Lt. Col. Jayme Hanson, former CFO overseeing half of the National Capital Region's military healthcare system, shares eye-opening insights about the Defense Health Agency (DHA), veteran suicide epidemic, and why moving military healthcare to private sector care could be a costly mistake. From combat medic to healthcare executive, Hanson exposes the hidden dynamics between politics, healthcare, and the military that most people never see.Lt. Col. Hanson brings decades of experience from serving as a combat medic to leading healthcare operations for major military facilities including Pentagon, Fort Belvoir, and more. His candid perspective on leadership, government inefficiency, and solutions for the veteran crisis is both sobering and hopeful.Timeline:0:00 - Introduction: Healthcare meets military leadership8:28 - Inside military healthcare: The 10M person system nobody knows20:20 - The veteran suicide crisis and PTSD solutions29:44 - Why young Americans are physically and mentally unfit37:30 - How military healthcare actually gets funded42:16 - Leadership advice for fixing the system#MilitaryHealthcare #VeteranCare #DefenseHealthAgency #VeteranSuicide #HealthcareReform #MilitaryLeadership

Learn how you can scale your care team with AIhttps://link.CareCo.ai/rmvhvq Dr. Sandeep Palakodeti, founder and CEO of Velocity Health, joins host Mendel to discuss how his concierge precision medicine clinic is reimagining primary care. With experience from Kaiser, Harvard, Mayo Clinic, and as Chief Population Health Officer at a major health system, Sandeep explains why traditional insurance-based healthcare fails at prevention and how Velocity Health's cash-pay model solves this problem.The conversation covers the broken incentive structures in American healthcare, why patients switching insurance plans prevents long-term health investment, and how life insurance companies could be natural partners. Sandeep shares the complete patient experience—from comprehensive diagnostics to ongoing support from interdisciplinary teams—and introduces the concept of "longevity escape velocity": the idea that living long enough today means we might live indefinitely as medical technology advances.This is a practical blueprint for what primary care could be when aligned incentives meet innovative delivery models.Timestamps:00:00:40 - What is Velocity Health and the concierge precision medicine model00:12:17 - The fundamental problem: Why patients choosing insurers prevents healthcare investment00:16:38 - Aligned incentives: Why life insurance companies are the perfect partners00:19:43 - Inside the patient experience: From onboarding to ongoing 24/7 care00:32:47 - Sandeep's journey and why entrepreneurship drives healthcare change00:40:44 - Longevity escape velocity: The future of living indefinitely through medical advances

The "NICU Graduate" celebration is one of the happiest moments for a family, but is it a false sense of security?In this episode, Mendel talks with Dr. Ross Sommers about the "NICU Cliff." We pour billions into saving babies born as small as 400 grams, only to send them home on oxygen and feeding tubes with almost zero support.Dr. Sommers reveals the heartbreaking reality of why "goodbye and good luck" isn't a medical plan, the PTSD parents face, and how First Day Healthcare is finally building a safety net for the world’s most vulnerable patients.Key Chapters:00:00 – The NICU Cliff: Why leaving the hospital is the scariest day.03:43 – The reality of Parent PTSD after the NICU.05:43 – How Remote Monitoring is changing the "Feeder-Grower" game.07:23 – The $40 Billion Business of Neonatology.14:04 – Why pediatric innovation lags 7 years behind adult care.17:40 – The Personal Mission: Why "graduation" isn't the end of the story.