ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2026: No Surprises Act, IDR, and Out-of-Network Spending
Release Date: 10/27/2026
TopMedTalk Classic: COVID-19 from the frontlines in Italy
TopMedTalk
This moving piece was originally released Mar 23, 2020 with the title: Epidemiology revisited - a case for virtual meetings | COVID 19 It’s taken from TopMedTalk’s extensive archive and represented here as an encouragement for you to explore our FREE back catalogue of medical conversations. Hear the team’s reaction to the outbreak of the disease from the perspective of healthcare workers in Italy. Focusing on the community health approach to controlling this pandemic, our guest emphasizes the importance of understanding the epidemiology of COVID- 19. Mirco Nacoti, Department of...
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ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2026: Preventing Maternal Deaths
TopMedTalk
ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2026 meeting in San Diego, TopMedTalk hosts Kate Leslie and Andy Cumpstey interview Mike Scott (University of Rochester; Lifebox co-founder) and LaToya Mason (University of Mississippi; SOAP state representative) about a maternal health forum held alongside the United Nations General Assembly. They discuss worsening global maternal mortality, missed WHO 2030 targets, and that many deaths are preventable, with contributors including rising cesarean rates, older maternal age, and increasing comorbidities; Brazil’s cesarean rate and complications like accreta and concealed...
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ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2026: WFSA President Carolina Haylock-Loor on Global Advocacy for Anesthesiologists
TopMedTalk
ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2026 in San Diego, TopMedTalk hosts Andy Cumpstey and James Bowness interview Carolina Haylock-Loor, the president of the World Federation of Societies of Anesthesiologists (WFSA). She explains the WFSA’s role as a global organization with 151 member societies from 158 countries and its strategic priorities of advocacy, collaboration, and education. Noting its status as a WHO non-state actor since 1984 and as the voice for about half a million anesthesiologists to promote safe, affordable, timely anesthesia across the continuum of care. They discuss the need for stronger...
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ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2026: No Surprises Act, IDR, and Out-of-Network Spending
TopMedTalk
Recorded at ASA Anesthesiology 2026 in San Diego, hosts Andy Cumpstey and Harriet Hopf speak with Patrick Velliky, Chief External Affairs Officer and Senior Vice President for Government Affairs at HaloMD, about misconceptions around the No Surprises Act (NSA) independent dispute resolution (IDR) process and its cost impact. Velliky argues many studies cite total arbitration awards without a pre-NSA baseline, and his emergency medicine analysis comparing like-for-like out-of-network (OON) claims found OON spending is 13%–50% lower post-NSA, with modeled savings depending on assumptions about...
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Perioperative Profile: Mike Scott
TopMedTalk
At the EBPOM World Congress in London, Andy Cumpstey interviews Professor Michael Scott, Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) in Rochester, New York for TopMedTalk’s Perioperative Profile series. Scott, recounts growing up in Bath in the UK, studying medicine at Birmingham, and funding medical school through award-winning travel photography that later informed medical teaching resources and WHO’s LifeBox work. He describes extensive travel, including China, Nepal, Peru, Gaza, and Myanmar, and how experiences...
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ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2026: Opioid Overdose Prevention and Treatment
TopMedTalk
ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2026 in San Diego, TopMedTalk hosts Kate Leslie and Andy Cumpstey speak with Bonnie Milas, clinical professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) President Patrick Giam. The discussion covers addiction, overdose prevention, and pain management. Milas, who lost two adult sons to accidental fentanyl poisonings, advocates putting naloxone and basic response training in the hands of families and communities. She explains overdose signs (unresponsiveness, pinpoint pupils, slow/shallow...
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ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2026: Army Anesthesiology Leadership, Global Health Engagement, and Readiness
TopMedTalk
This edition of TopMedTalk at Anesthesiology 2026 in San Diego, features Kate Leslie and Sol Aronson interviewing Major Zachary Affrin, a pediatric anesthesiologist at Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii, and Captain Joy Ferré, a PGY3 anesthesiology resident at Brooke Army Medical Center/SAUHEC. They discuss paths into military medicine and anesthesiology, including HPSP and Uniformed Services University, and emphasize early leadership opportunities, subspecialty development supported by the Army (including Affrin’s fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia), and work-life...
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ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2026: End-tidal Control, Safety and Sustainability
TopMedTalk
ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2026 in San Diego, TopMedTalk hosts Andy Cumpstey and Harriet Hopf interview Shahid Ali, Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and the Director of Cardiac Anesthesia at the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Houston, Texas, about automated anesthesia technologies. Ali contrasts automated inhaled delivery via end-tidal control (now available in the US) with target-controlled infusions (common outside the US but not FDA-approved), explains anesthesia goals and workflows, and describes how clinicians set age-adjusted MAC targets while the system adjusts vapor...
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ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2026: CPMed’s Vision for Coordinated Perioperative Care
TopMedTalk
ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2026 in San Diego, TopMedTalk hosts Kate Leslie and Sol Aronson speak with David L. Hepner, MD, MPH. Associate Professor of Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School and Bradley R. Cohn, MD, Regional Medical Director and the Chair of Perioperative Medicine for Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC) / The Permanente Medical Group about the American Society of anesthesiologists (ASA) Center for Perioperative Medicine (CPMed) and its push to move perioperative care from fragmented episodes to a coordinated continuum. They describe CPMed’s origins in October 2022, its...
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ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2026: Welcome, Meeting Highlights and Upcoming Interviews
TopMedTalk
TopMedTalk’s coverage of ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2026 (the annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists) in San Diego begins, with Kate Leslie and Andy Cumpstey introducing this year’s hosting team. Hosts including Mike Grocott, Sol Aronson, James Bowness and new team member Harriet Hopf discuss meeting highlights such as the Emery A. Rovenstine Memorial Lecture from Anesthesiology editor-in-chief James Rathmell and the keynote by Will Flannery (Dr. Glaucomflecken). They emphasize perioperative medicine momentum, networking opportunities, and plans for upcoming TopMedTalk...
info_outlineRecorded at ASA Anesthesiology 2026 in San Diego, hosts Andy Cumpstey and Harriet Hopf speak with Patrick Velliky, Chief External Affairs Officer and Senior Vice President for Government Affairs at HaloMD, about misconceptions around the No Surprises Act (NSA) independent dispute resolution (IDR) process and its cost impact.
Velliky argues many studies cite total arbitration awards without a pre-NSA baseline, and his emergency medicine analysis comparing like-for-like out-of-network (OON) claims found OON spending is 13%–50% lower post-NSA, with modeled savings depending on assumptions about payments for the ~90% of eligible claims not going to IDR.
He discusses the qualifying payment amount (QPA), recent litigation finding unlawful QPA manipulation, and concerns about third-party administrators (TPAs), including lack of transparency, shared-savings fees, and a reported ~35% nonpayment rate of binding IDR awards.
The conversation links these issues to anesthesia, subsidies, consolidation, employer oversight, and pending bipartisan legislation to penalize nonpayment and improve accountability.