S5E8: The ACA and Shutdown, Medicare Advantage and Autism

The Medicare system represent a universal health system for people over 65, yet sometimes there are barriers to getting the benefits one needs. We interview attorney Alice Bers, the director of the Massachusetts Medicare Advocacy Project whose organization supports medicare beneficiaries as well as polcy to allow for equitable universal health care. We discuss the role of advocacy and the latest issues affecting Medicare.

We interview Joe McDonough, MSN, MHCDS, CEO and founder of the home care agency, Innovive. Joe and his team have innovated to build a unique care model to care for complex behavioral health patients in their home. He has worked with state Medicaid programs to improve outcomes and save millions of dollars.

Evan and Bill interview local musician Tracy Grammer whose personal experience with health and death make for very interesting listening. Along the way, we hear some of Tracy's music and discuss topics about death, dying, terminal lucidity and the brain's response to pain.

We interview Dr Adam Gaffney, a physician, writer, public health researcher and former President of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP). Dr Gaffney writes about the challenges of and improvements to the US Healthcare System. He has a real interest in building a Medicare-for All program for the US. His book, To Heal Humankind, makes the case for healthcare to be a human right.

How has healthcare delivery changed? What are the tenets and values that a physician in practice should have? In this interview with Dr Charles Wohl, retired internal medicine physician from western Massachusetts, we discuss what life was like practicing in the 1970's and 80's. From starting a community clinic to teaching, Dr Wohl has great insight into how has healthcare changed.

How can one reduce the risk of dementia and cognitive decline? In this show we review what we know about risk factors for dementia and cognitive decline with Dr Mikaela Bloomber, an epidemiologist researcher University College London. Dr Bloomberg has been using a large longitudinal database to tease out risks and associations between behaviors and cognitive decline. this fascinating discussion sheds light on a confusing area of health.

The secretary of HHS has finally achieved his vaccine goals of changing the vaccine schedule for children in the US. The new schedule was just released, and after a controversial process, the new schedule has reduced the number of diseases to prevent from 17 to 11. we discuss the process and the implications for health.

We talk with Dr Bruce Finke, former senior advisor to the Primary Care Program at the Medicare Innovation Center about how to improve primary care in the US. From changing the goals to the practice model to the payment model, Dr Finke shares ideas and possibilities to have more patients benefit from a primary care experience.

We discuss two things: 1. New Changes to the way Physicians will be paid that rewards primary care and 2. The nomination of Dr Casey Means for US Surgeon General. We are joined by Dr Mike Miller, health policy expert and we share our initial thoughts about Dr Casey Means as a candidate for surgeon general.

We have a great time taking about the latest updates in cardiology and we add some original music. Our guest is cardiologist Dr John Joelson from Massachusetts. Dr J is a seasoned cardiologist and a musician, singer songwriter who graced us with great cardiac conversation and music!