The HiFi Health News Podcast

Whether your travel plans involve a short car ride or a long flight, you shouldn’t ignore your healthcare needs while away from home. This week, Shawn Stack from the Healthcare Financial Management Association discusses tips for travelers.

Healthcare is expensive and getting more so all the time. This week, Adrienne Moore from Banner Health discusses alternatives to pricey health insurance and how to get financial assistance, even if you have coverage.

Andrew Mahler of Clearwater Security discuss the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, better known as HIPAA. Topics include who has to comply with HIPAA and a review of specific scenarios and whether they’re violations.

As healthcare costs rise and appointments become harder to get due to workforce shortages, more patients are turning to AI tools. In this episode, Amelia Burke-Garcia, PhD from NORC at the University of Chicago discusses recent research on healthcare AI and how to use it effectively.

In this episode, the discussion continues with Erica Olenski about caring for her son August while he battled pediatric cancer. Olenski details how technology can help or hinder the caregiving process, the role of palliative care and August’s legacy. August's Artists: https://www.augustsartists.org/

Managing one’s own healthcare can be difficult, but additional complications enter the picture when involved as a caregiver. In this episode, Erica Olenski talks about her experiences managing the care of her son August while he battled pediatric cancer.

Epic is the most widely used electronic health record system in the United States, and its patient portal, MyChart, provides access to your medical records, appointments, messaging and more. This week, Taylor Seale from Epic discusses how to get the most of out your patient portal.

If you get health insurance from your employer and are in the midst of open enrollment season, it’s time to buckle down and do some homework to find the best option. In this episode, Justin Held of the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans discusses different types of health plans and how to decide what’s right for you.

Earlier this year, SCAN Health Plan released an advertisement depicting some of the issues faced by Medicare patients across the country. In this episode, SCAN CEO Sachin Jain and Chief Marketing Officer Nishant Shukla discuss what’s wrong with the healthcare system and how SCAN plans to respond.   How Enrollees Feel About Their Medicare Advantage Plans

In today’s episode, Erika talks with Shawn Stack from the Healthcare Financial Management Association about listener questions, including what to do when insurance sets limits on treatment and how to solve disputes between providers and insurance.

Treatments for allergies and asthma such as epinephrine pens and inhalers can be life saving…and cost prohibitive. These devices can be expensive, and often, patients need more than one, multiplying the cost. This week on the podcast, Renee Matthews, MD talks with Erika about how people can afford allergy and asthma treatments.

Medicine is one of the best compensated professions in the United States, but perhaps one of the most misunderstood when it comes to how people get paid. This week, Katie Gilfillan from the Healthcare Financial Management Association discusses the complex world of physician salaries.

The price of prescription drugs is going up all the time, and there are more places than ever to get them. In this episode, Ruchi Talwar, MD from Vanderbilt University Medical Center discusses how to price shop amongst the growing number of options.

Accidents will happen but determining how to pay — and which insurer is paying — for any injuries incurred an accident depends on where the mishap occurred and who is at fault.

The American healthcare system is more complicated than other industries, which leads to confusion and frustration for patients. This week, physician and healthcare executive Navesh Kandiyil, MD, discusses how patients can better advocate for themselves and what hospitals often get wrong.

When both spouses in a household are offered insurance through their employer, the decision on which plan to choose – or whether to choose both – can be more complex than it seems. In this episode, Shawn Stack from the Healthcare Financial Management Association talks with Erika about how dual spousal coverage works and what to know before committing to two premiums.

Medical bills sent via text message. Ambient AI listening in on appointments with your doctor. Automation of billing processes. Technological advancements create opportunities to make life easier for patients and providers, but how do we know our data is safe? In this episode, Lisa Nelson, an associate vice president at Rochester University Medical Center, talks with Erika about what patients should be most concerned about when it comes to cybersecurity in healthcare and ways they can take control of their own experience.

Hospital price transparency regulations aimed to make shopping for healthcare as easy as comparing prices online, but there are so many factors affecting costs that accurate predictions are difficult. This week, Shawn Stack from the Healthcare Financial Management Association talks with Erika about how hospitals determine prices and why they don’t always match the bill.

If you’re one of the 25 million people in the U.S. without health insurance, there are still ways to get covered. This week on the podcast, Shawn Stack from the Healthcare Financial Management Association talks with Erika about how to get healthcare paid for through COBRA, a spouse’s insurance, the Marketplace and Medicaid.

In recent years, the healthcare industry has worked to be more patient friendly, including better communication about what healthcare will cost. But shopping for healthcare is a vastly different experience than choosing a lamp on Amazon. This week, Erika is joined by Dr. Deepak Goyal from Monument Health in South Dakota, who explains how to comparison shop for the best price--and when it's OK to just pay cash.

GLP-1s such as semaglutide and tirzepatide, originally formulated to treat patients with diabetes, have been touted as a solution for weight loss. However, these drugs come with some serious side effects – and high price tags – that make 65% of patients taking them for weight loss discontinue them within a year. In this episode, researcher and patient advocate Ragen Chastain discusses what to know before taking a GLP-1 for weight loss.

Medicare is a government-sponsored health insurance program for Americans age 65 and over. But much like health insurance from an employer, it requires some decision making on the part of the enrollee. On today’s episode of the HiFi Health News Podcast, Erika Grotto speaks with Deepak Goyal, MD, an executive medical director at South Dakota-based Monument Health. Goyal provides advice for people choosing their first Medicare plan and explains some common terminology.

The U.S. is the only wealthy country in the world without a universal healthcare system, and a 2024 Gallup poll shows that 62% of Americans would like to have one. In this episode, Canadian cardiologist and epidemiologist Christopher Labos, MD discusses the differences between the healthcare systems in the U.S. and Canada, as well as some surprising similarities.

Dawn Crump discusses the issues her family has faced in finding memory care for her aging mother. She describes the difficulty of finding affordable care, the complexities of the Medicaid application process and nursing home staff shortages as well as the physical and mental toll on family members.

Zeev Neuwirth, MD discusses the challenges in primary care and potential strategies to address them.

If you’re looking at your financial health heading into the new year, don’t forget to factor in the cost of your physical health. On today’s episode, Laura Adams, author and host of the “Money Girl” podcast, offers advice to make sense of healthcare in personal finance.

Dr. Daniel Semenza of the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center discusses the ripple effects of gun violence.

Dr. Daniel Semenza, director of interpersonal violence research at the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center at Rutgers University, talks about the intersection of gun violence and public health and reveals what society gets wrong in its discussion of the subject.

Dr. Kamal Golla, a urologic oncologist, emphasizes the importance of understanding a cancer diagnosis and prognosis, as well as the potential side effects and risks of treatment, when considering the financial aspects of cancer treatment. In this episode, he describes how patients may be able to tailor their treatment plans and other moves they can make to ensure their period of treatment goes smoothly from a financial standpoint.

The cost of healthcare is rising, and more and more patients are avoiding getting necessary care because they’re concerned they can’t afford it. In this episode, we talk with Shawn Stack of the Healthcare Financial Management Association about what to do when a big bill arrives and how to find resources for affordable care.