The Heart of Healthcare | A Digital Health Podcast

A Brave New Medicaid World | Waymark Co-founder & CEO Dr. Rajaie Batniji

11 snips

Mar 24, 2025

Dr. Rajaie Batniji, a physician and entrepreneur, dives into the challenges facing Medicaid, a program crucial for one in four Americans. He discusses the dire implications of proposed funding cuts and critiques the misguided 'value veneers' in healthcare. With personal stories from his background, he advocates for a robust integration of health and social services to better serve vulnerable populations. Batniji also shares valuable insights for entrepreneurs aiming to make a positive impact in the Medicaid space.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Medicaid Cuts Don't Save

Proposed Medicaid cuts won't generate real savings, just shift financial burden.
Cutting eligibility doesn't reduce healthcare needs; it changes how and when care is accessed, often making it more expensive.

ANECDOTE

Arkansas Work Requirements

Work requirements in Arkansas failed to increase employment.
They worsened health outcomes and increased the burden on health systems.

INSIGHT

Algorithmic Bias

Traditional healthcare algorithms exhibit racial bias by underpredicting Black healthcare spending.
Waymark's algorithm overcomes this by focusing on clinical conditions and social determinants, not cost.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

One in four Americans relies on Medicaid, yet the program faces billions in federal funding cuts.

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Rajaie Batniji, co-founder and CEO of Waymark, about delivering tech-enabled community care to Medicaid patients.

We discuss what cuts to Medicaid could mean, the impact of "value veneers", and how predictive algorithms can overcome bias in healthcare delivery. Dr. Batniji also shares his personal connection to healthcare equity and his motivation for serving vulnerable populations despite investor skepticism about Medicaid-focused businesses.

We cover:

🏥 How to address the unique needs of Medicaid patients

💰 The potential impact of proposed $880 billion Medicaid cuts and why they may not generate real savings

🔄 The failures of Medicaid work requirements and why eligibility cuts won't reduce actual healthcare

📊 What "value veneers" are, and how they are harmful to healthcare innovation

🌍 Advice for founders looking to serve the Medicaid population

—

About our guest:

Dr. Rajaie Batniji is a physician, entrepreneur, and advocate for improving healthcare delivery. He is the co-founder and CEO of Waymark, a company providing tech-enabled community care for people on Medicaid. Previously, he co-founded Collective Health where he served as Chief Health Officer for eight years. He was also a clinical assistant professor at Stanford University in Medicine where he trained in internal medicine.

—

Show notes:

Supporting Rising-Risk Medicaid Patients Through Early Intervention (NEJM Catalyst)
Geographic Variations and Facility Determinants of Acute Care Utilization and Spending for ACSCs (AJMC)
Procedural Prescription Denials and Risk of Acute Care Utilization and Spending Among Medicaid Patients (JAMA Open)
Value Veneers And How To Enable Value In Medicaid Care Delivery (Health Affairs)
A Social ACO For Medicaid Managed Care (Health Affairs)
The Public's View on Potential Changes to Medicaid (KFF)

—

🙏 If you're enjoying the show, we would so appreciate it if you left us a review!

—

📍 Connect with us:

Heart of Healthcare website

TikTok (NEW!)

Twitter

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.