Give Another Listen to the Best of July! As we wrap up a busy and insightful month on HealthcareNOW Radio, we’re highlighting the episodes that resonated most with our audience. From timely industry conversations to expert insights shaping the future of healthcare, these standout shows captured the most attention and engagement. In this post, we’re featuring the top two radio episodes and the top two podcast episodes with the highest plays in July—perfect picks if you’re looking to catch up or revisit the discussions everyone’s been talking about.
From Our Radio Shows
Health UnaBASHEd: Why a Pill Vaccine Could Change Who Gets Protected and Who Doesn’t
Recorded live from BIO 2026 in San Diego, host Gil Bashe sits down with two executives advancing one of the most audacious ideas in modern vaccinology: replacing the syringe with a tablet. Steven Lo, President and CEO of Vaxart, Inc., and Dr. Sean Tucker, the company’s Founder and Chief Scientific Officer to discuss what it would mean to put a flu, COVID-19, or norovirus vaccine in a pill, no needle, no cold chain, no waiting room. The conversation spans Vaxart’s clinical pipeline, its Gates Foundation-supported maternal immunization study in Africa, a therapeutic HPV vaccine candidate, and the deeply human question of why, if you make prevention easier, more people will actually show up for it.
News You Can Use: Special Edition with Phia Part 3 of 6
The No Surprises Act backfired, while it successfully eliminated surprise patient bills, Practices and Systems now game the Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR) process to get paid more than the original charges, sometimes double. The good news for patients, not so much as these costs are shifting to premiums, health plans are paying dramatically more, with claims over $1 million nearly doubling and industry arbitration win rates dropping below 10%. Hotspots of abuse exist, Nevada leads, and in Tennessee just 147 practices filed 36,000 disputes. Private equity-owned practices leading the way in turning arbitration into a business strategy. In an extension of the “No Surprises” we don’t expect Congress to fix it. Medical facilities are often the largest employers in representatives’ districts, creating a powerful conflict of interest. Solution include aggressive negotiation.
From Our Podcast Network
Unscripted the AMCP Podcast: Navigating Treatment, Access, and Outcomes in Idiopathic Hypersomnia
On this episode guest host Denise Wolff, PharmD, CEO & Founder of Denise & Co., LLC, welcomes Zachary Contreras, PharmD, RPh, Director of Pharmacy Benefits, Sharp Health Plan, for a discussion on idiopathic hypersomnia (IH), a chronic neurological sleep disorder that remains widely underrecognized despite its profound impact on patients’ lives. Together, they explore the challenges of diagnosing IH, including a diagnostic delay that can exceed a decade, the significant burden the condition places on work, relationships, education, and overall quality of life, and the reasons many patients remain invisible within healthcare systems. The episode highlights practical steps health plans can take today to reduce barriers to care, improve long-term outcomes, and help patients with idiopathic hypersomnia receive the diagnosis and treatment they need sooner. Sponsored by Jazz Pharmaceuticals.
Digital Health Leaders: Why Clinical Conversations Matter
Host Russ Branzell, President and CEO of CHIME, connects with Dr. Shiv Rao, Founder and CEO of Abridge and practicing cardiologist, for a compelling discussion on the evolving role of AI in clinical care. Drawing from his unique vantage point at the intersection of medicine and technology, Dr. Rao shares how firsthand clinical experience is shaping the development of ambient, generative AI tools designed to reduce cognitive burden and restore focus to patient care. Together, they examine the growing importance of trust, the responsibility of leaders to guide ethical AI adoption, and how human-centered design principles can scale alongside rapid innovation.
