cancer. There is an ongoing study in prostate that's led by some Australian researchers, but I just don't think that it's likely that we're going to mount something similar for another tumor site. We have tremendous correlative data that indicates that there are a number of biomarkers and biological pathways through which breast, colon, and prostate cancer would be reduced in recurrence if people were more physically active. And so, there is really, from my thinking, very little to state that it would be just a colon cancer effect. And so this is something we probably can enact in more than just the colon cancer community, overall, which is great news, and it makes it easier for us to be able to enact this type of programming. Dr. Pedro Barata: One of the things that comes up perhaps often is, if I were the leader of the cancer center and were to incentivize the different care teams to implement an exercise program at each level: GI team, GU, breast, thoracic, etc. How do we do that? Dr. Kathryn Schmitz: So, I want to give you an analogy. You're a medical oncologist, and you prescribe your patients chemotherapy. Now, just imagine, if you will, what would happen and how likely it would be for your patients to get chemotherapy if there was no chemoinfusion suite. If the chemoinfusion suite disappeared tomorrow and you were to tell your patients, "Go get some chemotherapy," what proportion of those patients do you think would go find all of the equipment necessary and all of the drugs necessary and understand how to dose the chemotherapy for themselves and get that all done? Very few people would do it. So with exercise, why would we be surprised then that our patients don't actually do a whole lot if we just simply tell them to go get some exercise? Exercise is a medicine. It is effective like a medicine. We've shown this through the CHALLENGE trial and many other correlative studies and an ocean of observational data as well. So the question is, how do we build the infrastructure that is necessary in order for your patients to do this? So the very first thing that has to happen is that somebody has to tell the patient to exercise. We currently do not have a culture of exercise in oncology. We do in heart disease. If you ask the average person on the street, "Is exercise good for your heart?" Anybody with an eighth-grade education is going to say, "Yes, of course," because the American Heart Association has done an amazing job telling everybody that exercise is good for your heart. But what has ASCO done, frankly? Can I be that bold? What has ASCO done to tell patients that they should be exercising during and after their cancer treatment? I'm not sure that I know more than a guideline. There is a guideline, and that's great. And the guideline is very helpful, but I'm not sure that patients know that there's a guideline. In fact, I can tell you that patients don't know that there is a guideline. So, you know, making sure that there's a paradigm shift in the country that says exercise is good for patients during and after their cancer treatment is the first step. The second step is getting a medical professional to say something to the patient about the exercise. And I'm very careful with the two words that I just chose: medical professional. I do understand medical oncologists are very busy. I understand that there's a whole lot to say in that 15 minutes when you're with the patient. And so maybe it isn't the medical oncologist. Ideally, it would be, but I get it that there's limited time. So it could be a nurse practitioner, it could be a nurse, there could be a social worker, it could be somebody else on the team that says, "Hey, you know, we want you to do an exercise program. We want to connect you to an exercise program." And then there's what is the program itself? You know, I'm very interested in this happening across the entire country. And so I've been working with the leadership of the Commission on Cancer on the question of, well, how would you do this in community oncology? You know, it's not enough to do it in academic medicine, but how do you do this in community oncology? And you can't expect that every community hospital is going to build a gym for their cancer patients. That is just not reasonable to do. So, we start to try to figure out some phone counseling. Could we give people Fitbits and follow them? Could we use technology to help us? Are there telehealth opportunities for us to do? Are there apps that have been built? In fact, there is a [free] app called Cancer Exercise that's on, you know, all of the platforms and available to patients. So there are programs. I've developed a directory of over 2,000 programs that exist across the country for exercise oncology that patients can find, medical oncologists can find.  So there are a lot of people trying to figure out how best to get the information to medical oncologists and other medical professionals so that they can have an 'easy button' to be able to connect their patients to existing programming so that you don't feel like you have to build a whole new program. Dr. Pedro Barata: If I don't have the resources around me, what would be your advice for the care team or for the providers that might not have that available at their site? Where do they start? Who do they reach out to? Who should they be looking at to get more information on how to set it up? Dr. Kathryn Schmitz: I lead an international consortium called Moving Through Cancer. You can find us at movingthroughcancer.org. That's where you'll find the map of all of the programs across the country and the directory. We actually have a triage tool that sits at the front of the directory that allows people to discern what type of exercise they're safe to do. We do recognize that, you know, the 80-year-old that fell last week doesn't need the same program as the 35-year-old that was playing pickleball the day before diagnosis. So, you know, there are different kinds of programs for people at different levels of acuity. We're happy to be helpful to folks to help them set up programs.  But the number one thing is to really be very aware of the power of saying something about doing exercise, just simply the power of saying, "I want you to be moving." Because frankly, I don't think anybody listening to this would disagree, no one benefits from sitting on the couch all day, no one. No one, no one. It doesn't matter how acute their medical issues are. We get people out of bed. We try to move people even when they're in the hospital. So I think saying something is huge. And then, if you can, applying a triage tool, if you can get something embedded within your clinical flow so that you can understand who it is that needs to go to physical therapy as opposed to who's ready for an exercise program. Those are the two things. So triage and referral is kind of step one. And if you can get that done, the rest will fall into place. Dr. Pedro Barata: This is really powerful message, where one, awareness of the care teams. Number two, bring it up to the patient. And then working on the referral, triage and referral process. That's fantastic. Another aspect that comes up quite a bit is like, "Look, this is great, but we have a system that relies on payers to make things happen, or at least to get them approved." And that can be very different or heterogeneous. The coverage can be different. Sometimes already going through a system programs for interventions, therapeutic interventions, let alone probably the insurance is not going to cover that. Is that true? Is it not true? How do you walk through the different insurance supports, perhaps, depending on where you're practicing? Dr. Kathryn Schmitz: You've just hit on the hot button. I've been working on this issue for about nine years now, trying to figure out using efforts to talk to CMS and see if we can get third party payer coverage going. We were making good progress there, and there was a change of administration and a new focus on "Make America Healthy Again," the MAHA movement. And, you know, CMS is really no longer interested in one-off national coverage determination. They instead, they want to know, "How do we make exercise happen for every American over 65?" And my question is, "Well, wait a minute, cancer patients are not just older patients. There's a lot going on there. They need something special." So I've been working on that. It's been working with accrediting bodies for policy with a little p. Very proud of the work that I've done in collaboration with the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers, trying to get standards to get exercise referrals for breast patients. And I'm currently holding my breath to see whether the CoC is going to try to make some forward motion in this area as well, crossing all period appendages, waiting for news there. So it's not paid for unless it's done by a physical therapist. And, you know, there's published evidence and I have plenty of evidence from UPMC as well, that people don't really want to go to the physical therapist for this. I'm not saying physical therapists aren't great. Physical therapists are great, and there are people who really need to go to physical therapy, and we try hard to get those patients connected. But for the patients that are ready for something more than physical therapy, we really have an uphill battle to try to figure out what insurers are willing to pay for and what the return on investment is.  One of the challenges with the return on investment is that the timeline, time course for return on investment for American insurers is about one year. And I'll remind you that the time course for return on investment for CHALLENGE was 7.9 years. So we have a mismatch there. So we're trying to figure out if we can produce the evidence to show that there is an improvement in unplanned health care utilization. We have documented that for breast cancer. We're working on it for other cancers. If we can document that it is worthwhile to the insurer to pay for these programs, then I believe that they will pay for them. You know, my conversations are very positive with UPMC, which is a very large insurer and a large health plan. We're slowly working our way towards the middle, where there's a program that they can pay for and a program that is efficacious. That's the puzzle we're trying to solve for right now. Dr. Pedro Barata: This has been wonderful and super helpful. Before we wrap it up, is there anything else you would like to share with our listeners? Dr. Kathryn Schmitz: I want to make sure that your audience is aware that there are a variety of ways that exercise oncology is practiced. The program that most oncologists will be familiar with is LIVESTRONG, which is a program at the YMCA. It's a free program. At one point, there were over 800 locations across the U.S. They have contracted since COVID, probably because of COVID. So they still do exist but imagine, if you will, telling your patients that chemo is only available Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7:00 p.m. It would be difficult for patients to get there and get the chemotherapy. The same thing is true for the LIVESTRONG program. It's a fantastic, fantastic program for people who are able to get there, but that's one option. Another option for patients is there are a variety of online opportunities. I'll call out 2Unstoppable for women's cancers. It's literally the number 2Unstoppable.org. It's a free program available to women with cancer to have live, small group training programs. And they're based in Virginia, but they have programs all over the country. And then finally, I just want to overemphasize the app, the Cancer Exercise app. It's literally called Cancer Exercise in the app store. And that is a super duper easy button, very comprehensive, developed by a nurse scientist, Anna Schwartz. And then there are a variety of books. I wrote a book called Moving Through Cancer. There's a new book out [MyExerciseMedicine for Cancer] by Dr. Rob Newton as well, who's an Australian author. And there are certifications for exercise professionals that folks can look into as well through the American College of Sports Medicine. Dr. Pedro Barata: Dr. Schmitz, this is fantastic. Thank you for sharing those great insights with us. Super, super helpful. Thank you for taking the time. Dr. Kathryn Schmitz: Thank you so much. Dr. Pedro Barata: Thank you to our listeners for your time today. Remember, you'll find links to Dr. Schmitz's fantastic Educational Book as well as the JCO articles in the transcript of this episode. I'll invite all of you to go and read. And we'll also include a link to Dr. Schmitz's book titled Moving Through Cancer: An Exercise and Strength Program for the Fight of Your Life, which empowers patients and caregivers in simple five steps.  So with that, please join us again next month on By the Book for more insights on key advances and innovations that are shaping modern oncology. Thank you very much for your attention. Disclaimer: The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. Guest statements on the podcast do not express the opinions of ASCO. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement. Follow today's speakers:           Dr. Pedro Barata    @PBarataMD     Dr. Kathryn Schmitz @fitaftercancer Follow ASCO on social media:           @ASCO on X (formerly Twitter)           ASCO on Bluesky          ASCO on Facebook           ASCO on LinkedIn           Disclosures:        Dr. Pedro Barata:    Stock and Other Ownership Interests: Luminate Medical    Honoraria: UroToday    Consulting or Advisory Role: Bayer, BMS, Pfizer, EMD Serono, Eisai, Caris Life Sciences, AstraZeneca, Exelixis, AVEO, Merck, Ipson, Astellas Medivation, Novartis, Dendreon    Speakers' Bureau: AstraZeneca, Merck, Caris Life Sciences, Bayer, Pfizer/Astellas    Research Funding (Inst.): Exelixis, Blue Earth, AVEO, Pfizer, Merck     Dr. Kathryn Schmitz: Patents, Royalties, Other Intellectual Property: Fees from the educational program developed by Dr. Schmitz that is now offered through Klose Training and Consulting.

Smart Agency Masterclass with Jason Swenk: Podcast for Digital Marketing Agencies
How Forward-Thinking Agencies Win with SEO, GEO, & LLMs with Terry Zelen | Ep #886

Smart Agency Masterclass with Jason Swenk: Podcast for Digital Marketing Agencies

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 8, 2026 28:03


Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training AI is either the end of agencies… or the biggest opportunity we've had since the internet. Most agree it's the second one. Agencies that are winning right now are combining SEO, GEO, AEO, and LLM optimization so they show up everywhere decisions are being made. They're using AI to increase leverage, not replace thinking. And they're restructuring their teams around strategy, insight, and proprietary data instead of repetitive task work. Today's featured guest will discuss why SEO isn't dead (it just grew up), the biggest mistake agencies are making with AI, how to 10x output without adding headcount, and why your unique data is the unfair advantage that separates you from every other agency prompting ChatGPT and hoping for magic. Terry Zelen is the founder of Zelen Communications, a 35-year-old agency that pivoted aggressively into AI over the last three years. He's helping clients win visibility across both search engines and large language models (LLMs) and even building AI tools internally to reduce hallucinations and improve accuracy. Terry has a degree in marine biology, so marketing wasn't the master plan. After college, he tried breaking into the creative world with zero portfolio and got laughed out of the room; until one person gave him a shot. He worked for free, proved himself, connected with a freelance rep, and slowly worked his way up through the agency ranks. He eventually transitioned from freelancer to agency owner by acquiring his own accounts and building relationships locally in Tampa. Fast forward three decades and now he's helping clients navigate AI, LLM visibility, and what modern SEO really looks like. In this episode, we'll discuss: Why SEO is more complicated now, but agencies willing to adapt can still win How LLM visibility will win you business AI: The greatest leverage small businesses have ever had Building an AI consensus engine Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources This episode is brought to you by Wix Studio: If you're leveling up your team and your client experience, your site builder should keep up too. That's why successful agencies use Wix Studio — built to adapt the way your agency does: AI-powered site mapping, responsive design, flexible workflows, and scalable CMS tools so you spend less on plugins and more on growth. Ready to design faster and smarter? Go to wix.com/studio to get started. SEO Is Not Dead. It's Just Way More Complicated There's a lot of noise right now around "SEO is dead" or "zero-click internet." But that's an oversimplification. SEO isn't going away. It's evolving. Today, it's not just SEO. It's: GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) Local SEO EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trust) Search intent In other words, visibility is the game. Not just ranking in Google, but showing up in LLMs like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. Terry points out that while snippets and AI-generated summaries are increasing, people still want to verify sources. They're not buying a couch because an LLM told them it's the best. They'll still visit sites, compare options, and validate credibility. Backlinks, structured content, schema, quality. It all still matters. What's different is that now you're playing the game with Google and the LLMs. How LLM Visibility Actually Wins Business This isn't theoretical. Terry shared a story of a client who builds modular classroom buildings. A school district searched for "best mobile building producer in Florida" and the client showed up in a snippet. That visibility led directly to a new contract. So you're no longer optimizing just for rankings. You're optimizing to be the referenced authority when AI generates an answer. That means you better have structured content, clear positioning, backlinks, authority signals, and presence on surfaces LLMs scrape (including platforms like Reddit, though that's evolving). The agencies that understand this shift can bolt on new services like AI SEO or GEO and, in some cases, significantly increase revenue. But there's a catch. This space is evolving fast. What works today might not work next quarter. That's why Terry avoids gray-hat tactics and focuses on fundamentals. AI Is the Greatest Leverage Small Agencies Have Ever Had Terry believes this might be the most exciting time ever for small agencies because AI has eliminated barriers that used to require massive budgets. When a small restaurant client wanted a red snapper on a black background for their website, stock photography didn't cut it and real shoot would've required a diver, photographer, cooperative fish and a significant budget. Instead, they used Midjourney to create the image. Then they animated it so the fins and gills subtly moved. The client was blown away. For a small restaurant, this level of visual production used to be impossible. Now it's affordable and scalable. That's the opportunity. Agencies can deliver higher-quality creative, faster, and at lower cost if they know how to use the tools. A Very Real Fear for Future Marketers Terry regularly speaks to marketing students who are worried AI will take their jobs. What he tells them is that AI won't take your job, but someone who knows how to use AI will. The key is not blind reliance. It's intelligent leverage. AI is excellent at: Research Proposal drafting Competitive analysis First drafts of content Summarizing data What used to take weeks can now take hours. That frees your team from repetitive, dreaded tasks and allows them to focus on strategy, creativity, and client impact. But there's a danger in over-reliance. Too many agencies are slapping "AI" on everything without adding original thinking or proprietary data. Your edge isn't that you use AI. Your edge is your data. Every agency has unique client data, performance metrics, positioning, and experience. When you combine that with AI, that's where real leverage happens. Building a Consensus Engine to Reduce AI Hallucinations One of the more advanced things Terry is experimenting with is what he calls a "consensus engine." The problem with LLMs is that they're probabilistic, not deterministic. Ask the same question twice and you'll get two slightly different answers. They also hallucinate. To combat this, Terry built a workflow using N8N (a Zapier-like automation tool) that runs content through multiple LLMs. One writes it. Another critiques it. The final output must pass both systems before it's considered valid. If they disagree, it's sent back through with adjusted parameters. He's also exploring how different LLMs perform best in different roles: Perplexity for real-time research ChatGPT for writing Claude for programming Instead of treating AI as one tool, he's assembling a stack of specialized tools. That mindset shift, thinking like a systems architect instead of a prompt typist, is what separates surface-level AI use from strategic advantage. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

Conservative Daily Podcast
Joe Oltmann Untamed | Scott Schara | Counting The Cost | 03.06.26

Conservative Daily Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 6, 2026 88:58


In a system rigged with double standards, Joe Oltmann rips open the elite protection racket that crushes regular Americans while the powerful walk free. Former New Jersey Democrat mayor Gina LaPlaca drove drunk four times the legal limit with her toddler in the car, yet she dodges jail with a cushy three-year PTI deal: AA meetings, an interlock device, and no criminal record. She keeps her township seat and plans to run again. Contrast that with Habekah Cannon, arrested three times during 2020 riots but with charges dropped, now elected judge in North Carolina vowing to empty prisons. How safe does that make Charlotte feel?The corruption runs deeper than politics, it's embedded in healthcare. Joe interviews Scott Schara, “Grace's Dad,” whose 19-year-old daughter with Down syndrome died in 2021 at Ascension Health after Precedex over-sedation and protocol-driven neglect. Despite losing his 2025 wrongful-death lawsuit, Scott's mission intensifies: exposing incentivized “medical murder” masked as standard care, where CMS reimbursements act as loaded guns, turning hospitals into death traps for the vulnerable from cradle-to-grave control through vaccines, CPS, and organ harvesting to hidden eugenics.Joe connects the dots with viral clips: weak mayors fleeing danger, trans teachers bullying over pronouns, California lawmakers shielding sex offenders, and Colorado families battling for ballot initiatives 108, 109, and 110 to shield kids from trafficking, unfair sports, and irreversible surgeries. Politicians protect criminals, elites get special treatment, and everyday people fight just to survive. The system isn't failing us, it's designed to. Tune in for the raw truth, no apologies. Stop complying. Start fighting. You won't leave unchanged.

Turn on the Lights Podcast
AI, Interoperability, and the Next Era of Quality Measurement with Jeff Geppert

Turn on the Lights Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 6, 2026 41:50


How do health care quality measures get created, and are we measuring too much? In this episode, Jeff Geppert, Senior Research Leader at Battelle Memorial Institute, discusses the lifecycle and future of health care quality measurement in value-based care. He explains how measures move from multi-year development and evidence testing through endorsement and CMS rulemaking before being implemented in federal programs. He addresses concerns about measurement overload, noting that health care complexity has driven the growth in measures but that rising infrastructure costs, interoperability demands, and AI adoption may force greater focus and parsimony. He also shares why he's optimistic that emerging technologies will better align quality measurement with quality improvement, helping uncover root causes of variation and drive meaningful value in care delivery. Tune in to explore where health care measurement is headed, and why the future may be more focused, fair, and impactful than ever. Resources: Connect with and follow Jeff Geppert on LinkedIn. Follow Battelle Memorial Institute on LinkedIn and explore their website! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

GovCast
CMS Advances Zero Trust, AI Security in IT Modernization Push | Zscaler Public Sector Summit 2026

GovCast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 6, 2026 9:24


The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is modernizing its IT infrastructure to improve efficiency, security and access for patients and providers. Since taking the role in May, Wade Zarriello, director of infrastructure and user services, has led efforts to consolidate platforms, optimize shared services and cut costs — exceeding CMS's fiscal year 2025 savings goal by $750 million. Zarriello also discussed how the agency is implementing a zero trust cybersecurity framework and leveraging AI tools to strengthen data protection and operational reliability. He highlighted CMS's use of GSA OneGov agreements with AWS, Oracle and Salesforce to drive cost savings, improve platform consolidation and support hybrid cloud initiatives.

Health Affairs This Week
State of the Union Healthcare Policy Breakdown

Health Affairs This Week

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 6, 2026 10:17


Health Affairs' Jeff Byers welcomes Senior Editor Margaret Winchester to the pod to discuss Trump's recent State of the Union Address and unpacking its health care and health policy talking points, including most-favored nation drug pricing, health savings accounts, and if there's a path toward codification for either.On March 24th, join us for our upcoming Insider exclusive event focusing on pharmacy benefit manager reform with Harvard Medical School's Benjamin Rome.Related Articles:National Health Care Spending Increased 7.2 Percent In 2024 As Utilization Remained Elevated (Health Affairs)Trump's State of the Union trumpets healthcare greatest hits, but no new policies (Healthcare Dive)

Agent Survival Guide Podcast
CMS CRUSH Initiative

Agent Survival Guide Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 6, 2026 12:28


The Friday Five for March 6, 2026: CMS Updates Deadline for GENEROUS CMS Makes Updates to Medicare.gov CMS Deferment of Minnesota Federal Medicaid Funding CMS DMEPOS Enrollment Moratorium CMS CRUSH Request for Information   Get Connected:

GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Care Podcast
Leadership, Quality, and the Future of Hospice: Guests Chris Comeaux and Cordt Kassner

GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Care Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 5, 2026 51:15


Today we're doing something different. Today, dear listeners, you get two podcasts for the price of one! (OK, our podcasts are both free, but you get the idea). We're joined today by Chris Comeaux, host of TCN Talks, a podcast about leadership, strategy, innovation, and the future of serious illness care, and author of The Anatomy of Leadership. We are also joined by TCN Talks' frequent guest host Cordt Kassner, CEO of Hospice Analytics, which provides in depth data on hospice quality, utilization, and access, and publisher of Hospice and Palliative Care Today, a daily email about the hottest stories and news in the field. This is an "ask us anything" style podcast in which we get to ask each other questions.  Our discussions focus on concerning trends in hospice, Ira Byock's white paper, concerning trends in hospice, certificate of need, danger of losing a generation of junior researchers and hope in the form of ASCENT, various measures of hospice quality including Cordt's National Hospice Locator, which ranks all area hospice by quality, unlike CMS's Hospice Care Compare, which only has star ratings for about 30% of hospices. Hospice and palliative care are going through a tough growth period, and sometimes being real with your friends and colleagues in your field means tough love. Love hurts.  And no, I'm not attempting the Nazareth version! -Alex Smith  

Relentless Health Value
EP502: How Some Pretty Wild Medicare Fraud Sabotages ACOs and Also Independent Practices and Could Cost Plan Sponsors Such as Self-insured Employers a Lot of Zeros Downstream, With Brian Machut

Relentless Health Value

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 5, 2026 38:58


Episode 502 features Stacey's conversation with Brian Machut (Alliant Health) on how widespread Medicare fee-for-service fraud is inflating costs and undermining ACO shared savings in MSSP and ACO REACH. ACOs uncovered major urinary catheter fraud in 2023 tied to codes A4352/A4353, totaling about $3.5B, with some beneficiaries billed for items never received (including a case shared by Dr. Tara Lagu).  CMS created a "SAHS" (significant, anomalous, highly suspect) process to remove certain suspect costs, but benchmark effects can unevenly impact ACOs; catheter fraud is still projected at $3–$3.5B in 2025. The episode also highlights rapidly growing "skin substitute" spending projected at $13–$15B in 2025; CMS did not classify 2024 skin substitute costs as SAHS, leaving them in ACO performance calculations.  Machut explains this fraud and missed CMS trend projections can reduce provider earnings, discourage participation in value-based care, and potentially drive cost shifting into higher commercial rates—affecting plan sponsors such as self-insured employers. === LINKS ===

Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Jakob Emerson on Medicare Advantage Shifts and Payer Market Disruption

Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 5, 2026 15:07


In this episode, Jakob Emerson, Associate News Director at Becker's Healthcare, breaks down the latest Medicare Advantage enrollment trends, including slowing overall growth, major gains for regional and system owned plans, and mounting federal scrutiny of large insurers. He explores what CMS actions, risk adjustment settlements, and market exits mean for payers, providers, and the future of the program.

WCS Wild Audio
S7 E4: This Month in Brazil, Renewed Hope for the World's Migratory Species

WCS Wild Audio

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 5, 2026 12:22


This month between March 23-29, governments from around the world will gather in Campo Grande, Brazil, for the triennial conference of parties to the Convention on Migratory Species, or CMS. It's a treaty focused on animals that cross borders—birds, whales and sharks, big cats, freshwater fish—that no one country can conserve alone. As the meeting approaches, WCS Wild Audio spoke to CMS Executive Secretary Amy Fraenkel about the state of the world's migratory species — and what's at stake at this year's conference. Reporting: Nat Moss Guest: Amy Fraenkel

McDermott+Consulting
An appropriate sendoff for the IPO list

McDermott+Consulting

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 5, 2026 19:56


This week in the Breakroom, Deborah Godes, Marla Kugel, and Yamini Kalidindi join Anthony Livshen to explore the challenges of setting outpatient payment rates as CMS phases out the inpatient-only (IPO) list over three years beginning in 2026 — and to discuss a data-driven approach to getting it right. The episode opens with an update on the public Medicaid data discussed last week.

En Blanco y Negro con Sandra
RADIO – MIÉRCOLES, 4 DE MARZO DE 2026 – Medicare detiene los nuevos pacientes de Elevance Health, compañía matriz de MMM en Puerto Rico

En Blanco y Negro con Sandra

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 4, 2026 50:28


1. EXCLUSIVA - Medicare suspende la suscripción de nuevos pacientes de Elevance Health, compañía matriz de MMM en Puerto Rico. La pesquisa de CMS incluye entrevistas a sobre 100 médicos puertorriqueños; cualquier efecto local sería detrimental cuando PR busca paridad en Medicare y Medicaid2. DACO activa inspecciones ante leve aumento en el precio de la gasolina3. Madres contra la Guerra condenan ataque contra Irán y convocan manifestación4. Corrección frena traslado de confinados y esta próximo a realizar el de personal5. Jenniffer González afirma que Puerto Rico está “más cerca” de convertirse en el estado 516. PPD critica viaje del PNP a cumbre de estadidad en Washington7. Los demócratas de la Cámara de Representantes se enfurecen por la "mierda" (BULLSHIT) información del gobierno de Trump sobre Irán.8. El creador de la WWW defiende prohibir las redes sociales a los menores de 16 años9. ¿Cómo abordar noticias angustiosas y encontrar mecanismos de afrontamiento? Esto dicen los expertos10. Identificaron a los soldados estadounidenses muertos en Irán mientras se reportan nuevos ataques contra Arabia Saudita, Kuwait y Catar11. Trump anuncia que cortará todo el comercio con España por ser un aliado “terrible12. El secretario de Comercio Howard Lutnick,testificará ante panel que investiga caso Epstein.Este es un programa independiente y sindicalizado. Esto significa que este programa se produce de manera independiente, pero se transmite de manera sindicalizada, o sea, por las emisoras y cadenas de radio que son más fuertes en sus respectivas regiones. También se transmite por sus plataformas digitales, aplicaciones para dispositivos móviles y redes sociales. Estas emisoras de radio son:1. Cadena WIAC - WYAC 930 AM Cabo Rojo- Mayagüez2. Cadena WIAC – WISA 1390 AM Isabela3. Cadena WIAC – WIAC 740 AM Área norte y zona metropolitana4. WLRP 1460 AM Radio Raíces La voz del Pepino en San Sebastián5. X61 – 610 AM en Patillas6. X61 – 94.3 FM Patillas y todo el sureste7. WPAB 550 AM - Ponce8. ECO 93.1 FM – En todo Puerto Rico9. WOQI 1020 AM – Radio Casa Pueblo desde Adjuntas10. Mundo Latino PR.com, la emisora web de música tropical y comentario Una vez sale del aire, el programa queda grabado y está disponible en las plataformas de podcasts tales como Spotify, Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts y otras plataformas https://anchor.fm/sandrarodriguezcotto También nos pueden seguir en:REDES SOCIALES: Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram, Threads, LinkedIn, Tumblr, TikTok BLOG: En Blanco y Negro con Sandra http://enblancoynegromedia.blogspot.com SUSCRIPCIÓN:Substack, plataforma de suscripción de prensa independientehttps://substack.com/@sandrarodriguezcotto OTROS MEDIOS DIGITALES: ¡Ey! Boricua, Revista Seguros. Revista Crónicas y otrosEstas son algunas de las noticias que tenemos hoy En Blanco y Negro con Sandra.

The ASHHRA Podcast
#210 - Medicare Cuts, Nursing Home Deregulation & The Death of the Wellness App

The ASHHRA Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 3, 2026 28:01


In this week's News Drop, we unpack three developments that could directly impact provider compensation, skilled nursing operations, and your employee benefits strategy.

Pharmacy Podcast Network
LTC Pharmacy at a Crossroads: Maximum Fair Price, the IRA, and What DC Means for 2026 and Beyond

Pharmacy Podcast Network

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 2, 2026 22:31


In this episode of Framework Focus, Dr. Dae Lee breaks down the regulatory and reimbursement shifts reshaping long-term care (LTC) pharmacy. With the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) moving from policy theory to operational reality, Medicare's Maximum Fair Price (MFP) program, Part D redesign, and inflation rebate enforcement are now active forces that LTC operators must navigate. This conversation moves beyond headlines and into real-world implications: cash flow risk, administrative burden, contracting exposure, and strategic readiness for closed-door and combo LTC pharmacies. Key Discussion Points Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Is Now Operational  The IRA authorizes Medicare to negotiate prices for certain high-spend Part D drugs, with the first 10 Maximum Fair Prices (MFPs) effective January 1, 2026. This marks a structural shift in federal drug pricing and directly impacts LTC dispensing economics. Maximum Fair Price and LTC Reimbursement Compression  MFP caps reimbursement on selected drugs, creating potential margin compression if acquisition costs and payment timing are misaligned. For LTC pharmacies operating on tight spreads and high-volume chronic utilization, even small deltas can materially affect profitability. Medicare Transaction Facilitator (MTF) and Payment Timing Risk  The MTF system introduces new payment mechanics between manufacturers, plans, and pharmacies. LTC pharmacies must understand how effectuation and reconciliation work, particularly if payment timing differs from traditional Part D adjudication flows. Cash flow modeling becomes essential. Administrative Complexity and Claims Reconciliation  Identifying which NDCs are subject to MFP, managing claim reversals, handling price disputes, and monitoring plan-level compliance will increase administrative workload. LTC pharmacies will need structured internal workflows to prevent reimbursement leakage. Dispensing Fees and the LTC Service Intensity Problem  Unlike retail, LTC pharmacy includes compliance packaging, emergency kits, cycle fills, consultant pharmacist oversight, and regulatory documentation. Current IRA implementation does not automatically adjust dispensing or supply fees to reflect this complexity, raising sustainability concerns. Congressional Efforts to Stabilize LTC Pharmacy  Legislative proposals such as the Preserving Patient Access to LTC Pharmacies Act aim to create supply fee protections tied to MFP drugs. The episode explores whether policy corrections are likely — and how quickly DC can realistically respond. Expansion of Negotiated Drug Lists  The initial 10 negotiated drugs are only the beginning. Additional rounds of negotiation are underway, expanding exposure across more therapeutic classes. LTC pharmacies must treat MFP as a growing structural feature — not a limited pilot. Part D Redesign and the $2,100 Out-of-Pocket Cap  Beginning in 2026, the redesigned Part D benefit changes liability distribution among plans, manufacturers, and CMS. The new out-of-pocket cap alters plan incentives and may lead to tighter utilization management, formulary shifts, and network recalibration — all of which LTC pharmacies must monitor closely. Inflation Rebates and Market Distortion  The IRA's inflation rebate provisions penalize manufacturers for price increases above inflation benchmarks. While not directly adjudicated at the pharmacy counter, these provisions influence manufacturer pricing strategy, launch pricing behavior, and downstream PBM negotiations — indirectly affecting LTC acquisition costs. Strategic Readiness as a Competitive Advantage  The episode concludes with practical recommendations:  • Conduct an MFP exposure audit across top-dispensed NDCs  • Reassess PBM contracts and network participation clauses  • Model cash flow under delayed reimbursement scenarios  • Educate facility partners on regulatory changes  • Build internal compliance tracking specific to negotiated drugs Why This Matters Now For LTC pharmacies, this is not simply a policy conversation — it is a structural shift in reimbursement architecture. As federal oversight expands and pricing authority evolves, operational precision and legal literacy will define which organizations adapt successfully. About our guest:  Dr. Dae Lee, Pharm.D, Esq., CPBS  Shareholder - Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC  Email: dae.lee@bipc.com  Dae Y. Lee is a pharmacist-attorney and Certified Pharmacy Benefits Specialist™ (CPBS™) who represents pharmacies, healthcare stakeholders, and plan sponsors in high-stakes disputes and regulatory matters involving Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) and government payors. Drawing on his dual training as a pharmacist and attorney, Dae focuses his practice on defending clients in audits, investigations, enforcement actions and complex reimbursement and compliance matters. Dae routinely represents pharmacies nationwide in PBM and payor audits, including Fraud, Waste and Abuse (FWA) investigations, extrapolation disputes, overpayment recoupments, credentialing denials, network suspensions and terminations. He advises pharmacies on compliance with applicable state pharmacy fair audit laws, PBM provider manuals, and reimbursement standards, with the goal of minimizing financial exposure while preserving network participation and business continuity.

Podcast – Kitchen Sink WordPress
Podcast E627 – The Hodgepodge Episode – Part 3

Podcast – Kitchen Sink WordPress

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 2, 2026 12:31


This week I Share Updates On A Variety Of Topics With HodgePodge Episode #3 [powerpress]

The Seven Figures Or Bust Podcast!
Episode 201- Major MA Carrier Makes More Plans Non Commissionable!

The Seven Figures Or Bust Podcast!

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 2, 2026 60:27


Learn how to sponsor the Seven Figure Medicare Agent Summit:https://sevenfiguremedicareagentsummit.com/Welcome to the Seven Figures or Bust Podcast — the show built for ambitious insurance agents who refuse to think small. Hosted by Christian Brindle, this podcast dives into Medicare strategy, business building, industry updates, compliance changes, mindset, leadership, and everything it really takes to scale to seven figures and beyond.Whether we're breaking down CMS changes, reacting to industry news, interviewing top-performing agents, or sharing real-world lessons from the front lines, the goal is simple: help you grow a sustainable, profitable insurance business the right way.If you're serious about winning in the Medicare space and building long-term freedom, you're in the right place. Let's get to work.

Monitor Mondays
CMS Launches CRUSH: A New Anti-Fraud Program

Monitor Mondays

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 2, 2026 30:42


The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has launched a new initiative titled Comprehensive Regulations to Uncover Suspicious Healthcare (CRUSH).CRUSH is a sweeping fraud prevention program. In an official news release posted Thursday, CMS reported suspending $5.7 billion in suspected fraudulent Medicare payments, preventing $1.5 billion in DMEPOS (Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics, and Supplies) billing, revoking more than 5,500 providers' billing privileges, and denying 122,000 claims that failed medical necessity checks.This latest news, including a nationwide DMEPOS enrollment moratorium and a $259.5 million Medicaid funding deferral, signals a decisive shift toward real-time enforcement.What does CRUSH mean for providers, revenue cycle leaders, and compliance teams?Senior healthcare consultant Penny Jefferson will be the special guest during the next live edition of the long-running news and information national podcast Monitor Mondays. Jefferson, the director of clinical documentation integrity (CDI) services for the University of California Davis Medical Center, will report on this new and developing story.The broadcast will also include these instantly recognizable features:Monday Rounds: Ronald Hirsch, MD, vice president of R1 RCM, will be making his Monday Rounds.The RAC Report: Healthcare attorney Knicole Emanuel, partner at the law firm of Nelson Mullins, will report the latest news about auditors.Risky Business: Healthcare attorney David Glaser, shareholder in the law offices of Fredrikson & Byron, will join the broadcast with his trademark segment.Legislative Update: Adam Brenman, senior legislative affairs liaison for Zelis, will report on current healthcare legislation.

Smart Agency Masterclass with Jason Swenk: Podcast for Digital Marketing Agencies
Can AI Help Your Agency Win Fortune 10 Clients Instead of Replacing Your Team? With Gilad Bechar | Ep #884

Smart Agency Masterclass with Jason Swenk: Podcast for Digital Marketing Agencies

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 1, 2026 22:36


Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training "How many people can this replace?" is the wrong question to ask about AI. The better question is, "What could my team do if all the busywork disappeared?" Today's featured guest unpacks how he's embedded AI across a 12-year-old agency, why it's increased hiring instead of reducing it, and what it actually takes to make AI stick culturally, not just technically. Gilad Bechar is the founder and CEO of Moburst, a global digital transformation agency that started as a mobile marketing shop and evolved into a full-service growth partner for some of the biggest brands in the world, Google, Microsoft, Uber, Samsung, and more. Over the past 12 years, Moburst has completed five acquisitions and continues to acquire two to three companies per year, intentionally expanding capabilities to become a true one-stop growth shop. In our previous conversation, we talked about acquisitions and scale. This time, we focused on what Gilad calls the next major accelerator: AI. In this episode, we'll discuss: AI is NOT a side project. AI adoption could result in more hiring, not less How your agency team could see AI as a career transformation Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources This episode is brought to you by Wix Studio: If you're leveling up your team and your client experience, your site builder should keep up too. That's why successful agencies use Wix Studio — built to adapt the way your agency does: AI-powered site mapping, responsive design, flexible workflows, and scalable CMS tools so you spend less on plugins and more on growth. Ready to design faster and smarter? Go to wix.com/studio to get started. Treating AI as a Strategic Priority, Not a Side Project One of the biggest mistakes agencies make with AI is delegating it too low in the organization. Gilad knew early on that AI wasn't a trend; it was an operational shift. Instead of hiring a junior "AI manager" or tasking a developer with experiments, he hired a VP of AI and gave that role real authority. The mandate was simple but uncomfortable: if you're doing things in 2026 the same way you did them in 2024, you're already behind. That level of change creates friction, especially in senior teams with decades of experience. Gilad was clear that AI adoption couldn't be optional or political. A manager shouldn't have to "fight" a director or VP to change how work gets done. By putting AI leadership at the VP level, Moburst removed that bottleneck entirely. AI wasn't framed as "your work is wrong." It was framed as "your work could be 10x more effective if we rethink the process." They backed this up structurally. Every team has an AI Champion, someone who spends 20–30% of their time driving AI adoption within their department while still doing real client work. On top of that, there's a central AI team building protocols, agents, workflows, and even new products. The result: AI becomes part of how the agency operates, not something people dabble in when they have extra time (which no one ever has). Why AI Led to More Hiring, Not Less There's a persistent fear among agency teams that AI equals layoffs. Gilad's experience has been the opposite. The original internal goal was to increase billable capacity per employee by 50%. On paper, that could mean doing the same revenue with fewer people. In reality, what happened was far more interesting: revenue per employee increased and demand exploded. When Moburst started showing clients what was possible, new automations, new AI-powered offerings, faster insights, smarter execution, it unlocked more budget. Clients didn't just buy services; they bought innovation. They talked about it internally. They shared it with peers. And that momentum brought in larger, more sophisticated opportunities. Gilad shared an example where Moburst won two Fortune 10 companies in Q4, one of which came in looking for a media agency. Media alone would've won the pitch. But what sealed the deal was showing how the brand could improve visibility and positioning across AI-driven discovery platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude. This is the key shift: AI freed up time and raised the ceiling on value. Instead of spending hours exporting spreadsheets, building decks, or manually stitching reports together, teams could focus on thinking, collaborating, and creating new growth levers for clients. That's not a cost-cutting story. That's a growth story. Using AI to Upgrade People, Not Replace Them Another overlooked benefit of AI is internal career transformation. Gilad talked openly about roles that are likely to disappear as platforms automate more of the execution. Media buying is a great example. When Google and Meta are telling the market that campaigns will soon require little more than a credit card and a website, the writing is on the wall. Instead of pretending that isn't happening, he decided to lean into it. Media managers, content managers, and BI specialists were given the opportunity to reskill, moving into AI-focused roles where their domain knowledge still mattered, but their output multiplied. A content manager could become an AI workflow designer. A media buyer could evolve into someone who builds and manages intelligent systems instead of manually tweaking campaigns. This reframes AI from a threat into leverage. Employees aren't stuck defending outdated tasks; they're learning future-proof skills. That mindset shift alone changes morale, retention, and performance. Building a Culture of AI Sharing and Experimentation At his agency, Gilad made sharing AI knowledge non-optional. Every week, AI Champions review what's new in the AI world and translate it into what this means for our teams right now. Monthly hackathons focus the entire team on eliminating one manual process at a time. And then there's AI Week—a multi-day internal event where every team presents what they built, what worked, and what failed. The presentations aren't dry. Teams tell stories. They demo workflows. They show where things broke and how they pivoted. Some even use AI-generated video to walk through the narrative. That transparency matters. Failure isn't hidden, it's shared. And that creates trust, speed, and cross-team learning. One team's solution becomes another team's shortcut. Ideas jump departments. People start asking, "How could this apply to my work?" That's when AI stops being a tool and starts becoming a multiplier. The Bigger Takeaway for Agency Owners You don't need a VP of AI tomorrow. You don't need hackathons or AI week or 16 champions. But you do need to take the first step. AI adoption doesn't start with tools. It starts with ownership. Someone has to be accountable for asking, "If we rebuilt this process today, would we still do it this way?" Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

Health Affairs This Week
Is Value-Based Payment Failing U.S. Healthcare? | Andrew Ryan

Health Affairs This Week

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 27, 2026 19:58


Health Affairs' Jeff Byers welcomes Brown University's Andrew Ryan to the pod to discuss his recent Forefront article that explores whether value-based payment and managed care can lead to addressing the core drivers of spending.Related Links:Value-Based Payment And Managed Care Will Not Solve The Affordability Crisis (Health Affairs Forefront)“All I Do Is Win”: Why Beating Benchmarks Doesn't Mean That ACOs Are Reducing Costs (Health Affairs Forefront)

Becker’s Healthcare -- Ambulatory Surgery Centers Podcast
Scaling Endoscopic Spine Surgery to Protect Rural Access with Dr. Kai Lewandrowski & Dr. Morgan Lorio

Becker’s Healthcare -- Ambulatory Surgery Centers Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 25, 2026 13:50


In this episode, Kai Lewandrowski, MD and Morgan Lorio, MD, FACS explore how disposable HD endoscopy, predictable per case economics, and CMS rural transformation efforts can make spine surgery more viable in low volume settings while preserving local access and sustaining community based practices.

Becker’s Healthcare -- Spine and Orthopedic Podcast
Scaling Endoscopic Spine Surgery to Protect Rural Access with Dr. Kai Lewandrowski & Dr. Morgan Lorio

Becker’s Healthcare -- Spine and Orthopedic Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 25, 2026 13:50


In this episode, Kai Lewandrowski, MD and Morgan Lorio, MD, FACS explore how disposable HD endoscopy, predictable per case economics, and CMS rural transformation efforts can make spine surgery more viable in low volume settings while preserving local access and sustaining community based practices.

Schmidt List
Future-Proof Your Agency

Schmidt List

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 24, 2026 31:53 Transcription Available


In this episode of The Schmidt List, host Kurt Schmidt interviews Meeky, the co-founder and CEO of Endeavor, a leading technology development agency.Meeky shares her journey of building a specialized tech-focused agency, choosing to partner with creative teams rather than offering full-service solutions. She explains the benefits and challenges of niching down by industry and tech stack, offering valuable insights for agency leaders looking to refine their focus.The discussion dives into the latest trends in open-source CMS platforms, the continuing impact of WordPress, and how Endeavor adapts to evolving client needs in both enterprise and mid-sized businesses.Meeky and Kurt examine the influence of AI on software development, including how AI tools can streamline tasks but won't fully replace developers. They also explore what this means for the future of junior developers and talent in the tech industry. Meeky shares lessons learned about marketing her agency, the importance of building a supportive network with other agency owners, and her unique perspective as a woman and minority in tech leadership. The episode wraps up with actionable advice for agency owners and developers on integrating AI, preparing for industry changes, and creating a sustainable, scalable business. Whether you're a tech startup founder, agency leader, or developer navigating the rapid changes in digital technology, this episode is packed with practical tips, honest insights, and forward-thinking advice.Tune in to learn how to grow your tech-focused agency, adapt to AI-driven changes, and lead with purpose in a competitive digital landscape.Connect with Meeky:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meekyhwang/Ndevr website: https://ndevr.io/BoozyBrowsing: https://www.youtube.com/@boozybrowsingVisit https://schmidtconsulting.group for more show info!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/schmidt-list-business-insights--2664825/support.

The EP Podcast
The Value of Sports in Evergreen Park

The EP Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 24, 2026 34:53


From the athletic programs at Central Middle School to local Olympic Gold Medalist Abbey Murphy, sports play a huge role in Evergreen Park. We sit down with some of the folks responsible for balancing sports and education at CMS. Then enjoy some special audio of Abbey Murphy reflecting on her journey, dreams and goals long before the 2026 Winter Olympics in "30 Minutes of Good!" Video version on YouTube! Brought to you by OSF Little Company of Mary. Get the latest news and information concerning everything going on in and around Evergreen Park and stay connected to your neighbors! Evergreen Park residents join Chris Lanuti at his basement bar each week. Listen, interact & get all of your free subscription options at theEPpodcast.com​!

The Heart of Healthcare with Halle Tecco
Precision Medicine Is (Almost) Here | Tempus AI CEO Eric Lefkosky

The Heart of Healthcare with Halle Tecco

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2026 40:51


When Eric Lefkofsky's wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, it exposed how little technology and data were shaping cancer care, pushing the serial entrepreneur to build a different model.Lefkofsky is the founder and CEO of Tempus, now a $10B publicy traded health tech company, and previously founded Groupon. At Tempus, he's building a tech-first company applying multimodal data and AI to make diagnostics smarter and treatment decisions more tailored, starting in oncology and expanding across disease areas.We cover:What Tempus does in plain EnglishWhy Tempus built its own lab, and how it became one of the largest sequencers of cancer patients in the U.S.The hard part: extracting usable clinical data from EHRs and scaling to thousands of hospital connections and hundreds of petabytes of dataHow AI changes the patient-physician relationship, and why patients will increasingly arrive highly informedWhat Eric would change at CMS and HHS to responsibly pay for AI—About our guest: Eric Lefkofsky is the founder and CEO at Tempus, a leader in artificial intelligence and precision medicine. He is the co-founder and General Partner of Lightbank, a private venture capital firm specializing in investments in technology companies. He is also the co-founder of Pathos AI, a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on re-engineering drug development; Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN), a global e-commerce marketplace; Mediaocean, a leading provider of integrated media procurement technology; Echo Global Logistics (NASDAQ: ECHO), a technology-enabled transportation and logistics outsourcing firm; and InnerWorkings (NASDAQ: INWK), a global provider of managed print and promotional solutions.He co-chairs the Lefkofsky Family Foundation with his wife Liz to advance high-impact initiatives that enhance lives in the communities served. Lefkofsky also serves on the board of directors of The Art Institute of Chicago and Northwestern Medicine. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.—

Neurology Minute
Neurology on the Hill 2026 - Part 1

Neurology Minute

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2026 2:33


In the first part of this three-part series, Dr. Stacey Clardy and Max Goldman discuss the state of Medicare in 2026. Stay updated with everything related to Neurology on the Hill. Show transcript: Dr. Stacey Clardy: Hi, this is Stacey Clardy. Today, we're going to start the first of a three-part series about the top advocacy issues at Neurology on the Hill 2026 in Washington, DC. As many of you know, this is the AAN's Annual Advocacy fly-in event in the US, where neurologists come to Washington and meet with our elected representatives to discuss the issues that are important for all of us in the US to continue providing high-quality care to patients with neurological diseases. Every year in preparation for this event, the AAN selects a few issues to focus on with our lawmakers, and we're going to cover those in a three-minute series. We have Max Goldman, the Director of Congressional Affairs from the AAN Legislative Team, to give us the details. Max, the first topic that will be covered at Neurology on the Hill this year is Medicare. What do we need to know about the state of Medicare in 2026? Max Goldman: Thank you so much for having me. As many of you know, the way the Medicare physician fee schedule works and the way that you all are reimbursed for the care you provide patients across the country has been broken for several years. We have this cycle of indiscriminate cuts that keeps happening, where the CMS will present a fee schedule, it'll have a cut for you all, then we have to go to Congress to beg for them to fix the cut. This year, we are talking to Congress about a structural reform that they can make, so we don't have to do that anymore, and the reimbursement that you all receive is commensurate with cost of actually providing care. This year we're going to ask for two things. We're going to ask for them to adjust the triggers to the budget neutrality requirement in the fee schedule, meaning that CMS can make some more changes to the fee schedule without requiring cuts to everyone's reimbursement, and we're going to request that they provide a permanent inflationary adjustment to physician reimbursement so that the reimbursement you get is in track with the cost of providing care in any given year. Dr. Stacey Clardy: Thanks for that summary. Here's hoping to get some traction on that. To learn more about this issue, you can go to aan.com and click on advocacy. And in the upcoming two minutes, we are going to discuss the other issues being brought to Congress at Neurology on the Hill. Thank you for listening to today's Neurology Minute. 

Podcast – Kitchen Sink WordPress
Podcast E626 – The Blame Game

Podcast – Kitchen Sink WordPress

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2026 8:47


This week I Talk About The Blame Game [powerpress]

Smart Agency Masterclass with Jason Swenk: Podcast for Digital Marketing Agencies
Is AI Bad for SEO Agencies or Their Biggest Advantage? With David Arato | Ep #882

Smart Agency Masterclass with Jason Swenk: Podcast for Digital Marketing Agencies

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 22, 2026 23:12


Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training AI didn't wipe out SEO; it just exposed who was phoning it in. While some agencies are panicking about AI "stealing their jobs" or racing to the bottom on price, the smart ones are quietly using it to get sharper, more profitable, and more strategic. Today's featured guest has been in the SEO trenches for 15+ years and runs an agency producing millions of words of content every month. He'll break down his perspective on what's actually happening right now, why generic AI content is worthless, how agencies should really be pricing in an AI world, and why this shift is an opportunity to move up-market instead of becoming a commodity. If you run an agency and don't want to be replaced by a robot (or undercut by one), this conversation is for you. David Arato is the founder of Lexicon Legal Content, producing millions of words of SEO content every month for law firms and law-firm marketing agencies across North America. He's been in the SEO game for 15+ years and lived through the AI disruption firsthand. AI is only killing agencies that refuse to adapt The real problem isn't AI Does the SEO vs AEO matter? Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources This episode is brought to you by Wix Studio: If you're leveling up your team and your client experience, your site builder should keep up too. That's why successful agencies use Wix Studio — built to adapt the way your agency does: AI-powered site mapping, responsive design, flexible workflows, and scalable CMS tools so you spend less on plugins and more on growth. Ready to design faster and smarter? Go to wix.com/studio to get started. AI Didn't Kill SEO; It Killed Bad Agencies That Refused to Adapt Probably every agency owner has wondered, "If AI can write content in 30 seconds… why would clients pay us?" over the past couple of years. David had that exact thought in December 2022 when ChatGPT dropped. He literally told his wife he might need to go back to practicing law. Fast forward to now and AI has been nothing but good for business. And that's the part most agency owners are missing. The Real Problem Isn't AI, It's Commoditization According to David, AI removed the barrier to entry for creating generic content. And once everyone can do something, it has no value. That's why blog posts written "for SEO" are dying. Not because content doesn't work, but because copy-paste AI garbage doesn't. Google doesn't care how content is created. They care whether it's helpful, credible, and demonstrates real experience. Especially in "your money, your life" industries like legal, finance, and healthcare. In other words, if your agency's value prop was "we write blog posts," AI exposed how fragile that model was. Why Smart Agencies Are Actually Winning With AI Here's what changed for David's agency, and what should change for yours: Before AI: Writers spent hours on first drafts Margins were capped by human time Strategy was an afterthought After AI: AI handles the grunt work Humans focus on strategy, voice, expertise, and data Content is faster, cheaper to produce, and better That shift matters. Because clients aren't paying for words. They're paying for outcomes. "SEO vs AI Search" Is the Wrong Debate A lot of agencies are stuck arguing: SEO vs AEO SEO vs GEO SEO vs whatever acronym Twitter invents next week Here's the reality: Search is becoming hybrid. This means that, yes, AI overviews now dominate the top of Google. But organic results still matter. Paid is still there. It's all blending together. Which means agencies need to stop selling "SEO deliverables" and start selling search visibility strategy. Same skill set. Bigger mindset. The Pricing Wake-Up Call If you own an agency, you know that clients are asking for more content at lower costs. That's not a threat. It's a forcing function. The agencies that survive will: Increase volume without killing margins Productize strategy Stop selling fulfillment as their core offer The ones that won't? They'll stay stuck in fulfillment, stressed about margins, and quietly resentful of AI. The Real Differentiator Going Forward Everyone has access to the same AI tools. So could clients get the same results by themselves? Not likely What they don't have: Your data. Your experience. Your insights from years in the trenches That's the leverage. And it's why authenticity, real expertise, and human connection are becoming premium assets, whether in content, video, or sales. AI can't shake a hand, AI can't read the room, AI can't replace leadership. That's your unique value proposition. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

Entrepreneurs on Fire
Build a Subscription Model So Compelling, Your Customers Will Never Want to Leave with Robbie Baxter

Entrepreneurs on Fire

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 16, 2026 23:10


Robbie Baxter is the world's leading expert on subscription and membership models. She wrote two bestselling books The Membership Economy and The Forever Transaction, hosts the podcast Subscription Stories, and has advised organizations like Netflix, Microsoft and the Wall Street Journal. Top 3 Value Bombs 1. Success comes from solving a real problem—not always from following your passion. 2. Subscriptions aren't about dumping content—they're about building trust and solving an ongoing need. 3. Subscribers stay for the community—make them feel they belong and they'll never want to leave. Explore Robbie's work and books. Check out her website - Robbie's Website Sponsors HighLevel - The ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies. Learn more at HighLevelFire.com. Cape - A privacy-first mobile carrier, built from the ground up with security as the priority. If you care about protecting your digital life without giving up your smartphone, Cape makes that possible. Visit Cape.co/fire and use code FIRE for 33% off cape for 6 months today! Framer - A website builder that offers real-time collaboration, a robust CMS with everything you need for great SEO, and advanced analytics that include integrated A/B testing. Get started building for free today at Framer.com/fire. For 30% a Framer Pro annual plan use code FIRE!  

Morning Wire
Billions Missing: Dr. Oz Takes On California Healthcare Fraud | 2.7.26

Morning Wire

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 7, 2026 11:17


The Trump Administration is cracking down on what it calls a major exploitation of California's Medicare and Medicaid systems. CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz joins the show to explain how vulnerable seniors were allegedly targeted, how organized criminal networks took advantage of the system, and why CMS is now pressuring California leaders to take corrective action. Get the facts first with Morning Wire.- - -Ep. 2621- - -Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3- - -Today's Sponsor:Lean - Get 20% off when you enter code WIRE at https://TakeLean.com - - -Privacy Policy: https://www.dailywire.com/privacymorning wire,morning wire podcast,the morning wire podcast,Georgia Howe,John Bickley,daily wire podcast,podcast,news podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices