In this episode of Only Healthcare, hosts Randy Vogenberg and Michael Navin welcome Tamara Thomas, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Urban Health Today, for a candid discussion about the consumer perspective on America's broken healthcare system. Drawing from her extensive background in health disparities coverage and a shocking revelation from an insurance executive years ago, Tamara exposes the fundamental conflict between profit motives and patient care.

With her unique lens as both a healthcare journalist and certified health coach, Tamara joins Randy and Michael in dissecting how insurance companies have systematically extracted value from the healthcare system while leaving patients, providers, and employers bearing the financial burden.

Key Topics Discussed:

• Provider Shortage Crisis and Root Causes
• Healthcare Price Transparency Failures
• The Managed Care Extraction Machine
• Diversity Crisis in Healthcare Workforce
• PBM Rebate Manipulation Exposed
• Alternative Healthcare Models

🎧 Listen now: onlyhealthcarepodcast.com

Chapters:
(00:00) Introduction
(03:00) Provider shortage crisis: financial disincentives and career barriers
(09:00) Healthcare price transparency mandates vs. reality
(16:00) Virtual care rollbacks and quality vs. profitability concerns
(20:00) Insurance industry's profit-first confession and system design
(24:00) Tamara's managed care nightmare with her mother's terminal illness
(29:00) Healthcare workforce diversity crisis and access implications
(34:00) Primary care marketing challenges and patient navigation patterns
(39:00) Drug shortage crisis and supply chain vulnerability

Hosted by:
Michael Navin & Dr. Randy Vogenberg

Michael's LinkedIn

Randy's LinkedIn

Sponsored by:
Peek: A game-changing prescription shopping solution that allows its members to view all their prescription cost options across cash discount programs and their insurance in one easy-to-use platform. Peek is currently being offered to organizations to help both employees and plan sponsors save money on their prescription spend. https://peekmeds.com/.

Institute for Integrated Health (IIH): Health care benefits, insurance coverage regulations, and doing business in the healthcare industry can be complicated. At IIH, Dr. Randy Vogenberg and his team understand these unique challenges and provides strategic guidance customized to every client. To help overcome your unique challenges, IIH delivers education, planning and advisory on market trends, and U.S. health care market intelligence. The firm’s decades of proven success are due to strategic collaboration with associates from the business, clinical, and scientific communities. https://iih-online.com/.

Music by:
Hanu Dixit, https://www.youtube.com/hanudixit