Ep 145: Personal Experience Driving Better, More Equitable Health Care for People With IDD

Jim Laughman is a behavioral health managed care leader whose work focuses on Medicaid populations, including people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), serious mental illness, and dual diagnoses. Laughman explains how his organization provides care coordination in states like New Jersey and Pennsylvania and shares that his career is deeply motivated by his personal experience as a sibling to a brother with IDD who faced long waitlists, limited services, and ultimately died young. Throughout the conversation, they discuss persistent disparities in health care access, life expectancy, and provider training for people with IDD, while also acknowledging meaningful progress in inclusivity, education, and preventive care. Laughman highlights the impact of programs like Special Olympics Healthy Athletes, emphasizes the importance of social determinants of health, prevention, proper funding, and provider education, and concludes with three guiding principles: address social determinants of health, continue advancing inclusivity across society with involvement from business and government, and treat people with disabilities with dignity and respect by following the golden rule.