Turn on the Lights Podcast How Maryland Is Testing a Different Way to Pay for Health Care with Dr. Meena Seshamani
Apr 10, 2026
Dr. Meena Seshamani, a physician and former Medicare policy leader now Maryland’s Secretary of Health, blends clinical care and policymaking. She talks about Maryland’s global hospital budget model, Medicare reforms like caregiver support and drug negotiation, state-federal collaboration, AI in health care, and strategies for controlling high-cost therapies. Practical problem-solving and cross-sector partnership thread the conversation.
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Clinical Practice Drove Medicare's Community Focus
- Clinical experience shaped Medicare policy to fund caregiving, care navigation, and community health rather than only visits.
- Meena Seshamani used examples of home visits checking utilities and medicine cabinets to show nonclinical factors driving readmissions.
Medicare Negotiation Delivered Immediate Drug Savings
- Major Medicare drug reforms set an annual out-of-pocket cap and started federal price negotiation to reduce patient costs.
- Seshamani cites saving Medicare beneficiaries about $1 billion out-of-pocket and $6 billion for the program in year one.
Use Transparent Multi‑Stakeholder Talks For Tough Reforms
- Engage stakeholders transparently and focus on shared goals when addressing politically contentious reforms.
- Seshamani brought manufacturers, patients, providers, payers together to surface common themes before negotiating drug prices.