Shows
The Healthcare Theory PodcastInsurance – As Simple as a Credit Card Swipe | SamaCare Co-Founder Syam PalakurthySyam Palakurthy is the CEO of SamaCare, a platform simplifying the prior authorization process for healthcare providers, payers, and patients. Last year, his team raised a $17M Series B with the goal of making paying for healthcare as simple as a credit card swipe.In this episode, we explore how Syam went from Bain & Company and ClearCost Health to tackling one of healthcare’s most hated administrative burdens. He breaks down why prior authorization exists, why it’s so entrenched in our system, and what it would take to increase transparency. We talk about the coordination failures acro...
2025-10-1036 min
The Road to CareStandardizing IG Therapy with Dr. Luba Sobolevsky & Dr. Amy ClarkeOn this episode of The Road to Care, we’re joined by Luba Sobolevsky, PharmD, IgCP®, President & CEO of the Immunoglobulin National Society (IgNS), and Amy E. Clarke, DNP, RN, IgCN®, Chief Clinical Officer at IgNS, two nationally recognized leaders advancing standards, education, certification, and patient advocacy in immunoglobulin (IG) therapy and biologics.
Dr. Sobolevsky and Dr. Clarke walk through how IgNS built an interdisciplinary model including standards, education, certification (IgCN®/IgCP®), and outcomes research, to close dangerous training gaps in IG therapy, and preview what’s next as the pipeline accelerates (FcRn and complement inhibitors, hyaluronidase-facilitated SCIG), the workforce ages, an...
2025-09-2945 min
The Road to CareRemote Therapeutic Monitoring, Patient Data & the Future of Connected Care with Jim BreidensteinOn this episode of The Road to Care, we sit down with Jim Breidenstein, CEO of Adhere+, a remote therapeutic monitoring platform reshaping how patients and care teams stay connected. Jim is a seasoned healthcare leader whose career spans game-changing innovations — from launching the first minimally invasive spinal surgery device at Kyphon, to pioneering prescription digital therapeutics at Pear, to scaling novel interventions in pain management, psychiatry, and cardiology.
In our wide-ranging conversation, Jim unpacks how his journey from the medtech front lines led him to digital health, why he believes remote monitoring will soon be a first-line standard, and ho...
2025-06-2528 min
The Road to CareFrom Da Vinci to DH Medical: AI, Signal Processing & the Future of Medical Innovation with Jim AlecxihOn this episode of The Road to Care, we’re joined by Jim Alecxih, CEO of DH Medical and a veteran leader in medical technology innovation. With more than 30 years in the industry, Jim has helped bring groundbreaking technologies to market, including the Da Vinci Robotic Surgical System during his tenure at Intuitive Surgical. He now leads DH Medical, a company pioneering AI-driven image enhancement and predictive signal processing in healthcare.
Jim shares powerful insights from his decades-long journey — from the chaotic early days of Intuitive to the emerging challenges and opportunities posed by AI in medicine today.
Tune in to l...
2025-05-1934 min
The Road to CareNHL Hall of Famer Jeremy Roenick is Scoring with MediChainX.io's Blockchain Solution to Protect Patient DataOn this episode of The Road to Care we’re joined by NHL Hall of Famer Jeremy Roenick to discuss his journey from hockey to healthcare. Our host, Kip Theno, and Jeremy discuss MediChainX, Roenick’s latest power move to forecheck healthcare data breaches and empower patients to take control of their own health data. As a blockchain solution, MediChainX.io is the future of secure, reliable and efficient healthcare data exchange across patients, providers, payers, and healthcare companies.
Now how’s this for a hat-trick? Tune in to learn how the blockchain can:
Make medical data safer from data breach...
2025-04-1625 min
The Road to CareBioelectronic Medicine, Biofuels, and Bringing Cost Down to Treat Chronic Conditions with NXTSTIMOn this episode of The Road to Care we’re joined by Dr. Krishnan Chakravarthy, MD PhD, scientist, interventional pain and spine physician, and CEO of NXTSTIM. Dr. Chakravarthy is in the top 0.1% of global scholars writing about innovations in nanomedicine, neuromodulation, accessible delivery models for care over the past 10 years and has won numerous national and international awards for his clinical and research work.
Dr. Chakravarthy joins us to discuss groundbreaking advances in technology and delivery models that will expand chronic pain patients’ access to treatment, while lowering overall cost to the medical system.
Tune in to learn:
How NXTS...
2025-03-1940 min
The Road to CareNancy Ellis and Stacy Yonker - No Holds Barred on Repairing a Broken SystemOn this episode of The Road to Care, we’re joined by leaders in rheumatology practice administration, Nancy Ellis, practice administrator at Piedmont Arthritis Clinic, and Stacy Yonker, Chief Executive Officer at Sarasota Arthritis Center. Tune in for a no holds barred discussion about the unintended consequences of recent healthcare legislation, how PBMs and the vertical integration of healthcare impacts patients and clinicians, how to overcome key points of friction in the prior authorization process and more.
This episode has something for everyone! Listen to learn:
*Which metrics matter, and which don’t for your practice
*How practices can fight decl...
2025-02-1247 min
The Road to CareDemocratizing Pharmaceutical Research with Ex-Novartis US CSO Scott HowellOn this episode of The Road to Care, we’re joined by industry thought leader Dr. Scott Howell and special guest co-host, SamaCare CEO Syam Palakurthy. Scott is best known for leading innovations to improve coverage, reimbursement and affordability of medicines as well as services supporting patient access at GSK, Genentech, Jazz, and Novartis. Scott has been teaching, researching and writing about improving pricing and access of medicines for 15 years, primarily at the University of California – Berkeley, and is a thought leader on the topic of value-based pricing and access for medicines. Scott spent the first decade of his career in c...
2025-01-1537 min
The Road to CareHow to Succeed As a Health Tech Startup with Vive Collective’s Cheryl ChengSamaCare is joined by Vive Collective (https://www.vivecollective.com/) partner and digital health investor Cheryl Cheng for a candid discussion on the opportunities – and challenges — for digital health companies in today’s venture climate. Tune in for valuable advice for startup founders and technologists, and an inside-look for practices into what goes into building healthcare technology.
You’ll learn:
How Cheryl’s experience working with The Clorox Company and Proctor & Gamble shaped her human-driven approach to healthcare innovation
The surprising factors working for – and against – health tech startups
AI’s impact on the future of healthcare
Whether you're a medical provider...
2024-12-0430 min
The Road to CareOptimizing Infusion Care: Lessons from WeInfuseSamaCare is joined by WeInfuse founders Reece Norris and Bryan Johnson to discuss the rapidly evolving landscape of infusion care. From managing, to owning, to building software for infusion centers and infusion suites, Reece and Bryan share their experience helping infusion providers get patients from prescription to chair with minimal friction.
You’ll hear:
*Factors driving growth for one of the fastest growing healthcare sectors – Ambulatory Infusion Care (AICs)
*The consumerization of healthcare and how the infusion therapy space is responding
*Technology companies streamlining operations for infusion providers
*BONUS: the best barbecue restaurants in Texas (our host got hungry…)
Together, we can...
2024-11-1823 min
The Road to CareIntroducing The Road to CareThe Road to Care Podcast, sponsored by SamaCare, unites healthcare providers, healthcare administrators, pharmaceutical manufacturers, medtech investors, and policymakers in the quest to improve patient access to care. We discuss overcoming administrative hurdles to delivering optimal patient care, best practices in business development, clinical trends, emerging technologies and more. Tune in and join our quest to help patients get on critical specialty treatments, at the right time, without roadblocks.
2024-10-1900 min
The Road to CareAdvocating Patient Health from DC to DENTSamaCare is joined by DENT CCO, Christine Mann, fresh off her multiple trips to DC educating healthcare policymakers on patient access issues. Tune in for a
candid discussion on the challenges and opportunities in delivering specialty care to
patients across rheumatology, neurology, ambulatory infusion centers and behavioral
health practices.
You’ll hear:
Christine’s take on what policymakers need to know (but are willing to learn) about the challenges and opportunities regarding the healthcare of their constituents
Recommendations to streamline administrative workflows, and how DENT became a pivotal “pilot center” of emerging health technologies and therapies
Exciting new specialty medications that wil...
2024-10-1729 min
ASOA EyeTalks RadioThe Changing Reimbursement Landscape for Retina Practices and How to Keep Up Take a listen to the latest episode of ASOA EyeTalks Radio, presented by ASOA Gold Strategic Business Partner, SamaCare. ASOA chats with 30+ year revenue cycle management expert Erin Bishop, RCM COE Manager at EyeCare Partners, and 25+ year medical technology veteran Kip Theno, VP of Provider Partnerships at SamaCare about challenges retina practices are facing when it comes to ensuring patients get on the right treatment, without administrative delay, and that practices get reimbursed for buy-and-bill drugs. This episode of EyeTalks Radio is presented by ASOA Gold Strategic Business Partner:
2024-08-2241 min
The IDIWhy Prior Authorization Matters for PharmaIt’s hard to think of an aspect of health care more vexing than prior authorizations. In fact, prior authorizations are so frustrating that Congress is looking into a legislative solution. This episode of The IDI we have two guests to explain the state of prior authorization and how to improve the process. John Hennessy is a principal with Valuate Health with a background in oncology and cancer care.Syam Palakurthy is co-founder and CEO of SamaCare, a company that streamlines the prior authorization process for medical benefit drugs. Follow Valuate on Li...
2023-10-0230 min
WeInfuse's PodcastEpisode 58: How to Simplify Prior Authorizations with Syam PalakurthyIn this episode, we talk with Syam Palakurthy, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of SamaCare. Syam shares great insight for streamlining the prior authorization process to be sure patients don’t fall through the cracks. And, he encourages us to lean into process improvement to make a positive impact to patients during a vulnerable time in their life.
2023-05-0430 min
Raise the LineMaking Prior Authorization as Easy as a Credit Card Swipe - Syam Palakurthy, Co-Founder and CEO at SamaCareThere is approximately $266 billion in administrative waste in the U.S. healthcare system each year, and much of it is tied to the complexity of insurance. Our guest today, Syam Palakurthy, co-founded SamaCare to help solve this seemingly intractable problem. SamaCare builds software to make the often-burdensome process of prior authorization as quick and easy as a credit card swipe, improving outcomes for patients and reducing a major administrative burden for providers. Tune in to this interview with host Michael Carrese to learn how Palakurthy approaches the challenge of threading together disparate incentives in the healthcare system to produce change...
2022-04-2721 min