The Collective Voice of Health IT, A WEDI Podcast

Part 1 of a 2-part episode From WEDI's Spring 2026 Conference, WEDI Board Member Pam Grosze (PNC Bank) moderates a panel of major EHR leaders who share what’s live at scale versus still in pilots, where interoperability is breaking down in real clinical workflows, and the biggest blockers to moving from point integrations to broad payer coverage without increasing burden. The panel: Hans Buitendijk, Senior Director, Interoperability Strategy, Oracle Health Jason Vogt, Manager Development, APIs and Structured Documents, Meditech Sean Cotter, Software Developer, Epic Mohammad Chebli, VP of Interoperability, NextGen Gillian McCabe, Director of Product Management, Authorization Management, athenahealth

This is a 2-part episode: From a December 2025 WEDI virtual spotlight, a panel of health IT leaders break down the current state and the future of regarding information blocking, and how organizations can stay compliant while moving interoperability forward. The panel: Rebekah Fiehn, Strategic Partnership Developer, American Dental Association Andrew Tomlinson, Senior Director, Regulatory & International Affairs, AHIMA Arna Meyer, Technical Product Manager, Stedi Alisa Kuehn, VP, General Counsel & Privacy Officer, Indiana Health Information Exchange Chelsea Arnone, Director, Federal Affairs, CHIME Sasha TerMaat, EHRA’s Information Blocking Compliance Task Force The moderator is Jeff Coughlin, Director, Federal Affairs, American Medical Association

From WEDI’s 2025 National Conference and moderated by Sequoia Project’s Zoe Barber, leaders from Epic, eHealth Exchange, and KONZA discuss their progress as designated QHINs, highlighting key milestones, lessons learned, and the real-world challenges of standing up TEFCA infrastructure. The conversation explores operational realities such as onboarding, identity management, and governance, along with the tangible value participants are beginning to see from nationwide exchange. The panel also shares current and emerging TEFCA use cases and looks ahead to the policy and technical advancements needed to scale adoption and fully realize the promise of interoperable, trusted data exchange. Participants: Jody Denson, CTO, KONZA Dennis Sherba, Senior VP, eHealth Exchange Nihit Bejaj, Technical Services Team Lead, Epic

Happy New Year from WEDI! Michael offers some quick bites from our top 3 most downloaded episodes of 2025: #3: Rethinking Value-Based Care: Why Children Can't Be Left Behind (Taylor Beery, Imagine Pediatrics, Ep 219) #2: Electronic Health Records- An Integral Partner in Health Care Accessibility (Prerana Laddha, Epic, Ep 189) #1: Bridging the Data Gap- The Role of Standards & Technology in Genomic Data Exchange (Dr Sandy Rolfe, Optum, Ep 188). Be sure to listen to these episodes in their entirety by visiting our podcast page, www.wedi.org/category/podcasts

This episode, from our November National Conference, explores one of healthcare’s most persistent challenges: how hospitals and health plans can move from operating at cross-purposes to truly rowing in the same direction. Our guests are Danielle Lloyd, SVP of Private Market Innovations and Quality Initiatives, AHIP and Molly Smith, Group VP for Public Policy, American Hospital Association. Led by moderator Stephan Rubin from Optum, Danielle and Molly dig into the misconceptions that providers and payers often hold about each other and discuss how better data transparency, shared incentives, and policy alignment — including recent CMS rules such as 0057F — can help bridge long-standing divides. The 3 examine the future of prior authorization, the promise and limits of interoperability initiatives like TEFCA and the CMS Aligned Network, and why value-based care still struggles to scale despite years of policy focus. Finally, they look ahead to the role of AI, automation, and emerging data standards in reshaping care delivery and payment, and ask what real payer-provider collaboration must look like to deliver a more seamless, efficient, and patient-centered healthcare system.