Richard Helppie's Common Bridge

The status quo is expensive, exhausting, and unsustainable—so we set out a practical playbook to do better in 2026. Nathan Kaufman shares ten no‑nonsense resolutions for health system leaders who want measurable outcomes, stronger teams, and smarter payer strategies without falling for vendor hype or wishful thinking.

We get specific about capital discipline and why “mission” can’t justify chronic losses that drain resourc...

The real fight in U.S. healthcare isn’t between doctors and patients—it’s against a financing maze that raises premiums, hides quality, and rewards middlemen. We pull back the curtain on why ACA plans look the same yet cost more, how public underpayment pushes employer premiums up, and why political fixes often fail when crafted far from the bedside. With Nate Kaufman joining from the Healthcare Bridge, we tackle the hard trade‑off...

Season Seven of The Common Bridge features host Richard Helppie in an episode that concludes with foaming mayonnaise dispensers in this lighter, story-driven talk with Tony Award–winning actor Gregory Jbara and longtime friend, designer-turned-humorist Terence Duncan, celebrating Duncan’s new book, Unfiltered Consciousness. This special episode leans heavily into Greg and Terry’s reminisces about coming-of-age in blue collar Southe...

Healthcare can feel stuck, but the ground is moving under our feet in the best possible way. We sit down with Hartford Healthcare’s CEO, Jeff Flaks, to unpack how a statewide system is using scale with purpose: pushing care into more convenient, lower-cost settings, investing in equity, and building digital experiences that actually save time for patients and clinicians. If you’re skeptical that big systems can deliver value, this ...

What happens when a powerhouse research enterprise, a statewide health system, and a relentless push for access all meet at the same table? Our conversation with Dr. David Miller, CEO of Michigan Medicine, opens the door to a candid look at how precision care, digital tools, and financial reality collide—and how smart leadership turns that collision into progress.

We dig into the new map of Michigan Medicine: the academic ...

What if blockbuster weight-loss drugs and a broken food system are two sides of the same story? We sit down with Dr. David Harlan—physician, researcher, and former NIH diabetes branch chief—to trace the unlikely path from the “incretin effect” to GLP-1 therapies that are transforming care for type 2 diabetes and obesity. Along the way, we ask harder questions about incentives, access, and why lifestyle still matters even when the m...

Host Nate Kaufman brings Rich Helppie back for a discussion about healthcare access.  A 30-day wait for a first oncology visit after hearing the word leukemia is not an edge case—it’s the new normal in a system where demand outpaces supply and incentives reward the wrong behaviors. Nate opens with a personal story that reveals how access feels when the stakes are life and death, then pulls back the lens to explain why it happens: a...

Politicians argue about subsidies while families face premiums that can top $26,900 and deductibles big enough to delay basic care. We step past the slogans to map how the ACA exchanges actually work today—standardized benefits that reduce real choice, narrow networks that hide access problems, and a pricing spiral that subsidies struggle to catch. Along the way, we unpack ghost networks in mental health, why out-of-network showdow...

One mother’s plea and a judge’s blueprint collide with a terrifying truth: the systems meant to protect people with serious mental illness—and the communities around them—often wait until harm is done. We bring Beverly Gille and Judge Milton L. Mack Jr. together to map how a 28-year struggle, from teen psychosis to homelessness and a mass stabbing in a Traverse City Walmart, reveals the exact points where policy, privacy, and pract...

Spine surgery sits at the crossroads of need, nuance, and noise—and few people explain that terrain better than Dr. Rod Oskouian, a high-volume neurosurgeon who has led a complex spine program and also navigated care as a patient.  Dr. Oskouian and Healthcare Bridge host, Nate Kaufman pull back the curtain on how consolidation, denials, and a flood of administrative demands reshape daily practice, why “low value” labels miss the ma...

Season seven opens with a clear promise: fewer teams, more truth. We look straight at the incentives that keep America mad—legacy media chasing rage clicks, politicians swapping positions to score points, and a culture that treats every topic like a loyalty test—and we choose a different path. From the first minute, we ask whether the country is truly more divided or just more performative, and why the quiet middle is still hungry ...

The money is already here—so why are the rules still stuck in limbo? We sit down with Tom Dieters to map how NIL evolved from booster-led collectives into university-controlled revenue sharing after House v. NCAA, and what that shift means for athletes across every sport. From donor intent getting sidelined by caps to student fees propping up compensation, we confront the uncomfortable question: if this is now a professional market...

What's the secret to maintaining physician independence when 70% of doctors now work for corporations or health systems? Dr. Leo Spector, CEO of OrthoCarolina and practicing spine surgeon, offers a masterclass in healthcare leadership and strategic navigation of our complex medical landscape.

After 20 years as a spine surgeon, Dr. Spector has witnessed healthcare's digital transformation while confronting the har...

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson brings her vision for Michigan's future to The Common Bridge, outlining why she's running for governor in 2026 and what she hopes to accomplish for the state's citizens.

At the heart of Benson's campaign is a commitment to making Michigan "the best place to be a kid, raise a kid, and call home." As a mother raising an eight-year-old son in Detroit, sh...

What does it take to transform a state facing serious economic and educational challenges? In this illuminating conversation, former Michigan House Speaker Tom Leonard outlines his vision for revitalizing Michigan as he campaigns for the governor's office.

Michigan's struggles are starkly quantified—ranking 49th in unemployment, near last in population growth, and facing an education crisis where only 25% of four...

The assassination of Charlie Kirk has shaken our nation to its core, prompting a raw, emotional response from Rich Helppie in this urgent episode of The Common Bridge. Beyond expressing profound grief for Kirk's family and friends, Helppie grieves for America itself – a country increasingly torn apart by political violence and dehumanizing rhetoric.

With unflinching clarity, Helppie dissects how our political discours...

What happens when healthcare experts become patients themselves? Dr. Jeff Goldsmith shares his transformative experience of undergoing five major surgeries in 29 months, revealing how it fundamentally altered his perspective after nearly five decades in healthcare. "I underestimated the degree to which patients are motivated by abject fear," he admits, noting that this fear encompasses both medical outcomes and financial ...

Drug pricing in America is a shell game where patients always lose. Healthcare Bridge host Nathan Kaufman and his guest Richard Helppie pull back the curtain on why Americans pay drastically more for the same medications than patients anywhere else in the world.

At the heart of this problem lies a fragmented system where the United States—effectively operating the world's largest health insurance company—somehow lacks...

The college sports landscape is undergoing a revolution that few fans truly understand. In this eye-opening conversation, University of Michigan lecturer Greg Dooley breaks down the complex world of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) compensation that's transforming collegiate athletics from its century-old amateur foundations into something resembling professional sports.

Dooley expertly navigates the various ways today...