Under the Same Sky featuring Syam Adusumilli
Syam Adusumilli, Chief Evangelist and Leader, Straegic Partnerships, GroundGame.Health
Under the Same Sky: Building Recognition Systems
In Under the Same Sky, host Abner Mason sat down with someone he describes as “one of the smartest people I’ve ever met,” Syam Adusumilli, Chief Evangelist and Leader, Strategic Partnerships at GroundGame.Health.
Syam shared part of his personal story. Diagnosed as autistic at 13, he describes himself as neuro-gifted, wired to see patterns and structures that others often miss. While most people absorb social norms effortlessly, Syam had to “reverse‑engineer” them, approaching human behavior the way an engineer debugs code. That distance, he explains, became a kind ofclarity. It allowed him to see not just how systems operate, but how they quietly fail the very people they’re meant to serve.
His professional path mirrors that system-level way of seeing. Syam started as a chemical engineer, trained to study processes, stress points, and optimization. From there, he built technology systems in healthcare, and later dove into healthcare data, uncovering the real stories hidden in claims and patterns of care. Now, Syam is a public health analyst.
When examining Medicaid work requirements, Syam wrote nearly a million words, not to advocate, but to correct the shallow or flawed analysis he kept encountering. His goal was simple: to understand the mechanisms that shape outcomes for real people.
And throughout this journey, Syam has also known hardship enough to recognize, as he puts it, that “systems designed by comfortable, theoretical people don’t work for actual people.” He reminds us that a mother working two jobs isn’t irresponsible because she can’t document her hours. She’s surviving. The system that penalizes her for not filling out forms is what’s failing, not her.
Syam said, “The very people who shouldn’t lose their coverage because they are exempt have to prove they are exempt, but the proof they need is very difficult to get.”
Syam's message is clear: the decisions made over the next 11months will define how effectively work requirements are implemented, and how they will impact the people who rely on Medicaid. This moment demands thoughtful, human-centered design.
For leaders and decision-makers, the responsibility is real. The individuals depending on these programs deserve your best effort to build solutions that help them retain their coverage, not lose it due to administrative complexity.
Syam challenges us to shift our mindset. Syam said, “This isn’t about building compliance systems. It’s about building recognition systems, systems that see people, understand their circumstances, and support their individual circumstances.”
Read Syam's extensive library of articles here: https://www.groundgame.health/solutions/work-and-redetermination-requirements
