Listen as we explore developments in the world of employee health and benefits. Entrepreneurs, CEOs and other thought leaders join us to discuss the technology and innovation that help employers purposefully design and distinguish their programs — all while addressing the needs and priorities of a new generation of talent.
We’re also tackling timely topics like COVID-19, the economy and other headline makers to deliver current thinking on the topics that matter most to employers and employees.
Included in this series:
40 million people in the US suffer from chronic migraine, yet there are only 2,000 headache specialists to care for those living with this condition. In this episode, WTW’s Steve Blumenfield and Andre Burkholder speak with Matt Scantland about how AndHealth provides a new kind of specialized care, becoming the patient’s main health provider and addressing the root cause of the issue through clinical discovery, coaching, and support.
Matt is the Founder and CEO of AndHealth, a digital health company helping people reverse chronic diseases. AndHealth operates Virtual Centers of Excellence for autoimmune conditions and migraine, two of the most disruptive and costly conditions facing employers. Previously, Matt was Co-Founder and CEO of CoverMyMeds, leading its sale in 2017 for $1.4B. He is ranked #14 CEO by Glassdoor.
Andre Burkholder is the Midwest Health, Equity and Wellbeing Leader at WTW. Andre has over 25 years of experience in building effective strategies, optimizing employee experience and vendor partnerships, while connecting to an employer’s business priorities.
KardiaComplete is putting the spotlight on heart disease, the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States. WTW’s Steve Blumenfield and Siupo Becker speak with Archana Dubey about how AliveCor is transforming cardiovascular care via KardiaComplete, a comprehensive heart health enterprise solution, designed to drive improved health outcomes and reduce the cost of cardiac care by addressing established disease and reducing the risk of disease progression.
Archana Dubey has more than 25 years of experience as a physician, executive, entrepreneur, and strategic adviser. In her role as Chief Clinical Officer at AliveCor, Archana is developing a comprehensive cardiovascular condition management solution that integrates KardiaMobile remote ECG technology with coaches and clinicians, all on one AI-informed platform, to deliver simple and smart healthcare solutions to patients, providers, and payers.
An accomplished physician executive with extensive experience in data analysis, innovation and strategic health care management, today Siupo (pronounced Soba) is Senior Director, Health Management, at WTW. She collaborates with Fortune 500 employers to develop programs that provide customized experiences to improve member health. Previously, Siupo served as Vice President of Health Care Strategies for a national health plan.
1 in 5 people worldwide have a neurodiverse diagnosis resulting in different ways of thinking, processing, and communicating, but 80% of product and customer experiences don’t work for people with these needs. WTW’s Steve Blumenfield and Rebecca Warnken sit down with Melissa Danielsen to discuss how Joshin is closing the gap for the neurodiverse and disabled communities through tech-enabled specialized care, support, and education.
Melissa Danielsen is the co-founder and CEO of Joshin, a support system for employees connected to a disability or neurodivergence. Melissa and her co-founder started Joshin after founding a Medicaid organization supporting adults with disabilities after losing their brother Josh, who had developmental disabilities and epilepsy. As Medicaid providers they saw a need to bring a tech-enabled solution to connect employees to advocates, coaches and a network of screened providers to centralize and digitize their work, goals and team.
Rebecca Warnken is a Senior Director in the Health and Benefits practice at WTW and a member of WTW’s Health, Equity, and Wellbeing team with a targeted focus on diversity, equity and inclusion and neurodiversity. With over 15 years of actuarial and employee benefits consulting experience, Rebecca works with many large employers to develop benefit strategies to attract and retain talent and address the diverse needs of the workforce.
What if the guesswork was taken out of the mental health care journey? With the continued rise of mental health conditions, there has never been a greater need for advancement in this space. WTW’s Steve Blumenfield and Erin Young talk with April Koh about how Spring Health is delivering a new approach to personalized psychiatry using data, and potentially revolutionizing access to quality mental health care as well as the effectiveness of treatment.
April Koh is CEO and Co-founder of Spring Health, a global, family mental health solution. April was recognized by Forbes as the youngest woman to run a unicorn company. She was named a Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2018, Goldman Sachs 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs in 2019, World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, and is a Yale Entrepreneurial Institute fellow.
A licensed clinical social worker with extensive experience serving those living with behavioral health conditions, Erin is a Senior Director, Health Management at WTW. She works with employers to improve engagement, awareness and care for mental health and substance use disorders. Previously, Erin was a behavioral health clinical strategy leader for a nationally recognized regional health plan.
Nearly one in five children in the U.S. have a mental, emotional or behavioral health problem in any given year, but only 20% are receiving care. Shortages in child and adolescent mental health care are severe, but Brightline is changing that. WTW’s Steve Blumenfield and Siupo Becker talk with co-founder and CEO Naomi Allen about how her company is helping employers support the children of parent-employees and, in turn, how that’s improving the wellbeing of employees.
Co-founder and CEO of Brightline, Naomi has more than 20 years’ experience developing high-growth health care technology companies. Before starting Brightline, she was Chief Growth Officer for Livongo and held executive roles in operations, sales and product as a founding member of Castlight Health. She holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
An accomplished physician executive with extensive experience in data analysis, innovation and strategic health care management, today Siupo (pronounced Soba) is Senior Director, Health Management, at WTW. She collaborates with Fortune 500 employers to develop programs that provide customized experiences to improve member health. Previously, Siupo served as Vice President of Health Care Strategies for a national health plan.
Is it possible to uncomplicate health insurance while providing savings for both employees and plan sponsors? In this episode, Steve Blumenfield and Regina Ihrke speak with Dave Dickey to uncover how Bind is providing an innovative and personalized solution that focuses on bringing cost and coverage transparency. This gives members the information they need, upfront, so they can efficiently purchase the care that best meets their needs.
Dave is a serial entrepreneur and experienced sales leader of health and healthcare services. Dave co-founded Bind, the first personalized health plan, in 2016 and prior to that co-founded RedBrick Health and was a leader at Definity Health. Dave is also founder and CEO of The Second Story Sales Company and lectures frequently on health, health care, and innovations, and contributes regularly to seminars and conferences.
Regina Ihrke is the North American Wellbeing Leader at WTW. She partners with employers to build the right-sized wellbeing and benefits strategies that provide a robust talent value proposition built through a modern culture, programs, benefits design and employee experience, while connecting to an employer’s business priorities.
By looking at health care holistically as well as the practical side of price, Carrum Health has developed a Centers of Excellence solution that delivers value-based health care instead of the standard fee-for-service model. In this episode, Sach Jain talks with Steve Blumenfield and Drew Hodgson about Carrum’s mission to deliver a best-in-class network that employers can leverage to deliver better, more appropriate care at manageable prices.
Sach Jain is the Co-founder and CEO of Carrum Health, the first digital health company connecting employers and employees to Centers of Excellence through a technology-powered platform for better, more cost-effective healthcare. Before founding Carrum, Jain was a consultant at Booz & Co. (later acquired by PwC), where he advised some of the nation's biggest health plans and health systems.
Drew Hodgson is the Health Care Delivery National Practice Leader at Willis Towers Watson. With over 15 years of varied actuarial and employee benefit consulting experience, he has led many large market employers through significant benefit redesigns and has worked closely with health care providers through harmonization work and implementation of alternate network strategies.
Empowering employees to select their own health plan fosters an enhanced member experience. In this episode, Steve Blumenfield and Drew Hodgson talk with Ashok Subramanian about how Centivo, a primary care centric health plan innovator, is helping to change the health care delivery landscape by bringing high-quality, personalized and affordable care to members and employers. This model promotes better member engagement, thus positioning employers to remain competitive in the war for talent.
Ashok Subramanian, CEO, founded Centivo after observing inefficiencies in the health care system that led to a negative impact on employers and employees. Prior to Centivo, Ashok co-founded Liazon, a private benefits exchange for active employees. He serves as an independent board director at Artemis Health and is a senior advisor to growth equity firm Silversmith Capital.
Drew Hodgson is the Health Care Delivery National Practice Leader at Willis Towers Watson. With over 15 years of varied actuarial and employee benefit consulting experience, he has led many large market employers through significant benefit redesigns and has worked closely with health care providers through harmonization work and implementation of alternate network strategies.
What would you give up for one month of relief from a chronic condition? Digestive health sufferers’ top survey responses include cellphone, Internet … even sex! The discussion of digestive health and solutions continues in this podcast with Sam Holliday, Chantell Sell and Steve Blumenfield. The trio discuss Oshi Health, an end-to-end clinic-based care model that treats the whole person in a cost-effective way that serves employees, employers and boosts overall health and productivity.
To build Oshi Health, CEO Sam Holliday combined his passion of redesigning health care around patient needs with a mission of increasing access to high-quality, whole-person care. He has held leadership roles across health care technology companies focused on improving population health, including scaling a tech-enabled diabetes management company and population health tools for a leading electronic medical record company.
As Director and National Pharmacy Practice Clinical Lead at Willis Towers Watson, Chantell Sell promotes clinical activities to meet the individual client, organizational and marketplace needs. She also oversees the Rx Collaborative PBM clinical relationships as well as Marketplace Intelligence and Clinical Innovation Hubs, and is actively involved in population health, innovation and intellectual capital for the firm.
A stigmatized condition, 70 million people suffer in silence from digestive health issues, resulting in an average of 35 lost workdays per person, every year. Steve Blumenfield and Christina Prosser talk with Bill Snyder about the approach Vivante Health is taking — leveraging clinical pathways rooted in evidence-based medicine — to balance employers’ health care costs while at the same time addressing employees’ symptoms and improving their overall health outcomes.
Bill Snyder is the CEO at Vivante Health, the first all-in-one digital health solution for people who suffer from chronic digestive conditions. Bill and the team at Vivante are passionate about helping individuals who suffer in silence each day from invisible and neglected conditions.
Christina Prosser is a Director in the Health Management Practice at Willis Towers Watson and is an active member with Willis Towers Watson’s Intellectual Capital groups with a targeted focus on health care navigation and member advocacy, nutrition and digestive health. Christina has an extensive background in health and wellness with a primary focus on population health improvement, strategy, incentive design and execution.
Arguably, cancer is the scourge of our times. In this episode, Harlan Levine shares with Steve Blumenfield and Ron Fontanetta how AccessHope has democratized employee access to leading-edge cancer information and world-class care. By identifying the most complex patients and partnering with health plans, AccessHope’s program supports employers’ efforts for early intervention with high-risk employee patients who need the right care. Along with this podcast, you can learn more by listening to AccessHope’s on-demand webcast.
Harlan Levine, M.D., is President of Strategy and Business Ventures for City of Hope, accountable for strategy, innovation and growth, drug commercialization, payer strategies, and the Center for International Medicine. He also is board chair of AccessHope, City of Hope’s wholly owned subsidiary focused on serving the employer market and making leading-edge cancer expertise available to all, regardless of geography.
Ron Fontanetta is the North America Health and Benefits Strategic Growth Leader for Willis Towers Watson. He is an expert in the design and financing of active and retiree health care programs, behavioral health and integrated workforce health care management strategies. He is a Business Group Health Board Member and a frequent contributor to various national media outlets.
“This is how we’ve always done it” doesn’t work anymore when it comes to offering employee benefits, and employers need to step up to increase employee engagement and get the most from their investment. In this episode, Steve Blumenfield talks with benefits leaders Kim Duck and Joe Toniolo about the ways they and their organizations are breaking away from traditional thinking around wellbeing and benefits to deliver programs that meet employees where they are.
As Vice President of Benefits and Wellbeing for Dow Jones & Company, Kim Duck oversees the global strategy and daily administration of health and welfare programs, including retirement, wellness, perquisites and leave administration. She also has helped develop company programs that directly affect working families, including Dow Jones’ paid parental and Compassionate Care leave, fertility services, and services for caregivers.
As Senior Director, Health and Welfare Plans, with US Foods, Joe Toniolo has successfully implemented digital health solutions, leading to the company being one of the most progressive in the U.S. With 30-plus years of experience in benefit strategy, administration and compliance, Joe also manages FMLA/disability and relocation, and provides strategic labor relations support for more than 50 unions.
If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if you applied normal business principles to the purchase of health care, wonder no more. Ralph Weber shares with Steve Blumenfield and Courtney Stubblefield the power that comes from combining transparency with competition in health care. From dramatically reduced out-of-pocket expenses to mitigating potentially higher-cost future procedures, you’ll hear how health care in the United States doesn’t have to be as complicated as it is today.
Ralph Weber is Founder and President of MediBid Inc. A health care consultant since 1996, Ralph is a frequent speaker at medical association meetings, free-market medical events, and health underwriter and actuary conventions. He has assisted in writing health care policy and appeared on TV and radio shows and podcasts. He also has written three books on health care.
Courtney Stubblefield is the Solutions Leader for North America Health & Benefits at Willis Towers Watson, consulting on strategic aspects of clients’ health and welfare plan offerings, including design, network and provider approaches, high-value interventions and related financial expectations. She specializes in value-based care approaches, network configuration, health care reform, retiree medical and design and measurement of care management programs.
Instead of simply telling you your employee population’s health behaviors, what if your data went a step further and gave you targeted areas to focus your attention? Steve Blumenfield and Thi Montalvo talk with Rod Reasen about the possibilities for HR to leverage predictive analytics to drive data-driven decisions you make about your employee benefits and wellbeing programs. The trio discuss where data collection has been — and where it’s going.
Rod Reasen is Co-founder and CEO of Springbuk, a health analytics and intelligence platform designed to prevent disease with data. Before launching Springbuk, Rod founded and scaled a benefits and wellness consulting firm into one of the largest in the U.S. Midwest. He also launched the nationally recognized Healthiest Employers award program, which recognizes the healthiest workplaces in America.
Thi Montalvo is the Health Analytics Practice Leader for Willis Towers Watson North America. In her work with clients, Thi develops complex, multi-year measurement strategies and brings forward data to support business decisions. She also has pioneered analytic innovation for clients to establish new ways of linking data from traditional claims data sets to nontraditional engagement and employee experience data.
On average, it takes 21 years to pay off student loan debt, and that has a direct effect on employees’ long-term financial goals. In this podcast, Steve Blumenfield talks with Scott Thompson, Lydia Jilek and David Amendola about the innovative steps employers are taking to help bolster employees’ financial wellbeing. Hear the struggles that both employers and employees are facing in trying to build financial resiliency, and the benefits of finding the right solution.
Scott Thompson is CEO of Tuition.io, the leading student loan management and repayment assistance platform offered as an employee benefit. An accomplished technology executive, Scott has served as CEO of ShopRunner and Yahoo!, and held several senior leadership roles at PayPal, Inovant and Barclays Global Investors. He serves on the boards of directors for Coupa, Zebit and Roadie.
Lydia Jilek is a Senior Director with Willis Towers Watson with a focus on voluntary benefits. Most recently, she developed a Community of Practice within Willis Towers Watson focusing on education benefits. Lydia also leads thought leadership around education benefits, including student loan repayment programs, tuition reimbursement and college coaching.
David Amendola is a Senior Director and North America Intellectual Capital Leader in Willis Towers Watson’s Benefits Advisory and Compliance practice. Along with being a thought leader on employer-provided student loan assistance programs, David has recently focused on innovative defined contribution plan design, while continuing to work with clients on retirement plan governance and compliance matters.
Given this year’s pandemic and economic uncertainty, it’s natural to expect a dip in venture capital investments in health care-related startups, but that hasn’t been the case. In fact, the first six months of 2020 revealed some of the highest investment levels. Venture capitalists Lynne Chou O’Keefe and Steve Kraus join Steve Blumenfield to discuss the future of health care and how they see it transforming to the benefit of both employees and employers.
Lynne Chou O’Keefe is the Founder and Managing Partner of Define Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm focused on investing in digital health companies. Her background includes health care operating, investing and finance roles. Prior to Define Ventures, Lynne was a senior partner at Kleiner Perkins focused on digital health and connected devices early-stage investing.
Steve Kraus is a Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners and he focuses on health care. He sits on the boards of Bright Health, Hinge Health, Welltok, Artemis Health, Groups, Qventus and Alcresta, and is a board observer at Collective Medical technologies. He is author of Bessemer’s 10 Laws of Health care and is a co-host of A Healthy Dose podcast.
As organizations regain their footing from the COVID-19 pandemic, employees’ emotional wellbeing has become a focal point. meQuilibrium’s Jan Bruce talks with Willis Towers Watson’s Steve Blumenfield, Suzanne McAndrew and Julie Stone about the value of resilience in a time of uncertainty and the importance of helping employees cope with their stress and get control of their lives to be more successful — both at work and at home.
Jan Bruce is CEO and Co-founder of meQuilibrium, a SaaS solution that optimizes individual and team-based performance and engagement through behavioral science and predictive analytics. Prior to meQuilibrium, she was managing director and publisher at Martha Stewart Living’s Whole Living/body + soul magazine. Jan also was CEO and co-founder of Integrative Medicine Communications, a leading digital brand in science-based complementary medicine.
Suzanne McAndrew is a Global Business Leader for the Talent line of business for Willis Towers Watson. She leads the integrated human capital portfolio across talent management and organizational alignment, communications and change management and the employee experience. Suzanne also leads inclusion and diversity conversations as the organization’s Global LGBT+ Inclusion Network leader.
Julie Stone, MPA, is a Managing Director, Health & Benefits North America, with Willis Towers Watson. She is responsible for leading Health & Benefits thought leadership and intellectual capital initiatives, which encompass a wide range of disciplines, including health management and wellbeing, pharmacy, leaves/absence and disability management, inclusion and diversity, dental and vision, and more.
COVID-19 forced employers to think about and make changes to paid leave, paid time off and disability programs and policies — employee benefits that haven’t changed very much in the past decade. Willis Towers Watson experts Alex Henry and Rob McGee talk with Steve Blumenfield and Julie Stone to address the challenges and opportunities employers must consider regarding these programs both today as well as for the future.
Alex Henry is the West Region Practice Leader for Absence, Disability Management and Life Insurance at Willis Towers Watson. He works with employers to design holistic time-away programs that are efficient, cost effective, easily communicated and valued by the employee population.
Rob McGee is the Northeast Lead Consultant for Absence, Disability Management and Life Insurance at Willis Towers Watson. He specializes in providing employers with strategic and technical expertise across all disability, absence, paid family and parental leave, paid time off and life and AD&D programs.
Julie Stone, MPA, is a Managing Director, Health & Benefits North America, with Willis Towers Watson. She is responsible for leading Health & Benefits thought leadership and intellectual capital initiatives, which encompass a wide range of disciplines, including health management and wellbeing, pharmacy, leaves/absence and disability management, inclusion and diversity, dental and vision, and more.
As employers move toward reopening the workplace, vendors in the testing and contact tracing space are emerging every day. Steve Blumenfield and Julie Stone talk with Paul Matthews about what employers should look for in testing options, which vendor offerings may be on the horizon, and the best way to manage the overall employee experience as workforces emerge from stay-at-home orders.
Paul Matthews is Managing Director, Health & Benefits Strategic Opportunities and Alliances, with Willis Towers Watson, collaborating with clients to identify opportunities to develop innovative health and benefits solutions at scale. Paul also works with clients to assess performance gaps and opportunities within health and benefits programs and evaluate emerging solutions in the market.
Julie Stone, MPA, is a Managing Director, Health & Benefits North America, with Willis Towers Watson. She is responsible for leading Health & Benefits thought leadership and intellectual capital initiatives, which encompass a wide range of disciplines, including health management and wellbeing, pharmacy, leaves/absence and disability management, inclusion and diversity, dental and vision, and more.
The pandemic, sheltering in place, social distancing, feelings of isolation: All have had an impact on the emotional and mental health of employees at every level of the organization. Willis Towers Watson’s Mandie Conforti and Steve Blumenfield talk about how employers can address what employees are feeling while working within the limits of the current behavioral health marketplace. Hear real-world examples and get ideas for how you can support the mental wellbeing of your talent.
Mandie Conforti is a Director at Willis Towers Watson, and a licensed clinician. Her areas of concentration include employee assistance programs, managed behavioral health care and work-life programs. Mandie supports clients in a variety of industries on plan design analyses and pricing, integration of medical and behavioral health programs and vendor selection and plan implementation.
COVID-19 has added a new layer of vulnerability for employees and dependents who are managing chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and other health issues. Willis Towers Watson thought leaders Jan Wuorenma, Kara Speer, Julie Stone and host Steve Blumenfield discuss the specialized issues these populations face and share ideas about the support systems and tools employers can provide to help these populations keep their health issues in check.
Jan Wuorenma is a Senior Health Management Consultant, Health and Benefits, with Willis Towers Watson. She has more than 30 years of experience with clinical and medical practice management, and has developed integrated care continuum programs through care system redesign and innovation. Jan regularly performs care management program reviews involving clinical, advocacy/navigation and wellness programs.
Kara Speer is a Director, Health Management, with Willis Towers Watson. She focuses on providing strategic consulting on health management initiatives, vendor programs, program design and overall vendor management. Kara has led work groups to develop intellectual capital and shape the firm’s perspective on metabolic syndrome and diabetes. She also provides leadership on consulting services that address employer-sponsored health centers.
Julie Stone, MPA, is a Managing Director, Health & Benefits North America, with Willis Towers Watson. She is responsible for leading the Health & Benefits thought leadership and intellectual capital initiatives, which includes a wide range of disciplines, including health management and wellbeing, pharmacy, leaves/absence and disability management, inclusion and diversity, dental and vision, and more.
Whether your workforce is still primarily disbursed or you’re preparing to re-open your worksites, COVID-19 has created a new set of employee communications challenges that require a nuanced and targeted approach. Lindsay Stortz, Julie Stone and host Steve Blumenfield discuss innovative approaches you can take to ensure your messages reflect sensitivity and awareness of different employee populations’ needs. Also, hear how this crisis has created an opportunity to temporarily — or permanently — look at how you reach employees.
Lindsay Stortz is Senior Director, Talent & Rewards, with Willis Towers Watson. An expert in employee experience, Lindsay has a deep understanding of individual behavior and the ability to communicate information in meaningful and accessible ways. These days, she also is focused on rethinking benefits communications in light of current workforce challenges, helping employers focus on inclusion, collaboration and employee voice.
Julie Stone, MPA, is Managing Director, Health & Benefits North America, with Willis Towers Watson. She is responsible for leading the Health & Benefits thought leadership and intellectual capital initiatives, which is work that includes a wide range of disciplines, including health management and wellbeing, pharmacy, leaves/absence and disability management, inclusion and diversity, dental and vision, and more.
The forced work-from-home environment that employers and employees are living in because of COVID-19 has taken the challenge of caregiving to a new level. In this episode, Willis Towers Watson thought leaders share their insights about child-care support, elder-care support and overarching family-care support. Get a more comprehensive understanding of the issues, learn how leadership can make an enormous difference for your people, and pick up some tips and tools to help those caring for others.
Megan Sowa, MPH, is Director, Health & Benefits, with Willis Towers Watson. She has been involved in managing and driving strategy for Willis Towers Watson’s diabetes and musculoskeletal partnerships as well as strategic initiatives around caregiving and care management. Megan also leverages her expertise and experience to assist clients in developing long-term, data-driven health management solutions.
Rachael McCann is a Senior Director at Willis Towers Watson, where she advises clients in health and welfare strategy, innovation, modernization, cost management and employee experience. Rachael also is a Leader in the firm’s Inclusion & Diversity (I&D) consulting practice, supporting clients as they align their talent, I&D, benefit and sustainability strategies with the employee experience.
Julie Stone, MPA, is Managing Director, Health & Benefits North America, with Willis Towers Watson. She is responsible for leading the Health & Benefits thought leadership and intellectual capital initiatives, which is work that includes a wide range of disciplines, including health management and wellbeing, pharmacy, leaves/absence and disability management, inclusion and diversity, dental and vision, and more.
Marco Diaz talks with Mark Hope and Cure for the Common Co. host Steve Blumenfield about how News Corp’s employee benefits team has been managing — and succeeding — through COVID-19. Hear how a strong foundation of employee benefits has led to rapid adoption of telemedicine options, the ways that communication has improved at every level, and how News Corp is preparing to bring employees back to physical worksites by leveraging risk stratification.
Marco Diaz is Senior Vice President, Global Head of Benefits, at News Corp, where he oversees the company's global benefits strategy and deployment. He also serves as Board Chair of the North East Business Group on Health, participates as Board member of the Foundation for Arts and Healing, and is a member of several executive client advisory groups.
Mark Hope is a Senior Director in Willis Towers Watson’s Health and Benefits Consulting business and is a member of the firm’s Health & Benefits Intellectual Capital Development Team. Mark works extensively in the areas of active employee and retiree medical strategy, design, pricing, health care reform, consumer drive health care and union bargaining support.
Dr. Jeff Levin-Scherz and Julie Stone give listeners a crash course in COVID-19, what it means to employers and workers, and what to expect as people begin returning to the physical workplace. From scenario planning to addressing a new host of emotional and behavioral health needs, these two experts offer a variety of topics employers need to think about and begin planning for today in order to prepare for both the near- and long-term future.
Jeff Levin-Scherz, MD, MBA, is Managing Director and co-leader of the North American Health Management practice at Willis Towers Watson. Jeff trained as a primary care physician and has played leadership roles in provider organizations and a health plan. He is Assistant Professor at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School.
Julie Stone is Managing Director, Health & Benefits North America, and Intellectual Capital Leader at Willis Towers Watson, responsible for thought leadership and intellectual capital initiatives. In addition, Julie works with employers to develop health and welfare benefits strategies integrating human-centered design approaches with overall business strategy.
Noah Lang tells the story behind the company he founded and leads today, Stride. He describes how the online tool and app helps the growing number of people working in the gig economy purchase health insurance, get federal subsidies and tax credits, and obtain other benefits usually provided to full-time employees such as dental, vision and life insurance.
Noah Lang is the CEO and co-founder of Stride Health, which helps the more than 100 million people who work for themselves to save time and money by providing software and services that help them obtain health insurance and manage their taxes.
Dan Perez talks about how suffering from major injuries inspired both him and his business partner to found Hinge when they were PhD students at Oxford. He also explains the philosophy underpinning the company: To be effective long-term, musculoskeletal care must go beyond physical therapy to include coaching, patient education and behavioral health support. Otherwise initial results from physical therapy will evaporate over time, increasing the odds that surgery becomes necessary.
Daniel Perez is CEO and co-founder of Hinge Health, a company that pioneered employer-centric remote physical therapy for those suffering from musculoskeletal disorders.
Sami Inkinen tells the story behind the company he founded, Virta Health, a technology-enabled virtual clinic that can treat diabetes without medication. Sami trained as a physicist and started his career in a nuclear power plant. Despite being a world-class triathlete, he learned he was becoming pre-diabetic, setting him on a new journey, leading him to found Virta.
Sami Inkinen is the CEO and co-founder of Virta Health, which provides the first clinically-proven treatment to safely and sustainably reverse type 2 diabetes without medications or surgery.
Sangeeta tells the story of how her own health challenges led her change careers, from engineering to health care, ultimately leading to her founding Helpsy, a whole health and artificial intelligence cancer nurse that anticipates and addresses patients' physical, emotional and social needs.
Sangeeta has been an engineer for nine years at companies such as IBM and Motorola and a nurse for seven years at Mayo Clinic, Stanford and UCSF. She is the founder, CEO and the vision behind Helpsy.
Andrew Le trained as a surgeon, but decided not to practice medicine because he wanted to help more people than he realized he could within the parameters of the way medicine is practiced today. So he started Buoy, an app that uses artificial intelligence, probability, statistics and machine learning to help those who realize they are ill to take the first step in getting care. The app helps people understand what is going on clinically and matches services and benefits to the individual's specific condition.
Andrew Le is the CEO and co-founder of Buoy, which was created at the Harvard Innovation Labs, won numerous awards (e.g. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation A.I. Challenge), and has partnerships with CVS Health and Boston Children's Hospital.
Mette Dyhrberg tells the story of her personal journey that led her to found Mymee, a digital therapeutic that provides a platform for understanding the triggers that can set off the immune systems of those suffering from chronic illnesses. She explains how Mymee can be used to treat autoimmune diseases without medication.
Mette Dyhrberg is the founder and CEO of Mymee, a digital therapeutics program rethinking autoimmunity. The Mymee protocol detects triggers to reverse the symptoms of autoimmune disease using data analytics and telehealth coaching.
Lindsay Jurist-Rosner discusses Wellthy, a care-giving company that helps those assisting aging, chronically ill or disabled loved ones by providing an advisor and technology platform for coordinating and managing day-to-day care. Lindsay tells a touching personal story of how caring for her mother inspired her to start Wellthy and shares common challenges caregivers face daily.
Pete Shalek tells the story of how he founded Joyable, a behavioral health app that makes it simple to get support for mental health. The technology provides cognitive behavioral therapy, the most effective treatment today for anxiety and depression. Pete discusses the challenges and rewards of being a healthcare innovator as well as the inspiration behind Joyable, which was later acquired by AbleTo, a virtual behavioral health services provider.
Pete is the chief product officer at AbleTo, where he leads a talented group of project managers, designers and product marketers responsible for AbleTo's product strategy, roadmap and execution.
