Smith Anderson Takes The Pulse of Health Care with Debut Podcast, Featuring NC Medical Society CEO

Smith Anderson has unveiled its new podcast, Pulse on Carolina Health, a platform dedicated to exploring current health care trends, regulations and policies shaping the landscape in North Carolina. In each episode, a Smith Anderson attorney pairs up with an industry leader from across the state to discuss where their finger is on the pulse of timely health care topics and to broadcast issues of importance that affect their business most. 

In the inaugural episode, “Unpacking the Red Tape: How Prior Authorization Affects Patient Care,” health care attorney Robert Shaw sits down with Chip Baggett, CEO of the North Carolina Medical Society, to examine the complexities of prior authorization and its impact on patients and providers. Chip has been at the center of the major trends and policy discussions involving health care in North Carolina for almost 20 years and is an advocate for issues facing the medical community.

Prior authorization, originally intended to ensure clinical necessity for expensive treatments, has become a heated topic across the state and country. Chip explores its evolution from a cost-containment tool into a system that sometimes relies on algorithms, which raises questions about technology’s growing influence in medical decision-making. He discusses how this prior authorization shift has led to uncertainty about who is truly practicing medicine—the doctor, the insurer or the algorithm.

“We have to try to make sure that we’re not denying care to patients, that we’re not frustrating patients and leading them not to get care, and that we're not leading to more mental anguish when a patient is already in a tough spot and then told they can’t get the care the doctor says they need,” said Chip. “Those are some things that I think will drive innovation in this space.”

Podcast host Robert has extensive experience advising companies on health care and regulatory matters. He regularly handles complex restructuring, M&A work on the buyer side and seller side, Medicare and Medicaid audits, value-based care projects, tax planning and controversy, hospital joint ventures, employment agreements, corporate advice and regulatory compliance such as HIPAA, Anti-Kickback Statute, and Stark Law matters. He has been recognized in Chambers USA, Health Care (2023-2024) and The Best Lawyers in America®, Administrative/Regulatory Law (2023-2025).

American health care is undergoing an unprecedented transformation, and Smith Anderson’s team of experienced health care lawyers are committed to guiding medical professionals, hospitals, health care facilities and industry organizations through the attendant changes and evolving regulatory environment. We advise clients nationwide on health care policy, legislative advocacy, executive strategy, mergers and acquisitions, privacy and data security, litigation and the complex business requirements of organized medicine. We have been integrally involved in launching innovative health care delivery initiatives such as clinically integrated networks, joint ventures between health systems and practitioners, Community Care of North Carolina and Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) nationwide.

Stay tuned for future installments, where industry leaders and experts will tackle the pressing challenges in today's complicated health care system.

Listen to the debut episode of Pulse on Carolina Health here.

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