Lifers with Christina Farr

Christina Farr talks with Paul Meyer, CEO and co-founder of Smart Health Network, Dr. Neil Hockstein, Delaware's first Surgeon General, and Aretha Rochester, who manages prior authorizations from the front desk, about why prior auth reform keeps failing and what Delaware is doing differently. Dr. Hockstein shares audio from a real insurer denial call. They also discuss Delaware's plan to use Rural Health Transformation funds to build a shared prior auth utility modeled on Visa, the blind router design where the patient holds the only key to their request, and the CMS-0057 January 1 deadline for electronic prior auth.

—Smart Health Network is neutral infrastructure for health transactions between providers, payers, and patients — connect once, transact with all. Smart Health Network — Cut Paperwork, Not Care.—Join Christina for an upcoming webinar:• 7/27 - Peptide Therapy: Where Do We Go From Here? - https://streamyard.com/watch/AgaHuDEvjisN —LINKS:Smart Health Network: https://www.smarthealthnetwork.org/ Chrissy Farr on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LiferswithChristinaFarr Chrissy Farr on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cfarr/ Subscribe to the Second Opinion Newsletter: https://secondopinion.media/ Chrissy’s Book: The Storyteller's Advantage: https://www.chrissyfarr.com/books

—FOLLOW:Paul:https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulmeyernyc https://x.com/paulmeyernyc

Neil:https://www.linkedin.com/in/neil-hockstein-2a22241bb

Chrissy:https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinafarr/ https://x.com/chrissyfarr

—TIMESTAMPS:(00:00) Lead In(00:39) Intro(01:56) Why Delaware matters(03:48) Frontline prior auth pain(08:13) Paul's origin story(09:35) Text4Baby lessons(13:00) Smart Health hub explained(17:42) Patient stakes and delays(19:49) The infamous denial call(25:02) Structural fix not portals(26:54) Delaware leads the dance(29:06) Governance over technology(34:47) Why Delaware took the risk(38:49) How to scale nationally(43:11) HITECH lessons and standards(47:50) Wrap

Yusuf Sherwani, MD, Co-Founder and CEO of Pelago, joins Chrissy to talk about why substance use disorder is one of the most stigmatized and least-treated chronic conditions in healthcare, despite touching roughly one in five people. They dig into the hidden cost of leaving it untreated, including a $12,000-per-patient ROI independently verified by Aon, and the case for treating addiction with the same chronic-disease framework as diabetes or heart disease. The conversation turns to AI's role in closing the treatment gap, including Pelago's own tool Sona, built to challenge patients rather than just validate them, and why Yusuf believes outcomes-based pricing, not session-based billing, is the right model for AI-driven behavioral health.

—Pelago is the leading specialty substance use care provider, built on the belief that effective treatment means matching care intensity to what each member actually needs rather than defaulting to the most expensive intervention. Our programs deliver personalized treatment for tobacco, alcohol, opioid, cannabis, and stimulant use based on individual health, habits, genetics, and goals. With Sona, our voice-first AI Mental Health Specialist, Pelago now applies that same clinically-driven model to mental health, pairing deep clinical expertise with technology to expand access without compromising care quality. https://pelago.health/secondopinion 

—Join Christina for an upcoming webinar:• 7/27 - Peptide Therapy: Where Do We Go From Here? - https://streamyard.com/watch/AgaHuDEvjisN 

—LINKS:Chrissy Farr on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LiferswithChristinaFarr Chrissy Farr on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cfarr/ Subscribe to the Second Opinion Newsletter: https://secondopinion.media/ Chrissy’s Book: The Storyteller's Advantage: https://www.chrissyfarr.com/books 

—FOLLOW:Yusuf:https://www.linkedin.com/in/ysherwani https://x.com/ysherwani 

Chrissy:https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinafarr/ https://x.com/chrissyfarr 

—TIMESTAMPS:(00:00) Lead In(00:42) Intro(01:56) UK vs US healthcare shock(03:38) Why healthtech moves to US(06:32) Selling to employers in person(11:01) Building for the long haul(13:21) Why addiction care is broken(15:53) Addiction as chronic disease(19:40) Pelago digital clinic model(21:40) Employer costs and ROI case(27:22) Finding SUD in claims data(29:54) Who addiction really affects(32:41) Peers groups and AI support(35:14) AI therapy promise and risks(44:18) Measuring outcomes and pricing(46:45) Benefits tighten and ROI rules(50:57) Safe AI in healthcare(57:49) Wrap

Aartik Sarma, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine at UCSF, joins Christina Farr for a short special edition on Intercept, a new $500 million initiative from a coalition of tech companies including Stripe, OpenAI, and Anthropic aimed at finally cracking the common cold and flu. They dig into why a "cold" is actually a huge, constantly mutating spectrum of viruses rather than one thing, why existing treatments like Tamiflu barely move the needle, and where Sarma thinks the money should go, from indoor air filtration to nasal sprays to longer-term vaccine research targeting the parts of viruses that don't mutate as often.—SPONSOR: Baker Health🩺 This episode is brought to you by Baker Health. Evidence-based medicine and real holistic care, under one roof, with labs, results, and 24/7 live doctor chat all in one app.Download the Baker Health App: https://linktr.ee/baker_health Learn More: https://www.bakerhealth.com/ 

The only practice in NY & NJ where you can text your doctor directly and get same-day reservations.Make a Reservation: https://reservations.bakerhealth.com/medical?utm_source=lifers —LINKS: Intercept: https://www.interceptfund.com/ 

Chrissy Farr on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LiferswithChristinaFarr Subscribe to the Second Opinion Newsletter: https://secondopinion.media/ Chrissy’s Book: The Storyteller's Advantage: https://www.chrissyfarr.com/books —FOLLOW:Aartik:https://www.linkedin.com/in/aartiksarma https://x.com/AartikSarma 

Chrissy:https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinafarr/ https://x.com/chrissyfarr https://www.instagram.com/cfarr/ 

Second Opinion Media:https://www.instagram.com/second.opinion.media/ https://x.com/second_op_media —TIMESTAMPS:(00:00) Intro(00:46) Why companies care(02:20) Post-COVID work culture(04:39) Why colds persist(06:56) Who gets hit hard(08:42) Intercepting transmission(12:16) Sponsor: Baker Health(13:32) Better diagnostics(16:30) Vaccines tradeoffs(18:44) Is it worth 500M(21:03) Wrap

Christina Farr brings together three clinicians with genuinely different views: cardiologist Venkatesh Murthy, rheumatologist Paul Sufka, and internist Sandeep Palakodeti, to react to Midjourney, the whole-body scanning startup that went viral after an Elon Musk retweet. The conversation centers on a real tension in medicine: when does more screening actually help people, and when does it just generate more anxiety, biopsies, and cost without saving more lives?

—SPONSOR: Baker Health🩺 This episode is brought to you by Baker Health. Evidence-based medicine and real holistic care, under one roof, with labs, results, and 24/7 live doctor chat all in one app.Download the Baker Health App: https://linktr.ee/baker_health Learn More: https://www.bakerhealth.com/ 

The only practice in NY & NJ where you can text your doctor directly and get same-day reservations.  Make a Reservation: https://reservations.bakerhealth.com/medical?utm_source=lifers 

—LINKS: MidJourney: https://www.midjourney.com/medical Velocity Health: https://velocityhealthclinic.com/ Twin Cities Orthopedics: https://tcomn.com/physicians/paul-sufka/ Elon Musk’s retweet: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2067427059895521345?s=20 Caltech research: "Whole Cross-Sectional Human Ultrasound Tomography” (April 2026): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-026-01660-4 Caltech's own writeup: https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/scanning-the-body-with-sound South Korean thyroid screening study: https://bmccancer.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12885-020-07597-4 Japan active surveillance study (Kuma Hospital): https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/endocrj/71/1/71_EJ23-0395/_article 

Chrissy Farr on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LiferswithChristinaFarr Subscribe to the Second Opinion Newsletter: https://secondopinion.media/ Chrissy’s Book: The Storyteller's Advantage: https://www.chrissyfarr.com/books—FOLLOW:Venk:https://www.linkedin.com/in/venkmurthy https://x.com/venkmurthy 

Paul:https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulsufka https://x.com/psufka 

Sandeep:https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandeep-palakodeti-md-mph https://x.com/DrDeepMD 

Chrissy:https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinafarr/ https://x.com/chrissyfarr https://www.instagram.com/cfarr/ 

Second Opinion Media:https://www.instagram.com/second.opinion.media/ https://x.com/second_op_media—TIMESTAMPS:(00:00) Lead In(00:46) Intro(02:17) Whole body MRI basics(03:11) Incidental findings trap(05:52) Can AI fix imaging(08:38) Evidence vs overdiagnosis(13:00) Autonomy, incentives, liability(20:42) Sponsor: Baker Health(21:58) Lifestyle wins from scans(23:27) Who pays downstream costs(34:03) Midjourney tech under fire(39:01) Regulation gray zones(41:50) Bold new era argument(45:10) Finding silent disease early(49:50) Avoiding snake oil future(53:19) Wrap

Episode 1 of Rounds is here.

Co-hosted by Christina Farr and Stephanie Davis, this episode dives into women’s health care. Megan Scheffel from Silicon Valley Bank joins to break down the latest SVB women’s health report, and Joanna Strober, Founder of Midi Health, sits down to talk about building a billion dollar company out of a gap the healthcare system spent decades ignoring.

We’ll cover:- Companies already public or on the eve of going public in the women's health space- Oura as a case study: is it a women's health company?- The expanded definition of women's health — it's not just reproductive health anymore- Personalized and precision medicine as a multiplier for women's health outcomes- The latest from SVB women’s health report with Megan Scheffel- Midi just hit a $1 billion valuation — a major milestone for women's health- Joanna's VC background gave her a unique lens to spot the gap in midlife women's care- Midi's model: specialist-led, insurance-covered care accessible in all 50 states- Joanna's own misdiagnosis experience directly shaped how Midi approaches patient care- Menopause care as a future pillar of longevity medicine — where the industry is headed

Hosts and Guest:- Christina Farr, CEO, Second Opinion; GP, Scrub Capital- Stephanie Davis, Healthcare Industry Analyst- Megan Scheffel, Head of Life Science and Healthcare at SVB- Joanna Strober, Founder of Midi Health

Read the full SVB Report: https://www.svb.com/trends-insights/reports/womens-health-report/