Health:Further

Vic and Marcus discuss the return of Trump's tariffs, the Federal Reserve's evolving approach under Chairman Warsh, and the continued strength of AI infrastructure as Microsoft and Amazon report surging cloud growth. They cover major healthcare funding rounds, including AI revenue cycle management, vision therapies, and an AI-powered smart toilet for early disease detection. The episode also examines FTC action against Hims & Hers, the end of Medicare drug plan subsidies, Medicaid work requirement rulings, payer earnings, ACA market instability, rising uninsured rates, hospital consolidation, biotech acquisitions, the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, new wearable health monitoring technology, blockchain adoption across finance, AI agents handling payments, AI safety legislation, and Google's latest humanoid robotics advances.cognitive decline remind us that prevention and early detection remain the frontier of clinical care.


Story Lineup

1 — In This Economy
00:33 -Story 1: Healthcare Faces 100% Drug Tariff Shock Starting July 31  [Becker's Hospital Review]


8:54 - Story 2: Fed Holds Rates Steady but Internal Split Signals Future Pressure on Inflation  [WSJ]


13:13 - Story 3: Microsoft Azure Exceeds $100B as Tech Giants Diverge on AI Spending ROI  [WSJ]


2 — VC Deal Review

14:29 - Story 1: Candid Health Raises $120M Series D for AI-Powered Revenue Cycle Management  [MedCity News]


16:49 - Story 2: Claris Biotech Emerges with $118M Series B for Corneal Disease Therapy  [Fierce Biotech]

18:03 - Story 3:Throne Science Raises $10M Series A for AI Toilet Sensor in Colorectal Cancer Screening  [MedCity News]


3 — Policy
20:22 - Story 1: FTC Sues Hims & Hers Over Illegal Data Sharing With Meta and Snapchat  [Gizmodo]


22:59 - Story 2: CMS Ends Medicare Drug Plan Premium Subsidies; Seniors Face Higher 2027 Costs  [WSJ.com: Health]


26:57 - Story 3: Federal Court Upholds Medicaid Work Rules; Policy Shift Takes Effect  [Becker's Hospital Review]


4 — Health Payors

28:07 - Story 1: Cigna Raises 2026 Outlook on Strong Q2 Employer Plan Growth; $1.7B Profit  [Becker's Hospital Review]


28:54 -  - Story 2: "Back On Track" Centene Swing more than $1B in Profit in Q2


30:50 - Story 3: Humana Maintains Adjusted Earnings Outlook, Underwhelming Investors  


31:44 - Story 4: Humana Retreats From Lower-Margin Medicare Advantage Plans Ahead of 2027  [Healthcare Dive - Latest News]


32:50 - Story 5: ICHRA Adoption Slowed by ACA Exchange Instability and Affordability Concerns  [Healthcare Dive]


5 — Health Systems

34:09 - Story 1: Hospital Uninsured Patient Volume Surges After ACA Subsidy Cliff  [NYT]


36:27 - Story 2: 29 Large Health Systems Announce M&A: Consolidation Boom Driven by Scale and Capital Access  [Becker's Hospital Review]


6 — Pharma & Novel Therapies

38:39 - Story 1: J&J Partners With Sail Biomedicines on In Vivo CAR-T Therapy; $785M Upfront, $2.85B Acquisition Option  [MedCity News]


39:57 - Story 2: Argenx Acquires Forte Biosciences for $2B; CD122 Antibody Targets Autoimmune Orphans  [MedCity News]


7 — About Health & Us / The Clinician's Voice

41:12 - Story 1: DRC Ebola Outbreak Now Second-Deadliest Ever; 1,500+ Deaths in Record-Breaking Two Months  [The New York Times]

42:44 - Story 2: Smart Ring Sensors Track Nutrition and Insulin Response via Finger Sweat; New Biomarker Frontier  [Gizmodo]


8 — Web3
44:21 - Story 1: BNY Mellon Targets $8.6 Trillion Transfer Agency Market via Blockchain; Major Traditional Finance Adoption  [CoinDesk]


45:33 - Story 2: Institutional Crypto Trading Hits Record 72% as Wall Street Dampens Market Volatility  [CoinDesk]


47:59 - Story 3: MoonPay Embeds Crypto Wallet in Claude and ChatGPT; Autonomous AI Agents Can Now Hold and Move Funds  [Decrypt Media]

47:59 - Story 4: Block Launches Buzz: Open-Source Workspace Where AI Agents Sign Their Own Work  [Tech-Times]


9 — The AI Tracker

52:54 - Story 1: 1,200+ AI Lab Employees Petition for International Pacing Framework; Industry Convergence on Safety  [Axios]


55:01 -  Story 2: OpenAI's Rogue AI Agent Hacked Four More Services Beyond Hugging Face  [Decrypt Media]

 

55:50 - https://lieu.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/reps-lieu-and-moran-introduce-bill-require-kill-switch-ai-systems-can 

57:10 - Story 3: Google DeepMind Advances Gemini Robotics 2 to Whole-Body Humanoid Control  [The Verge]


https://www.wired.com/story/google-gemini-can-control-humanoid-robots/


What is Health:Further?

Every week, healthcare VCs and Jumpstart Health Investors co-founders Vic Gatto and Marcus Whitney review and unpack the happenings in US Healthcare, finance, technology and policy. With a firm belief that our healthcare system is doomed without entrepreneurship, they work through the mud to find the jewels, highlight headwinds and tailwinds, and bring on the smartest guests to fill in the gaps.