Centering Health Equity
Podcast
Conversations on reducing bias in healthcare
Latest Episodes
This episode of the podcast focuses on how Medicaid 1115 waivers can be used as powerful tools to advance health equity by allowing states to test innovative approaches that address not only medical care, but also social drivers of health such as housing, food security, and transportation. The conversation highlights that while policy and funding are important, relationships, trust, and community partnerships are ultimately the foundation for building connected communities of care and improving health outcomes for underserved populations.
This episode explores how healthcare systems often fall short for neurodivergent individuals — including people with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and other cognitive differences — and why that gap is a major health equity issue. Featuring Dr. Lawrence Fung of Stanford University Medical School and Roger Broadbent of Empower Passport, the conversation highlights barriers in diagnosis, provider training, access, and sensory-friendly care, along with practical solutions for more personalized, neurodiversity-affirming healthcare. This episode centers on how systems, communities, and leaders can help create more inclusive care for every neurotype.
This episode explores the pervasive issue of medical debt in the United States and how it disproportionately impacts communities of color and low-income patients. Our guests share how their organizations reduce medical debt through different but complementary approaches—one by buying and abolishing debt in bulk, and the other by helping patients access hospital charity care. We discuss why hospital financial assistance programs are hard to navigate, the systemic flaws that create medical debt, and how both nonprofits advocate for more equitable, patient-centered solutions.