Health:Further 173 - The $5 Trillion Healthcare Problem and Why AI Is Stepping In
Vic is joined by guest host Paul Kappelman to break down the latest signals shaping healthcare and the economy, including inflation trends, slowing job growth, housing market movement, healthcare spending exceeding $5 trillion, Medicare Advantage investigations, payer scrutiny, hospital labor strikes, and major pharma M&A. The episode also covers at-home cancer care, digital health’s growing divide, new federal healthcare proposals, shifting nutrition guidelines, flu treatment advances, data interoperability battles, and how AI agents from OpenAI and Anthropic are beginning to reshape clinical workflows, consumer health access, and everyday work.
4:12 - Pace of Inflation Held Steady in December; Consumer Prices Up 2.7% on Year WSJ
5:19 - America’s Job Market Has Entered the Slow Lane WSJ
7:54 - Home Sales in December Jump 5.1%, Biggest Gain in Nearly 2 Years WSJ
10:26 - This Startup Wants to Bring Cancer Patients' Care at Home WSJ
15:44 - 2025 year-end digital health funding overview: A tale of two markets Rock Health
13:51 - US healthcare spending climbed 7.2% in 2024: 8 things to know Beckers
17:55 - White House: The Great Healthcare Plan White House website
20:58 - RFK Jr.-Backed Dietary Guidelines Say to Avoid Processed Foods, Double Protein WSJ
22:19 - UnitedHealth Used Aggressive Tactics to Boost Medicare Payments, Senate Report Finds WSJ
23:56 - Kaiser Permanente to pay $556M to settle Medicare Advantage fraud claims Fierce Healthcare
25:24 - UnitedHealthcare unveils pilot to accelerate payments to rural hospitals Fierce Healthcare
26:15 - Nearly 15,000 Nurses Go on Strike at Major New York City Hospitals NYT
N/A - Walmart Launches Digital Healthcare Platform to Cut Prices on Some Health Items WSJ
27:48 - Epic sues health information network over alleged medical record misuse Healthcare Dive
33:09 - The Flu Is Surging. How Antivirals Can Help. WSJ
35:22 - Polymarket, Dow Jones Partner to Display Prediction-Markets Data in Dow Jones Content WSJ
37:33Advancing Claude in healthcare and the life sciences Anthropic website
38:32 - Example Claude for MRI Interpretation X
40:10 - OpenAI acquires healthcare startup Torch to build out ChatGPT Health Fierce Healthcare
N/A - OpenEvidence makes the case for AI-powered 'medical super-intelligence' Fierce Healthcare
42:17 - Google Gemini Partnership With Apple Will Go Beyond Siri Revamp MacRumors
44:00 - Anthropic’s new Cowork tool offers Claude Code without the code Tech Crunch
44:49 - Claude Cowork X