The Heart of Healthcare | A Digital Health Podcast

Fixing Rural Healthcare Before It Collapses | Homeward Co-founder & CEO Dr. Jennifer Schneider

20 snips

Nov 24, 2025

Dr. Jennifer Schneider, co-founder and CEO of Homeward, shares her journey from a small-town upbringing to revolutionizing rural healthcare. She discusses the staggering mortality rates in rural areas and how Homeward is tackling this by merging technology with personal care. Jenny’s experiences with Type 1 diabetes drive her vision for patient-centered solutions. The conversation also dives into the potential of value-based care in these underserved markets and the innovative hybrid model that combines home visits with virtual follow-ups to enhance access and quality.

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ANECDOTE

Childhood Diagnosis Shaped Her Mission

At 12, Dr. Jennifer Schneider was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and treated initially at her local Winona hospital before referral to Mayo Clinic.
That early experience shaped her career focus on chronic disease and rural healthcare access.

ANECDOTE

Tech Works — Until It Doesn't

Dr. Jennifer Schneider described real-world gaps even for advanced patients, saying her Dexcom G7 sensors often fail early and she sometimes pays nearly $1,000 out of pocket.
She used this to illustrate systemic fragility in chronic-care supply chains and coverage.

ADVICE

Physicians Should Leverage Clinical Insight

Doctors transitioning to startups should negotiate language and outcomes between clinical accuracy and product usability.
Leverage medical insight to identify broken processes and shape scalable solutions.

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As millions of Americans hit the road to visit family for Thanksgiving, many will pass through, or return to, rural communities. Nearly 60 million Americans live in these areas, yet many struggle to access even basic healthcare as rural hospitals close at record rates.

Dr. Jennifer Schneider, co-founder and CEO of Homeward Health, is tackling this crisis head-on by reimagining how care is delivered to Medicare Advantage members in rural America. Drawing on her experiences as a physician, a patient with Type 1 diabetes, and the former president of Livongo, Jenny shares why rural healthcare is both a massive challenge and an untapped opportunity.

We cover:

🏥 Why rural Americans face dramatically higher mortality rates

💡 How Homeward is combining technology and on-the-ground care to serve overlooked communities

📉 What value-based care looks like outside major metro areas

🤝 Lessons from Castlight, Livongo, and building bilingual (tech + healthcare) teams

🔥 How Jenny’s personal experience with chronic illness shapes her leadership and vision

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About our guest:

Dr. Jennifer Schneider is the co-founder and CEO of Homeward, where she is leading the transformation of rural healthcare through AI-enabled, value-based care delivery. A physician and technologist, Jennifer’s work is shaped by her experience growing up in a small town with type 1 diabetes—fueling her belief that geography should never determine access to care.

Previously, Jennifer was President and Chief Medical Officer at Livongo, where she helped scale the company through its IPO and led its $18.5B merger with Teladoc Health—the largest digital health transaction to date. She has also held executive roles at Castlight Health and began her career as a practicing internal medicine physician and health services researcher.

Jennifer serves on the boards of Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Maven Clinic, and has been named one of Modern Healthcare’s “100 Most Influential People in Healthcare.” She holds degrees from Johns Hopkins, Stanford, and the College of the Holy Cross.

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