REFILL | Naomi Lopez on Healthcare AI, ACCESS, TEMPO, and the Future of Care (Originally Aired: January 23, 2026)

This is a legacy episode recorded in January 2026. At the time of recording, Naomi Lopez was founder of Nexus Policy Consulting and a leading voice in healthcare policy, healthcare AI, and state health reform.

Joe Grogan sits down with Naomi Lopez from Nexus Policy Consulting to recap the first Healthcare AI Policy Summit held in December 2025 in Washington, DC. They discuss big themes shaping healthcare AI, HHS approaches to AI adoption, and what regulatory clarity could look like. The conversation covers new federal initiatives like ACCESS and TEMPO that may reshape chronic disease management for Medicare patients. They unpack HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O'Neill's vision for AI in government, including using large models to improve physician productivity, payment integrity, and care coordination. They dig into ACCESS Medicare payment model and FDA TEMPO initiative, explaining how these pilots test AI tools in real-world chronic disease management for hypertension, diabetes, musculoskeletal pain, and depression. The discussion widens to physician burnout, interoperability, rural care, states and federal preemption, and what tech companies becoming Medicare Part B providers could mean for healthcare innovation.

Key Timestamps

0:00 Intro and why the Healthcare AI Policy Summit matters

2:00 Summit recap: big themes and regulatory pressure points

6:00 Jim O'Neill at HHS: regulatory clarity and adoption inside government

12:00 ACCESS explained: Medicare chronic disease management payment model

18:00 TEMPO explained: FDA's risk-based approach for chronic care tools

24:00 Wearables, remote patient monitoring, and virtual ICU models

30:00 Privacy, de-identification, and re-identification risk

35:00 AI inside HHS and FDA: productivity, payment integrity, care coordination

41:00 Reducing admin burden and physician burnout