Podcasts about CMS

Learn more about AHIP requirements, how certification works for insurance agents, and more! Don't stress - we've got plenty of tips to help you survive certification and the start of AEP prep season.   Read the text version   Get Connected:

This week I Talk About The Summer Slow Down Myth [powerpress]

In this episode, Mark Domayhn, Partner at JD Lymon Group, joins Duane Mancini to unpack what medtech innovators often miss most: reimbursement isn't a box to check after FDA—it's the commercial foundation that determines whether hospitals and physicians can adopt your technology. Drawing on experience across Medtronic, Zimmer, and St. Jude/Abbott, Mark breaks down the “three-legged stool” of coverage, coding, and payment, why clinical evidence must satisfy payer standards (not just FDA), and how to “follow the money” across fragmented U.S. systems. The conversation then dives into the New Technology Add-On Payment (NTAP) program, why it matters for inpatient launches, how breakthrough designation has increased NTAP success, and the major implications of CMS proposing to repeal the alternative pathway—plus what companies can do before the June 9 comment deadline. Mark Domyahn LinkedInJD Lymon Group WebsiteRAPID Coverage Pathway InformationDuane Mancini LinkedInProject Medtech WebsiteProject Medtech LinkedInThank you to our sponsors: Ward Law and JumpStart Inc.

CMS has paused new home health and hospice Medicare applications nationwide — and if your senior living organization was planning to start, acquire, or expand a home health agency, this could change your timeline fast.In this episode of Senior Living Executive Strategy, Melissa Brown sits down with Devin Kasey, Vice President of Home Health Operations at Gravity Consulting, to break down what the new CMS home health and hospice moratorium means, what providers should do right now, and why waiting until the moratorium lifts could put your organization months behind. If your organization needs help with home health strategy, startup planning, operations, reimbursement, or acquisition due diligence, visit Gravity Consulting here: https://gravityconsulting.comIn this episode, we cover:• What the CMS home health and hospice moratorium means • Why the pause applies nationwide • What to do if you had not submitted your 855A before the deadline • Why state licensure and startup preparation should continue • How to prepare now so you can submit quickly when the moratorium lifts • What providers already in the queue should focus on next • How the moratorium affects home health mergers and acquisitions • Why accreditation may help providers move faster once applications reopenFor senior living leaders, this episode is especially important because home health is becoming a more strategic part of the senior living continuum. The moratorium may slow the Medicare application process, but it does not mean your organization should stop preparing.Subscribe to Senior Living Executive Strategy for more conversations on senior living operations, home health, skilled nursing, reimbursement, growth, and executive strategy.Learn more about Gravity Consulting: https://gravityconsulting.com#SeniorLiving #HomeHealth #Hospice #CMS #SkilledNursing #HealthcareLeadership #HomeHealthStartup #SeniorLivingStrategy #GravityConsultingSupport the show

S1E2: What buyers and builders should know about Prior Auth Interoperability On this episode host Shahid Shah features a detailed discussion about CMS's new drug prior authorization interoperability proposed rule, focusing on the opportunities and challenges it presents for builders, buyers, and investors in healthcare technology. Who is about to build the wrong thing chasing the right problem? Comment period ends on 6/15/26. To stream our Station live 24/7 visit www.HealthcareNOWRadio.com or ask your Smart Device to “….Play Healthcare NOW Radio”. Find all of our network podcasts on your favorite podcast platforms and be sure to subscribe and like us. Learn more at www.healthcarenowradio.com/listen

A must-listen episode: Host Dr. Jay Anders welcomes Kimberly Brandt, Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Administrator at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Together they discuss slow value-based care adoption in Medicare, CMS's data quality push through FHIR APIs and USCDI, and how AI will help flag fraud across millions of daily claims. Brandt also discusses what it means for CMS to pay for 'outcomes rather than transactions'. Find all of our network podcasts on your favorite podcast platforms and be sure to subscribe and like us. Learn more at www.healthcarenowradio.com/listen/

The 2027 Marketplace Final Rule from CMS is here! Join Sarah as she pulls out takeaways for insurance agents selling ACA plans.   Get Connected:

For twenty years, hearing the patient meant owning a Voice of Customer program. A survey, a tool, a dashboard you showed the board. On May 18, Qualtrics closed its 6.75 billion dollar acquisition of Press Ganey Forsta. The instrument the majority of U.S. hospitals use to hear their patients is now part of a cross-industry experience platform with its own roadmap. Chris Boyer and Reed Smith take that deal apart and ask who, inside the building, still works for the patient once the listening tool belongs to someone else. This is the third Touch Point in a row circling the same observation. TP485 argued digital equity is a clinical operations problem the health system can no longer outsource. TP487 argued the front door moved off the property. TP489 closes the pattern. The listening apparatus moved too. The episode argues marketing should stop being the collector of patient voice and become its advocate. Owning a program means making the signal presentable. Advocacy means being the named person accountable for the patient's voice surviving contact with a budget meeting. That role has a cost, and the episode names it plainly. If your health system would not fund a single internal advocate to carry the patient's voice into the room, you have already priced what that voice is worth to you. Mentions and links: Qualtrics, Qualtrics Acquires Healthcare Experience Leader Press Ganey Forsta for $6.75 Billion, PR Newswire, May 2026: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/qualtrics-acquires-healthcare-experience-leader-press-ganey-forsta-for-6-75-billion-302774876.html Becker's Hospital Review, Qualtrics completes $6.75B deal for Press Ganey, May 2026: https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/digital-health/qualtrics-completes-6-75b-deal-for-press-ganey/ CMSWire, After Uncertainty, Qualtrics Closes Deal on $6.75B Press Ganey Forsta Acquisition, May 2026: https://www.cmswire.com/customer-experience/after-uncertainty-qualtrics-finalizes-6-75-billion-acquisition-of-press-ganey-forsta/ Healthcare IT News, Qualtrics eyes a data engine to predict the experiences patients want, May 2026: https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/qualtrics-eyes-data-engine-predict-experiences-patients-want AHA Center for Health Innovation, What the Qualtrics Acquisition of Press Ganey Forsta Will Mean for Health Care, October 2025: https://www.aha.org/aha-center-health-innovation-market-scan/2025-10-14-what-qualtrics-acquisition-press-ganey-forsta-will-mean-health-care Qualtrics, Synthetic Data for Market Research FAQ, February 2026: https://www.qualtrics.com/articles/strategy-research/synthetic-data-market-research/ b2b International, AI in Market Research: The Limitations of Synthetic Data, August 2025: https://www.b2binternational.com/publications/ai-in-market-research-the-limitations-of-synthetic-data/ Customer Experience Dive, How synthetic data might shape consumer research, November 2024: https://www.customerexperiencedive.com/news/synthetic-data-consumer-research-customer-journey-qualtrics/732408/ Bain & Company, How Synthetic Customers Bring Companies Closer to the Real Ones, June 2025: https://www.bain.com/insights/how-synthetic-customers-bring-companies-closer-to-the-real-ones/ CMS, HCAHPS: Patients' Perspectives of Care Survey, 2025: https://www.cms.gov/medicare/quality/initiatives/hospital-quality-initiative/hcahps-patients-perspectives-care-survey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode features an edited recording of our CMS Final Notice webinar, offering timely insights into 2027 Medicare Advantage and Part D changes. Hear from Via Benefits experts as they break down MA payment updates, funding pressures, and evolving plan design strategies. Learn how CMS policies, Inflation Reduction Act provisions, and rising healthcare costs are shaping both group and individual Medicare markets. The discussion also explores what these changes mean for plan sponsors evaluating retiree benefits and long-term cost management.

Text messaging for communicating orders is not prohibited by CMS or The Joint Commission, but there are important HIPAA privacy and security considerations that healthcare organizations must understand before using this method of communication. According to guidance from the AMA, providers must evaluate compliance requirements and safeguards when using text messages in patient care workflows. In this episode, Terry explains the details of using text messaging for orders, what organizations need to know to remain compliant, and practical considerations for implementation. Plus, hear about a newly accepted AMA CPT Committee decision for 2027 that could impact future coding and reporting. Subscribe and Listen Find all of Terry’s official links in one place: https://www.terryfletcher.net/links The post Can Physicians and Clinicians Use Texting for Patient Care? appeared first on Terry Fletcher Consulting, Inc..

Wir sprechen mit Bastian Allgeier (Web / Mastodon / Bluesky / LinkedIn) darüber, wie sich Kirby nach mehr als 14 Jahren weiterentwickelt und was es bedeutet, ein kommerzielles CMS langfristig zu pfleg…

This week I answer Listener Questions [powerpress]

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training Are you still showing up for every function in your business after years because stepping back feels like abandoning what you built? Do you publish content consistently but wonder why it is not moving the needle? Today's featured guest owns a social media agency and built her client roster by getting on stage before she was comfortable doing so. She wrote a book that got her on the stages she wanted, and carved out a niche so specific that it made content marketers uncomfortable. In this conversation, she'll talk about how she landed enterprise clients with zero churn over nine years, what it actually takes to find a real differentiator, and much more. Brooke Sellas is the CEO and founder of B Squared Media, a Michigan-based agency offering social media management, paid media management, and social media customer care. Her social care practice works exclusively with enterprise brands at $5 billion and above in annual revenue, including long-term clients she originally closed nine years ago with zero churn since. She is the author of Conversations That Connect, a book built around the idea that social is a conversation channel, not a content channel. Brooke speaks at major marketing conferences, including Social Media Marketing World and now teaches AI at the University of California. In this episode, we'll discuss: Why your differentiator must be an outcome Being stuck in the Founder Evolution Framework Why hesitation regarding AI will kill your agency 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. How She Built a Client List Enterprise Brands Still Have Not Left Brooke's first two major clients came from a speaking appearance she almost did not take. She hated being on stage but agreed anyway. She closed Brother International and Miele from that first talk, and immediately made speaking her primary lead generation strategy. Nine years later, those clients are still with the agency. That zero churn across the social care practice is the result of a positioning decision made early: social is a revenue channel, not a content channel, and every client relationship is built around proving that. Getting on bigger stages required a longer game. Brooke spent years speaking for free, asked her network exactly how they were getting booked, and eventually took advice to write a book. The book cost around $25,000 to produce and self-publish. It opened stages that had been closed before. Social Media Marketing World followed because the book got in front of the right people and gave the organizer enough confidence to put her on stage. The ROI was not immediate. It compounded across years of bookings, consulting fees, and speaking revenue that now functions as a separate income stream while still generating agency leads. Your Differentiator Has to Be an Outcome, Not a Vibe Brooke is direct about what does not work as positioning. Saying your agency is a people-first agency, that you care more, that you have great culture: none of it separates you in a room where everyone is saying exactly the same thing. She spent years telling content marketers they were wrong, walking into rooms full of people who measured social by follower counts and publishing frequency, and saying the right metric is revenue from social. That took a stance. It made some people uncomfortable, and that discomfort was the signal she was in the right territory. The lesson she draws from her own experience is not that you need to be contrarian for its own sake. It is that your differentiator has to connect directly to a business outcome your client already cares about. Her agency's tagline is Conversation Not Campaign. That is a positioning claim with a revenue argument underneath it. If you cannot articulate what outcome your positioning produces for the client, you do not have a differentiator yet. You have a personality. Where She Is in the Founder Evolution Framework and What It Costs Her Fourteen years into building B Squared, Brooke is somewhere between Architect and CEO and honest about what that means in practice. She still runs most things. She knows it is holding back growth. She also knows that the identity piece is real: when you have built something for over a decade and your name is synonymous with what the agency delivers, stepping out of that role is not just a structural decision. It requires a different relationship with your own sense of contribution. What she articulates clearly is the tension every founder at this stage knows. She does not want to be the bottleneck anymore. She also has not yet handed the systems over to someone who can own them at the level she would. The move at this stage is not to wait until someone earns total trust before stepping back. It is to build the systems, put the right person in charge of them, and let the fender benders happen so the team develops the capability to solve problems without routing everything through the founder. The alternative is staying indispensable in a way that caps everything the agency could become. Stop Hesitating and Treat AI with Curiosity Brooke runs social media and paid media services. She is clear-eyed about what AI is doing to both: content that used to take weeks to produce is now a matter of seconds, and ad copy that required real craft is being generated faster and often better than agency teams can match manually. That is the honest read. The response she chose is not to protect what exists but to figure out where AI creates opportunity she was not positioned to capture before. The Gartner stat she cites is worth repeating: people who use AI to help them sell, sell 3.7 times more than those who do not. Brooke is a speaker, a consultant, and a sales-driven founder. That number is an opening, not a threat. The agencies that are struggling right now are the ones that treated the last two years as a window to observe and decide. The window is closing. Curiosity and willingness to play with new tools before mastery arrives is not optional. It is the trait that has always separated the founders who build something lasting from the ones who stay comfortable until the market moves without them. 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.

Send us Fan MailHospice has always been about people, but the future of hospice will increasingly be shaped by data—and that shift is both exciting and unsettling.In Part Two of The Future of Hospice: How HOPE Will Transform Reimbursement & Care, Raianne Melton and Andrea Hale unpack how the HOPE tool could redefine hospice reimbursement, value-based care, and quality measurement across CMS, Medicare Advantage, and health systems. The conversation explores where hospice measurement may be heading—from symptom impact scoring and burdensome discharges to acuity tracking, HUV utilization, and the growing importance of consistent documentation and actionable clinical data.The episode also focuses on what hospice leaders can do now to prepare: improving point-of-care documentation, simplifying EMR workflows, leveraging real-time analytics, and exploring AI-powered ambient listening to reduce clinician burden while preserving compassionate care. Ultimately, this conversation is about helping hospice organizations prove their value with measurable outcomes while staying true to the mission that defines hospice care.This episode offers practical insights for hospice executives, nonprofit healthcare leaders, clinicians, and anyone navigating the evolving landscape of end-of-life care.Guest:Andrea Hale, CEO of Valley Hospice Raianne Melton, Director of Clinical Services of Professional Services for AxxessHost:Chris Comeaux, President / CEO of TELEIOS and author of The Anatomy of LeadershipThe Anatomy of Leadership podcast explores the art and science of leadership through candid, insightful conversations with thought leaders, innovators, and change-makers from a variety of industries. Hosted by Chris Comeaux, each episode dives into the mindsets, habits, and strategies that empower leaders to thrive in complex, fast-changing environments. With topics ranging from organizational culture and emotional intelligence to navigating disruption and inspiring teams, the show blends real-world stories with practical takeaways. The goal is simple yet ambitious: to equip leaders at every level with the tools, perspectives, and inspiration they need to lead with vision, empathy, and impact.https://www.teleioscn.org/anatomy-of-leadership

Hospice has always been about people, but the future of hospice will increasingly be shaped by data—and that shift is both exciting and unsettling.In Part Two of The Future of Hospice: How HOPE Will Transform Reimbursement & Care, Raianne Melton and Andrea Hale unpack how the HOPE tool could redefine hospice reimbursement, value-based care, and quality measurement across CMS, Medicare Advantage, and health systems. The conversation explores where hospice measurement may be heading—from symptom impact scoring and burdensome discharges to acuity tracking, HUV utilization, and the growing importance of consistent documentation and actionable clinical data.The episode also focuses on what hospice leaders can do now to prepare: improving point-of-care documentation, simplifying EMR workflows, leveraging real-time analytics, and exploring AI-powered ambient listening to reduce clinician burden while preserving compassionate care. Ultimately, this conversation is about helping hospice organizations prove their value with measurable outcomes while staying true to the mission that defines hospice care.This episode offers practical insights for hospice executives, nonprofit healthcare leaders, clinicians, and anyone navigating the evolving landscape of end-of-life care.Guest:Andrea Hale, CEO of Valley Hospice Raianne Melton, Director of Clinical Services of Professional Services for AxxessHost:Chris Comeaux, President / CEO of TELEIOS and author of The Anatomy of LeadershipTeleios Collaborative Network   /   https://www.teleioscn.org/tcntalkspodcast

La tertulia semanal en la que repasamos las últimas noticias de la actualidad científica. En el episodio de hoy:Cara A:-Actos (5:00)Canal de whatsapp de Coffee Break (5:00)-CMS publica en Nature su medida la masa del bosón W (c.f. Ep. 478) (18:00)-Impacto de tormentas solares sobre la aviación (45:00)Este episodio continúa en la Cara B.Contertulios: Luisa Achaerandio, Ignacio Crespo, Borja Tosar, Francis Villatoro, Héctor Socas. Imagen de portada realizada con Midjourney. Todos los comentarios vertidos durante la tertulia representan únicamente la opinión de quien los hace... y a veces ni eso Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week in the Breakroom, Rodney Whitlock joins Erin Fuller to discuss the growing focus from both Congress and CMS on fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid, including the recent Medicare enrollment moratoria for new hospice and home health providers, increased scrutiny of state Medicaid programs, and the broader policy and political implications of these oversight efforts.

Today's discussion begins with some sobering statistics. Carlos Rivera begins the discussion by referring to a recent Forrester report focusing on federal technology. It revealed that 52% of respondents faced significant negative impacts from budget constraints, and 86% expected breaches to increase. The conclusion is obvious: federal leaders will have to learn how to leverage the assets they must use to protect sensitive networks and data. Today, we hear from three experts on how to accomplish the elusive goal of doing more with less. First, Ken Busby from CMS suggests that some enterprise services can be shared across an agency. An example might be identity and login services. Busby recommends that an agency bring in the right resources and processes to support technology and get the right people to help you. Second, there has been a proliferation of tools to address emerging security threats posed by AI. Keith Busby CMS states when considered individually, they may make sense, but when looked at in aggregate, there may be crossovers. Finally, if one attempts to protect everything, nothing gets accomplished. Richard Verwers, Carahsoft, emphasized that prioritizing the most vulnerable is most important: network security, data protection, and incident response. The panel agreed on the necessity of adapting to rapid technological changes and fostering cross-agency collaboration to build resilient operations.

Is Google deliberately obscuring its AI search mechanics to protect its 20-year monopoly? In this episode of Digital Marketing From The Coalface, we dive into the smoke and mirrors of the latest Google AI guidelines, which frustratingly claim that nothing has actually changed. We also explore the widening divide between building websites for human journeys versus AI machine crawlers, and try to bridge the gap between marketing strategy and web engineering as we discuss why older, structurally simple websites might perform perfectly fine, while modern JavaScript-heavy, lazy-loading pages can be entirely invisible to AI agents. We also unpack the shift toward headless CMS to resist the heavy load of AI crawlers and deliver lightning-fast web pages, and we contrast human-centric design, which prioritises branding and UI, with agent-centric design that demands clear structure, entities, and metadata. Finally, we cover the topic of deep integration between CRM and Google Ads to track meaningful B2B conversions. The reality of keeping up with AI search is an exhausting marathon, but endurance is key.

Welcome to a new, limited podcast series exploring major policy changes affecting older adults. This episode is part of our Age-Friendly Health series, which explores topics at the intersection of aging, health, health care, and health policy.In our second episode, host Katherine Ornstein welcomes Bianca Frogner, director of the Center for Health Workforce Studies at the University of Washington to discuss the role of direct care workers in long‑term care, workforce shortages, policy shifts affecting Medicaid, immigration, labor standards, and more.Support for the Age-Friendly Health series is provided by The John A. Hartford Foundation.

Send us Fan MailThe future of hospice care is changing—and the HOPE assessment tool may redefine how providers deliver care, document outcomes, and receive reimbursement.Healthcare is entering a new era where quality outcomes, patient data, and accountability are driving the future of care delivery.  In this episode, we're joined by Andrea Hale, CEO of Valley Hospice, and Raianne Melton, Director of Clinical Services of Professional Services for Axxess, whose expertise and frontline perspective help unpack one of the most significant shifts happening in hospice today—the implementation of the HOPE assessment tool. Their insight provides valuable guidance for hospice leaders, clinicians, and organizations preparing for the future of reimbursement and patient-centered care.In Part One of this important conversation, we explore how the Hospice Outcomes & Patient Evaluation (HOPE) tool is poised to transform the hospice landscape.  From evolving CMS expectations to the growing emphasis on quality metrics and patient-centered outcomes, this episode breaks down what hospice leaders, clinicians, and healthcare organizations need to understand now.Join us as we discuss:• What the HOPE tool is and why it matters• How reimbursement models are shifting in hospice care• The operational and compliance challenges providers may face• Why documentation and quality reporting are becoming more critical than ever• How organizations can proactively prepare for the future of end-of-life careWhether you're a hospice professional, nonprofit executive, healthcare leader, or business decision-maker, this episode provides timely insight into the changing future of compassionate care delivery.Our Guest:Andrea Hale, CEO of Valley HospiceRaianne Melton, Director of Clinical Services of Professional Services for AxxessHost:Chris Comeaux, President / CEO of TELEIOS and author of The Anatomy of Leadership

Episode Summary Particle Health CEO Jason Prestinario joins MedCity Pivot to assess the state of U.S. healthcare interoperability with clear-eyed candor. He grades the technical infrastructure a B — data can move — but gives access governance a C, because the rules around who uses data, and how, remain murky and poorly enforced. Jason draws a direct line between true interoperability and the viability of value-based care: without frictionless data access, accountability for patient outcomes is impossible. The conversation also covers Particle's antitrust lawsuit against Epic, now past its first major legal hurdle, and the broader wave of litigation challenging Epic's market dominance. Jason urges nuance: there's a meaningful difference between patients authorizing their own data use and bad actors harvesting records without consent — and conflating the two risks setting back the entire data-sharing ecosystem. Key Takeaways The data infrastructure gets a B — but access governance is still a C. The technical pipes for moving health records exist, but who can use them, when, and for what purpose remains the critical unsolved problem. Interoperability is a 'nice to have' in fee-for-service care — but it's a hard requirement for value-based care. When a provider is accountable for outcomes that happen outside their four walls, they need data from outside those walls. Information blocking penalties need teeth. Until healthcare organizations believe violations will result in real consequences, the rules won't change behavior — just like speed limits only work when drivers believe tickets are real. There's a critical distinction between patients authorizing their own data use and third parties accessing data without consent. The current Epic lawsuit debate conflates two very different scenarios that deserve separate legal and regulatory treatment. True patient data ownership is still largely a myth. Despite portals and progress, patients still face significant barriers — forgotten logins, provider-controlled systems — to accessing their own medical records programmatically. Links and Resources Connect with Arundhati Parmar aparmar@medcitynews.com Arundhati Parmar (@aparmarbb) on X MedCity News Keywords healthcare interoperability, Particle Health, Jason Prestinario, Epic lawsuit, antitrust healthcare, value-based care, CMS interoperability, TEFCA, Carequality, health data access, information blocking, 21st Century Cures Act, patient data ownership, HIPAA compliance, health information exchange, payer interoperability, digital health data, EHR data sharing, CommonWell, ONC rules Episode Highlights [00:04:22 - 00:05:16] Jason grades the interoperability 'pipes' a B-plus but gives data access governance a C at best. [00:10:56 - 00:12:37] Interoperability shifts from 'nice to have' in fee-for-service to a hard requirement in value-based care. [00:17:05 - 00:19:27] Jason explains why Particle sued Epic and what the case means for the broader healthcare data ecosystem. [00:25:11 - 00:27:11] A key distinction: patient-authorized data use versus unauthorized third-party data harvesting. [00:28:34 - 00:32:44] Why patients still can't easily access their own records — and what it would take to change that. [00:29:02 - 00:29:41] Information blocking penalties only work when organizations believe the consequences are real.

The future of hospice care is changing—and the HOPE assessment tool may redefine how providers deliver care, document outcomes, and receive reimbursement.Healthcare is entering a new era where quality outcomes, patient data, and accountability are driving the future of care delivery.  In this episode, we're joined by Andrea Hale, CEO of Valley Hospice, and Raianne Melton, Director of Clinical Services of Professional Services for Axxess, whose expertise and frontline perspective help unpack one of the most significant shifts happening in hospice today—the implementation of the HOPE assessment tool. Their insight provides valuable guidance for hospice leaders, clinicians, and organizations preparing for the future of reimbursement and patient-centered care.In Part One of this important conversation, we explore how the Hospice Outcomes & Patient Evaluation (HOPE) tool is poised to transform the hospice landscape.  From evolving CMS expectations to the growing emphasis on quality metrics and patient-centered outcomes, this episode breaks down what hospice leaders, clinicians, and healthcare organizations need to understand now.Join us as we discuss: • What the HOPE tool is and why it matters • How reimbursement models are shifting in hospice care • The operational and compliance challenges providers may face • Why documentation and quality reporting are becoming more critical than ever • How organizations can proactively prepare for the future of end-of-life careWhether you're a hospice professional, nonprofit executive, healthcare leader, or business decision-maker, this episode provides timely insight into the changing future of compassionate care delivery.Our Guest:Andrea Hale, CEO of Valley HospiceRaianne Melton, Director of Clinical Services of Professional Services for AxxessHost:Chris Comeaux, President / CEO of TELEIOS and author of The Anatomy of Leadership

Ross Chastain sits down with Andrew Kurland and Brad Gillie to look back at his major win in the Coke 600 at Charlotte last season. NASCAR returns to CMS this Sunday for the Coca-Cola 600. You can listen to it live on PRN!

Noticias de Astronomía y Exploración del Espacio – MAYO 19, 2026. En este programa presentamos, comentamos y explicamos dos o tres noticias astronómicas y de exploración del espacio que fueron dadas a conocer en la semana, y que nos parecieron de particular relevancia e interés. Además, Pablo Lonnie Pacheco, de “Cielos Despejados,” nos presenta sus efemérides astronómicas. Esta semana: + 0) El Telescopio Espacial James Webb observa la galaxia espiral M77. https://www.sci.news/astronomy/webb-brilliant-heart-messier-77-14754.html + 1) Mapa de la distribución de materia a lo largo del Universo por JWST. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/05/260511213136.htm https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2026/05/11/astronomers-produce-most-detailed-map-cosmic-web https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae5bac + 2) Historia del paso del Sistema Solar por nubes interestelares encontrada en las capas de hielo en Antártida. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-stardust-antarctic-ice-reveals-tens.html https://www.hzdr.de/db/Cms?pOid=77574&pNid=99 https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/nxjq-jwgp  

Hosted by Michael Tetreault | Editor-in-Chief, Concierge Medicine Today Episode Overview In one of the most comprehensive episodes in DocPreneur Leadership Podcast history, host Michael Tetreault takes an honest, evidence-based, and encouraging look at the cash-pay and subscription-based primary care landscape — who it serves, how it works, where it's heading, and what every physician and advanced practice clinician needs to understand before making a career-defining decision. This episode doesn't take sides. It takes a clear-eyed look at the full picture — including the parts that don't always make it into the conference keynote. What's Covered in This Episode The Foundation Not all subscription-based primary care models are the same. Two models operating in this space share surface-level similarities but are structurally distinct businesses with different economic logic, different patient populations, and different long-term trajectories. Understanding which one you're considering — and why — changes everything about how you plan. A Lesson From Healthcare History Before committing to any practice model, it helps to understand what happened to the movements that came before it. This episode traces three instructive parallels: the micropractice and ideal medical practice movement of the early 2000s; the decades-long fight for healthcare price transparency and what happened when physicians finally got it; and the rise and reality check of retail health — what scaled, what didn't, and why. The common thread in every model that has achieved durable scale in American healthcare is the same: structural fit with the economic environment, not ideological purity. Two Pathways, One Brand Name The episode walks through both economic models in the cash-pay primary care space — the purist, cash-only, no-insurance model and the employer-integrated model — explaining how each works, who each serves, and what the financial picture actually looks like for physicians considering either path. The revenue math is done out loud. The sustainability data from peer-reviewed research is cited. The patient demographic fit for each model is examined honestly and specifically. Who Each Model Serves — and Where Other Models Fit Better A detailed breakdown of the patient populations each model genuinely serves well — and an honest, evidence-based look at the patient populations where other models may be a better structural fit. Including Medicare-eligible patients, patients with complex chronic disease, lower-income households, and employees of small and mid-sized businesses. The Overlooked Opportunity — NPs, PAs, and Advanced Practice Clinicians One of the most significant and underexplored opportunities in subscription-based healthcare delivery today is the direct-care model as a pathway for nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other advanced practice clinicians. The evidence on NP and PA-led primary care outcomes is strong and peer-reviewed. The physician shortage projections make the need urgent. And the organizational infrastructure for advanced practice clinician-led direct-care practices is largely unbuilt — which means the opportunity belongs to whoever moves first. The Organizational Landscape An honest look at what the multiplicity of organizations, coalitions, and alliances in the cash-pay primary care space tells us — and what research on professional association dynamics says about the long-term implications of organizational fragmentation for legislative effectiveness and individual practice planning. One Brand, Two Directions Drawing on four documented historical parallels from the history of American medicine — the AMA and managed care, osteopathic medicine's identity divide, family medicine's emergence as a separate specialty, and the micropractice movement — the episode makes the case that two communities with genuinely different economic interests and regulatory priorities currently sharing a brand name may, consistent with historical precedent, find their own distinct professional homes over time. This is presented as pattern recognition grounded in verified historical evidence — and as practical planning context for physicians building practices today. The Tax and Structuring Update A clear, practical summary of the 2025 "One Big Beautiful Bill" Act changes — effective January 2026 — and what they mean for HSA eligibility of cash-pay membership fees. What qualifies, what doesn't, and why legal counsel is essential before making any representations to patients about tax-advantaged payment options. Eight Questions Before You Commit A practical pre-decision checklist — eight specific questions every physician or advanced practice clinician should be able to answer clearly before committing to any cash-pay practice pathway. Key Takeaways Cash-pay primary care and concierge medicine are not the same model, do not serve the same patient populations, and should not be evaluated as interchangeable alternatives. The purist cash-pay model has grown from approximately 100 practices in 2009 to over 2,100 by 2023 — real and meaningful growth. The financial sustainability data, however, reflects consistent challenges that peer-reviewed research has documented specifically in lower-income markets and solo practice settings. The employer-integrated pathway has stronger structural sustainability — multiple revenue streams, embedded benefit relationships, and documented employer cost reductions of 12 to 20 percent over three to five years. A December 2025 Johns Hopkins study found concierge and cash-pay primary care practices combined grew 83.1 percent between 2018 and 2023. The employer-integrated model is the primary driver of that growth trajectory. Concierge medicine — particularly the PCM model — is not retreating. The global concierge medicine market is projected to surpass $34 billion by 2032 and is growing at a compound annual rate that outpaces most healthcare market segments. The National Academy of Medicine's 2021 Future of Nursing report, AAMC physician shortage projections, and peer-reviewed NP/PA outcomes research collectively point to advanced practice clinician-led direct-care models as one of the most significant underexplored opportunities in subscription-based healthcare delivery. Pattern recognition from healthcare history — price transparency, retail health, the micropractice movement — consistently shows that the distance between a compelling healthcare idea and durable scaled impact is longer and more complicated than early advocacy suggests. Models that have achieved durable scale in American primary care share one characteristic: structural fit with the economic environment, not independence from it. Sources and Citations All claims in this episode are supported by published, verifiable sources. Full citations below. Micropractice and Practice Model History Moore, G. (2002). "Accountability and Improvement in Physician Practice." Family Medicine. Moore, G. & Showstack, J. (2003). "Primary Care Medicine in Crisis." Health Affairs. healthaffairs.org AAFP TransforMED Initiative. (2006). aafp.org Nutting, P.A. et al. (2010). "Initial Lessons From the First National Demonstration Project on Practice Transformation to a Patient-Centered Medical Home." Annals of Family Medicine. Rittenhouse, D.R. et al. (2009). "Primary Care and Accountable Care." New England Journal of Medicine. Rittenhouse, D.R. & Shortell, S.M. (2009). "The Patient-Centered Medical Home." JAMA. Price Transparency Research Pathak, Y. & Muhlestein, D. (2024). "Public Awareness and Use of Price Transparency: Report From a National Survey." West Health Institute / Gallup. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov Parente, S.T. (2023). "Estimating the Impact of New Health Price Transparency Policies." Inquiry.pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov ScienceDirect. (2025). "Outcomes of Price Transparency Policies for Healthcare Services in the United States: A Systematic Review." sciencedirect.com Retail Health Fein, A.J. (2017). "Retail Clinic Check Up: CVS Retrenches, Walgreens Outsources, Kroger Expands." Drug Channels. drugchannels.net CNBC. (2024). "Why Walmart, Walgreens, CVS Retail Health Clinic Experiment Is Struggling." cnbc.com Healthcare Finance News. (2023). "Retail Clinics Seeing Utilization Soar, Popularity Grow." healthcarefinancenews.com MedCity News. (2023). "Retail Clinics Are Gaining Momentum." medcitynews.com Cash-Pay and Subscription Primary Care Market Data MedCity News. (March 2026). "DPC Is Scaling — The Financing Architecture Isn't Ready." medcitynews.com Johns Hopkins. (December 2025). Study on concierge and cash-pay practice growth 2018–2023. As cited in MedCity News, March 2026. Liaw, W. et al. (2024). "Direct Primary Care: Financial Analysis and Potential to Reshape the U.S. Healthcare Landscape." Journal of General Internal Medicine. springer.com Lujan, D.Y. (2025). "Why Direct Primary Care Models Fail." KevinMD. kevinmd.com Doan, L. et al. (2019). "Physician Perspectives on Direct Primary Care." Family Medicine. Eskew, P.M. & Klink, K. (2015). "Direct Primary Care: Practice Distribution and Cost Across the Nation." Health Affairs. healthaffairs.org Tseng, P. et al. (2018). "Administrative Costs Associated With Physician Billing and Insurance-Related Activities." JAMA Internal Medicine. Medscape Physician Compensation Report. (2023). medscape.com Employer-Integrated Model Spann, S.J. et al. (2020). "Employer-Sponsored Direct Primary Care." Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions. (2021). purchaseralliance.org Kaiser Family Foundation. (2023). Employer Health Benefits Annual Survey. kff.org National Business Group on Health. (2022). businessgrouphealth.org Employers Health Coalition. (2022). employershealthcoalition.org Patient Demographics and Population Health Anderson, G.F. (2010). "Chronic Conditions: Making the Case for Ongoing Care." Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Tikkanen, R. & Abrams, M.K. (2020). "U.S. Health Care from a Global Perspective." Commonwealth Fund.commonwealthfund.org Collins, S.R. et al. (2022). "Paying for It: How Health Insurance and Healthcare Costs Are Shaping the Lives of American Adults." Commonwealth Fund. commonwealthfund.org Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2023). "Contingent and Alternative Employment Arrangements." bls.gov Petterson, S. et al. (2012). "Unequal Distribution of the U.S. Primary Care Workforce." Annals of Family Medicine. Advanced Practice Clinicians and Nursing Laurant, M. et al. (2019). "Revision of Professional Roles and Quality Improvement in Primary Care." New England Journal of Medicine. Naylor, M.D. & Kurtzman, E.T. (2010). "The Role of Nurse Practitioners in Reinventing Primary Care." Health Affairs. healthaffairs.org National Academy of Medicine. (2021). "The Future of Nursing 2020–2030." nationalacademies.org AAMC. (2021). "The Complexities of Physician Supply and Demand: Projections from 2019–2034." aamc.org Legal, Tax, and Compliance Eischen, J. (2025). Legal Commentary on Cash Practice Structuring. eischenlawoffice.com DLA Piper. (2025). "Paying for Direct Primary Care Arrangements With HSAs." dlapiper.com IRS Notice 26-05. irs.gov CMS. "Opt-Out Affidavits and Private Contracts." cms.gov Organizational and Professional Identity Research Hoff, T.J. (2010). Practice Under Pressure: Primary Care Physicians and Their Medicine in the Twenty-First Century. Rutgers University Press. Scott, W.R. (2008). Institutions and Organizations: Ideas and Interests. SAGE Publications. Freidson, E. (2001). Professionalism: The Third Logic. University of Chicago Press. Wolinsky, H. & Brune, T. (1994). The Serpent on the Staff: The Unhealthy Politics of the American Medical Association. Putnam. Gevitz, N. (2004). The DOs: Osteopathic Medicine in America. Johns Hopkins University Press. Stephens, G.G. (1989). "Family Medicine as Counterculture." Journal of Family Practice. Colwill, J.M. (1992). "Where Have All the Primary Care Applicants Gone?" New England Journal of Medicine. Meltzer, D.O. & Chung, J.W. (2014). "The Population-Based Physician Workforce." Health Affairs.healthaffairs.org Bodenheimer, T. & Pham, H.H. (2010). "Primary Care: Current Problems and Proposed Solutions." Health Affairs. healthaffairs.org Grumbach, K. & Grundy, P. (2010). "Outcomes of Implementing Patient Centered Medical Home Interventions." JAMA. Concierge Medicine Market Data Grand View Research. (2022). Concierge Medicine Market Size & Growth Report. grandviewresearch.com Precedence Research. (2023). U.S. Concierge Medicine Market Size and Forecast. globenewswire.com MDVIP. (2020). Personalized Primary Care Reduces ER Visits, Hospitalizations, and Outpatient Expenditures.mdvip.com AAPP / Software Advice. (2023). "Concierge Medicine Salary and Definition." softwareadvice.com Disclaimer The DocPreneur Leadership Podcast is produced by Concierge Medicine Today, LLC, an independent healthcare leadership publication. This episode and its accompanying summary are intended for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing in this episode or summary constitutes medical, legal, financial, or accounting advice. The information presented reflects publicly available research, published data, and editorial observation, and is not intended to replace the guidance of qualified medical, legal, financial, or business professionals. All factual claims are supported by named, verifiable third-party sources, which are cited in full above. Concierge Medicine Today makes no guarantee regarding the completeness or currency of external sources cited and encourages listeners to verify information independently. References to specific organizations, publications, legal decisions, or market data are provided for educational context only. Mention of any organization, publication, or individual does not constitute endorsement, and no commercial relationship exists between Concierge Medicine Today and any source cited in this episode unless otherwise disclosed. Physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other clinicians considering any practice model change are strongly encouraged to seek qualified legal counsel with specific experience in healthcare compliance, tax structuring, and the applicable regulatory environment in their state before making any practice or business decisions. © 2007–2026 Concierge Medicine Today, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction or distribution of this content without written permission is prohibited.

In this episode, Ayesha and Andrew discuss the May 20, 2026 issue of JBJS, along with an added dose of entertainment and pop culture. Listen at the gym, on your commute, or whenever your case is on hold! Link: JBJS website: https://jbjs.org/issue.php Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by JBJS Clinical Classroom. Subspecialties: Knee, Hip, Shoulder, Basic Science, Foot & Ankle, Orthopaedic Essentials, Education & Training Chapters (00:00:02) - Case Is On Hold(00:01:48) - Clopidogrel Thromboprophylaxis in(00:11:33) - Clopidogrel vs Aspirin post-operative bleeding(00:15:26) - Custom 3-D acetabular implants for complex revision total lip(00:22:29) - Custom Implants(00:25:12) - Satisfied but Failed: Total Knee Arthroplasty(00:37:15) - CMS' new criteria for knee replacements(00:41:00) - medial unicompartmental knee arthroplasty, adverse outcomes(00:43:12) - medial unit compartmental knee arthroplasty

In this episode we recap Men's Nationals and then quickly switch gears to preview the Women's National Tournament.Men's NationalsThis tournament delivered plenty of excitement, highlighted by a playoff between Rochester and Transylvania to determine the final team to make the cut. Transylvania ultimately came out on top and advanced to the final two rounds. In the fourth round, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps fired an incredible 15-under-par round, vaulting from a tie for fourth after Round 3 into a tie for first place. CMS eventually faced Illinois Wesleyan in a playoff, where they captured the National Championship trophy. Individually, Sebi Aliaga (CMS) claimed the national title with a tournament total of -10.Women's NationalsHosted by Claremont-Mudd-ScrippsMay 19-22 at Desert Willow Golf Course - Palm Desert, CATeam and individual champions will be determined after 72 holes Field is comprised of 34 teams and 6 individuals not on one of those teams After 36 holes of competition, the field will be cut to the top 15 teams and top six individuals not on one of those teamsWe hope you enjoy this episode!Support D3 Golf GuysSupport the show

A discectomy can feel like instant relief until the pain comes back, and the “small” hole in the disc turns into a repeat surgery, degeneration, and lost mobility. Joining the podcast is Greg Lambrecht, founder and executive director of Intrinsic Therapeutics, with host Geoff Pardo to unpack why recurrent lumbar disc herniation is still so common, what surgeons and patients often don't see downstream, and how his team built Barricaid to address the problem at its source: the annular defect. They also discuss the engineering logic of a bone-anchored barrier and why early “optimal” designs failed inside a body that's anything but gentle, as well as CMS versus private payer incentives and why trial protocols should be negotiated with reimbursement stakeholders early. Subscribe and leave a review with your biggest question about getting breakthrough devices adopted. LINKS:      Medtech Talk Links:  Cambridge Healthtech Institute   Medtech Talk  Gilde Healthcare  Intrinsic Therapeutics Links: Barricaid 

Matthew Stead recaps WindEurope Madrid and Blades Europe Edinburgh. Plus Suzlon unveils its Blue Sky platform for Europe, Muehlhan consolidates six specialist firms, and Mingyang keeps hunting for a European home. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes’ YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Speaker: [00:00:00] The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, brought to you by StrikeTape. Protecting thousands of wind turbines from lightning damage worldwide. Visit striketape.com. And now, your hosts.  Allen Hall 2025: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I’m your host, Allen Hall, and I’m here with Matthew Stead, who is back in Australia, but not at home. He’s up in Queensland. Or actually, not even on– in Queensland, technically. He’s on an island off the coast of Queensland. Where are you at, Matthew?  Matthew Stead: Uh, Moreton Island. It’s, uh, like a resort island off, uh, off of Brisbane, so beautiful outside.  Allen Hall 2025: Well, you need a little bit of resort time because you’ve been to two conferences, and you spent a good bit of time in Austria after that. So you were at WindEurope in Madrid, and then following that, you went right over to Scotland for Blades Europe. So I wanna hear your thoughts. We’ll start with, uh, WindEurope and what was going on at that conference. It did sound like there was a pretty [00:01:00] good attendance, and some people that I have talked to about it really en-enjoyed being in Madrid. It’s just  Matthew Stead: a bigger city. Um, first time I’d ever been to Madrid, and, uh, yeah, the show was amazing, actually. I was, I was a bit blown away by, uh, I think the OEMs were back out in force. You know, so like the Vestas, Siemens were, um, really– and Nordexes and so forth were really back out in force, so that was really good to see. Um, the, some of the larger operators had really, really strong presence as well. So you could see that, you know, Iberdrola, Res, um, those sorts of companies were, um, really, you know, putting a big effort in and meeting their customers and, um, really showing, uh, the world who they were. So that was really, um, you know, really good to see. There were so many people seriously. Um, the queues for food at lunch were, were, um, one of the major problems. Um, so, um, yeah, it was really a lot of people, so that was really exciting. Um, and I mean, for me, I was [00:02:00]trying to catch up with, with partners and friends and, yeah, it was, it was jam, jam-packed just meeting people in the industry. Um, probably a few other things. So s- you know, SkySpecs and Aerones had a really strong, um, presence there. So, um, SkySpecs and Aerones were, were doing really well. Um, maybe one of the, um, surprises for me, and I know this has been a topic on a few other previous episodes, was there was a lot of interest in bird and bat detection. I, I, I think there had to be, like, five companies that were, were– had really big setups, and it was a really, really big topic around cameras and so forth. So, um, that was a, a big topic. And, um, then there, there was a really, really strong, you know, supply chain, you know, from, from vessels to cables to, you know, repairs. Allen Hall 2025: What was the ratio of offshore companies to onshore companies? I’m always curious.  Matthew Stead: You’re looking through the, the list. Um- I would, I’m only guessing it [00:03:00] was probably about 40% had an offshore focus of some kind. So it was definitely a strong offshore focus. Um, obviously, you know, a lot of onshore, offshore combined companies. But yeah, definitely the word offshore kept on popping up a lot.  Allen Hall 2025: Because Spain is mostly onshore. Like, um, like 99% onshore, right? I think it’s a couple of small projects going offshore. Does it look like the onshore business is gonna pick up, uh, just in terms of the activity on the floor in Madrid?  Matthew Stead: Uh, yeah. Um, I, I think, you know, like I said, you know, those big operators like the REZAs and the Iberdrolas and, and the OEMs, I, I think it’s just a given that, um, you know, things are buoyant. Um, well, they appear to be definitely very buoyant. Uh, I think we’ve heard, you know, some of the positive, um, financial news from a few of the OEMs recently. So yeah, yeah, it seems like o- onshore is, is maturing further, further, further. And so you went straight  Allen Hall 2025: from Madrid, right, to [00:04:00] Edinburgh, Scotland. That was a change in weather, I would assume. Uh, probably about a 20 degree Celsius difference. 25 down to 15, yes. Whoa. Okay. Yeah, that’s a good bit. Uh, but the Edinburgh conference, that’s the first time that Blades Europe has been to Edinburgh. I, at least I don’t remember them being there before. That tends to be a more technical conference than Wind Europe. Uh, the, the Blades conference is obviously focused on blades, and all the relevant experts in Europe do tend to show up there. What were some of the hot topics at Blades Europe this year? Matthew Stead: Yeah, I think it was, um, an interesting conference. Um, I, I’d been to Blades USA, so I was able to contrast, um, Blades USA a little bit. I think probably the differences here were, yeah, there was definitely some strong, strong, uh, experts there, like you say. Um, you know, Birgit, um, our friend was, was in attendance and a few of her colleagues from Statkraft. Um, I think, and or, uh, actually ORE Catapult, the, the [00:05:00] UK research, um, offshore renewable energy research, um, they did some great presentations. I really, um, they really shared some really good insights. So, um, ORE Catapult were talking about life extension and, um, you know, looking at the, the fatigue on blades and, uh, how they’re, how they’re going to perform and life extension. So some great stuff from ORE Catapult there. Probably another key topic that came up was around, uh, sort of related to life extension, but also recycling. The, there was a really good session on the new IEC standard. Um, um, to, you know, full disclosure, I was actually on the panel. So I, I thought it was a great panel. But, um, the new IEC standard for blade operations and maintenance, um, is really well a-advanced now in its development. Um, very strong risk focus, you know. So depending on the risk then drives your, your blade O&M program. [00:06:00] Um, so that was a, a great talk as well. Uh, and then maybe finally, um, something close to my heart, um, I think the, the, you know, the maturity of CMS companies. There actually, there were five blade CMS companies there, which is probably the biggest turnout I’ve seen around blade CMS, um, ever. And so it was good to see that sort of, um, interest and growth, um, and the need for, for blade CMS. Uh, and, um, obviously the last one, lightning. So lightning always an issue. Lots of discussions around lightning, um, you know, through Greece and a few of the, the, the Balkan go- Balkan states. On the blade recycling front, there’s a  Allen Hall 2025: company in Scotland called ReBlade that is involved in some of the recycling efforts. Did they give a presentation of, of what they’re up to at the moment? Matthew Stead: Uh, yes, I think they did. Um, they’re talking about setting up a, a site in a, a [00:07:00] couple of sites, and I think Inverness was the, the location where they’re, where they’re setting up a site. The, um, the port is supportive, so they’re working through those, those, those challenges. You know, getting a site, getting transport and access to the blades. Um, working out when, when the, when the blades will come to them. You know, the storage of blades. Um, the, the end, end uses for those blades. Getting all that supply chain, um, lined up was, you know, yeah, it was, that was quite thorough and quite, um, yeah, inspiring.  Allen Hall 2025: And on the CMS side, what are operators trying to monitor? ‘Cause usually have something in mind that they’re going after.  Matthew Stead: For better or for worse, there’s still some serial, um, failure modes. Um, and so the industry is looking at very particular, you know, challenges that, um, certain make and model have. Um, so root insert failures was definitely one of those, um, one of those topics. Um, and that was actually one of the, the, the [00:08:00] roundtable discussions at, uh, Blades Europe. Some other, um, monitoring around, you know, lightning and- lightning damage and what’s happening with the LPS. That was also, uh, another big topic for, for monitoring. And then a few other sort of general, more, more general, um, you know, natural frequencies of blades and seeing if the natural frequencies are changing, indicating a change in stiffness, which relates to potential damage. So yeah, there was– it was quite a mix of the types of, um, CMS that was discussed.  Allen Hall 2025: Has the digital twin finally died? Anybody talk about that?  Matthew Stead: There’s actually a current call-out for a new research project in Europe around digital twins. So, um, yeah, one of the larger, one of the larger operators is, is putting, pulling together a team to talk about digital twins, so-  Allen Hall 2025: I, I think this is one of the more difficult things to do, but just because you’re dealing with a variety of blades and blade factories and unique issues that pop up that are…[00:09:00] You, you really can’t model until after they happen. And after they happen, everybody knows about them anyway. So what’s the point of the digital twin if you can’t detect things early? It, it, it is a great concept, but hard to implement.  Matthew Stead: Yeah. And why? Why would you do it? I mean, you, you’re only gonna do it if there’s a benefit, and what is the benefit? So, but I think, uh, actually at Blades Europe, digital twins was not really a topic. And maybe one thing I forgot to say is that the, um, Wind Power Lab did a, a good, um, presentation on carbon blades as well, so.  Allen Hall 2025: The, the carbon blades are, is a very good discussion, just because the trend has been lately to scrap blades and bring new ones on site. And the carbon can be difficult to repair, or it takes a long time to repair, and you just don’t have the manpower or woman power to go out and fix it. So the, the fastest option is to build a new blade. But it does leave a lot of blade waste, which is where the industry is not going. Uh, recyclable blades, which is [00:10:00] in process at the moment, will make that easier, but you just don’t wanna be recycling blades. You like to be able to repair them. Composites are repairable. And it’s, it is so odd that they, they wanna continue on that pathway, but we’ll see. We’ll see. You don’t really learn the lesson until you do it.  Matthew Stead: Um, however, you know, the, the presentation on carbon blades was, um, you know, highlighted a lot of the challenges, but also highlighted some of the positives and the, you know, how they do help. Um, and so there was a lot of support for carbon blades, but there’s a lot of unknowns and, um, and there was a lot of discussion around how do you even test if the LPS is working. Uh, it’s just impossible. So, you know, traditional methods on carbon blades, yeah, it just don’t work. So, um, but there was a lot of support that the carbon does bring benefit. But yeah, I agree with you. There’s a lot of challenges there.  Allen Hall 2025: That’s one of the things we learned years ago back in the late ’80s, early ’90s when we, at least in, in the [00:11:00] States, started building a number of carbon fiber aircraft. And the repair situation and dealing with repairs in, in remote locations became difficult. And you’ve learned how much training it took to keep an industry running, and you’re starting from zero for a lot of places that all he had worked on was aluminum. It, it’s a completely different world. You’re, you’re training tens of thousands of technicians around the world. You weren’t planning to go do that, and now you are. So it just, it adds to the cost.  Matthew Stead: It also ties into the OEM, um, you know, providing, you know, details on how to repair those blades because they’re not, they’re not just a standard item, so-  Allen Hall 2025: No, you, you don’t wanna be grinding into a protrusion if you can avoid it. It- you’re just never gonna get it back into that original form because protrusions are in some part magic. And taking a grinder to them is not gonna… It’s breaking the magic. All the magic will be leaving that protrusion when you do that. Yeah, very [00:12:00]difficult. Delamination and bond line failures in blades are difficult problems to detect early. These hidden issues can cost you millions in repairs and lost energy production. CIC NDT are specialists to detect these critical flaws before they become expensive burdens. Their nondestructive test technology penetrates deep into blade materials to find voids and cracks traditional inspections completely miss. CIC NDT maps every critical defect, delivers actionable reports, and provides support to get your blades back in service. So visit cicndt.com because catching blade problems early will save you millions. Well, as we know, the wind industry has long been dominated by a handful of European and American turbine makers, uh, particularly in the, quote-unquote, “West.” Uh, but that landscape may be [00:13:00] shifting. Suzlon, the Indian turbine giant that nearly collapsed under about a $1.5 billion of debt just a few years ago, is back. The company has unveiled a new turbine platform aimed squarely at Europe, and says it will build its first factory on the continent if it wins enough orders. Vice Chairman Girish Tanti, uh, delivered the announcement at the WindEurope conference in Madrid, where Matthew was Signaling that Suzlon believes its time has come. And since you were there, Matthew, did you hear any news on the floor, any discussion on the show floor about Suzlon entering Europe?  Matthew Stead: Well, actually, yes. So, um, um, there was actually a good, uh, contingent of Suzlon people at, uh, Blades Europe. So, uh, they attended, uh, Wind Europe and then Blades Europe. Um, and I, you know, I was able to have a bit of discussion with them. I think, I think, uh, they were quite optimistic about, um, [00:14:00] you know, moving back or moving into, into Europe in terms of manufacturing. Um, however, there was an element of skepticism. Am I allowed to say that? So they, uh, were, they were not completely, um, convinced that it’s gonna happen, but, uh, they were certainly excited by that. It was definitely a, a clear possibility, but not a given.  Allen Hall 2025: Well, they have a, a new platform called the Blue Sky platform, um, which will have, I think, two turbines here, a 5 megawatt and a 6.3 megawatt, which is squarely aimed at Europe and also the United States, for that matter. And building a factory, though, doesn’t make a lot of sense if the cost driver for a factory in Europe is the European employees, which it tends to be when you hear the discussions about the cost structure, it’s about the employees. I’m not sure why Suzlon would make blades or nacelles in Europe unless they could avoid tariffs or taxation, because India is a very [00:15:00] cost, uh, driven, uh, manufacturing facilities writing country. So why would you wanna go build another expensive factory, probably in the realm of a couple hundred million pounds, uh, if you’re gonna go do it? It probably doesn’t make any sense to do that as well as just selling turbines into Europe. It seems like the easier path.  Matthew Stead: Yeah. And then you’ve got all the, like, the quality control challenges and, you know, you get the cultural challenges. So yeah, to be honest, I don’t qu- I don’t quite understand the logic behind that either. Um, maybe there’s, there’s some things that we don’t know about behind the scenes in terms of tariffs and other, other incentives that we don’t know about.  Allen Hall 2025: Would you see operators taking, uh, a Suzlon presentation and maybe even writing plans for developing with Suzlon turbines in the next couple of years? Is that a, a feeling that Europeans would, would do that, or is Vestas mainly and Siemens Gamesa so strong in Europe that it doesn’t make any sense unless [00:16:00] you’re in sort of the periphery countries of Europe?  Matthew Stead: I mean, my first exposure to a wind turbine was a Suzlon turbine in Australia, and there are many, many, many Suzlon turbines in Australia. And they’re all, they’re all still working. They’re all still reliable. So I mean, from a reputation and reliability and, um Yeah, history point of view, I can’t see why not. I mean, you know, uh, the operators will see that, you know, they’ve proven themselves. They’re not new kids on the block. Um, and so why wouldn’t an operator think about it? Allen Hall 2025: Well,  Matthew Stead: in  Allen Hall 2025: this quarter’s PES Wind magazine, which you can download for free at peswind.com, there is a nice article from Muelhen Wind Services, and that is a growing company. A lot going on there. Our friends at AC883 just joined Muelhen a f- few months ago, and is being part of that conglomerate. And, and we know that obviously building wind farm used to mean [00:17:00]consulting with dozens of contractors, and this is where Mue- Muelhen has really s- stepped into the breach here. So from blade repair at one company and heavy lift cranes at another company, all that had to be managed separately. You’re calling s- different companies all the time. And watching asset managers and site supervisors do this, uh, it is a thankless job. Well, Muelhen’s trying to change that a little bit, uh, and they’re saying that that model no longer works, and I totally agree with them. It’s insane. Uh, but so Muelhen has consolidated six specialist firms under its one brand, and covering everything from port pre-assembly to long-term operations and maintenance across Europe, the US and Canada, uh, and Asia-Pacific. Its CEO, Søren Hoffer, uh, puts it plainly, “The next phase of wind will not be won by turbine size alone. It will be decided by the supply chain’s ability to execute.” Boy, [00:18:00]couldn’t say truer words. Uh, I’ve worked with Muelhen or my company, Weather Guard Lightning Tech, has worked with Muelhen on a couple of projects over the years, and we’ve always had, uh, great service from them, and we have talked to a number of operators that love them, that love using Muelhen. So it’s not a surprise that they’re trying to grow and expand and make life easier for the operators.  Matthew Stead: Sounds like a brilliant move, really. I mean, you know, pulling all these sort of things together is, is a real challenge, isn’t it? I mean, coordinating all these subcontractors, um, getting to turn up at the right time, and yeah, I mean, it just sounds like a brilliant move, and I think that we need more, more, more efficient service companies to service the growing fleet. So the more they can get organized, the better.  Allen Hall 2025: Yeah, the scale matters here, and the expertise matters. As we’ve have a couple hundred thousand turbines that are [00:19:00] operating in the, quote-unquote, “West,” it does make sense to have a larger player that has seen most of those turbines and has some experience with them. It’s always the scary scenario when you’re working with a new company. Have they been on this turbine before? Do they know what they’re doing? Do they know- Lockout tagout. Even simple things like that come to the forefront. And the, the trouble is on some of these smaller companies that are in that business is that, uh, you just don’t get the level of service, you don’t get the level of response, you don’t have the horsepower if something were to, to go wrong on site. They don’t have the cash to, to bring in a second crane or another crew to get this job done. It, it does become scale at some point. And, uh, for a long time in the wind industry, particularly United States, it, it has been a lot of, quote-unquote, “mom-and-pop operations,” and those are slowly getting acquired by the likes of Muehlhan. I, I, I think this is inevitable at some point. Uh, from the asset owner’s, uh, desktop watching this go on, [00:20:00] how do you see, you know, a large operator interfacing with Muehlhan? Are they gonna do just one-stop shopping at this point? They’re, they’re not gonna have three or four different companies to work with, that they’re just gonna lock into, uh, Muehlhan? ‘Cause, uh, that’s what I see.  Matthew Stead: Yeah. I, I think, you know, from the, the WOMA Conference in, in Melbourne, we saw a bit of a, bit of a shift towards, um, outsourcing, at least in Australia Pacific region. And I mean, if, if you’re gonna outsource, um, you’re, you’re probably gonna join up with a, a Muehlhan, um, equivalent. So, you know, that way it just takes some of the risk out of, out of it, so it, it sort of makes sense. Um, the other observation I’ve heard is that, you know, because of the seasonality of blade repairs, it’s really hard to keep hold of, um, blade techs. And so if you’re a global company, you’ve got at least some opportunity of using the ses- seasonality and keeping hold of the good techs and, um, you know, so, you know, you know, summer in, in North, North, uh, America, and then, you know, summer in [00:21:00] Australia. So it, it, it allows these company, allows these companies to keep hold of their good people.  Allen Hall 2025: Yeah. And that, that’s always been the yearly problem, right? That you have a, a crew of a couple good crews in the summertime, and you come back the next summer and it’s a whole different group of people and yeah, that, that, that’s trouble for the industry. Well, a- and it’s good. It’s fi- it’s finally good to see this happening, and I know, uh, we’ve talked about it internally here at Weather Guard of who to work with and who to partner with. We like working with companies that have scale, and I think we’re finally there. So it’s really interesting to see this article from Johan in PES Wind. So if you, if you haven’t read the article, you should go visit peswind.com and take a look. There’s a lot of great content in this quarter’s issue, and y- you don’t wanna miss it. So go to peswind.com today. As wind energy professionals, staying informed is crucial, and let’s face it, difficult. That’s why the Uptime podcast recommends PES Wind magazine. PES Wind offers [00:22:00] a diverse range of in-depth articles and expert insights that dive into the most pressing issues facing our energy future. Whether you’re an industry veteran or new to wind, PES Wind has the high-quality content you need. Don’t miss out. Visit peswind.com today. So when, when the energy prices spike like they’re happening right now, uh, the Iran war being one of the main drivers, and obviously gasoline prices have jumped quite a bit, here’s what happens. The China’s clean energy sector goes to work, and they’re racing to make connections and make sales. As electricity prices jump up, gas prices jump up, everybody wants to try to find a cheaper way to provide energy to their countries or locales. Uh, China’s there to offer it. So it’s solar panels, batteries, EVs, and even wind turbines are, are looking for homes out of China. Uh, for European wind professionals, [00:23:00] the most important part comes from Mingyang, right? So they were unable to get a production facility in Scotland, but they haven’t given up yet. They are still searching for a home somewhere in Europe. And as of today, I don’t think they’ve found it. They’re s- I think they’re still looking for some country to host them. But how long is that gonna go on, Matthew? I, I think with the domination of Vestas and Siemens Gamesa in Europe and Suzlon trying to make an entry, will Mingyang and other Chinese manufacturers eventually find a home?  Matthew Stead: It’s interesting. I think, uh, if you look at the airline industry, you’ve always had premium providers, and you’ve always had low-end providers, and I think there’s always a place for all of them. And so I re- I reckon they’ll find, I think they’ll find their place in, in the market and just, you know, it might just take a while. But they’ve got the strength, haven’t they? They’ve got the product. They’ve got the strength. So it’s just a matter [00:24:00] of time.  Allen Hall 2025: Yeah. I, I, I d- I do think eventually it will happen. But Vestas and, and Siemens Gamesa have done a pretty good job of controlling it, and wind Europe, honestly. Wind Europe has not been a proponent of a Chinese manufacturer in Europe, so that generally will help slow down any business plans they would have But at the same time, there’s a lot of opportunities around the world that’s not necessarily in Europe, right? South America has strong ties with China. They’re– And Chinese companies are, are starting production in China. There’s a lot th- things happening there. You’re gonna see that in Africa and other places. So it doesn’t necessarily have to happen in Europe, which is, I think Europeans and Americans think, “Well, we can’t have China in those locales.” Fine. But it isn’t like China doesn’t have other opportunities to, to sell turbines or solar panels or batteries. There are plenty places on the planet where  Matthew Stead: people that  Allen Hall 2025: need  Matthew Stead: lower cost energy, and they’re gonna find them. Um, I did attend a, a panel [00:25:00] discussion on Türkiye, um, and the growth, and there was a lot of growth in Türkiye around onshore and offshore. And so maybe Mingyang, that might be a, a place, um, for them to, to start, you know, on the doorstep of, of Europe. The stepping stone, so to speak. Stepping country.  Allen Hall 2025: Is there risk in that, uh, uh, if, uh, uh, Mingyang decided to put a plant in Türkiye? Is, does that come with some political aspect? Because I, I, I don’t remember. Türkiye t-tends to play, uh, uh, k- kind of like Switzerland in, in terms of working with different, uh, political systems over time. Yeah.  Matthew Stead: I, I’ve had a bit more to do with a few, a few, um, sort of organizations in Türkiye recently and, um, you know, it’s highly professional, highly, you know, logical, and so I, I can’t see why it’d be a challenge. So I think, yeah, that stepping stone into Europe might be a, a logical way to go. Well, maybe  Allen Hall 2025: we’ll see that in the next [00:26:00] couple of months. I don’t know. There’s gonna be a lot to happen there. There’s so much money being spent in Europe on renewables, wind, solar, battery, all the above, that there’s plenty of opportunity, and every company that has a product that’s gonna be trying to sell it in Europe right now. It’s a smart move. Absolutely.  Matthew Stead: I think the other thing that we’ll probably be talking about a little bit more is EV trucks or, you know, electric trucks.  Allen Hall 2025: You think so?  Matthew Stead: I reckon we’ll be talking more and more about electric trucks.  Allen Hall 2025: Does Europe even have a, a le- a real true EV tractor-trailer, large truck? What do they call… I guess they call it a lorry.  Matthew Stead: I don’t think yet. But that’s why I’m saying I think this is a topic that’s gonna raise itself. Um, I’ve, I’ve seen some numbers recently which says that it’s a bit of a no-brainer to go from diesel to, um, to battery now.  Allen Hall 2025: So is Tesla gonna be the, the winner there just because of their, I don’t even what they call it, the Tesla truck? Is that what they call that now?  Matthew Stead: Not the Cybertruck, the, the truck truck.  Allen Hall 2025: Electric semi-truck. There you go. [00:27:00] Thank you, producer Claire.  Matthew Stead: I think you’ve gotta watch, you know, you’ve gotta watch BYD and a few of the other, the other, um, other companies.  Allen Hall 2025: Do they have something as large as what, uh, Tesla is offering today? Because Tesla is offering a true semi or tractor-trailer  Matthew Stead: I, I, I must admit I’m not a, a huge expert on the topic, but I’m sure Rosemary is.  Allen Hall 2025: She drives the big rigs? Is that what she’s doing?  Matthew Stead: But I think we– Yeah, I think, I think it’s an in-interesting thing to watch because, um, certainly fuel prices in Australia are definitely pushing, um, this idea of, um, electric trucks. Allen Hall 2025: Yeah, diesel prices are really high in the States. I- if they’re high in the States, I can’t even imagine what they are in Europe or Australia. They must be through the roof. So if you have a diesel vehicle, although they run forever and are pretty efficient, the price of fuel is insane right now.  Matthew Stead: And, you know, if you, if you take that a step further into mining, so Twiggy Forest, um, and Fortescue, you know, switching to [00:28:00] electric, uh, trucks and electric mining, yeah, it makes sense. Allen Hall 2025: Does the math work out on that? Uh, obviously Fortescue is taking, uh, really a pretty significant risk in that they’re developing their own electricity generation sites via wind and solar and battery, the whole thing, and they’re converting some of their larger vehicles to electric. Does that hold a big risk, or is this just a financial no-brainer, particularly when diesel prices are so high? Matthew Stead: Yeah, I think it’s a financial no-brainer. Uh, and that’s why partly I think we’ll be talking about trucks because, you know, once the finances make sense, um, there’ll be a faster transition. And I think, you know, Fortescue is not a silly company.  Allen Hall 2025: Fortescue is willing to dabble, right? So they’re willing to, to see where the technology is and spend a little bit of money and possibly it works out, right? I think there’s– you have to take a little bit of risk if you’re in that business because you are spending so much money on fuel. [00:29:00] You can spend a couple million dollars playing in different areas to pick an eventual winner. Obviously, they’re gonna– Well, it’s not obvious at the moment, but it, it seems obvious to us being on the electricity side. Electricity is gonna be the answer. Renewable energy is gonna be the easy way to do it, the lowest cost way to do it. There you go. Go do it. Well, American Clean Power’s event, uh, which is in Houston this year, will be happening June 1st through the 4th at the convention center downtown in Houston. It’s gonna be warm, everybody, so if you’re traveling from a cooler country like Denmark to Houston, bring something cool to wear. It will be warm in June. It, it– Houston is just a very warm place, and it’s quite humid, so it’ll, it’ll be a, a unique environment. However, it does sound like there’s gonna be a, a, an– A number of interesting companies and a lot of people that are attending that event this year, and one of them is gonna be Matthew and EOLOGIX-PING with Weather Guard Lightning Tech will [00:30:00] both be down at the event in a booth and seeing everybody and, and, and meeting a whole bunch of, of, uh, new people that are getting into the industry, which is, to me, is always the fun part. Like, we just meet so many really fun people. Uh, and Matthew, you know, we had a discussion internally about that, like, uh, our, our new, uh, chief commercial officer, Nikki Briggs, has been commenting. We’ve been talking to so many operators around the world, and after every, uh, little meeting briefing that we have, we do a post-briefing, and she goes, “They were so nice.” And I s- yes, Nikki, the wind industry people are fantastic to work with. Like, they’re all focused on doing something positive, and they’re trying to, to do it the best that they can. And there’s a lot of constraints to it, and they’re making a number of hard decisions. But when we all come together at American Clean Power here in the States, hey, we can kinda commiserate and [00:31:00] talk about what’s happening and catch up. And I feel like we need a little bit of catch-up time in this industry, particularly here in the United States.  Matthew Stead: Yeah. Yeah. I, I think, um, I, I definitely agree. And I, I found, you know, previously I used to work in the construction industry and work with engineers and, you know, transport, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And actually, I found that the renewable industry, there’s a lot of really open people, really happy to have a discussion, um, not the big egos, so I completely agree. And, um, I’m thinking back, um, I first met people in the wind industry in, you know, around 2012, 2013, and, you know, I still know a number of those people and really appreciate catching up with them. Um, so actually, Berend van der Pol was probably one of the first, and, uh, Birgit Junker was, um, maybe one of the second, so yeah. And I’m definitely looking forward to ACP.  Allen Hall 2025: If you’re, if you’re down in Houston at American Clean Power, definitely stop by a- and say hi to everybody from [00:32:00]EOLOGIX-PING and Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and hey, learn about all the things that are going on because both companies have new products that’ll, were gonna be announced at the site. Uh, we’re already getting inundated with requests on the Weather Guard side. It’s insane. We’re telling people, like, “Slow down, slow down, slow down. We’ll, we’ll, we’ll talk to you about it when we get to Houston.” But, uh, expect a very attentive audience this year, which is exciting. That wraps up another episode of “The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.” If today’s discussion sparked any questions or ideas- We’d love to hear from you. Reach out to us on LinkedIn, and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if you found value in today’s conversation, please leave us a review. It helps other wind energy professionals follow the show. For Matthew, I’m Allen Hall, and we’ll see you here next week on the Uptime Wind Energy [00:33:00] Podcast.

This week I Talk About The Business Around WordPress [powerpress]

What does the senior CMS official focused on payment and delivery innovation actually want health tech founders to understand? In this episode, we listen in on highlights from a recent fireside chat as StartUp Health co-founder Unity Stoakes talks with...

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training Have you ever hired someone to free up your time and found yourself working more hours than before? Have you hit a point where your reputation for quality is actually the thing keeping you stuck in every project? Today's featured guest and his wife have been building their agency for over 22 years. For most of that time, the business ran on referrals, no defined niche, and two founders doing most of the work. Six years ago, they got serious about building a real team. In this episode, he talks honestly about what that transition looked like, why his technical strengths became a liability as the agency grew, how a lack of sales infrastructure was quietly making their delivery problems worse, and what the shift to actually picking clients has done for their operations. Olivier Bridgeman is the co-founder of Bridge Media, a marketing and web agency serving businesses in residential construction, renovation, and maintenance—recognized as the builders of credibility. Although it has been operating for over two decades, Olivier and his wife made the decision to build a real team and install the infrastructure that would let the business grow beyond them just six years ago. The agency now has 11 people, and Olivier is in the process of evolving out of the operator role and into something closer to CEO, working through the mindset and structural challenges that come with that shift. In this episode, we'll discuss: The expected cost of adding more people When your biggest strength turns you into a bottleneck Fixing sales to fix the delivery problem 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. Herringbone Digital: If you're thinking about exiting now, planning a few years ahead, or just want to understand your options, you should know about Herringbone Digital. They're not a typical financial buyer. They're operators who actually understand what it takes to build and scale an agency because they've done it themselves. Their approach is simple: invest in great founders, protect what's already working, and help agencies scale faster. Go to https://www.herringbonedigital.com/swenk and start the conversation. Why Adding People Made the Work Harder Before It Got Easier After years of being the sole force behind the business, the motivation to build a team was simple: bring on people, hand off work, and get time back. The reality was that the first hires created more work, not less. Olivier and his wife had to deliver their own work, review and redo the team's work before it went to clients, manage schedules, clarify responsibilities, and absorb the cost of onboarding, all at the same time. This is the Manager stage in full effect, and it is the stage where most founders assume something is broken when it is actually just the expected cost of the transition. What Olivier describes is exactly what makes this stage so difficult: you used to know what you were doing every afternoon. Now you have to manage your own calendar and everyone else's. The invisible work of managing people, training them, setting expectations, and maintaining quality does not show up on any timesheet. It just accumulates. The goal is to move through this stage quickly, not to stay in it and hire more people on top of it. When Your Biggest Strength Becomes the Bottleneck Olivier's programming ability, which was his edge at the start, became a trap as the team grew. When you are the best technical person in the room and there is a problem in front of you, the reflex is to fix it. It is faster. It is cleaner. And it quietly signals to the team that you do not trust them to solve it themselves. The pattern is common across founders who built their agencies around a specific skill. The capability that created the business eventually becomes the reason the founder cannot leave it. Every time Olivier jumped in to fix something, he was reinforcing the team's dependency on him rather than building their ability to handle it independently. The structural answer is not to stop caring about quality. It is to raise the standard through coaching and systems rather than through personal intervention. The goal is a team that can hit 80 percent of what you would have done, on their own, then coach them to 82, then 85. Perfection is not the benchmark. Capability without you is. What Fixing Sales Did to Their Delivery Problem For most of Bridge Media's existence, new business came through referrals and local relationships. That felt safe. Working some local events and being known within their market was enough for a while. In practice, it meant every client was different, every project required a different set of skills, and the team was constantly starting from scratch. The founders had to stay deeply involved because the work never became repeatable enough for anyone else to own it. Two years ago, Olivier and his wife made a deliberate shift toward building an actual sales function. The downstream effect was not just more leads. It was better client fit, more predictable project types, and a team that could finally develop real expertise in a consistent area of work. When you build a pipeline, you get the ability to be selective. When you are selective, you take on clients your team can actually serve without the founders embedded in every deliverable. Referral dependency does not just create revenue risk. It creates a structural trap that keeps founders in the operator seat far longer than necessary. The Mindset Shift That Has to Happen Before the Role Can Change Olivier knows he needs to step back, and it is still hard. Not because the systems are not there, but because the identity is hard to separate from the work. When you have spent years building a culture of teamwork and being present for the team, stepping into a more removed role can feel like abandonment, both to the team and to yourself. The reframe that matters here is not about working less. It is about what the business actually needs from you at each stage. You may think that your biggest contribution to the agency is your time, but at the CEO level your job is: Setting the vision Communicating it consistently Coaching the leadership layer Protecting the culture through behavior rather than through presence Steering direction That work is roughly 20 hours a week when done correctly. The challenge is that most founders do not believe that until they have experienced it, and the discomfort of having fewer hours filled pushes them back into the operator role they just worked hard to leave. Recognizing the rubber band effect for what it is, significance-seeking disguised as contribution, is what makes it possible to stop pulling yourself back in. 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.

Legislative leaders break the impasse on the budget. That means state employees and teachers may finally get a raise. In the race to replace Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles, calls have come for a Black person to fill that slot. Charlotte City Council withdraws its support for the I-77 toll lanes, and the CMS board approves its $2.1 billion budget.

MedPod Today: the podcast series where MedPage Today reporters share deeper insight into the week's biggest healthcare stories. This week, MedPage Today reporters discuss what you need to know about the hantavirus situation, how CMS is considering auto-enrolling some patients in MA, and new research on Mel Gibson's ivermectin influence. Episode produced and hosted by Rachael Robertson. Sound engineering by

Health Affairs Publishing's Jeff Byers welcomes Georgetown University's Katie Keith and Deputy Editor Chris Fleming back to the podcast to unpack a new court case over mifepristone that could alter telehealth access to medication abortion and test the boundaries of FDA authority.Join us on June 23 for an exclusive Insider virtual event examining how antitrust policy in health care is evolving at both the federal and state levels, featuring insights from Katherine Gudiksen, Leemore Dafny, and Nathan Hostert.Related Links:Supreme Court Temporarily Blocks Ruling Barring Telehealth And Pharmacy Access To Mifepristone (Health Affairs Forefront)The US Food and Drug Administration's Regulation of Mifepristone (JAMA)Sign up for Health Affairs' free newsletter to catch up on our new articles, podcasts, and events.

Send us Fan MailFor decades, value-based care has been healthcare's promised future. Most health systems have stayed in upside-only arrangements, and the data infrastructure needed to manage real risk has never quite caught up to the ambition.That may finally be changing. David Snow, Chairman & CEO of Cedar Gate Technologies, an IQVIA business, joins host David E. Williams to discuss why CMS's first mandatory bundled payment model signals the end of voluntary experimentation, and why the fragmented data problem that has undermined value-based care for a generation is only now finding a real solution.

Send us Fan MailIn Part Two of this powerful TCNtalks / Anatomy of Leadership conversation, Kim Brandt, Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Administrator at CMS joins Chris Comeaux to discuss hospice fraud, Medicare risk, AI-driven fraud detection, and the future of healthcare policy.  Kim provides a rare behind-the-scenes look at how CMS is fighting organized healthcare fraud, protecting Medicare beneficiaries, and preparing hospice providers for a more data-driven future.The conversation explores lessons learned from the Medicare Advantage VBID hospice carve-in, the challenges facing legitimate hospice providers, and how AI and machine learning are helping CMS detect fraudulent activity in real time.  Kim also shares her vision for what compassionate, dignified hospice care should look like over the next 15 years.Whether you are a hospice professional, healthcare executive, nonprofit leader, policymaker, or business leader, this episode delivers critical insights into the future of end-of-life care, healthcare leadership, and Medicare reform.Highlights:✔️ CMS reveals how billions in fraudulent Medicare payments are being stopped in real time✔️ Inside the growing hospice fraud crisis impacting patients and providers nationwide✔️ Why AI and machine learning are becoming essential tools in healthcare fraud prevention✔️ Lessons learned from the Medicare Advantage VBID hospice carve-in experiment✔️ How legitimate hospice providers can protect themselves during audits and investigations✔️ The future of hospice care: data, analytics, palliative integration, and patient dignity✔️ Kim Brandt shares her vision for compassionate end-of-life care over the next 15 years✔️ A candid conversation on healthcare leadership, accountability, and reform

The Friday Five for May 15, 2026: Field Notes: Camp Ritter The “Spotify 20: Your Party of the Year(s)” TRICARE Transition from DS Logon to myAuth Scammers Using Meta to Target Seniors Introducing the Integrity Health Plan   Get Connected:

In Part Two of this powerful TCNtalks / Anatomy of Leadership conversation, Kim Brandt, Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Administrator at CMS joins Chris Comeaux to discuss hospice fraud, Medicare risk, AI-driven fraud detection, and the future of healthcare policy.  Kim provides a rare behind-the-scenes look at how CMS is fighting organized healthcare fraud, protecting Medicare beneficiaries, and preparing hospice providers for a more data-driven future.The conversation explores lessons learned from the Medicare Advantage VBID hospice carve-in, the challenges facing legitimate hospice providers, and how AI and machine learning are helping CMS detect fraudulent activity in real time.  Kim also shares her vision for what compassionate, dignified hospice care should look like over the next 15 years.Whether you are a hospice professional, healthcare executive, nonprofit leader, policymaker, or business leader, this episode delivers critical insights into the future of end-of-life care, healthcare leadership, and Medicare reform.Highlights:✔️ CMS reveals how billions in fraudulent Medicare payments are being stopped in real time✔️ Inside the growing hospice fraud crisis impacting patients and providers nationwide✔️ Why AI and machine learning are becoming essential tools in healthcare fraud prevention✔️ Lessons learned from the Medicare Advantage VBID hospice carve-in experiment✔️ How legitimate hospice providers can protect themselves during audits and investigations✔️ The future of hospice care: data, analytics, palliative integration, and patient dignity✔️ Kim Brandt shares her vision for compassionate end-of-life care over the next 15 years✔️ A candid conversation on healthcare leadership, accountability, and reform

Dr. Mehmet Oz serves asthe Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), whichis the federal agency that provides health coverage to more than 16 millionthrough Medicare, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, and theHealth Insurance Marketplace. Dr. Oz sits down with Dr. Phil to discuss how he,and the CMS, are working catch and stop the estimated yearly $300 billion inhealth care fraud, abuse, and wasteful purposes in the health care system. Findout how these fraudsters could be using you or your loved ones as a pawn intheir game. Plus, learn why if you are one of the 60 million Americans livingin a rural area, your zip code could determine your life expectancy. And, findout how the Trump administration is helping your wallet when it comes to thecritical medications and prescriptions you may need. Sponsored by Preserve Gold. Don't react — have a plan. Get Dr. Phil's FREE Wealth Protection Guide from Preserve Gold. Text PHIL to 50505 or go to https://DrPhilGold.com This episode is brought to you by;: Don't wait! If you're on Medicare or will be soon, reach out to Chapter: Call: (352)-845-0659 or go to https://askchapter.org to learn about your Medicare options and get help finding ways to save money.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to the first episode in a new, limited podcast series exploring major policy changes affecting older adults. The episode is part of our Age-Friendly Health series, which explores topics at the intersection of aging, health, health care, and health policy.In our first episode, host Katherine Ornstein welcomes Hemi Tewarson of the National Academy for State Health Policy how the The Big Beautiful Bill will impact Medicaid and state health policies affecting older adults. Their conversation explores work requirements, Medicaid financing changes, rural health investments, the sustainability of age‑friendly services, and more.Support for the Age-Friendly Health series is provided by The John A. Hartford Foundation.

The Trump administration has advanced many policy initiatives in the drug pricing and market access area, and CMS —the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services — is the agency at the heart of many of these efforts. Rujul Desai, Senior Counselor to CMS and former Deputy General Counsel at the Department of Health & Human Services, joins Washington, D.C. partner Chris Schott and associate Danny Machado for an update on key CMS priorities. Rujul also discusses the transition from big law to government and shares practice pointers for engaging with the agency.   Also check out our bi-weekly Drug Pricing Digest on the website or subscribe to receive future editions in your inbox.   This podcast is provided as a service of Latham & Watkins LLP. Listening to this podcast does not create an attorney client relationship between you and Latham & Watkins LLP, and you should not send confidential information to Latham & Watkins LLP. While we make every effort to assure that the content of this podcast is accurate, comprehensive, and current, we do not warrant or guarantee any of those things and you may not rely on this podcast as a substitute for legal research and/or consulting a qualified attorney. Listening to this podcast is not a substitute for engaging a lawyer to advise on your individual needs. Should you require legal advice on the issues covered in this podcast, please consult a qualified attorney. Under New York's Code of Professional Responsibility, portions of this communication contain attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Results depend upon a variety of factors unique to each representation. Please direct all inquiries regarding the conduct of Latham and Watkins attorneys under New York's Disciplinary Rules to Latham & Watkins LLP, 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020, Phone: 1.212.906.1200

Send us Fan MailIn this compelling first installment, CMS Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Administrator Kim Brandt joins Chris Comeaux for a candid conversation about the growing hospice fraud crisis, the financial future of Medicare, and the urgent transformation happening across American healthcare. Drawing from her leadership role at CMS and firsthand experiences with hospice care in her own family, Brandt shares why hospice remains a critical pillar of compassionate care — while also exposing the alarming abuse threatening the integrity of the system.  The discussion dives deep into the pressures facing Medicare as the nation approaches the “silver tsunami,” with 10,000 new beneficiaries entering Medicare every day through 2030. Brandt explains how CMS is thinking about value-based care, the role of technology and AI in improving patient outcomes, and why hospice and palliative care may increasingly blend together in the future. From home-based care expansion to quality-driven reimbursement models, this episode offers healthcare leaders a rare inside look at the policy conversations shaping the next decade of healthcare delivery.  Key TakeawaysCMS views hospice as an essential part of the Medicare ecosystem and is committed to protecting legitimate providers while aggressively combating fraud.Medicare faces mounting financial pressure as 10,000 baby boomers enroll daily, accelerating the need for healthcare reform and value-based care models.Kim Brandt predicts hospice and palliative care will increasingly integrate, allowing patients to receive supportive care earlier in their illness journey.Home-based healthcare, telehealth, AI, and remote monitoring are expected to play a major role in the future of hospice care delivery.CMS is shifting its focus from enrollment volume toward aligning incentives with quality outcomes and patient-centered care.If you're passionate about the future of healthcare, hospice innovation, and leadership that drives meaningful change, this is an episode you cannot miss. Subscribe to our podcast and  share this conversation with your team, and stay tuned for Part Two as we continue exploring the future of Medicare, hospice reform, and value-based care.  Guest:Kim Brandt: Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Administrator at CMS Host:Chris Comeaux, President / CEO of Teleios, author of The Anatomy of LeadershipThe Anatomy of Leadership podcast explores the art and science of leadership through candid, insightful conversations with thought leaders, innovators, and change-makers from a variety of industries. Hosted by Chris Comeaux, each episode dives into the mindsets, habits, and strategies that empower leaders to thrive in complex, fast-changing environments. With topics ranging from organizational culture and emotional intelligence to navigating disruption and inspiring teams, the show blends real-world stories with practical takeaways. The goal is simple yet ambitious: to equip leaders at every level with the tools, perspectives, and inspiration they need to lead with vision, empathy, and impact.https://www.teleioscn.org/anatomy-of-leadership

Accurate OASIS coding is essential for all home health clinicians due to the impact that coding has on reimbursement. With the CMS plan to move to a universal outcome measure for all post-acute settings, OASIS will become an important tool beyond home health. Payment through PDGM is driven not only by improvement of quality indicators but through a complicated calculation of risk adjustment driven by baseline functional scores, acute cognitive changes, and hospitalization risk. This course will provide easy to use methods that will improve a clinician's ability to provide accurate coding to these sections of OASIS E1.   To view accreditation information and access completion requirements to receive a certificate for completing this course, please click here.   The content of this Summit podcast is provided only for educational and training purposes for licensed physical therapists and occupational therapists. This content should not be used as medical advice to treat any medical condition in either yourself or others.

This week I Talk About The Business of Open Source [powerpress]

Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training Are you running multiple things at once and wondering why none of them are moving as fast as they should? Are you still the one every project, every client, and every decision routes through, no matter how many people you have on your team? Over nearly three decades, today's featured guest didn't just run an agency. He turned it into an incubator, spinning up multiple SaaS companies, a mobile app, and an accessibility tool, all funded and validated through a model most founders have never tried. In this episode, he'll get into how he built products without outside investors, why the bottleneck is always at the top of the bottle, and what it actually took to step out of the operator seat after 28 years in it. David Carnes is the co-founder of Arcstone, a digital agency based in Minneapolis that has been operating since 1997. Over the course of his career, he has launched multiple companies from inside the agency, including a SaaS platform for associations built as early as 2000, a document management system called Wonderfile that was acquired by Blue Tie in New York, and NC, an accessibility scanning tool built initially for Arcstone's own quality assurance needs. His wife now runs Arcstone as CEO. David currently sits in the CFO seat, operating across all three businesses as an advisor and strategic layer rather than a day-to-day operator. In this episode, we'll discuss: Creating the structure to run several businesses and not be in the middle of everything Why the founder bottleneck is a trap you can learn to avoid Understanding the importance of creating dedicated AI roles 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. Herringbone Digital: If you're thinking about exiting now, planning a few years ahead, or just want to understand your options, you should know about Herringbone Digital. They're not a typical financial buyer. They're operators who actually understand what it takes to build and scale an agency because they've done it themselves. Their approach is simple: invest in great founders, protect what's already working, and help agencies scale faster. Go to https://www.herringbonedigital.com/swenk and start the conversation. Funding Products Without Giving Up Equity One of the most practical lessons owners can take from David is how he funded multiple software products without investors. The model is straightforward: go to existing clients or a relevant group, identify a shared problem, and ask them to collectively fund the build in exchange for lifetime access. For AMO, six or seven associations each kicked in eight thousand dollars. For a later mobile event app, fifteen associations each contributed five thousand. In both cases, David had enough capital to build, immediate users providing real feedback, and zero equity given away. The reason this works is the same reason the Foot in the Door methodology works inside agency sales. A small, committed financial investment creates accountability on both sides. The customers who fund it show up with feedback because they have skin in the game. The builder ships something real instead of overbuilding in isolation. David was explicit that his own tendency to overcomplicate a product shrinks significantly when real users are in the room from day one. Too Many Plates, Not Enough Structure Building multiple companies inside one agency creates a specific kind of chaos. David called it too many plants in one pot. The companies start competing for the same resources, the same attention, and the same management bandwidth. His early answer to this was to stay in the middle of everything, which meant every decision still ran through him. The shift did not come from a framework or a book. It came from maturity and, eventually, necessity. When his wife stepped into the CEO role at Arcstone and dedicated management teams formed at AMO and NC, David moved into the CFO seat and took on what he called a monster back role, someone who can move across the whole field without being anchored to any single function. That is not a role most founders reach quickly, and he is honest about the fact that he still gets pulled back in when a longtime client or friend asks for something. The trap is familiar: you step in, you mean well, and in doing so, you signal to your team that you do not trust them to handle it. Founder Bottleneck Is a Pattern, Not a Personality Flaw David does not pretend he solved the founder bottleneck problem cleanly. In reality, patterns of it showed up repeatedly. You build structure, you step back, something pulls you in, and you disrupt the system you built. David described it as spiral growth rather than linear progress. You see the same lesson again. You handle it a little better. You move on. What makes the pattern more manageable is having a framework that names it. When you can recognize "this is the trap I have fallen into before," you can course-correct faster. That is exactly the work the Founder Evolution Framework is built to do. Operator, Manager, Architect, CEO, Owner: each stage is a distinct role, not just a job title. Revenue does not move you up the ladder. Removing yourself from the critical path does. David is living proof that even experienced operators with 28 years in the seat have to be intentional about each stage of that progression. AI: Surf the Wave or Get Pummeled By It David does not treat AI as a theoretical topic. He attended a ten-thousand-dollar immersive course shortly after Claude introduced persistent context, specifically because he wanted to understand what was actually possible, not just what people were saying about it. His takeaway was concrete enough that he created two dedicated roles inside Arcstone: an AI Architect and an AI Operator. The distinction is worth understanding. The Architect builds the agents and workflows. The Operator runs them, keeps the human in the loop, and catches the errors. Because AI still makes mistakes, and the founder who knows that firsthand is the one who can train a team to work with it well, not just use it. The agencies that will benefit most are not the ones that hand AI to someone and walk away. They are the ones who build internal capability, document their models and prompts as assets, and treat the technology as a force multiplier on a team that already knows what it is doing. 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.

In this episode of the Healthy Wealthy & Smart Podcast, Dr. Karen Litzy, PT, DPT welcomes Ashok Gupta. They explore the evolution of telehealth and hybrid care in physical therapy, discussing innovative technologies, AI applications, and regulatory shifts that are expanding access and improving patient outcomes. This conversation provides a comprehensive look at how clinicians and practices are embracing digital transformation to deliver more effective, patient-centered care.   In this episode: ·      The concept of omni-channel or hybrid care modeled after consumer experiences like Walmart and Amazon ·      How telehealth is transforming access for acute and chronic patients, with real-world success stories including ICU recovery ·      The development and integration of physical AI to guide motion recognition and real-time patient assessment ·      The critical role of clinician input and feedback in building effective telehealth tech ·      Cost-effective remote therapeutic monitoring (RTM) and regulation updates supporting scalable virtual care ·      Impact of AI on clinician efficiency, documentation, and patient engagement ·      Best practices for virtual manners, camera presence, and creating a professional digital environment ·      Strategies for integrated workflows connecting telehealth platforms, EMRs, and practice management tools ·      The importance of embracing technology to stay competitive and improve patient outcomes ·      Future outlook: seamless virtual-clinic transitions and personalized care pathways   Timestamps: ·      (00:00) - Welcome and episode overview: Redefining patient-centered hybrid healthcare ·      (02:27) - What is omni-channel hybrid care? Patient choice in physical therapy ·      (03:21) - How remote and in-clinic options combine for optimal access ·      (04:37) - From prevention to rehab: leveraging sensors and self-management tools ·      (05:33) - Real-world success stories: ICU recovery and remote therapy impact ·      (06:56) - Broadening telehealth: software, hardware, and virtual care models ·      (07:50) - Myths about telehealth: more than just video calls ·      (08:48) - Evolving tech: from initial skepticism to AI-powered diagnostics ·      (09:44) - Developing physical AI for motion analysis and patient assessment ·      (11:06) - How remote care experiences match or surpass in-clinic outcomes ·      (12:27) - Continuous monitoring and data-driven treatment tailoring ·      (14:27) - Clinician involvement in product development and validation ·      (16:52) - Addressing small practice hurdles and advances in regulation support ·      (17:19) - The 2026 CMS updates: enabling remote patient and therapeutic monitoring ·      (19:16) - Integrating virtual care into daily practice workflows ·      (20:31) - Changing data collection and insurance reimbursement for RTM ·      (22:47) - Workflow integration: enrolling patients effortlessly within existing systems ·      (24:01) - Insurance coverage landscape for remote monitoring services ·      (25:19) - AI as an efficiency tool, not a replacement, for clinicians ·      (26:42) - Enhancing patient engagement and clinical decision-making with AI summaries ·      (29:46) - The importance of bedside manners in virtual care standards ·      (30:42) - Building trust and continuity through AI-driven session analysis ·      (32:07) - Improving clinician performance: gamification and feedback tools ·      (34:00) - Building care platforms based on actual patient and clinician needs ·      (36:33) - Overcoming fears of technology and embracing digital health ·      (39:11) - Mastering virtual manners: creating a professional, private environment ·      (41:48) - The future of healthcare: seamless hybrid models and patient choice ·      (44:45) - Final thoughts: tackling large-scale problems for greater impact   Resources & Links: TheraNow:Telehealth platform for physical therapy and remote care Diary of a CEO book   Connect with Dr. Gupta: LinkedIn TheraNow on FB TheraNow on Instagram TheraNow on X TheraNow on YouTube   More About Dr. Gupta: Dr. Ashok Gupta, is the founder of TheraNow, an 8-figure virtual physical therapy platform that's supported over 70,000 patients across the US since 2021. Ashok didn't start as your usual tech guy; he started as a physical therapist treating veterans at VA hospitals, traveling through small-town America, working everywhere from ICUs to homehealth. And everywhere he went, he saw the same issue: people either had to come to you or you had to go to them, and in rural areas, services were just too far away.  Skip to 2017, Ashok and his wife (also a physical therapist) are watching TV when a commercial for virtual mental health therapy comes on. They look at each other and ask: "Why doesn't this exist for physical therapy?" Everyone said it couldn't work (the word itself is physical therapy, right?), but Ashok realized most of PT could be replicated virtually. No hospitals would pilot it, no payment model existed, then the pandemic hit, and what seemed impossible, became essential.  These days, Ashok's working with major health systems like Providence Health, and building AI-powered clinical documentation tools that are actually adopted by clinicians. Jane Sponsorship Information: Book a one-on-one demo here Mention the code LITZY1MO for a free month   Follow Dr. Karen Litzy on Social Media: Karen's Instagram Karen's LinkedIn   Subscribe to Healthy, Wealthy & Smart: YouTube Website Apple Podcast Spotify SoundCloud Stitcher iHeart Radio