Michelle Carnahan, Arbiter CEO: From Eli Lilly to solving healthcare's $100B fragmentation crisis

Chrissy Farr sits down with Michelle Carnahan, who spent 26 years at Eli Lilly witnessing the development of breakthrough GLP-1 drugs before transitioning to direct-to-consumer healthcare (Thirty Madison) and then co-founding Arbiter, a startup that raised $52M at a $400M valuation. Michelle and Chrissy discuss the GLP-1 revolution, transformative shifts in health insurance, and how her company is using AI-powered care orchestration to solve healthcare's fragmentation crisis by connecting disconnected systems and improving patient access.
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SPONSOR:
This episode is brought to you by Arbiter. As Michelle says: "We don't need another instrument for the orchestra—we need to conduct the orchestra." Backed by one of the largest early funding rounds in health tech, Arbiter creates one real-time source of truth from fragmented healthcare systems, then routes referrals and handles prior auths so patients actually get to care. Learn more at Arbiter.AI.
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LINKS:
Chrissy Farr’s Website: https://www.chrissyfarr.com/ 
Subscribe to the Second Opinion Newsletter: https://secondopinion.media/ 
Chrissy’s Book: The Storyteller's Advantage: https://www.chrissyfarr.com/books 
Lifers with Christina Farr on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LiferswithChristinaFarr 
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FOLLOW:

Michelle:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-carnahan/ 
Chrissy:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinafarr/ 
https://x.com/chrissyfarr
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TIMESTAMPS:
(00:00) Intro
(02:49) The Lifers concept and healthcare dedication
(04:19) Michelle's journey: from big pharma to startups
(07:54) Addressing access and fragmentation in healthcare
(13:43) The rise of GLP-1s and their impact
(20:58) Future of GLP-1s: pricing and distribution
(23:18) The role of health insurance in modern healthcare
(25:09) Transformative shifts in health insurance
(27:25) AI-powered care orchestration
(32:17) Challenges and solutions in healthcare technology
(34:55) The importance of collaboration in healthcare
(40:21) Personal insights and recommendations