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.
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.
Vic and Marcus break down rising unemployment and cooling inflation, debate whether the Fed is behind the curve, and unpack what those signals mean for markets heading into next year. They cover major healthcare funding rounds across pediatrics, cardiology, and AI-enabled front offices, examine payer losses and policy shifts impacting subsidies and gender-affirming care, and analyze FDA clearances pointing to renewed medical innovation. The conversation expands into crypto and AI, including JPMorgan’s tokenized money fund, prediction markets, OpenAI’s government partnerships, and mounting concerns over an AI bubble, enterprise adoption, and the future of energy, jobs, and economic power.
Links
00:00 - Intro
2:04 - U.S. Unemployment Rose in November Despite Job Gains WSJ
3:44 - Inflation Eased to 2.7% in Report Distorted by Government Shutdown WSJ
4:41 - Clarity Pediatrics lands $14.5M to treat childhood obesity Modern Healthcare
6:15 - Leona Health: $14 Million Seed Funding Raised And WhatsApp AI Copilot For Doctors Launched Pulse 2.0
7:46 - Wearlinq secures $14M to scale wireless heart monitor MobiHealth
9:52 - Auxira Health Secures $7.8M for Virtual Cardiology Platform MedCity
10:41 - Valerie Health Raises $30M Series A to Bring AI Front Office to Independent Provider Groups Fox40
11:44 - Wall Street Gets a Taste of Blockbuster Stock-Market Debuts Ahead WSJ
13:09 - House passes healthcare affordability bill without subsidy extension Fierce Healthcare
16:43 - FDA clearances: BlueWind Medical, Bendit Technologies Modern Healthcare
18:41 - Highmark posts $24.6B in revenue through Q3 as utilization pressures persist Fierce Healthcare
19:25 - UnitedHealthcare to hold off on remote patient monitoring policy Modern Healthcare
20:13 - Kaiser pulls plans from Georgia insurance exchange Modern Healthcare
21:44 - New York doles out $300M to fund health IT, hospital cybersecurity projects Fierce Healthcare
23:24 - GSK Gets FDA Approval for New Severe Asthma Drug With a Dosing Advantage MedCity
24:00 - Cencora to acquire majority stake in OneOncology for $5B Fierce Healthcare
25:35 - JPMorgan Steps Further Into Crypto With Tokenized Money Fund WSJ
26:43 - Coinbase Joins With Kalshi to Enter the Surging Prediction-Markets Business WSJ
31:37 - The Political Skirmish Over Trump’s AI Order Is Just the Beginning WSJ
34:06AI-Themed Stocks Take More Hits, Sending Nasdaq Lower WSJ
45:49 - CoreWeave’s Staggering Fall From Market Grace Highlights AI Bubble Fears WSJ
48:09 - OpenAI in Talks to Raise $10 Billion From Amazon, Use Its Chips Bloomberg
50:02 - Google Says Its New Gemini 3 Flash AI Model Is Better and Faster Than 2.5 Pro CNET
51:30 - Deepening our collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy OpenAI
Vic and Marcus cover the Fed’s 25 bps rate cut, dissenting votes, questions around jobs data, and renewed balance-sheet expansion tied to repo stress. They break down key healthcare and VC moves including AI-driven patient communications, mental health platform expansion, pediatric and NICU innovation, obesity-drug updates, and major payer and policy developments, plus notable market shifts spanning CVS, CMS, FDA actions, and accelerating AI adoption across healthcare and finance.
Links
00:42 - Fed Cuts Rates Again, Signals It May Be Done for Now WSJ
1:47 - Fed Chair Jerome Powell Says U.S. May Be Drastically Overstating Jobs Numbers WSJ
3:42 - Fed to Resume Net Asset Purchases With $40 Billion in Securities This Month WSJ
8:58 - Aradigm launches out of stealth with platform for cell, gene therapy benefits Fierce Healthcare
9:26 - General Catalyst Leads $50M Round to Expand Radial’s Interventional Psychiatry Network BH Business
N/A - Subsense raises $10M for neurotech Axios
10:09 - AngelEye Health Raises $9M Series C to Bring AI-Driven Insights to the NICU HIT
11:47 - Origin Therapy, a Fairfax, Va.-based enabler of private practice pediatric speech LinkedIn
12:46 - Parallel: $20 Million Series B Raised After Students Achieve 98% IEP Goal Success Pulse 2.0
14:01 - Artera clinches $65M in funding to build out AI agents for patient communication Fierce Healthcare
18:43 - Senate health bills fail as exchange subsidy expiration nears Modern Healthcare
19:32 - HCA, Tenet, UHS receive FTC letter over noncompete agreements Modern Healthcare
20:53 - Texas files antitrust suit against Epic over health data Modern Healthcare
21:42 - What medtech firms can learn from Whoop’s warning letter Healthcare Dive
24:41 - CMS targets chronic care, nutrition in ‘MAHA’ Medicare payment model Modern Healthcare
26:10 - CVS Health Boosts Guidance, Expects Momentum to Continue WSJ
N/A - CVS to launch ‘engagement’ platform in gamble on consumer, industry interest Healthcare Dive
26:55 - Minnesota petitions to seize control of troubled UCare Modern Healthcare
28:11 - Major Weight Loss and Knee-Pain Relief Seen With New Eli Lilly Drug NYT
28:59 - Pfizer’s Appetite for More Obesity Meds Leads to $150M Deal for Oral GLP-1 Drug From China MedCity
29:18 - J.P. Morgan taps Solana for Galaxy’s tokenized corporate bond issuance Cointelegraph
31:27 - Coinbase Expands Reach of Stablecoin-Based AI Agent Payments Tool Coindesk
34:40 - Healthcare in the biggest AI vertical mkt today by a lot X
36:10 - OpenAI updates ChatGPT after "Code Red" scramble Axios
40:05 - Anthropic and Accenture Strike AI Deal Targeting Business Clients WSJ
42:24 - Disney Agrees to Bring Its Characters to OpenAI’s Sora Videos NYT
Vic and Marcus cover Marcus’s recent keynote to community health centers, the industry’s struggle to break out of legacy regulatory thinking, and why AI is becoming essential as labor and funding decline. They analyze unreliable jobless-claim data, Powell’s rate-cut outlook, and how AI is reshaping the relationship between labor, productivity, and corporate earnings. They discuss CMS rolling back staffing mandates, vaccine-policy debates, the extension of hospital-at-home, and Humana’s move into employer drug-cost management. The episode highlights HIMSS & Hers expanding into diagnostics, the rising burden of caring for aging parents, Texas buying Bitcoin, Google challenging OpenAI, Anthropic’s Opus 4.5, and character.ai restricting teen companion bots.
Links
7:20 - Jobless Claims Fell to New Recent Low Per Labor Department WSJ
11:31 - Fed Chair Powell’s Allies Provide Opening for December Rate Cut WSJ
26:13 - HHS repeals staffing mandate for long-term care Healthcare Finance
31:18 - FDA adopts agentic artificial intelligence in latest push to infuse AI into agency Fierce Healthcare
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) STRATEGY HHS
FDA Official Pledges New Vaccine Standards WSJ
33:05 - House votes to extend acute hospital care at home Healthcare Finance
39:48 - ‘We Had No Idea What Was Coming’: Caring for My Aging Father NYT-op
46:19 - Texas Puts $10M Into Bitcoin as BTC Fights to Hold $78K Support Coin Paper
47:19 - OpenAI Declares ‘Code Red’ as Google Threatens AI Lead WSJ
50:35 - Anthropic introduces cheaper, more powerful, more efficient Opus 4.5 model ArsTechnica
53:35 - Teens Are Saying Tearful Goodbyes to Their AI Companions WSJ