B-Time with Beth Bierbower: Recent Episodes
Beth Bierbower
Every leader should invest in learning but few can make the necessary time commitment. B-Time helps busy career-oriented individuals stay on top of trending business issues by learning from leading executives who share their knowledge and experiences across a variety of topics.
Today we are speaking with Jake Sattelmair, the cofounder, EVP, and General Manager of Wellframe, a HealthEdge Company and digital platform that helps health plans onboard and engage members in their benefits and their health. Jake and the team at Wellframe have been at this for 12 years and they’ve learned what works and what doesn’t work.
Shownotes: Favorite book: LeBron by Jeff Benedicts
We discuss many different healthcare challenges on this podcast and we share potential solutions. The one area we haven’t discussed enough is the administrative burden on the healthcare ecosystem. This burden is felt by all stakeholders including members, health plans and clinicians. When I refer to administrative burden, I am not just referring to prior authorizations. I am speaking about the additional documentation associated with closures of gaps in care, HCC coding and more.
With us today is Jon Zimmerman, CEO of Holon Solutions. Holon provides an end-to-end platform that helps clinicians efficiently manage all the activities of patient flow from scheduling to prior auth to patient engagement and insights about the population being managed. This isn’t a traditional office administrative platform, as it includes AI to drive workflows and next best actions. The platform was designed on the idea that healthcare should feel human and that people should take priority over process. Holon also assists health plans and other stakeholders as well.
Let’s hear more from Jon about Holon and how this company is making a positive impact in the healthcare ecosystem.
Today we’re discussing a topic that is impactful to an employee’s physical and emotional health – yet the topic is invisible in the workplace. The topic is caregiving. Caregiving is an often invisible issue that all employers should worry about: Family caregivers comprise between 18% and 22% of the workforce, and the stress on these individuals can affect productivity, their ability to stay at a job and more.
Caregivers face two major challenges – caring for a loved one and caring for themselves. Caregivers routinely put others before themselves and as a result, the caregiver may skip preventive health screenings, fail to eat properly, exercise and get enough sleep and may pull back from social activities. We may wonder if this lack of self-care is brought on by the caregiver not delegating tasks to others.
I have known many caregivers over the years and can assure you that for the most part, caregivers would welcome the assistance; however, its difficult to create an ecosystem around a loved one and as a result, the bulk of care typically rests on one person.
Today I am pleased to be speaking with Jessica Kim, the co-founder and CEO of Ianacare. Jessica is an entrepreneur at heart. She founded her first company from her dorm room at Brown University and has gone on to develop several other companies.
Today we will discuss her current endeavor, Ianacare. Ianacare provides a tech-enabled and multi-layer solution for employers to support their working caregivers. Ianacare helps employees tap into the benefits already offered by their companies. Ianacare is the front door to navigating all the care in the home.
Let’s learn more about how Ianacare helps employees navigate the complexities of providing care in the home.
We don’t often hear from a physician executive. When we do, I always appreciate their unique perspective. Physician executives have on-hands experience as a practitioner as well as an administrator. With us today is Dr. Craig Samitt who is the new CEO of the National Physician Enterprise for Surround Care which is the formation of two prominent organizations in Navvis Health a population health management company and Esse Health large multi-specialty group practice in St. Louis, MO.
Craig’s unique background affords him a broad view of the healthcare ecosystem. Craig was previously the CEO pf BCBSMN, and currently serves as the managing director for a venture firm. Craig has also worked in Clinical and leadership roles at Anthem, Healthcare Partners, Oliver Wyman and more. I have followed his career and am excited to have him with us today to share his perspective on industry challenges and changes.
Digital healthcare delivery has exploded over the last several years and digital MSK is part of this massive growth. We know that digital MSK services are more convenient for members and can provide more accurate data on outcomes than in-person traditional physical therapy services. We’ve heard from one other digital MSK company about 6 months ago so now is a good time to get a different perspective and understand how this industry is changing and where it is headed.
With me is Mark Luck Olson, who is the CEO of RecoveryOne. If the name Mark Olson sounds familiar, it’s because Mark is a former owner and managing partner of Chapter House which was acquired many years ago by Oliver Wyman and where he served a partner.
I have always admired Mark’s ability to see the big picture and at the same time, understand the details and nuances of healthcare. I am looking forward to getting Mark’s perspective on how digital healthcare and digital MSK fit into the healthcare ecosystem.
Show notes: Book: The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowtiz
Our guest today is Kate Merton, Executive Director of Chicago ARC, a health innovation venture collaborative designed to accelerate equitable health innovation and improve access to affordable quality health. We are going to hear from Kate how Chicago ARC brings together many players from the ecosystem to drive health innovation at scale.
Kate has worked with big pharma companies as well as health plans and has experienced healthcare in the US and UK. I am excited to learn more about Kate’s experience and how Chicago ARC’s efforts are changing the game in healthcare.
Show notes: Book: Grains of Gold: Tales of a Cosmopolitan Traveler by Gendun Chopel
When I hear the term value-based care, I think about a provider group taking on full or partial risk for the care of a patient. But I also think of value-based care in terms of the patient journey across a condition or an episode of care. Outside of primary care, health plans have struggled to implement payment arrangements for specialists and hospitals that factors in the cost and quality of care across the continuum.
What has made this so challenging? Data – or the lack thereof. For years payors and providers have struggled to define a true episode of care and attach a payment and quality score to it. There is a company that is addressing this challenge by analyzing patient journeys on a holistic basis to better understand the full constellation of costs associated with healthcare encounters.
With me is Sun Web, co-founder and President at Komodo Health. Komodo Health is a healthcare technology company creating a new standard for real-world data and analytics through its platform, which enables real-time, actionable insight into the treatment, diagnosis, costs, and outcomes of millions of patients across the U.S. The company’s foundational belief is that all healthcare stakeholders need a reliable “ground truth” understanding of the patient journey in order to understand the reality of patient experiences and address the burden of disease. With that at its core, Komodo is transforming the way the industry interacts with data and insight — fueling critical intelligence for stakeholders across healthcare.
Show Notes: book: No Rules, Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer.
Osso VR is a company that uses virtual reality to teach surgeons how to use medical devices and perform surgeries and assessment. Imagine being able to practice many times over before performing on a live patient. Imagine what this level practice will do prevent medical errors and save lives.
With me is Dr. Justin Barad, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon who also has a passion for gaming. Originally interning to become a game developer at Activision-Blizzard, Justin decided to find a way to combine his passions and use his technology background to solve medical challenges after a personal family health incident introduced him to the world of healthcare. During his residency, he identified what could be one of the most pressing medical challenges of this century: how we are training our surgeons and proceduralists. With a strong interest in gaming and a first-hand understanding of the challenges facing residents and experienced doctors, he co-founded Osso VR with a mission to improve patient safety and democratize access to modern surgical techniques.
Show notes: Books: The Pizza Bible: The World's Favorite Pizza Styles, from Neapolitan, Deep-Dish, Wood-Fired, Sicilian, Calzones and Focaccia to New York, New Haven, Detroit, and More; by Tony Gemignani The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz And Doctors: The Biography of Medicine by Sherwin B. Nuland.
The term Population Health is widely used in this industry. We’ve talked about it from a health plan perspective and today I would like to look at population health from an employer/employee perspective. And I am thrilled that an accomplished physician and former colleague is with me today to share his deep expertise.
On today’s episode, Steve Goldberg, MD, Chief Health Officer of Employee and Population Health at Quest Diagnostics shares his perspective on population health from an employer perspective.
Book: The Blue Zones: 9 Lessons For Living Longer From The People Who Have Lived The Longest by Dan Buettner
: Have you ever wondered what happens to the health data that you collect on your phone or wearable device? Who uses it, how is it used and how does your data stay private? To answer these questions, I asked Christine Lemke, co-founder and co-CEO at Evidation Health to join me.
Evidation is a health tracking platform that rewards users for healthy actions while contributing real-world data to important research projects. As part of my due diligence, I enrolled and it was a simple and easy experience. I have also enrolled to participate in a few research projects as well and I am looking forward to learning more.
Christine was a pioneer in machine learning and the use of personalized health data and I am looking forward to hearing more about the power of personalized health data and what Evidation Health is doing with that data and how Evidation is contributing to important health research.
A favorite book: Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters by Richard Rumelt
Many healthcare startups are launched each year and it isn’t easy to get traction. When a company does thrive in this complex industry, you know it has a solid value proposition and Omada Health has just that. Omada Health began almost 12 years ago with a focus exclusively on pre-diabetes. They wanted to get ahead of the problem by helping individuals make lifestyle changes that would help keep them from becoming a diabetic.
Omada health has since expanded into a platform that offers coaching for diabetes – including prevention, hypertension and MSK. Omada Health is a trusted platform for employers and health plans alike.
With me is Sean Duffy, Co-founder and CEO of Omada Health and he will share how Omada Health has transformed into a healthcare platform and how they have had staying power in the business.
Favorite Books: The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell; The Martian by Andy Weir; Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order by Ray Dalio; The Social Transformation of American Medicine: The Rise of a Sovereign Profession and the Making of a Vast Industry by Paul Starr.
I wasn’t sure that I would enjoy the book Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All The Facts because its author is a former poker champion and trust me, I am not good at poker. I was pleasantly surprised. Duke tells us that to deal with uncertainty, acknowledge the uncertainty and then rely on a good process to help guide you through the decision. The ultimate outcome may still not be what we want or expect but knowing that we thought the situation through gives us confidence that we were on the right track.
She reminds us that it is easy to be a Monday morning quarterback. How many times have you rated someone else’s performance after you know they failed? Would you have rated the person differently if you understood the thinking behind that person’s decision?
Duke also tells us to stop blaming bad luck when things don’t go our way. If we step back and look at our process, how did that play into the negative outcome? What I most appreciated was that Duke reminds us that it is OK to say, “I don’t know”. Too often we are afraid to say that we don’t know the answer to a question – especially in a business situation.
Duke offers a unique perspective on decision-making and Thinking in Bets is a great and interesting read.
Just when you think we have identified all the conditions that warrant significant attention by employers and health plans, along comes another issue that requires a solution. Pelvic Health fits into this category. I had never heard the term until recently and now it seems that pelvic health is a real issue.
The fact is that pelvic issues have long plagued women and the symptoms were something that we just didn’t talk about. I may make some of you uncomfortable when I say that pelvic health includes issues such as incontinence, overactive bladder and organ prolapse. Women have been told over the years that these changes in their body are commonly associated with the aging process or are the result of childbirth. What women often are not told is that there is a solution to many of these issues and it’s called pelvic therapy.
Today we are going to talk about pelvic health and why is it important to women of all ages and why you will see more patients and members seeking treatment for these services. It is my hope that at the end of this episode pelvic health will be on your radar and as a healthcare leader, you will be prepared to address the need.
Joining me is Marta Cardeano, the General Manager of Bloom, which is a division of the Digital MSK Company, Sword Health. Marta will help us understand how widespread the problem of pelvic health is and what solutions have historically been in the marketplace and what new solutions are emerging. Marta has the distinction of being the first guest to join us from the beautiful country of Portugal.
Show Notes: Favorite Book: Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Night.
Medicare and Medicaid programs have recognized the importance of social determinants on health and have stepped up to covering services that help individuals with everything from financial to food insecurity and in between. This week’s episode with Justin Ley, Co-founder and CEO of Reema Health details how companies are ensuring that Health Plan members can access these very important benefits.
Reema Health uses local community guides to close the gap for Health Plan members with social needs. Justin explains how Reema Health helps members and why their role is critical to the health of the population they serve.
Show notes: Favorite Books: Anti Fragile: Things That Gain From Disorder by Nassim Taleb; The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You by Julie Zhuo.
Have you ever been in a situation where a physician orders a drug and when you ask, “How much will that cost?,” the response you received was, “I don’t know, you’ll have to call your health plan.” Or you are surprised at the pharmacy when you pick up your prescription and the cost is really high and you ask for an alternative and then deal with that hassle. Arrive Health is changing all that. They are providing real-time, drug pricing data to the physician in the office, at the time the script is being written.
With us today is Kyle Kiser the CEO of Arrive Health. Kyle is going to share what Arrive Health is doing to get cost information to the point of care so the physician and patient can make the best decision.
Show notes: Favorite Books: The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Migul Ruiz; Radical Candor: Be a Kick-ass Boss Without Losing your Humanity by Kim Scott
With me is Satish Movva, Founder and CEO of CarePredict which offers senior living facilities, home healthcare companies and families a comprehensive solution that helps individuals live as independently as possible as they age. Satish is a seasoned healthcare executive with experiences in physician, hospital, and home healthcare. During his career, Satish has used technology to help streamline the provider and customer experience and now, he is leveraging technology and analytics to help people age in place. I’m excited to learn more about what Satish and the team at CarePredict are doing.
Show Notes: Favorite Book Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
Our episode today focuses on a disease that’s a significant problem in the US. 15% of US adults or 37 million people, are estimated to have this disease and as many as 9 in 10 adults with this disease do not know they have it. This disease is prevalent in the 65+ population. As of 2018 Medicare was spending $70B annually on the treatment of this disease which represents almost 24 % of spending for this age group. If you haven’t yet figured out which disease I am referring to, its Chronic Kidney Disease or CKD.
The 21st Century Cures Act brought renal diseases to the forefront and allowed Medicare Beneficiaries with ESRD to enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan. Previously, these beneficiaries were required to stay on Traditional Medicare which often resulted in suboptimal outcomes. In addition, CMS has launched several innovative payment models in an attempt to help providers focus more on prevention and curbing progression of renal disease. As a result, many health plans and renal providers are now focused on more effectively managing renal conditions and improving outcomes.
With us today is Michael Uchrin, CEO of Monogram Health, a Nashville based company that helps patients with renal disease live their best lives. The team at Monogram Health is focused on making treatments as accessible and convenient as possible to the member, by offering in-home services. Michael will help educate us on the changes that are afoot and how companies like Monogram Health are improving outcomes and lowering costs.
Show Notes: Book - -Relentless: From Good To Great To Unstoppable by Tim Grover. Nashville Healthcare Council Fellows Program: https://healthcarecouncilfellows.com/
Data is at the heart of healthcare. Without data, we would not have the myriad of treatments and cures that help people live longer and better lives. Without data, the healthcare system would be subject to more administrative complexity and duplication.
Today we’re going to discuss data platforms and interoperability and with us is Troy Bannister, CEO & Founder of Particle Health. Particle Health is a company that offers an API platform that allows organizations to develop innovative solutions and access healthcare data through standard interoperability protocols.
Show Notes: Books: The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building A Business When There Is No Easy Answer by Ben Horowitz; & Shantaram: A Novel by Gregory David Roberts.
Dermatology is a specialty that has been plagued by a shortage of providers resulting in long wait times and little leverage for health plans for fee negotiations. The need for dermatologists is increasing as the population ages and conditions such as skin cancer become more prevalent.
Today we are speaking with an entrepreneur who is broadening the value of dermatology by focusing on increased access and improving the patient experience and health outcomes. With me is Sheena Franklin, Founder of K’ept Health, a company that provides patients with a digital clinic focused on their skin condition, health and wellness needs. As the company’s website states, beyond skin. Beyond beauty. Beyond Barriers. K’ept Health is dermatology reimagined.
Show Notes: Book -- Dava Shastri's Last Day by Kirthana Ramisetti
I am excited to have a friend and former colleague with me today on the B-Time Podcast. Our guest is Charles Ritz, the CEO of Anthem BCBS of Colorado. When I think of Colorado, I see beautiful mountains and plains and the opportunity to enjoy nature. While this idyllic picture is true, from a health and health insurance perspective, Colorado has many challenges and many initiatives underway to address these challenges.
Today, Charles will outline some of the issues and the proposed solutions that Anthem and other health plans are navigating to ensure all Colorado residents have access to affordable, equitable healthcare.
Show Notes: Clash of the Generations: Managing The New Workplace Reality by Valerie Grubb; Sticking Points: How to get 5 Generations to Work Together in the 12 Places They Come Apart by Haydn Shaw.
Description: Today we are diving on Social Determinants of Health with Dan Brillman, Co-founder & CEO of UniteUs, an organization that connects health and care. We’ll gain an understanding of SDoH and understand the impact on health and healthcare costs with Dan sharing quantifiable data and outcomes. We’ll learn how UniteUs is delivering on its promise to truly connect the community.
Show Notes: Book: The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building A Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz
You’ve likely heard of accelerators or incubators – organizations that help entrepreneurs in the early stages of developing their products or services. Once a company begins to raise larger amounts of capital or reach a minimum revenue threshold, the company “graduates” from the accelerator or incubator program. In other words, the company gets resources and assistance for a limited time frame.
There is a unique model that sticks with the entrepreneur well beyond the early stages of formation and growth. It is this latter model that Startup Health embraces. Startup Health serves the entrepreneur at every stage of growth, providing entrepreneurs with guidance resources, networking and more to support them over the long-term. If this model isn’t impressive enough, Startup Health has also launched Moonshots which are initiatives designed to tackle the biggest, hairiest problems in healthcare. If you are a healthcare leader, you’ll want to say tuned to learn more about these Moonshots.
With us is Steve Krein, Cofounder and CEO of Startup Health. Steve will tell us about the Startup Health model, how it is different and why the model is so powerful in aiding the entrepreneur. He’ll also tell us more about Moonshots and how they are transforming the face of healthcare.
Show Notes: Books: Antifragile: Things That gain from Disorder by Nassim Taleb; The Power of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck and Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman
The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim DeFede is an inspirational book that will leave you feeling all that is good and right in the world. As the title implies, the book recounts the air traffic redirections on 9/11, when 38 planes carrying over 6,000 passengers and 470 crew members were instructed to land in Gander, Newfoundland.
Gander, Newfoundland has long served as a pitstop for planes traveling across the Atlantic Ocean. For many years, planes were forced to stop in Gander as they did not have the fuel capacity to make it across the Atlantic. Once larger aircraft were manufactured, Gander was no longer needed as a refueling station. The city did, however, remain heavily involved in air traffic control.
In the wake of the terrorist attacks on 9/11, the US Department of Transportation ordered all airborne aircraft to land immediately and those planes that were not in the air remained grounded. US airspace was closed for several days.
The Day the World Came to Town tells the story of how the tiny town of Gander jumped into action realizing that they were going to become a landing destination. Not only did the local air traffic controller team anticipate the onslaught of aircraft, the team also realized that, with US airspace shutdown, the passengers and crews would need somewhere to sleep, shower and eat.
The people of Gander stepped into action. They opened their schools, churches, clubs, and homes to the visitors. They prepared food and gave away their towels, sheets, and other linens as well as clothing – anything they could do to help out.
The local retailers chipped in as well. Anything the visitors needed was provided – for free. Clothing, blankets, medication, diapers – even drinks at the bar – all for free. Two women realized that pets were in the planes baggage compartments and crawled into each one to feed the animals until they were allowed to get them out and keep them in a hanger where a veterinarian provided services for free. Neighboring towns helped out by filling in the void when Gander ran out of stock.
What was most touching, was that the townspeople of Gander went out of their way to minimize the visitor’s stress. For example, they brought toys to the children and celebrated their birthdays. They ensured that dietary restrictions were addressed. They prayed with and held the hands of the visitors who were fearful that they lost loved ones.
After the visitors left, the Canadian Government wanted to host a party to honor the townspeople of Gander for their hospitality and generosity. The townspeople politely declined. They weren’t heroes, they were just doing what anyone should do in this situation.
I was in New York City just one block from the World Trade Center on 9/11. The party I was with was going to try to make its way back to Louisville but I wanted to go home to Pittsburgh so we parted company. I walked in silence to Times Square where a colleague of my husband’s opened up her hotel room to share with me until we could find transportation back to Pennsylvania. I will never forget that she greeted me in the lobby with a big hug. When we got to her room, we looked out the window and saw the second tower collapse. I will never forget that image and I will never forget Lucy’s generosity over the next few days.
Those feelings came flooding back to me when I read The Day the World Came to Town. We live in a world full of challenges and unrest, but every once in a while, the human spirit and kindness emerge and prove that we can live together respectfully and peacefully. I highly recommend this book so that we never forget the horrid events of 9/11 along with the outpouring of kindness from our fellow humans. And hats off to the people of Gander, Newfoundland for showing the world what fellowship and leadership really mean.
With us today is Jared Johnson the Founder of Shift Forward Health which is a media company that delivers thought leadership content through the use of podcasts, blogs, videos and more. Each week, Jared talks with individuals to learn more about who is attempting to transform healthcare and how.
Jared’s career experiences have helped shape his thinking and developed his expertise on consumers and digital transformation as he has worked with well-known medical organizations such as St. Jude, W.L. Gore & Associates, and Phoenix Children’s Hospital to name a few. He also serves on several healthcare and digital advisory boards that reach thousands of organizations monthly. Today, Jared will share his thoughts with us on consumer transformation in healthcare – what it means, why it matters and which companies are embracing this concept as a means to transform their businesses.
Show notes: Favorite Books: Killing Marketing: How Innovatinve Businesses Are Turning Market Cost Into Profits by Jou Pulizzi and Robert Rose; Reframing Healthcare: A Roadmap For Creating Disruptive Change by Zeev Neuwirth, MD
With us today is Jared Johnson the Founder of Shift Forward Health which is a media company that delivers thought leadership content through the use of podcasts, blogs, videos and more. Each week, Jared talks with individuals to learn more about who is attempting to transform healthcare and how.
Jared’s career experiences have helped shape his thinking and developed his expertise on consumers and digital transformation as he has worked with well-known medical organizations such as St. Jude, W.L. Gore & Associates, and Phoenix Children’s Hospital to name a few. He also serves on several healthcare and digital advisory boards that reach thousands of organizations monthly. Today, Jared will share his thoughts with us on consumer transformation in healthcare – what it means, why it matters and which companies are embracing this concept as a means to transform their businesses.
Show notes: Favorite Books: Killing Marketing: How Innovatinve Businesses Are Turning Market Cost Into Profits by Jou Pulizzi and Robert Rose; Reframing Healthcare: A Roadmap For Creating Disruptive Change by Zeev Neuwirth, MD
This episode is a copy of the Innovation Accelerator podcast where Beth Bierbower serves as a panelist along with Gary Druckenmiller, Jared Johnson and Steven Ambrose and we discuss the healthcare consumer
What does Value Based Care really mean? Is Value Base Care gaining momentum? Will Value Based Care be effective at improving outcomes and reducing costs? I’ve decided to pose these questions to our guest today because he and his team are in the thick of it.
With me is Dave Mull, CFO of Honest Medical Group, an organization that assists independent physicians in participating in Value Based Care. Dave and I previously worked together at Humana where he had extensive leadership experience in Medicare Advantage operations and finance.
Show Notes: Favorite Books: When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi; Grit; The Power of Persuasion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth; Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones by James Clear; and Passionate Action: 5 Steps to Creating Extraordinary Success in Life and Work by Doug Gray.
Collaborative care allows for a principal physician, behavioral health case worker and psychiatrist to work together to manage patients with both behavioral and medical needs. Spencer Hutchins, CEO & Co-founder of Concert Health tells us what his organization is doing to engage primary care and OB/GYN physicians in this process.
Show notes: website: concerthealth.io. Books: Aaron Slater, Illustrator by Andrea Beatty and The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs.
With us is Karen Simonton, Director of Strategic Alliances for the OrthoForum, an organization that connects the nation’s largest orthopaedic groups through benchmarking, advocacy, innovation, and networking. Karen shares the provider’s perspective as to how providers are reacting to or driving some of the trends and changes we are experiencing in MSK care delivery. Karen will share some of the challenges that these physicians face today, what their thinking is on value-based care and digital MSK.
Show notes: Books Karen is reading: Thank You For Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving In The Age Of Accelerations; CEO’s Guide To Restoring The American Dream by Dave Chase and The Bible.
With me is Dr. Jennifer Schneider, CEO & Co-founder of Homeward, an organization that brings primary and value-based care to rural communities. Dr. Schneider shares information on the lack of access to primary and specialty care in rural America and what her new company, Homeward, is doing to address the issue.
Show Notes: Favorite Book: Long Walk To Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela by Nelson Mandela
Francois de Brantes is a pioneer in measuring and improving healthcare outcomes.
Francois began his career at GE Healthcare which provided him with a solid background in measuring what matters. While at GE, Francois helped create The Leapfrog Group focused on improving quality and safety. From there, Francois spent almost 11 years as the Executive Director of the Healthcare Incentives Improvement Institute before moving to Altarum and now Signify where he continues his focus on payment innovation. On this episode you’ll hear Francois’ perspective on value-based payment models and what we might expect to see moving forward.
Show notes: To Err is Human: Building A Safer Health System by Institute of Medicine and Committee on Quality of Health Care in America and Crossing The Quality Chasm: A New Health System For The 21st Century by Institute of Medicine and Committee On Quality of Health Care in America
Stress and anxiety levels have risen dramatically over the last few years. Behavioral health providers were overwhelmed with requests over the last two years and utilization continues to be higher than pre-pandemic levels. Initially fueled by COVID concerns, stress and anxiety levels continue to climb due to inflation, supply chain issues and continued global uncertainty. According to a 2021 McKinsey report, psychological distress and substance use reached new levels. How can individuals get help dealing with stress and anxiety when access is challenging and also costly?
Our guest today is going to share how his company is helping individuals manage stress and anxiety and practice overall self-care. With us is Russell Glass, CEO of Headspace Health, a company that brings together mindfulness tools for everyday life with clinical care in moments of need.
Show Notes: Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through The Seven Transitions Into Adulthood by Lisa Damour, PhD and Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis.
Over the last several years, new Medicare Advantage plans have emerged, each one attempting to change the consumer experience. Today we’re talking with Myong Lee, the CEO and Co-founder of a unique Medicare Advantage plan called Clever Care. Based in the greater Los Angeles area, Clever Care incorporates Eastern Medicine into its benefit plan designs to better serve the members of the community. Myong will share how he is integrating services that are important to his members into the Medicare Advantage experience.
Show notes: Book Myong is currently reading: The Essays of Warren Buffet: Lessons for Corporate America, Fifth Edition by Lawrence A. Cunningham.
Today we are going to discuss digital care delivery – specifically for musculoskeletal issues. With me is Dr. Vijay Yanamadala, who is the Chief Medical Officer of Sword Health and is also System Medical Director of Spine Quality and Surgical Optimization at Hartford Healthcare. Dr. Yanamadala is a Board-certified Neurosurgeon. We’ll hear how the digital MSK business is exploding because, in most cases, digital MSK therapy is equal to or better than traditional physical therapy. And because it is more convenient than traveling to a physical PT location, patients are more engaged in doing their exercises. Digital MSK therapy is just one example of how digital care can safely and effectively transform our healthcare system. Show notes: Recommended Book: The Price We Pay: What Broke American Healthcare and How to Fix It by Marty Makary, MD.
ZocDoc was founded in 2007 to help consumers find and book provider visits online. Over the last 15 years ZocDoc has persevered in the helping providers keep their schedules full. ZocDoc Chief Legal Officer, Bruce Gottlieb joins B-Time to share ZocDoc’s journey and how it has made strategic decisions around its business model that has enabled it to scale.
Show notes: Book Recommendations: Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe; Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 by Tony Judt; The New Map: Energy, Climate and the Clash of Nations by Daniel Yergin; A Long Walk To Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela by Nelson Mandela with Michael Boatman et al; The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power, Means of Ascent, Master of the Senate, The Passage of Power by Robert Caro (A 4 book series).
We’ve mentioned “the race to the home” numerous times on this podcast. Today, our guest will help us understand what it means to deliver care in the home. With us is Dan Trigub, Co-founder and CEO of MedArrive, a company that is delivering preventive care in the home. Dan will share MedArrive’s approach and how and why it has been successful not only in preventing unnecessary admissions and trips the ER, but also how MedArrive has been successful in engaging marginalized individuals.
Usually when I state that someone has prior healthcare experience, you may wonder for which health plan, health system or another provider did he or she work. Dan worked for Uber and Lyft in their healthcare divisions. While those may not be the credentials you are expecting when you hear “healthcare experience,” it is exactly the experience needed when you think about in-home delivery of care because these companies deeply understood the concept of a platform, logistics and engagement.
Show Notes: Book: Beyond Possible: One Man, Fourteen Peaks, and the Mountaineering Achievement of a Lifetime by Nims Purja; Documentary: The Man In The Arena (Tom Brady)
Today we are going to talk about a variety of topics from AI to care after COVID and Social Determinants of Health. With me is one of the nation’s most well-known healthcare thought leaders. David B. Nash is the Founding Dean Emeritus, and he remains on the full-time faculty as the Dr. Raymond C. and Doris N. Grandon Professor of Health Policy, at the Jefferson College of Population Health (JCPH). A board-certified internist, Dr. Nash is internationally recognized for his work in public accountability for outcomes, physician leadership development, and quality-of-care improvement. He has published and peer reviewed articles and given many lectures that highlighted critical healthcare issues.
Dr. Nash has served on boards for public and private companies, health systems, healthcare accrediting organizations and many more. His contributions and accomplishments are too numerous for us to share but I will link his profile in the show notes. I’ll wrap this introduction up by saying Dr. Nash has had an immeasurable positive impact in healthcare.
Show Notes: Dr. Nash’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidbnash/ He follows Robert Pearl, Merrill Goozner (Gooz News) and Leana Wen.
In today’s episode, Rich Powers educates us on the status of value based care in the industry today. Rich has deep expertise in provider contracting, managing risk-based relationships and value based care. He spent the bulk of his career at Humana and worked at Alignment Health before joining P3 Health Partners. Rich will provide his perspective on the role of primary care and will introduce us to P3 Health Partners as well.
Show Notes: Books: The Bad Guys Won: A Season of Brawling, Boozing, Bimbo Chasing, and Championship Baseball with Straw, Doc, Mookie, Nails, The Kid, and the Rest of the 1986 Mets, the Rowdiest Team Ever to Put on a New York Uniform and Maybe the Best By Jeff Pearlman ; The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larsen.
We have a special episode today recorded live at Quest Analytic's annual conference -- Vision Quest. Dr. Caroline Carney, Chief Medical Officer of Magellan Health joins me to discuss networks, behavioral health, collaborative care and more.
Our guest today is an accomplished senior healthcare executive, an innovator, and business transformation leader. With me is Mohan Nair, CEO of Emerge Inc.,a company that help’s companies find the Innovator’s Mojo, the driving force for business transformation. Mohan is the former SVP/ CINO (chief Innovation officer) Of Cambia Health Solutions in Portland, Oregon and is an Edmund Hillary Fellow, New Zealand where he helps others bring cause-centered ideas to practical solutions . Mohan was the founder of transparency company HealthSparq, is the author of three books, one if which we will focus on today. He is also a musician with twenty copyrighted original songs and has spoken TedX and done much more.
Show notes: People that Mohan follows:
Marc Benioff, Tony Robbins, Daniel Kraft, Arianna Huffington, Stefano Bini
You have heard the term “Digital Therapeutics” which the Digital Therapeutics Alliance defines as medical interventions delivered directly to patients using evidence-based, clinically evaluated software to treat, manage, and prevent a broad spectrum of diseases and disorders. Digital therapeutics is offered across a growing number of medical conditions with demonstrated success.
Our guest today is Aaron Gani, Founder and CEO of BehaVR a company that uses virtual reality to help individuals with mental and behavioral health challenges. I think you will be blown away when you learn how these tools can make a real difference in both outcomes and costs.
Show notes: The Digital Therapeutics Alliance. Aaron’s company is BehaVR.com. Book: The Content Trap: A Strategists Guide to Digital Change by Bharat Anand.
The term “payvider” is being used with increasing frequency. A “payvider” is a provider that also serves as the health plan, taking on risk directly from employers, Medicare, or state Medicaid agencies. Banner Health is one such payvider. Founded in 1999 as the result of a merger, Banner Health is headquartered in Phoenix, AZ and owns and operates thirty hospitals including three academic medical centers across six states. Over the years, Banner Health has morphed into a fully integrated delivery system with its own network and medical groups. Banner Health offers its own Medicare Advantage, commercial and Medicaid Plans, but also has a joint venture with Aetna and through that JV, has competing plans. With us today is Donna Sickler the Division CFO for Insurance Operations at Banner Health. Donna will help us understand the advantages and challenges of being an Integrated Delivery System and an insurer, and she’ll walk us through how the organization manages the relationship with a JV partner which is also a competitor.
Show notes: Book: The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson, Kathy Mazur, et al.
Many of our guests on B-Time are focused exclusively on a B2B model. Today, we are changing it up a bit and are focusing on the direct to consumer model. Trillions of dollars are spend out of pocket by consumers on health and wellness goods and services.
One company, Intrinsic, is taking full advantage of this consumer spend and is buying smaller consumer wellness companies to become a Brand powerhouse. With us is Yadin Shemmer, the founder and CEO of Intrinsic and he’ll share his view of the market and what he sees as emerging trends in this space. Yadin has a bachelors from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the London Business School.
I am excited for Yadin to share his thoughts because as we all know, consumer behavior eventually makes it way into the more traditional areas of healthcare. Over time some of this direct spend will find its way into health plan coverage.
Show Notes: Favorite Book: What You Do Is Who You Are By Ben Horowitz; The Attributes: 25 Hidden Drivers of Optimal Performance by Rich Diviney.
Our guest today needs no introduction to most of you. With us is Sam Glick, Global Leader of the Health & Life Sciences Practice at Oliver Wyman. Many of us have spent time with Sam and his colleagues discussing everything from industry opportunities and challenges to new business models and more. Today Sam is going to share his thoughts on where the industry is headed and how we, as leaders, should be thinking about these changes and their potential impact on our businesses.
Sam has been with Oliver Wyman for 16 years and works with health plans, providers, biotech manufacturers and more and has spoken at all the top industry conferences. He is an economist by training. He was raised on a citrus farm and his newest side hustle is co-owner along with his wife Emily (who really deserves all the credit) of the charming Stavrand Inn located in California wine country’s Russian River Valley.
Show Notes: Favorite Books: You’re Not Listening by Kate Murphy; Favorite Magazine: McSweeney’s (specifically Issue #65 Titled “Plundering”); Favorite Podcasts: Post Reports from The Washington Post.
The pandemic placed a spotlight on employee wellbeing. Many employees have been under increased stress and duress over the last two years. In survey after survey, employers are sharing that they are altering their benefits programs to include services that move beyond traditional physical and mental health and into total wellbeing.
As with any market shift, there are players including new market entrants ready to fill in the gaps. One such player is SoulBeing which offers complementary and alternative medicine services through a network of providers. Their belief is that the divide between tradition and complementary medicine is closing and that many people, including providers and consumers alike, are focused on integrative medicine.
With us today to dive deeper into integrative medicine is Colleen Kavanagh, CEO of SoulBeing. Colleen will share SoulBeing’s vision and how it is creating momentum around the need for integrated medicine. Prior to joining SoulBeing, Colleen spent 9 years working in GE’s healthcare division.
Show notes: Favorite Books: The Blue Zones By Dan Buettner The Blue Zones Kitchen by Dan Buettner, Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin, Atomic Habits by James Clear. Favorite Podcasts: B-Time with Beth Bierbower, The Meditative Story Podcast, Willis Towers Watson Cure for the Common Co.
With us today is the co-founder and COO of Equip Health – Dr. Erin Parks. Erin and her co-founder – Kristina Saffron, have created a home-based program (a real departure from the very traditional facility-based programs) to help people recover from eating disorders. Today we’ll learn more about these devasting issues and how the Equip Health team is changing the treatment delivery and recovery in this area.
Show Notes: Favorite Book: Essentialism by GregMcKeown. Podcasts: The Essentialism Podcast; Work/Life with Adam Grant; Startup from Gimlet Media, In Depth from First Round Review. Contact the team at Equip Health in one of the following ways:
- B: https://www.facebook.com/joinequip
- Twitter: @joinequip and @erinparksphd
- Instagram: @equiphealth and @drerinparks
- Linked In: @Equip (https://www.linkedin.com/company/equip-behavioral-health) and @erinparksphd
Susan Dentzer is one of the nation’s most respected health policy experts and thought leaders and is the Senior Policy Fellow at the Robert J. Margolis Center for Health Policy at Duke University. Based in Washington, DC, she works on a range of health policy issues including health system transformation, the use of artificial intelligence and related technologies in health care, biopharmaceuticals policy, and improving cancer care as well as maternity and infant care. She is the editor and lead author of the book "Health Care Without Walls: A Roadmap for Reinventing U.S. Health Care."
Show notes: Book: Uncontrolled Spread by Scott Gottlieb. Podcasts: Hacks on Tap.
Strategic Business Transformation: The 7 Deadly Sins To Overcome by Mohan Nair is a guidebook to help your business create a secret sauce for longer-term success. Nair has a lot of business experience in Innovation and Operations. He takes his direct experience and combines it with pieces of business strategy from well-known business gurus to present tangible and actionable tactics for success. Nair uses examples of textbook companies like Southwest Airlines but manages to add some insights that may have been overlooked by others.
Here is a quick list of the 7 deadly sins:
- Ignoring the new principles of business transformation
- Driving without a cause
- Missing market momentum
- Ignoring the two orders of value
- Overlooking transformational servant leadership
- Mistaking capability for strategic competence
- Expecting flawless execution without a performance platform
At its core, Nair has given leaders a playbook to reference repeatedly as they face continuous change in the marketplace. A good add to your bookshelf.
With me is Daryl Risinger, President & Cofounder of Soda Health, a healthcare technology company focused on building solutions that eliminate health inequities. The team at Soda Health work with Health Plans to turn ideas around SDOH benefits into reality. Daryl will share with us some learnings and insights around SDOH and how his company is making a difference in this area.
Show Notes: Boos: Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge From Small Discoveries By Peter Sims. Podcasts: B-Time with Beth Bierbower; Hidden Brain with Shankar Vedantam; UnSILOed with Greg LaBlanc.
Pramod John is the CEO of VIVIO, a company that has built an autonomous solution that allows employers and other healthcare payers to take control over their specialty drug spend. VIVIO is a Public Benefit Corporation that operates with a transparent business model. Their only form of compensation is an administration fee allowing them to focus just on the question of cost benefit at the individual patient level. We’ll hear how VIVIO’s approach differs from that of the traditional PBM and the impact this approach has on both health outcomes and costs.
Show notes: Suggested Books: Talking To Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell; Uncaring: How The Culture Of Medicine Kills Doctors And Patients by Robert Pearl.
Health plans and providers alike are focused on population health and ensuring that members are getting the care and support they need to keep chronic conditions in check. However, often, these entities encounter challenges in obtaining actionable data or insights that allow the organization to intervene in the care process earlier.
Myia Health is tackling this issue and helping both providers and health plans better manage individuals with chronic conditions. With us is Myia’s CEO and Co-founder, Simon MacGibbon. Simon has a background in strategy, CRM technology, and large-scale digital transformations. He has worked for companies such as McKinsey and IBM and he was co-founding Partner of the Boston Consulting Group’s Digital Ventures business.
Show Notes: Books: Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore; What You Do Is Who You Are: How To Create Your Business Culture by Ben Horowitz; Competing Against Luck by Professor Clay Christensen. Podcasts: Relentless HealthValue Podcast; Dylan Johnson – cyclist – on YouTube.
How do you help a company pivot and emerge stronger? How do you chose what to prioritize versus not? How do you engage your employees in the company’s future vision? We discuss these issues and more with Matt Levin, CEO of Benefitfocus as he talks about leading his company through a time of change.
Show Notes: Podcasts: Smartless; The Rewatchables with Bill Simmons; Hacks on Tap with David Axelrod & Mike Murphy; Hell & Highwater with John Heilemann. Books: Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin; Books by Michael Lewis or James B. Stewart; Biographies of Michael Jordan or Walter Peyton.
We are talking today with Patrick Quigley, the Founder and CEO of Sidecar Health, a company that is offering personalized, simplified coverage to individuals and equipping these consumers with cost information to help them make good decisions about their healthcare. I am excited to learn more about what Sidecar Health is doing to simplify and create affordable coverage and provide price transparency that’s meaningful by removing the intermediary as we know it today. Patrick is no stranger to healthcare as he was formerly the CEO of HealthPlans.com.
Show notes: The Price We Pay by Marty Makary, MD. Podcasts: The Cleveland Browns Daily Podcast.
Today we are going to discuss the impact of cellular carriers sunsetting their 3G networks this year. You may wonder why the sunsetting of 3G is an appropriate topic for a podcast focused predominantly on healthcare, so here’s the answer. The sunsetting of 3G networks has a significant impact on the elderly and low-income populations. Many devices such as older phones, personal emergency response systems and home alarm systems including carbon dioxide alarm systems will cease to work.
Many individuals cannot afford to replace these devices. In addition, COVID has significantly slowed the ability for service workers to upgrade systems in the home. As healthcare leaders, is this issue on our radar screen? Will we find it more difficult to contact chronically ill members whose phones no longer work? Will we see increased costs due to the failure of a PERS device to signal for help?
With us today to educate us on the 3G sunset issue and what is being done to help people upgrade is Janet Dillione, CEO of Connect America which brings digital health connected solutions into the home to improve the safety, care and quality of life for the elderly who want to remain living independently as long as possible.
Janet has a long history in digital health serving in the past as President & CEO of Siemens Medical Solutions, EVP & GM of Nuance Communications Healthcare Division and President and CEO of Action Management Technologies and Bernoulli.
Show Notes: Books The Leadership Moment by Michael Useem. Podcast: The Spycast Podcast.
: Approximately 800,000 people in the US have a heart attack every year? 1 in 4 people have had previously had a heart attack. When an individual is recovering from a heart attack or has a serious heart problem, Cardiac rehabilitation can be an instrumental part of not only the individual’s recovery, but also in preventing future heart attacks.
Today we are going to hear from Ade Adesanya, Co-founder and President of Moving Analytics, a company that offers Cardiac Rehabilitation in the comfort of the patient’s home. We’ll learn exactly what Cardiac Rehabilitation entails, and why many people fail to participate despite the demonstrated success of these programs.
Show notes: Favorite Book: Crossing The Chasm by Geoffrey Moore. Podcasts: Tim Ferris Podcast; Access & Opportunity with Carla Harris.
The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care And How To Fix It by Marty Makary, MD is a book that takes a hard look at aspects of the US healthcare system that drive up the costs of premiums and other patient out-of-pocket costs. Makary looks at PBMs, broker payments, hospital billing and financial recovery practices and inappropriate procedures to name a few. Regardless of where you work in the healthcare system, you may find yourself getting defensive one moment and nodding your head in agreement in another.
What Makary is after at the end of the day is price transparency which he believes will help bring healthcare costs down. The author makes many good points in the book about hidden costs that drive significant profitability for one party while the other party is in the dark. Typically, price transparency levels the playing field between seller and buyer and enables new market entrants to redefine a business model that offers service at a lower cost.
Price transparency isn’t exactly a thrilling topic but Makary is a brilliant writer whose writing and storytelling is on par with exceptionally good journalists. I couldn’t put the book down. The reader will not agree with every point that Makary makes. However, many would agree that we are at the tipping point for price transparency, some of which will come about due to regulation and other aspects will be driven by market competitiveness. Health care leaders must rethink their business models due to transparency changes and it’s prudent to take a close look at major areas in need of an overhaul. The Price We Pay by Makary is an informative book to read to level set on how we operate today and to remind us how costly, continuing many of these practices can be in the future.
With me is Sara Potecha who is a leadership consultant, executive coach and speaker. Sara was not only in one of the first groups of women that were admitted to the United States Military Academy at West Point, she also graduated after four tough and life-changing years.
Sara shares the leadership characteristics she learned and explains how they are relatable to life and leadership outside the military in her book, West Point Woman. I’ll be asking Sara to share some of these life lessons with us along with several stories of how she succeeded at such an historic institution that was less than welcoming to the women it was forced to let into its hallowed halls.
Show Notes: Sara enjoyed the following books: Atomic Habits by James Clear; she enjoys books by Steven Covey, Malcolm Gladwell (including David and Goliath), and books by Simon Sinek including Leaders Eat Last. Sara enjoys listening to leadership podcasts by Carey Nieuwhof, John Maxwell & Simon Sinek.
The Book Healthcare Without Walls: A Roadmap For Reinventing U.S. Healthcare does what its title states – provides a roadmap for executives to use as they are rethinking healthcare delivery now. The book’s contributors include many of the nation’s brightest healthcare leaders and practitioners. The book consists of five chapters covering technology, reimbursement, regulatory approaches, workforce and human factors and states what can be done using many of the resources we have today or that are quickly emerging. These are not pie-in-the-sky scenarios, they are practical, useful and within reach.
In addition to covering the key issues that must be addressed to achieve healthcare without walls, the book includes eight realistic patient/family scenarios including one on what should happen if there were a pandemic which is uncanny foresight for a book published in 2019.
While some will read the book from cover to cover, its power lies in serving as a reference guide. Executives should use the information to challenge their business strategies and their leadership team’s thinking. It’s like having an expert you can call upon in your back pocket.
Books like this can become outdated quickly. I don’t think this is the case for Healthcare Without Walls. The book is relevant today and will be for the next decade – at least.
: In October of this year, The Kaiser Family Foundation released a study that showed 7 in 10 Medicare Beneficiaries did not shop for new plans during the 2018 open enrollment period. If this is the case, then why all the focus on plan design enhancements each year?
To help us understand what Medicare Advantage plans are currently doing to attract and retain members and what they might do better is Betsy Seals. Betsy is the CEO and Co-founder of Rebellis Group, a consulting firm with deep expertise in health plans, PBM and government regulations. The Rebellis Group helps organization with strategy and operational processes to help optimize their business models. Betsy has 20-years’ experience in the healthcare industry and has worked for notable companies such as Scan Health Plan, Anthem, and Gorman Health Group.
Show notes: Betsy listens to podcasts that are related to healthcare matters. As a busy working mother, the last book she read was Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.
Our guest today has created a simple, integrated platform that uniquely leverages the one piece of technology that is ubiquitous with the elderly – and that is the television. Kian Saneii is the Founder and CEO of Independa, a company that provides everything from video chat to reminders through the television. Kian is going to explain how Independa is helping reduce the angst of caregivers and the elderly and creating a foundation for bi-directional communication.
Show notes: You can reach Kian at Kian@independa.com. Book Recommendations: The Innovator’s Prescription & The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clay Christenson; Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach; The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery; Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clark; The Creative Destruction of Medicine: How The Digital Revolution Will Create Better Healthcare by Eric Topol; The Art of War by Sun Tzu. Podcasts: The Catch and Kill Podcast with Ronan Farrow
Advances in creating a more effective and efficient healthcare system will be tied to digital transformation which requires changes in the way we use technology and data, the way we manage our workflows and reimagining the system from a consumer perspective. Our guest today, Dr. Maia Hightower spends a great deal of time thinking through these issues. Dr. Hightower is a physician is the former Chief Medical Information Officer for the University of Utah Health.
During her career, Dr. Hightower has led or collaborated on initiatives ranging from EMR optimization and usability, introduction of new technology and population health initiatives, quality reporting and process improvement. She strives to “leave no one behind” with a team-based approach to supporting all members of the healthcare community to achieve professional fulfillment in our rapidly changing digital healthcare environment.
Dr. Hightower’s drive is to advance the work of clinicians, care teams, researchers, educators and learners by providing health information technology tools, processes, and systems needed to adapt to change and provide value to our patients, families and communities in the digital era of healthcare. Dr. Hightower was recently recognized by Health Data Management as one of the “Most Powerful Women in Healthcare IT” and “25 leading CMIOs at healthcare organizations
Show notes: Books: HBR’s 10 Must Reads On Entrepreneurship & Startups; The Practice by Seth Godin; Upstream: The Quest To Solve Problems Before They Happen by Dan Health
There are more than 35 million unpaid caregivers who provide unpaid services to an adult age 50 or older in the US. According to the AARP Public Policy Institute, the economic value of unpaid caregiving exceeds $470B. According to the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP, Family caregivers spend an average of 24.4 hours per week providing care and nearly 1 in 4 caregivers spends 41 hours or more per week providing care. And 24% of caregivers provide care for more than 5 years. These numbers are astonishing.
The caregiver is the unsung hero who often suffers physically, emotionally and financially while putting others first. Today we are going to hear from my good friend, Alexandra Drane who is the co-founder and CEO of Archangel. Alex will tell us about the impact of caregiving on the caregiver and what she and others at Archangel are doing about it.
Show notes: Book Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga by Hunter S. Thompson
When I was perusing my library app for my next book, the title Surrounded By Idiots immediately grabbed my attention. The book was written by Thomas Erikson and explains the four types of human behavior through the use of the colors red, yellow, green and blue. When I took the test many years ago, it was called DISC which stands for Dominance, Influence, Submission and Compliance but the author also refers to the DISA system switching the term Compliance with Analytical.
As for the human behaviors, reds are driven, competitive and set high expectations. They view themselves as big picture and don’t like to dive into the details but they have a strong need to get things done. Yellows are social butterflies who love change – often for the sake of change and don’t appreciate others who whine about so much change. While the yellow likes change, they aren’t necessarily the best at execution. Greens are introverts who are reliable but often wait for clear direction to motivate them into action. They also need time alone to recover from socializing with others. Blues are very analytical, logical and ask many questions. Typically people exhibit behaviors of two colors for example, red/yellow.
The book explains these behaviors in detail and includes many examples that resonated with me having dealt with someone else’s behavior or having exhibited many of the behaviors myself. The book also equips the reader with tools to use when dealing with each of these behavioral types. Having insights into these behaviors really does help me better interact with others – especially in tense situations. Surrounded by Idiots is worth reading. And yes, if you haven’t yet guessed, reds are the ones that believe they are “surrounded by idiots”.
Every 17 seconds an American is diagnosed with diabetes. This statistic is from the American Journal of Managed Care (2018). Also, according to the CDC, 34 million Americans have diabetes which represents 11% of the population. And another 85 million Americans are considered “pre-diabetes” It’s no wonder that Diabetes continues to high in the rankings for healthcare spend.
We have been told for decades that Type 2 diabetes can be prevented only through better diet and exercise. In recent years we have begun to hear claims that Type 2 diabetes can be reversed and this is a gamechanger for people living with Type 2 diabetes. Here to speak with us today about Type 2 diabetes and what his company is doing to reverse this dreaded disease is Sami Inkinen, the CEO & Founder of Virta Health. As with most entrepreneurs, Sami has his own healthcare journey that inspired him to create Virta Health. I am excited to hear what he will share with us today.
Show notes: Podcast: How I Built This with Guy Raz; Shoe Dog by Phil Knight.
Dr. Adaeze Enekwechi is a leading voice in health equity and evidence-based health policy making who is committed to meaningfully improve access to equitable, quality healthcare for all Americans.
Dr. Enekwechi is currently an operating partner with Private Equity firm Welsch, Carson, Anderson & Stowe and serves on the Boards of several companies. She is also currently a Research Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University and is an Executive in Residence at The Health Academy. Her research areas cover the aging population and Medicare, health equity for vulnerable populations, and evidence-based policymaking all of which are important topics that I look forward to covering today.
Show notes: Books: The Love Songs of w.e.b. du bois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers; When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole; I Alone Can Fix IT: Donald J. Trump’s Final Catastrophic Year by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker.
I was a little surprised when I began reading The 5 AM Club: Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life by Robin S. Sharma. I thought I was going to get a textbook like account of each of the steps required to becoming more productive. Instead, the reader gets a story about a spellbinder, a billionaire initially mistaken for a homeless person, a struggling entrepreneur and an artist who isn’t doing his best work. Initially, I wanted the story to end so I could get to the “good stuff.” From some of the mixed reviews of the book I see that I was not the only one anxious to move beyond the story.
However, I was patient and, eventually got into the story and began to wonder. Where would the characters travel to next? What would the billionaire teach his two students? What quote or bit of wisdom would the reader learn? I really enjoyed this book. While it is a compilation of many different personal improvement theories, I feel that the author pulled this information together nicely through the story. My only criticism is that it took a little too long to get into the tactics. While I am sure that was intentional on the part of the author, it was a little off putting to me but I stuck with it.
As I read the book, I was on a five-week respite from the Florida heat. As much as I tried to retain my routine, I was off track. Reading The 5 AM Club gave me renewed energy and focus to get back on track when I returned home the following week.
As I mentioned, there are mixed reviews of the book but mostly because people were put off by the story format. If you enjoyed any of Patrick Lencioni’s books that impart wisdom through a story then you will enjoy The 5 AM Club.
eVisit CTO Miles Romney shares his vision of how Telehealth can be leveraged to support and optimize the concept of Integrated healthcare delivery. The use of telehealth increased significantly during the pandemic but the need exists to ensure that this technology is used to support an integrated care team.
Show Notes: Favorite Books: The Castrato by Martha Feldman; Hit Refresh by Satya Nadella; Cash & Dash: How ATMS And Computers Changed Banking by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo; The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos And The Age Of Amazon by Brad Stone. Favorite Podcasts: Dr. Nick: The Incrementalist; Stuff to Blow Your Mind; Soft Skills Engineering; This American Life.
Remote patient monitoring is the early monitoring concept that many are counting on to help providers get to the right patients faster and diagnose and treat issues earlier to improve health outcomes. Remote patient monitoring – or RPM for short - is one of those broad industry terms that can mean many things. I am looking forward to gaining a better understanding of what RPM is and how it can lead to better outcomes and lower costs in our discussion today with Jarrett Bauer the CEO & Co-founder of Healthcare Recovery Solutions a nationally recognized healthcare remote monitoring company. Jarrett holds an MBA from the Johns Hopkins Care School of Business and has been focused on RPM for the last ten years.
Show notes: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey. Podcasts: The Wall Street Journal & Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman & The B-Time Podcast with Beth Bierbower
It’s a bit ironic that I used my iPad to listen to a book about digital minimalism. The book Digital Minimalism is by Cal Newport who is also the author of Deep Work. He’s an MIT educated computer scientist who believes that for most people, use of social media is an addiction that is ruining our ability to connect as a society.
Newport reminds us that social media companies want to capture as much of our attention as possible – and at all costs. He tells us to refrain from “likes”, put our devices away when we are not using them for work, to embrace solitude and find other enjoyable hobbies.
As someone who embraced Digital Detox in the workplace, I agree with much of what Newport says. I was traveling while listening to this book and I took the time to observe other travelers in the airport. Virtually no one was having a conversation. When people were talking to each other, at least one of them was simultaneously checking their phone.
Newport provides some tips on how to digitally declutter – but truly, we know what to do. The book is a good reminder that there are many other things we can do with our time that are more meaningful than posting on Facebook. If you are on digital overload, download a copy of Digital Minimalism, at least it will keep you from checking Facebook for a while.
Pocket Health is a Canadian based company that offers an online, automated process for transferring images. No CD burning. No physical transport of the CD required by the patient. Rishi Nayyar is the CEO and co-founder of Pocket Health. Rishi and his brother founded the company after his brother experienced an injury and encountered the labor intensive and cumbersome process I just described.
Pocket Health wants to put patients in control of their images and in this episode Rishi explains how Pocket Health is meeting this objective.
Show notes: Favorite books: The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov; The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni. Podcasts: The All in Podcast, B-Time with Beth Bierbower
Did you know that more people are caring for an elderly loved one than are caring for a child? It’s tough to be a caregiver for an elderly loved one and many of you have firsthand experience with caregiving. Here’s a quote that says it all. “Everything is fine with your aging parent until it’s not. Then everything falls apart.” This quote is from one of the co-founders of Homethrive, and we are lucky to have both gentlemen with us today. Dave Jacobs and David Greenberg are not only the co-founders they are co-CEOs of the company. Both men were previously executives in the health industry and personal experiences led them to develop Homethrive which will learn more about today.
Show notes: Books: Educated by Tara Westover and Thirty Days With A Navy Seal by Jesse Itzler. Podcasts: Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist Historyand Smartless with Sean Hayes, Justin Bateman, Will Arnett.
I had heard from several people that the book Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey was an excellent book, yet I was hesitant to read it. I have seen McConaughey in a few romantic comedies and his characters never won me over. As result, I never watched any of his more serious movies including the Dallas Buyers Club for which he won an Oscar.
I devoured this book in audio format in a single day. I started listening while in the Salt Lake City Delta Sky Lounge early one morning and finished the book by the time I arrived in New York City. McConaughey was the narrator, and this makes the book immensely entertaining. His prose is both poignant and funny and captivated me from the beginning.
The point of Greenlights is to provide guiding principles by which McConaughey has lived his life. Greenlights are those signals that tell you to take the opportunity and move full speed ahead. Yellow and red lights slow us down and prohibit us from reaching our full potential.
McConaughey is open, honest and vulnerable in this book. He shares stories of his past that others would repress or deny. He was a bit of a wanderer, mostly seeking to find himself. McConaughey readily admits that at times he lost his way and had to rediscover what was important to him. McConaughey tells us to forgive ourselves. We all make mistakes so move on and try to be a better person.
I found Greenlights to be a refreshing reminder that we are all human and a little bit of curiosity and kindness go a long way. And also, that we should always try to up our game in becoming a better person.
Did you know that 70M people in the US suffer from chronic digestive issues? And did you know that this is more than twice the number of people with diabetes? Over 8M ER visits happen each year due to digestive complaints. And the annual cost for digestive diseases is $136B which is more than the annual spend on heart disease, trauma or mental health.
Digestive or “gut” health is getting quite a bit of attention these days as health experts are discovering more about the microbiome and its impact on our health. With us today to discuss digestive health and its impact on our overall health and healthcare spending is CEO of Vivante Health, Bill Snyder. Prior to joining Vivante, Bill spent time as head of sales at Virta Health and was the Chicago Market Leader for Humana.
Show notes: Book: The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz. Podcasts: B-Time with Beth Bierbower & TED Radio Hour
Medicare Advantage continues to be a hot market with new entrants emerging annually. Each new player is out to make its mark and take market share from the national health plans by offering a customer centric, simplified experience. Troy Medicare is one such player. Looking at the Troy Medicare website, you will see their tagline prominently displayed: “Health Insurance. No BS.” Now that is an intriguing proposition. Let’s see if our guest can share how Troy Medicare is delivering on this promise.
With us is Flaviu Simihaian, co-founder and CEO of Troy Medicare, a Medicare Advantage plan that entered the marketplace in 2019 and operates in the state of North Carolina with plans to continue its expansion. Flaviu is a repeat entrepreneur who previously developed imedicare, a platform to help pharmacists manage patient care. I am excited to learn more about how the team at Troy Medicare is changing the game for individuals on Medicare Advantage.
Show notes: Podcasts: Tradeoffs with Dan Gorenstein and The Drive Podcast with Peter Attia. Book: Doing Justice by Preet Bharara.
Several people have shared with me how much they enjoyed The Wright Brothers book by David McCullough. After reading it, I would encourage everyone to read this book. Some people say it’s a book about perseverance and it surely is, but what I found most interesting was that the Wright Brothers understood that they needed to solve the challenge of a flying machine one small piece at a time. They knew success would be a long time in coming simply because they had to deeply understand and perfect each aspect of the process. No quick wins or “Hail Mary’s” for these brothers.
I specifically wanted to share a few quotes and important moments from the book that left an impression on me.
For instance, when a friend told Orville that the brothers were an example of how far one could go without special advantages, Orville responded by saying that they in fact did have special advantages as they grew up in a family where there was always much encouragement to intellectual curiosity. You have heard me speak to the importance of intellectual curiosity many times on this podcast so I was thrilled to read Orville’s statement on this topic.
In addition, several years into the process, the brothers realized that the calculations and tables that had previously been published and upon which they relied were erroneous. They would have to start from scratch and create new metrics. They built metal models that they tested repeatedly to get new and accurate calculations. These new models taught them how to accurately build their flying machine. When we think about our approach to innovation today are we building new models or amassing data through the same lens that has been untouched for ages? What happens when we take the time to disassemble and build new models?
My favorite quote from the book builds on this previous thought. “The best dividends on the labor invested have invariably come from seeking more knowledge rather than more power.” This statement says it all.
The Wright Brothers book gives us a glimpse of the intellect, tenacity, patience and humility these brothers had to create a blueprint for one of the most valuable machines of our time. It’s worth your time to read.
Today we are going to discuss a new approach to helping people with recovery from addiction. With us is Eric Gastfriend, CEO and co-founder of DynamiCare Health, a digital health company that helps people with recovery from addiction. DynamiCare helps people overcome addiction to drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. Centered around motivation and accountability, DynamiCare challenges and empowers individuals to change their lives for the better. DynamiCare Health was founded in 2016 in Boston, Massachusetts by Eric Gastfriend, Harvard MBA tech executive, and his father, Dr. David Gastfriend, an international expert in addiction psychiatry.
Show notes: Inspiring book: Doing Good Better: How ffective Alruism Can Help You Help Others, Do Work That Matters, And Make Smarter Choices About Giving Back By William MacAskill. Podcasts: RadioLab with Jad Abumrad, Lulu Miller and Latif Nasser; Freakonomics Radio.
I don’t drive a Tesla. I don’t have solar panels installed in my home, and I have no desire to go to Mars. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed reading the biography titled Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance. Musk is obviously a genius and his passion for doing things that he believes to be right for the planet and mankind shine through the pages of this book.
Musk had a rough childhood. He was physically and emotionally bullied at school as a child and the bullying went well beyond being pushed around on the playground. Musk’s parents divorced when he was young and he lived with his father who seemed to have his own mental health issues. Musk is a survivor.
Musk not only has a clearer long-term vision than most people, he also knows how to make his vision happen in painstaking detail. For example, when the Russians provided him with an outlandish figure to purchase one of their rockets, Musk showed his team a detailed spreadsheet containing all the parts and associated costs with building a rocket and committed to building his own rocket in the United States at significantly lower costs. Many of the engineers that worked with Musk said they were far more creative at SpaceX or Tesla than they would have been at other companies because Musk won’t simply take “no” for an answer. When something failed, Musk wanted to have a plan of action as to how to fix the issue which forced people to thoroughly think through problems. People who were not clued into Musk’s thinking were dismissed at best and at worst, bore the wrath of Musk.
Musk is a lifelong learner and it appears he has tried to improve as a leader, although he still has a long way to go. He is an interesting character and to have a glimpse into his psyche is fascinating. I imagine that Musk can be quite charismatic, and it’s clear that Vance, the author of the biography, is appreciative of Musk’s accomplishments, but Vance also does a good job of revealing Musk’s various shortcomings. Overall, I thought the book was balanced.
Since the biography was originally published in 2015, it was cool to see things that Musk promised, come to life. It takes more than vision to fight against the status quo – especially when you must fight the government as Musk had to do with SpaceX and Tesla. Musk is a controversial figure for sure, but then again, most people who drive significant change are, which is why Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance is worth reading.
Gaps in care exist when a member has not received care according to standard guidelines. The most recognizable gaps in care relate to the failure to receive certain preventive screening tests such as mammograms, eye exams and more. It’s important for Health Plans to close gaps in care to ensure the Plan is meeting regulatory requirements and achieving the highest possible STARS ratings.
The challenge is that providers are bombarded with messages from a variety of Health Plans for many different reasons and are also messaged by their own EMRs. With all these messages, it can be difficult for a provider to sort through the noise and take the necessary time to follow through.
Our guest today, Michael Meng, CEO of Stellar Health, will explain how his company helps practicing physicians improve quality and financial performance by prompting providers and their care staff with recommended value-based actions and real-time payments at the point of care. Show Notes: No Rules Rules: Netflix And The Culture Of Reinvention by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer. The All-In Podcast with Chamath Palihapitiya and Jason Calacanis. This Week In Startups with Jason Calacanis.
Most major provisions of the Affordable Care Act took effect on January 1, 2014. Two core tenants of the Affordable Care Act were to expand Medicaid and to increase the availability of health insurance for individual consumers who purchased coverage on their own. We are now 7 years out; the ACA remains intact and several recent changes from President Biden’s administration have driven sizable growth this year.
With us to discuss the state of the individual market is Sal Gentile, CEO of Friday Health Plans. Friday sells to both individuals and small groups and a few months ago raised $160M in capital to fuel continued expansion.
Show notes: Books: Built to Last By Jim Collins, Washington: A Life By Ron Chernow. Podcast Smartless with Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes and ESPN’s 30 for 30.
West Point Woman is a book by Sara Potecha about leadership and character development that was instilled in her during her time at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Sara was admitted to West Point in 1979 just a few years after the Academy was forced to admit women. While resentment to this coerced integration was still high, the author does not make this tension the exclusive focus of the book. Instead, she talks about the character-building principles she learned based on the culture of West Point.
Sara discusses camaraderie, problem solving, ethics, encouragement, feedback and more. She uses relatable examples from her time at the acclaimed Academy and in her career after her time at West Point ended. West Point is a top-notch institution academically and culturally as it is designed to create leaders who will always do the right thing to protect our country. My admiration for Sara increased substantially as I learned what she physically and emotionally endured as a cadet. After reading Sara’s experiences at West Point and beyond, you’ll catch and stop yourself when you start to whine about something that you realize is trivial.
West Point Woman is a true leadership book that shows us how we are shaped by adversity, failure, kindness and loyalty even if we don’t realize it in the moment. This is a good book not just for those that want to be good leaders, but also for those of us who are humbled by the sacrifices of others. I am honored to know and have worked with Sara.
Our guest today is Adam Odessky, Co-founder & CEO of Sense.ly a conversational platform that drives patient and insurance member engagement. Sensely is unique in that it uses an avatar for interactions which proves to be more engaging than text messaging or chatbots. We’ll hear more about this exciting technology platform from Adam in a minute.
Adam has worked for notable companies such as Motorola, Oracle and Microsoft and has expertise in telecom, speech recognition and augmented reality. I’m excited to learn more about what Adam and the team at Sensely are up to. Please join me in welcoming Adam Odessky to B-Time.
Show Notes: Favorite Book: Super Sad True Love Story: A Novel By Gary Shteyngart. Podcasts: Dr. James Somauroo – The Healthtech Podcast.
Quartet Health CEO Puneet Singh is the son of immigrants that grew up in a very small town in Ohio. Puneet has held a number of diverse roles in healthcare including investment banking, RCM, and end of life. He has benefited from good advice and mentorship that he has received over the years and is with us today to share some of these learnings with us.
Show notes: Leadership Book: Team Of Rivals: the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln By Doris Kearns Goodwin. He also likes books written by Ezekiel Emanuel. Puneet likes to listen to sports podcasts as he learns about teamwork, resilience and leadership.
Physicians are key to driving improvements in population health as well as transforming our health system to one that is based on value. Dr. Miles Snowden CGO & EVP at Navvis, shares his professional journey and tells us how physicians can help us transform the healthcare system.
Show notes: Books: The Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis; The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons On Wealth, Greed & Happiness by Morgan Housel. Podcasts: B-Time with Beth Bierbower; A Healthy Dose; A Second Opinion.
If you have ever had surgery or helped a friend or loved one who has had surgery, you know if can be a challenging and frankly, terrifying experience. We often view surgery as the actual procedure performed by the doctor, but it is much more than that. You must prepare for a surgery physically as well as emotionally. And you must have support post-surgery. The length of time support is required depends on many different factors. Perhaps one of the most concerning issues with surgery is dealing with the pain in a manner that won’t result in an opioid addiction. Scary stuff.
Our guest today understands how unnerving the journey through surgery can be. He saw that most patients did not have an optimal end to end experience and decided to do something about that. With us is Brand Newland, Co-founder and CEO of Goldfinch Health a company that helps patients enhance their recovery after surgery. Brand is a Pharm D who previously worked at OutcomesMTM a company offering Medication Therapy Management programs which successfully sold to Cardinal Health in 2017. In addition to the PharmD, Brand holds an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Show notes: Books: The Last Days Of Night By Graham Moore; The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, A Temptation And The Longest Night Of The Second World War by Malcolm Gladwell; Shoe Dog: A Memoir By The Creator Of Nike by Phil Knight. Podcasts a16z; Radiolab; Bio Eats World; Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend.
Competing in the healthcare ecosystem is tough and it’s even harder for regional health plans. Despite the competitiveness, many regional health plans continue to thrive and Dean Health Plan is one of these gems. Dean Health Plan is 35 years old and is headquartered in Madison, WI. The Health Plan is an integrated, provider owned model. Dean Health Plan is part of the SSM Health based out of St. Louis, MO.
With us today is Les McPhearson, President of Dean Health Plan and Board Chair of SSM Health Plan. Les has worked in several areas of the healthcare ecosystem including payors, providers and brokers. He has experience in IT, operations, M&A and more. Les will share his perspective as a regional player and tell us how Dean Health Plan remains competitive in the face of stiff competition.
Show Notes: Books: Execution: The Discipline Of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan; The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide To Getting The Right Things Done by Peter Drucker: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius Of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin; 5 Levels of Leadership: Proven Steps to Maximize Your Potential by John Maxwell
In his autobiography, Andre Agassi takes us through his professional and personal journey during his career as an elite tennis professional.
While on the surface it seemed that Agassi had it all, his story reinforces that you can’t judge a book by its cover. You can only judge Agassi after hearing his side of the story.
Glen Tullman is a healthcare industry veteran who has worked across the ecosystem in companies such as EHR technology Allscripts and most recently as the Founder of Livongo a chronic condition management company. As Co-founder and CEO of Transcarent, Glen is determined to bring unbiased information, trusted guidance and access to high value care to the self-funded commercial market.
Show Notes: Books: The Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis and Post Corona: From Crisis To Opportunity by Scott Galloway.
Precision Nutrition is a term that is gaining traction. Today we are going to learn about precision nutrition and the impact of food on our health. With us today is Ari Tulla co-founder of Elo a precision nutrition company. Prior to starting Elo, Ari served as CEO of BetterDoctor and Quest Analytics and spent several years working at Nokia. Ari is of Finnish Heritage and Elo means “life” or “happiness” in Finnish.
Show notes: Books: The Longevity Diet by Valter Longo; The Red Rising series by Pierce Brown; The Ride Of A Lifetime by Robert Iger. NOTE: I wrote a short review of The Ride Of A Lifetime and published it through the B-Time Podcast on 4.30.2021
Podcasts: Hardcore History with Dan Carlin.
Providers need tools and other support to operate successfully in these new models. Diagnostics including imaging can help providers compress the time in accessing care and determining a diagnosis. Alex Dresner, Co-founder and CEO of Imagen. Alex and the team at Imagen are rethinking how imaging and other diagnostics can reshape healthcare by improving access to and the quality of care, among other things.
Show Notes: Books: The Wright Brothers by David McCullough. Podcasts: B-Time, Venrock’ Running through Walls and Andressen-Horworitz’s a16z podcast.
The author focuses on 4 major themes for business leaders in what he believes to be a new era of capitalism. He speaks with humility about his experiences as CEO of Best Buy and how he unleashed Human magic to turn the company around.
Mark Ganz is the former CEO of Cambia Health Solutions, one of the largest Blues Plans in the Pacific Northwest. Mark spent 25 years with Cambia and its predecessors and shares his leadership philosophy and talks about whole person health.
Show notes: Podcasts: anything tied to women’s golf. Favorite Authors: C.S.Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkein (Lord of the Rings); Erik Larson (The Splendid And The Vile) , Timothy Eagan (and The Fish That Swallowed The Whale: The Life And Times Of America’s Banana King by Rich Cohen.
Lesley Solomon is Senior Vice President of Innovation at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA which has been in existence for over 70 years and is widely known for its significant accomplishments in detecting and treating even the most complex cancers. Lesley will share with us what it means to support innovation at a world-famous institution and how Dana-Farber takes a collaborative approach in fighting cancer.
Our guest today is Naveen Kathuria, CEO of efamilycare which is addressing the issue of lack of support and tools for family caregivers. efamilycare offers a digital platform designed to connect caregivers to tools and experts that can advise the caregiver on urgent and nonemergent issues. The platform also connects family members so they can efficiently communicate and it uses telehealth to provide access to care. efamilycare is focused on helping to keep loved ones out of the hospital and in their homes.
Show Notes: Podcasts: A Bit of Optimism with Simon Sinek; The GaryVee Audio Experience with Gary Vee; How I Built This with Guy Raz. Books: Open and autobiography by Andre Agassi; Good Company by Arthur Blank; Total Recall by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The desire for elderly people or individuals with life-threatening conditions to remain in their homes for as long as possible without being a burden to their families is strong. Home is the future of healthcare and looking at recent acquisitions over the last 12 – 24 months, the race to deliver care in the home is on.
Today’s guest had a vision for providing care in the home long before many others. Paul Kusserow, Chairman and CEO of Amedisys, a company that helps individuals remain in their homes through home health, personal care and hospice services. Paul has served in senior executive roles at companies such as Humana, The Advisory Board, Zeigler, McKinsey and Tenet to name a few. Paul is one of the best strategic thinkers in the industry, who can also execute on a strategy.
Show Notes: Paul is rereading Plato as he believes the saying, “If you want to understand how the world works then read Plato.”; The Loyalty Effect by Frederick Reichheld, The Discipline of Market Leaders by Michael Treacy; The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande
The book Creativity, Inc. is written by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace. Catmull was the President of Pixar and then Walt Disney Animation. He also worked for LucasFilm so he has a good perspective on what it means to be creative.
Catmull provides his view of how to create and sustain a culture of creativity. Catmull often references failing fast and speaking out. He acknowledges that all companies have problems regardless of culture and this rang true after the book was published as it became apparent there were issues at Pixar with leadership behaviors.
The book does contain good perspectives and approaches to encouraging employees to take appropriate risks and help employees feel ownership in a company. Because I enjoy the backstory, I thought that Catmull’s stories about Pixar’s filmmaking and his interactions with Steve Jobs were nice added touches that keep the reader’s interest.
Lack of creativity and the inability to make bold moves are what hurts companies. Any advice we can get from a leader at a company known for both is worth the read.
Our guest is Terry Stone, Managing Partner of the Americas a Oliver Wyman which covers all the Oliver Wyman practices in North, South and Central America.
Today we are going to talk with Terry about a variety of topics from global trends that are currently or soon will be making their way to the US to some highly visible leadership issues that most companies are dealing with.
Show notes: favorite Books: White Fragility by Robin Diangelo and Michael Eric Dyson; The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier; Podcast – to hear a different perspective from her own: Jordan B. Peterson.
Beth mentioned the book: 2030: How Today’s Biggest Trends Will Collide And Reshape The Future Of Everything by Mauro Guillen
Our guest is Shiv Gaglani, co-founder and CEO of Osmosis.org. Osmosis.org’s vision is to empower the world’s clinicians and caregivers with the best learning experience possible. Osmosis says it empowers over 1 million learners around the world with a better understanding of medicine and health topics. They do this using video tutorials that show and teach at the same time along with other tools.
Show notes: favorite books: Atomic Habits by James Clear; The School of Life YouTube Channel and Book; Podcast: Tim Ferris
Through the course of this podcast, we have heard from many players in the healthcare ecosystem – payors, providers, technology companies and even the voice of the consumer. Today we will hear another important perspective and that is the view of the investor. Venture Capital and other firms fund healthcare startups with long term potential. In 2020 $17B was raised in healthcare venture capital alone.
Today we are going to hear from a gentleman that knows this space well. Devin Carty is the CEO of Martin Ventures, a Nashville Based Family-owned venture capital firm that currently invests in several healthcare companies including Contessa, Ovia, Wellvana, Cedar, and Trilliant Health to name a few. He has not only served as an investor, he is also a co-founder of several companies which gives him a unique perspective as to what it takes to be successful.
Show notes: Books that Devin has read: Shoe Dog by Phil Knight; How the Mighty Fall & Built to Last by Jim Collins; Outliers & David & Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell; The Art of War by Sun Tzu; The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shosana Zuboff; Good Economics For Hard Times by Abhijit Banerjee & Esther Duflo; Trillion Dollar Coach by Bill Campbell; The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
The Ride Of A Lifetime is a book on leadership by Robert Iger, the former CEO of Disney. Serving as CEO of Disney for 15 years, Iger walks us through several pivotal and critical moments in his time at Disney and even goes back farther into his time at ABC/Capital Cities.
I enjoyed two aspects of this book, the first which is an inside peak at Disney leadership. It’s always a bit comforting to know that all organizations have their politics and quirks. But Iger doesn’t tear down former colleagues, rather he shares his approach to dealing with new cultures and organizational dynamics. While Iger worked at ABC, it was acquired twice and he brilliantly leveraged those experiences when he became the acquirer.
The second aspect I enjoyed was that Iger shares his thinking at the time he made the decision. He helps the reader understand the context at the time, what thoughts were running through his head and how he sorted out what to do and perhaps most importantly what not to do.
Throughout the book, Iger shares leadership lessons that are practical and useful. He lists these 45 lessons at the end of the book which is a nice touch and serves as good reinforcement. If I had to choose one word to describe Iger’s leadership style it would be “decent”. Iger treated people with thoughtfulness and respect. He didn’t lead people on in negotiations. He was straightforward but kind when terminating someone. He seems like the kind of guy that you’d like to have a beer with.
BCG’s Managing Director & Senior Partner Jon Kaplan joins us to talk about healthcare.
Jon is a core member of BCG’s Strategy and Healthcare practices and has both national and global expertise with payers, providers and digital technologies He has helped organizations with everything from corporate strategies to digital transformations and more.
Jon is a person that understands market forces and what’s driving demand in the industry. Today, we tap into his deep expertise today and get his thoughts on industry trends, market consolidation, shifts in place of care and more.
Show Notes: Podcasts: A Healthy Dose; The Doctor’s Farmacy with Mark Hyman, MD. Reading: Ramaonhealthcare.com; Homehealthcarenews.com
In this episode we discuss episodes of care. An episode of care is looking across a condition or treatment and pulling all the related transactions together to get a holistic view of what has taken place. Health Plans like to look at episodes to identify total costs of care. Providers like to look at episodes of care to better anticipate the patient’s needs. This sounds like a good way to look at health care.
Unfortunately, the actual member experience doesn’t happen this way. Each provider seems to operate in a different silo and even the health plan doesn’t pull it all together for the consumer. With us is Duncan Reece, COO and Co-founder of Cohere Health a company whose mission is to enable the Care Journey that is right for the patient and do whatever it takes to arrive at that outcome quickly. You’ll learn how Cohere Health is breaking down barriers and also learn about the other areas within HealthCare where the company is applying its expertise. Duncan’s background is steeped in healthcare. He has worked at outstanding organizations such as Health Dialog, Iora Health, and Behavioral Health company Mindstrong.
Show Notes: Duncan is reading The Trials of Apollo by Rick Riordan and several Roald Dahl books with his two children. He listens to “How I Built This with Guy Raz.
Description: According to the US Census, the projected growth in the number of Americans living alone between 2016 and 2034 is 57%. In addition, an AARP study shows that between 1994 – 2014 there was a 46% reduction in the number of adults who live within 10 miles of an adult child. So we have more people living alone many of whom don’t have immediate family members living near them.
What do these trends mean in the context of someone aging in place. Most caregiving is unpaid and provided by family members but if there isn’t a family member nearby what’s a person to do? Our guest today is Karl Ulfers, Co-founder & CEO of Duos, a company that provides the elderly with a personal assistant and trusted resource to help them with their everyday needs.
Karl discusses the needs of the elderly adult and how he is tapping into the 9 – 3 economy to help.
Show notes: Favorite Podcasts: B-Time with Beth Bierbower; This Week In Startups; Joe Rogan
Favorite Books: The Age of Dignity: Preparing For The Elder Boom In A Changing America by Ai-jen Poo. Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey
The book 2030: How Today’s Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything by Mauro F. Guillen is packed full of data and information about how differently the world will look in less than 10 years. Even though it contains a lot of statistics, it’s a compelling read.
Guillen tells us who will hold most of the wealth, which countries will have the largest populations and where there will be a population drought. He tells us why retailers must pay attention to the elderly and why millennials aren’t so bad. He talks about network effect, Blockchain and more. While reading this I kept reminding myself how important it is to stay on top of emerging trends and 2030 is just around the corner.
If you are a leader in any industry, this should be at the top of your list and keep a copy handy as you might want to reference it again and again.
When the Affordable Care Act became effective in January 2014, a New York based startup called Oscar Health entered the fray with individual health plan products offered on the Federal Health Insurance Marketplace. Oscar Health was considered unusual for a few reasons including everything from its name to the fact that its cofounders, Mario Schlosser, Kevin Nazemi and Josh Kushner were not healthcare or insurance executives. While offering a High Deductible Health Plan, the team at Oscar created a unique design providing first dollar coverage for telemedicine visits with their staff to encourage new members to call the Health Plan early in their membership. Many Industry experts expressed skepticism at the idea of a startup entering the market at such a volatile time in the nation’s health coverage journey.
Six years later, the team as Oscar Health seems to have quieted its critics. While many of the large national health insurers exited the public health exchanges quickly, Oscar Health has grown its presence beyond New York and is currently offered in 18 states. In addition, the team at Oscar Health expanded into the Small Group and Medicare Advantage markets.
With us today is the cofounder and CEO of Oscar Health, Mario Schlosser to share the rationale behind the startup and to share where they are in their vision of fixing a broken healthcare system and improving outcomes.
Shownotes: Book Mario recently read is Adventures of a Computational Explorer by Stephen Wolfram.
Website: www.hioscar.com
One of the most valued components of a Health Plan’s offering is its provider network. At the same time, it’s also a major pain point for consumers. Over the years, the provider network directory has been a source of confusion for patients and providers alike. Determining whether a provider is participating in the network and at which office can be a challenge. Also, the issues of surprise billing looms large – the hospital is in network, but the anesthesiologist is not.
Management of this dynamic feature in a Health Plan offering is a challenge for the Health Plan as well. Providers move and don’t update their profiles or practices merge and simply list every provider at every office location. Maintenance of the provider directory can be a logistical nightmare.
With us today to share how his organization is addressing these and other network issues is Steve Levin, CEO of Quest Analytics. Quest Analytics helps health plans and other organizations manage access, adequacy and accuracy of networks to help Health Plans not only be compliant, but also to help them maintain a competitive edge.
Show notes: Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project. Several books on the civil war, focusing on reconstruction. Remembering the Civil War by Caroline Janney And Armies of Deliverance by Elizabeth Var
On Episode 35 of the B-Time podcast, Dr. Paul Grundy recommended a book titled: The Healing of America by T.R. Reid. While the book is 10 years old, it still provides valuable information on the workings of healthcare across the world. The premise of this book is twofold. Firstly, the author lays out a case that covering all citizens as a moral issue. Secondly, Mr. Reid believes that rather than replicating another country’s system exactly, that we can learn from the mistakes and best practices of others.
On the first issue, the author shares stories of people that have fallen through the cracks in the American Healthcare system and as a result, have suffered greatly and even died. Reid repeatedly makes the case that Americans must look past the cost issue and provide universal coverage rather than having many different programs with different criteria for qualification.
Reid’s approach to the second premise – that we can learn from other country’s systems is unique in that Reid becomes a patient in each system. By placing himself in the middle of the healthcare delivery system, he gets perspectives from healthcare providers, government officials and other consumers as to their opinion as to how well the system works. As a patient he gets and relates a firsthand view to the reader as to how the system truly works. Throughout the book and his world travels, Reid asks for opinions on his shoulder. Does he need surgery or not?
As Reid takes us around the world and explains and names the various models, he points out that the US has several different models: The Bismarck System for the employed; the Canadian Medicare system (yes, the Canadians coined the term Medicare first) and the Beveridge system for vets, known as the VA system.
Although have been in the health insurance industry a long time, I enjoyed refreshing my perspective on these other systems and dispelling some of the myths that go along with each system. Healthcare leaders should ensure they have a deep grounding in all models that are offered in the US and make sure they are staying in touch with updates to other systems.
Over the last several years there has been a trend of self-funded employers overlaying Centers of Excellence networks on top of their broad Health Plan networks. These COE networks are typically focused on high cost or complex procedures. But why is an employer purchasing access to a separate network? Doesn’t the Health Plan offer a comprehensive network that covers these procedures? Isn’t this overlay confusing to the patient?
Here today to share with us how these COE solutions benefit both employers and consumers is Sach Jain, CEO of Carrum Health, a national Centers of Excellence solution focused on high volume surgeries such as coronary bypass, hip and knee replacements and more. Founded in 2014, Carrum Health offers a platform that includes everything from provider contracting to member engagement. Sach is a computer scientist and engineer by training and is one of the leading national experts in the value based care space, especially bundled payments.
Show Notes: Favorite Book: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari.
Podcast: How I Built This with Guy Raz
I was surprised to discover that individuals who aspire to become therapists often find it difficult to meet the clinical supervisory requirement. These new therapists must have clinical supervision for a several years and they are left on their own to find that supervisor. Some of these new therapist live in rural America where there is a dearth of behavioral health supervisors so the new therapist may have to travel long distances several times per week to get supervision.
As with most founders, our guest, Rachel McCrickard encountered these challenges and decided they needed to be addressed. Rachel is the founder and CEO of Motivo, which connects new therapists with experienced clinical supervisors through an online virtual platform. New therapists can choose from many clinical supervisors and select the one that meets his or her needs. On the other hand, participating in the Motivo platform allows clinical supervisors to earn additional income.
As a new graduate, Rachel found herself traveling several hours each week to get the clinical supervision need to practice and then become licensed. Rachel knew that many states allowed for “tele” clinical supervision but the problem of connecting individuals and ensuring appropriate documentation still existed. Today, Rachel will share her personal and professional journey with us and tell us how she is helping others avoid the hassles she encountered and help ensure therapy graduates are able to obtain licensure.
Show notes: Website: wearemotivo.com Amerigroup Collaboration Press Release: https://www.prweb.com/releases/amerigroup_and_motivo_collaborate_in_joint_effort_to_expand_access_to_counseling_services_in_texas/prweb17732254.htm
No Rules Rule: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Reed Hastings & Erin Meyer
Untamed by Glennon Doyle
Podcasts: Unlocking Us with Brene Brown
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepherd and Monica Padman
Smartless with Will Arnett, Sean Hayes and Jason Bateman
Our out of industry guest, Simon Weaver, is Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of HomeX. Simon is determined to reimagine and build quantifiably better experiences for HomeX customers by solving previously unsolved problems in the home services industry through technology, engineering and science. Simon demonstrates his deep understanding of the consumer’s Jobs To Be Done and has real empathy for the concerns that individuals have with home maintenance. He also strives to solve problems for the service technician as well. When competent technicians delight their customers, it’s a game changer for sure! Listen to the similarities between Home Maintenance Services and Healthcare. Surely there is something to be learned and applied from the Home Maintenance industry in the delivery of high quality healthcare.
Show Notes: Favorite Books include: The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek; Start With Why by Simon Sinek; LifeSpan: Why We Age and Why We Don’t Have To by David Sinclair; Measure What Matters by John Doerr; Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity by David Allen; Crucial Conversations: Tools For Talking When Stakes Are High By Kerry Patterson and Joseph Grenny; Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming The Unforeseen Forces That Stand In The Way Of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace; Drive The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink. Simon also states that Daniel Pink’s RSA Lecture is very good. Finally, Simon shared the “Simon Test” which is wouldI work for this individual? If the answer is “yes or one day” – good. If the answer is “no” then that individual should not be part of your team
Beam Dental is shaking up the dental insurance industry with a new business model. Alex Frommeyer co-founder and CEO of Beam Dental shares how Beam Dental is changing the game in oral health. Beam Dental positions itself as a PPO with a twist. The company provides its members with an electronic toothbrush which collects data on members’ tooth brushing habits. The more the members of a particular employer group use the toothbrush, the more the employer can save on dental premiums. We have seen this model in other industries such as auto insurance, but this is a first for dental insurance.
Show Notes: Books: Americana: A 400 Year History of American Capitalism By Bhu Srinivasan; No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention By Reid Hastings & Erin Meyer; Podcast: Differential Article from The Atlantic: https://apple.news/Aw8tMZ9ujTfyg_rsuRRYb1w
Listeners, as you know, I started these brief book reviews to share what I am reading. Typically, I only share reviews on this podcast for non-fiction books, but I am making an exception today and I think you will appreciate why in a minute.
Like many of you, I began watching the Netflix series, The Queen’s Gambit a few months ago. I don’t typically binge watch dramas, so I have a few more episodes to watch. And while I do typically prefer to read the book prior to watching a show, the show piqued my interest enough midstream to cause me to pick up the book and I am glad I did.
I want to share some information on the author, and you will soon see how some of the author’s personal experiences have been integrated into the book. The Queen’s Gambit is written by the late Walter Tevis. Tevis developed a rheumatic heart condition as a child and his parents placed him in a convalescent home where the patients were given sedatives. During this stay at the home, Tevis’s parents moved to Kentucky and Tevis was reunited with them a year later.
Tevis learned how to play pool in high school through a friend who went on to own a pool hall. You’ll see why this bit of information matters in a minute. Tevis attended college at the University of Kentucky and received a Master’s Degree in English Literature from the University. Tevis played chess and he was an alcoholic.
Tevis taught in a Kentucky High School as well as the University of Northern Kentucky and then at Ohio University. He wrote several successful novels that you will recognize including: The Hustler, The Color of Money and The Man Who Fell to Earth. Impressive to say the least.
For those of you who have not watched the Netflix series, the Queen’s Gambit is a coming-of-age story about Beth Harmon, a young girl who is also a chess prodigy. Beth is orphaned when her mother dies in a car wreck. Beth is sent to an orphanage which provides the children sedatives daily. Apparently, this was legal at the time. Beth learns how to play chess from the janitor at the orphanage and she steals away to the basement as often as she can to play the game that has captivated her. The janitor quickly realizes that Beth is talented and asks the local high school chess club teacher to play a game of chess with Beth. Seeing Beth’s talent, the chess club teacher invites Beth to play chess with the members of the club. As one would hope, Beth beats every other player in the chess club and then goes on to win several tournaments.
When it is no longer legal to give the children a daily sedative, Beth steals some pills from the orphanage pharmacy and overdoses. While she recovers, her punishment is that she may no longer play chess. A year later, Beth is adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Wheatley who live in Lexington (a nod to Tevis’s time at the University of Kentucky). The reader quickly learns that Beth was adopted to be a companion to Mrs. Wheatley since her husband travels for work. But the marriage is floundering, and the couple soon separate. While far from perfect, Mrs. Wheatley is a kind woman and desires to be a good mother to Beth.
Upon realizing that Beth is a good player, Mrs. Wheatley sees Beth’s talent as a way to keep herself and Beth afloat financially. Mrs. Wheatley arranges all the travel and Beth plays chess. The book takes the reader to tournaments in Mexico, Las Vegas, Paris and eventually Russia for the ultimate test. Tevis shows us some interesting characters along the way and gives us a glimpse into the Russian fascination with chess. He also helps us understand what it must be like to intuitively comprehend such a complex game and be in love with the game.
While the book covers many scenes where Beth is playing chess, in her head, while practicing or at a tournament, I didn’t find this as a deterrent for someone who doesn’t know the game. In fact, I found these scenes to be riveting. I have read that the sales of chess sets have gone through the roof since the release of the Queen’s Gambit on Netflix and I can certainly appreciate people’s enthusiasm for the game. Whether you choose to read the book, watch the series or both, the Queen’s Gambit will move you and stay with you for a long time.
David MacMurchy, CEO of Lightship a company that organizes and manages remote clinical trials discusses remote clinical trials and how they can increase speed to market while maintaining patient safety.
According to Accell Clinical Research by mid-2019 there were over 322K research studies registered worldwide with 100K in the US. Typically, the participant is required to be located within a defined radius of a designated facility, usually a major Health System in a major city which means many eligible potential participants cannot participate due to geography. But, geography does not necessarily have to be a constraint for all clinical trials.
Remote clinical trials have been on the rise and allow for the collection of data remotely and are effective and appropriate for many trials. The introduction of remote clinical trials means more patients have access to participate in this type of important research.
Show notes: Favorite Books: The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom; Things I Learned on the 6.28: A Guide To Daily Reading by Stig Abell ; The Powerful and the Damned: Private Diaries in Turbulent Times by Lionel Barber.
Voluntary benefits are typically limited benefit policies designed around a specific condition or event such as cancer, an accident or a hospitalization and usually paid by the employee. These policies usually pay out large sums of money $5,000 - $50,000 when the employee is diagnosed with a covered condition. While the payout is attractive with a Voluntary Benefit these payouts are often tied to infrequent events.
Brella is a new type of Voluntary Benefits company that is proposing to change the Voluntary Benefits game. From the benefits payout to the claims filing process, Brella is rethinking the customer experience and product value.
Shownotes: Books: GANDHI: The Years That Changed the World, 1914-1948 By Ramachandra Guha; Podcast B-Time.
Atomic Habits Book Review: I thought the book Atomic Habits by James Clear would be good to read over the holidays. I like to make New Year resolutions so I thought if I could learn some new approaches as to how to make these resolutions stick, that would be helpful.
Let me begin by stating that this is a really quick read. I read it in one afternoon. I credit the author with describing the concepts simply and succinctly. I appreciate the fact that he avoided repeating the same information over and over.
The premise of Atomic Habits is that small changes compound over time, significantly improving our lives in the long term. Clear stresses that we should not focus on goals, rather we should focus on the systems we need to put in place to achieve the desired outcome. Clear also encourages readers to focus on changing our own identities – to focus on who we want to become. For example, if you are in the process of quitting smoking and someone offers you a cigarette, you should not say, “No thanks, I am trying to quit.” Rather, you should say, “No thanks, I am not a smoker”. The latter statement changes your identity from someone who is trying to quit to someone who is not a smoker. At my Weight Watchers meetings we call this “self-talk” and it’s an important part of any behavior change.
Clear’s framework includes 4 steps: Cue, Craving, Response, Reward. The Cue triggers your brain to create a behavior. The Craving is the motivation you have behind the habit or what you desire to change. Response is the habit you perform, and the Reward is the end goal of the habit. Clear states that if our behavior is insufficient in ANY WAY in these four stages, we won’t be able to create a habit. Understanding this, I highlighted a lot in this book and reread the areas I highlighted hoping to retain as much as possible.
To ensure that a habit change is successful, Clear gives us Four Laws of Behavior Change and, just as important in my mind, he gives us Four INVERSE laws of Behavior change. I’ll share the law and the inverse law with examples, so you gain an understanding of what the author means.
- Law #1 is Make it obvious – and the inverse is make it INVISIBLE. As an example, put the fresh fruit on the counter and hide the cookies in the back of the pantry
- Law #2 is Make it attractive and the inverse is make it UNATTRACTIVE. Put a book next to your bed if you want to read a little at night and put your cell phone in another room.
- Law #3 is Make it easy and the inverse is make it DIFFICULT. Changing your environment such as putting your workout clothes on the bed means when you get home you are more likely to change into them and go for a run. If you want to stop playing a game on your phone, you delete the app.
- Law #4 is Make it satisfying and the inverse is make it UNSATISFYING. This rule is a bit more nuanced. Habits need some semblance of reward to keep you motivated and this is where the author tells us to focus, on small progressive steps. If you want to stop eating out so much, have a jar where you put money each time you eat at home and label the jar with an activity you want to do in the future such as taking a trip. Conversely – you could put money in a jar every time you eat you and then give that money away to a charity. While it is hard to say this is unsatisfying, the point is…do something that “punishes” when your behaviors are not in synch with who you want to be.
I also learned from this book that creating a new habit is not so much about time, rather it is about frequency. Clear states that we should never miss more than one which really resonates. Don’t miss more than one gym workout at a time. Don’t schedule a meeting over your time reserved for writing more than once. If you do, then you will continue the bad habit.
Clear offers us a lot of good tips in this book and while it is definitely worth the read for these tips, what is even more powerful is learning about James Clear’s personal story. Once you learn about what he overcame, you realize that he is sharing from deep personal experience and for me, learning from the experiences of others is the best form of motivation.
So start your year off right with Atomic Habits, by James Clear.
Dr. Paul Grundy is known as “The Godfather” of the Patient Centered Medical Home. He is also the founding President of The Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative. Dr. Grundy shares the history of the PCMH and tells us how this has evolved over time. He shares why it’s all about the data and gives us a refreshing look at why we need to focus on population health.
Show notes: Favorite Podcasts: This Week in Virology.
Books: Provider-Led Population Health Management by Richard Hodach; Trusted Healers: Dr. Paul Grundy and The Global Healthcare Crusade by Dan Pelino; Lost and Found: A Consumer’s Guide to Healthcare by Peter Anderson and Paul Grundy; and The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care by T.R. Reid.
There is a growing trend in the healthcare ecosystem where providers are focused on a specific population of individuals. Maven Clinic is a platform that focuses on the entire parenthood experience from pre-conception or adoption through birth and keeping your little ones healthy moving forward. We are going to hear from Sonia why the team at Maven Clinic chose to focus on this segment. What are the unmet needs or Jobs to be Done as I like to say?
Show Notes: Favorite Podcasts: B-Time with Beth Bierbower; How I Built This with Guy Raz; Hidden Brain with Shankar Vendantam; Bright Spots in Healthcare with Eric Glazer. Favorite Books: Talking To Strangers: What We Should Know About The People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell.
Great Quote: “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”
Consumers spend $1 Trillion annually in out of pocket healthcare costs and premiums yet they don’t have a lot of control over their spend. In fact, many consumers don’t see healthcare as a purchase. Author of The Health Care Consumer’s Manifesto, Deb Gordon shares patient’s stories and provides the reader with a view into the consumer’s view of the healthcare system. This is a must read for any individual who is working in the healthcare.
Show notes; Favorite Podcasts: The New Yorker Fiction Podcast: The Writer’s Voice Podcast. Books: Watershed by Mark Barr: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi.
Maria Thomas has had a unique career covering such well-known brands as The World Bank Group, Amazon, NPR and Etsy. Maria’s intellectual curiosity and her ability to see where the puck is going has afforded her the opportunity to work with bright people and help drive each organization forward in its digital transformation. Join us as we hear from Maria, what skills are transferrable across industries, why customer focus matters and why it’s important to take risks.
Show notes: This episode was recorded on November 30, 2020. Maria’s favorite podcast revolve around these four themes: Media, Storytelling, Business and Healthcare. Her favorite podcasts include: Hidden Brain, Throughline, How I Built This, Freakonomics, Home HealthCare News, Masters of Scale, Meditative Story and Should This Exist, Creating A New Healthcare and Tradeoffs.
Favorite Books Include: Reinventing American Healthcare by Ezekiel Emanuel, MD; The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama; On Earth We’re briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong; Exit West by Mohsin Hamid; Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens; The Shanghai Free Taxi: Journeys With The Hustlers And Rebels Of The New China by Frank Langfitt.
Article which mentions Bezos' point of view on negative reviews
https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/jeff-bezos-says-1-thing-separates-successful-people-from-everyone-else-and-will-keep-you-from-giving-up-on-your-dreams-too-soon.html
1999 CNBC interview with Bezos in which he touches on customer centricity and long-term thinking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GltlJO56S1g
Launch of NPR Music which I referenced when talking about NPR and brand stretchability. In this 2007 article I mention some of the same points I brought up in the episode:
https://www.seattlepi.com/ae/tv/article/On-Radio-NPR-expands-its-digital-presence-1252124.php
James Allworth is a man of many talents. He is co-author of How Will You Measure Your Life w/ Clay Christensen & Karen Dillon, co-host of the Exponent Podcast 7 Head of Innovation at Cloudfare. James shares life & work lessons from the Late Prof Clay Christensen. We discuss work culture & work/life balance. We also discuss Big Tech and market power. We also discuss Tik Tok and Hauwei and privacy concerns. You don’t want to miss this engaging episode that covers a range of topics. Show Notes: Podcasts: James likes podcasts that play electronic dance. He says these are great to work out to. Books: The Innovators Dilemma by Clay Christensen; Guns, Germs & Steel: The Fate of Human Societies by Jared Diamond; The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Microsoft’s Azure business has grown to become one third of its $143B of annual revenue in 10 years. This major growth came partly from changing the sales game. Microsoft shifted its focus from traditional sales. Jeff Fattic, Customer Success Manager at Microsoft will share why focusing on creating customer value matters and how it can generate long term growth.
Show Notes: Books: Customer Success: How Innovative Companies are Reducing Churn and Growing Recurring Revenue by Nick Mehta. Microsoft’s Azure business has grown to become one third of its $143B of annual revenue in 10 years. This major growth came partly from changing the sales game. Microsoft shifted its focus from traditional sales. Jeff Fattic, Customer Success Manager at Microsoft will share why focusing on creating customer value matters and how it can generate long term growth.
Seth Sternberg, Co-founder and CEO of Honor discussed the innovations his company is making in the personal care market. It starts with focusing on the Care Professionals and treating them with respect by understanding their preference and given them agency by providing the proper training, giving them the right tools, setting expectations and ensuring they are working in the right environment.
Honor’s approach seems to working as its net promoter score from their Care Pros is 68 which is well above most employee NPS scores.
Show Notes: Seth’s chosen book is The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided By Politics And Religion by Jonathan Haidt. Seth enjoys podcasts tied to bicycles and science and his two favorite are: Marginal Gains Cycling Podcast and The Peter Attia Drive Podcast.
Endurance is the story of E.H. Shackleton and his crew of 27 men whose intent was to walk across the land mass of Antarctica. The obstacles and challenges they faced in dealing with the natural elements were, by normal standards insurmountable.
Mental Health issues are prominent today. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and older, or 18.1% of the population every year. Anxiety disorders affect 25.1% of children between 13 and 18 years old.
These disorders are plaguing a large chunk of the American population. When an individual is suffering from stress, anxiety or depression the impact reverberates far and wide. Education or work might suffer. Family relationships may become strained and more.
Trip Hofer, CEO of AbleTo shares how his organization is empowering individuals to take control of their emotional and mental health from the comfort and convenience of their own homes.
Show Notes: Podcasts: Slow Burn & Floodlines
The book Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow is not for the faint of heart. At over 700 pages or 36 hours on audio, this book is a comprehensive documentation and assessment of Hamilton’s life. Hamilton was a brilliant man who emerged from a childhood of shame as he was born out of wedlock and of poverty. He attended Kings College (now Columbia University) and continued to be a voracious, life-long learner. His speeches were known to be long, but his grasp of the issues often left people in awe.
The book mentions that perhaps Hamilton did more for our country than any other founding father and this could possibly be true. Some of Hamilton’s accomplishments include: Delegate to the Constitutional Convention and author of the Federalist Papers. He served in the military with courage and as a confidante of General George Washington provided a great deal of sound advice. He pushed hard for formation of the Bank of the United States to the dismay of popular opinion and of the opposing party. His successor from the opposing political party looked deep to find fault with Hamilton’s management of the Bank and could not find any.
As a lawyer, he often defended those who were sanctioned for their opposing political views or taken advantage of due to their lack of education or financial status. He also handle cases involving Constitutional issues in the courts. His life in public service was long and his government dealings were always under a spot light. In the end, he was shown to be extremely honest in his government affairs. With a Public Servant’s salary and the need to provide for a large extended family, Hamilton barely scraped by and was often saddled with debt. Hamilton was far from perfect as he had an extramarital affair and was often viewed as arrogant. But like most individuals, Hamilton was human and the positive and lasting impact he had on our country will be felt for a long time.
History helps us learn from our prior mistakes, understand how and why this country was shaped and to celebrate amazing victories and decisions that helped bring about and uphold our country’s freedoms. If you want to go deep on an important time and with an important figure in our nation’s history, then Alexander Hamilton is for you.
Description: The CDC estimates that 34.2 million Americans have diabetes. In 2018 1.5 million new cases of diabetes were diagnosed and the prevalence of the disease is rising. Diabetes is the leading cause of nontraumatic lower extremity amputations in the United States. As high as 1 in 4 people who develop a foot ulcer might have an amputation.
It’s difficult to understand why so many amputations occur when they are preventable. Today we will dig deeper and what can be done to ensure that foot ulcers either don’t occur or are caught early. Dr. Jon Bloom, a board-certified physician and entrepreneur with more than two decades of experience in health care delivery, technology development, patient monitoring, and biomedical research will share his expertise on this issue and will tell us what his company is doing to prevent Diabetic foot ulcers.
Dr. Jon Bloom is the CEO of Podimetrics, a care management company that helps prevent diabetic amputations, one of the most debilitating and costly complications of diabetes. Dr. Bloom co-founded Podimetrics in 2011 while a student at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Books: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t by Jim Collins; What You Do Is Who You Are: How To Create Your Business Culture by Ben Horowitz
Working from home has caused a massive shift in our lives. We’ve had to develop new routines. We’ve carved out new work and school spaces in our homes, which were designed to serve as respites from these two activities. Employees are feeling isolated because they no longer have casual interactions in the office. Working from home for the entire week, every week results in the days running together. We love our families, but all this togetherness is adding pressure. With these changes come a great deal of stress and potentially, increased social isolation.
With us today to tell us more about the impact from changes in our work routines and home environments is Arielle Trzcinski, a Senior Analyst at Forrester Research. Today, Arielle will share her perspective as to why we must address these employee stressors and provide us with us steps we can take as leaders and colleagues to identify and help when issues arise.
Show Notes: Book: Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
Podcasts: Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal; David Brancaccio; Molly Wood; Lizzie O'Leary; MakeMeSmart with Kai Ryssdal & Molly Wood; 99 Percent Invisible.
Other educational tools: NPR, Stat, Becker’s Healthcare, Fierce Healthcare, STATNews.com
Digital Transformation requires companies to develop new or better capabilities in areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Agile Work, Product Management, Big Data, Emerging Technology, Customer Experience and more. To succeed, organizations must acquire elite talent in a highly competitive talent recruitment environment. Dan Foley shares how to attract “Purple Squirrels” to your organization. He also challenges us to think about a different staffing model that can accelerate your digital transformation. Dan provides important insights into Human Capital Management needs in the areas of Digital Transformation and Technology Innovation. If your organization is undergoing a Digital Transformation, Dan’s insights and approaches will prove invaluable.
Show Notes: Our Iceberg Is Melting by John Kotter; The Alchemist by Paul Coelho and Let my People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard
We are living in an unprecedented time. The world has changed dramatically since COVID-19 began to spread widely in the first quarter of 2020 putting large swaths of populations in partial to full lockdown. There are still many unknowns about the virus and leaders have had to make decisions with limited or poor data. Which leads us to ask the question, “Exactly how does one make decisions when operating in an environment with so many unknowns?” And how does one balance the data with the potential impact on human lives and livelihoods? To help me explore these questions, I am turning to Kurt Wrobel, a well-known and highly regarded Health Actuary and President of Geisinger Health Plan.
Show notes: Books: Apollo by Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox; The Wright Brothers by David McCullough; Fire and Steam: A New History Of The Railways In Britain by Christian Wolmar. Beth suggests watching the documentary: The Saturn V Story on Amazon Prime Video. https://www.amazon.com/Saturn-V-Story-Phil-Hayward/dp/B01MRSJQKK#:~:text=April%2011%2C%202018-,%22The%20Saturn%20V%20Story%22%20is%20one%20of%20the%20most%20honest,reviewers%20complained%20about%20the%20sound.
Podcasts: Society of Actuaries; Russ Roberts on EconTalk
I was fortunate to have Ron Williams, the former Chairman and CEO of Aetna on the podcast in Episode 12. During that episode, Ron shared his leadership journey as well as how he was able to lead one of the largest turnarounds in the healthcare industry.
Ron has also authored a book titled: Learning to Lead and this book should be on every professional’s physical or electronic bookshelf. This primer is divided into three parts which offers every professional – whether he or she desires to be a leader or individual contributor – pertinent information on how to approach his or her career. In Part 1, Leading yourself, Williams suggests readers take initiative to better understand who they are, what they want to do and, perhaps more importantly, what they don’t want to do. This section also helps people reframe their thinking (particularly as to how they view themselves) and encourages them to be viewed as the individual willing to take on the tough assignment.
For professionals who do want to become people leaders, Part 2 provides a wealth of practical information such as getting to the truth by asking the right questions, understanding important versus urgent matters, and building a high performing team. Williams’ “Two up, Two down” system is an effective tool for staying in touch with what is really happening within an organization. Even if you are currently a people leader, Part 2 will serve as a good skills refresher.
Finally, Part 3 offers a glimpse into the role of the CEO and what it takes to get and stay there. Ron is honest about the time and effort it takes to succeed. He also writes with humility and conveys clearly that you are always able and need to keep learning.
Anyone who knows Williams will hear his steady, calming voice throughout the book as he freely shares his wisdom. As a colleague in the same industry, I was easily able to reconcile Williams words with his actions. Williams has mentored and shaped the career of many individuals including several females who are now CEOs at other organizations.
No matter where you are in your career, Williams’ advice will resonate. I also recommend that this book be shared with individuals who are jus starting their careers. If I had the benefit of Williams’s wisdom from the start, I would have saved myself and others the pains of making the mistakes of a young leader. This book will be on my recommendation list for those next generation leaders who want to take on the world.
Leaders in the healthcare industry speak to focusing on the home as the site of care in the future. If that’s the plan then the issue of getting supplies and equipment to the home must be addressed.
Today, the process to obtain medical equipment and supplies is fragmented across a wide base of providers, lacks reliability in getting the right product to meet a person’s clinical needs delivered on time. There is no transparency or visibility through the process. Patient’s often share that equipment or supplies show up and they don’t know what to do with them. Others state that the large quantity of supplies received speak to the waste in the healthcare system.
Tomorrow Health is a startup that is tackling these issues and with me is Vijay Kedar, Co-founder and CEO.
Show notes:
- Ben Horowitz – What you do is who you are?
- Zeke Emanuel’s – Reinventing American Healthcare
- Phil Knight – Shoe Dog
Podcasts
- A Healthy Dose – Steve Kraus and Trevor Price
- A16z podcast – healthcare and tech
- Reid Hoffman – masters of scale
The new front door of healthcare is more than a digital or physical presence, it’s who or where is top of mind when the consumer needs help accessing or navigating the health system. The new front door of healthcare is about being that TRUSTED BRAND that people turn to FIRST when thinking of healthcare. Many companies are competing to be that front door.
With us today, to talk more about this concept and what his company is doing to become a trusted brand is Marcus Osborne, SVP Walmart Health. Walmart has experimented with offering several different types of health care services such as dental, vision and even some primary care. But now, they’re “all in” to healthcare and more recently, have opened several new comprehensive Health Centers that offer primary care, dental and vision care, and health education, all for affordable fees. When an industry giant makes its mark in a different industry, it means disruption and it’s time to take notice.
Show Notes: Book: The Splendid & the Vile: A Saga of Churchil, Family and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson; TedTalks: any that involve learning about the attributes, characteristics and traits that make people successful.
Brad Holmes, Managing Vice President of Gartner defines digital transformation and shares his views on what it means to create a new, sustainable business model and the role business and IT leaders play on this journey. Brad talks about Fusion teams, shifting from a project to a product culture and more. Tune in to hear what Brad calls “the Secret Sauce”.
Show notes: Book: The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of The Building Of The Brooklyn Bridge by David McCullough. Podcasts: Anything on NPR on the weekends.
Over the last several decades a large part of the pharmacy shelf and floor space has been dedicated to non-healthcare items – makeup, food, toys, candy and more. However, in the last few years, several pharmacy retail chains have been slowly been reclaiming some of that shelf and floor space for health-related items and services. Your local Walgreen’s is one store that is seeking to do even more to bring health products, services and care back to the local neighborhood. In 2014, Walgreens took full ownership of Boots a UK and Switzerland based pharmacy chain. Since that time, the company has been focused on expanding its reach in healthcare. With us today to share more about their strategy is Giovanni Monti, SVP of Healthcare Services for Walgreens Boots Alliance.
Show notes: Books: The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John Barry; Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
Fierce Healthcare Innovation Awards: https://pages.questexnetwork.com/rs/294-MQF-056/images/FIR-HC20.Final.pdf
Dr. Toyin Ajayi Co-founder and Chief Health Officer of Cityblock Health, has lived and spent time in several different countries which has afforded her the opportunity to see different health systems in action. These experiences helped her understand the need to view an individual’s needs holistically and address physical, emotional and social care Leveraging these experiences, Dr. Ajayi helped create a leading-edge integrated care delivery model that combines primary, behavioral and social care in a community setting to serve people with the highest’s needs. Hear as Dr. Ajayi shares why Cityblock chose to develop a new model of care leveraging technology, data and predictive analytics built from the ground up. Get a glimpse of the future of primary care delivery.
Show Notes: Books: Octavia Butler’s The Parable Series: The Power of the Sower & The Power of The Talents Podcasts: The Daily, In the Bubble with Andy Slavitt, Unlocking Us with Brene Brown
Today’s healthcare silos cause a multitude of problems that range from information gaps to duplicative efforts. The patient is in the middle, often relying solely on her own capabilities to fill in the gaps or prevent redundant procedures. At best, the healthcare system is inefficient. At its worst, the healthcare system puts patients in danger. Jay Desai, CEO & Co-founder of PatientPing shares his perspective on how interoperability can solve many of these issues.
Show Notes: If air travel worked like healthcare: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J67xJKpB6c; if restaurants behaved like healthcare: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M0ooFlJmfk
Book: How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi;
Podcasts: Reframing Healthcare with Zeev Neuwirth; The ACO Show with Aledade's CEO Dr. Farzad Mostashari; This American Life; This Week In Startups with Jason Calacanis; Radiolab with Jad Abumrad; a16z Podcast; WorkLife with Adam Grant; Where Should We Begin with Esther Perel
Pharmacy costs have risen over the years and have gained the attention of regulators as well as health plans, employers, and consumers. The idea of cost transparency and rebates have also generated a lot of discussion more recently. More than 60 PBMs administer prescription drug plans for more than 270 million Americans. Our guest is JC Scott, President of the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA), which is a national association representing America’s pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs. Today, JC will explain why drug costs are high and the roles PBMs play in helping to contain costs.
Show notes: Book: March by John Lewis; Podcast: The Pharmacy Benefit by the PCMA
Full Script:
Hi Listeners, I am introducing a new concept today. Over the years, people have asked me what books I’ve been reading, and which podcasts I regularly listen to. As you know, I ask this question of our guests on each episode. Here’s the idea: From time to time I’ll share a VERY brief review of a favorite book. These reviews will cover topics that will resonate with you as a business professional and will cover a variety of genres including business, history, biography and self-help. The vast majority of these books will be non-fiction, but I might throw in a novel occasionally if the book contains a poignant message. Let me know what you think by sending a brief email to beth@bethbierbower.com and don’t forget to give B-Time a 5 start rating on your favorite podcasting platform. Now here’s our first review.
The Splendid and the Vile:
A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
By Erik Larson
I was mesmerized by Larson’s Devil in the White City and was hoping The Splendid and the Vile would hold my attention in a similar manner, and it sure did. Pushing all other leisure reading and podcasts aside, I couldn’t wait until I could steal a few moments to dive back into this book.
Larson pulls together snippets of experiences from individuals that were close to Churchill, through work or family ties, during his first year as Prime Minister. Much of this information is extracted from personal journals so the reader gets an intimate and frank perspective of Churchill that is not often captured in the history books.
When first reading this book, I wasn’t sure exactly how Larson would tie all these pieces of information together, but he did. These individual perspectives somehow unite to form the picture of a great leader. By the end of the book, Larson has created a deeply moving picture of the seemingly insurmountable challenges Churchill, his government and the British people faced during the Blitz. I’ve long admired Churchill and the British citizens but getting a vivid picture from the view of people who lived through this trying time increased that admiration and makes the phrase “Keep Calm and Carry On” even more meaningful to me. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
Understanding history allows us to learn from the suffering and sacrifice of others. Larson’s ability to engage the reader in such an important part of world history should encourage high school and college educators to include this book in their school curriculum. And if you want to be a better leader, read as much as you can about Churchill including his own writings. I can’t think of a better teacher than the man himself.
On B-Time, we bring guests to the show who refuse to accept the status quo. Our guest today, Dr. Rushika Fernandopulle is taking on the primary care delivery system. His mission in life is to transform healthcare by building a new model of care.
Rushika is a primary care physician, CEO and co-founder of Iora Health, a primary care delivery organization dedicated primarily to serving older adults. Iora is unique in that it focuses on helping patients overcome the barriers that get in the way of their health.
Show Notes: Books: Anti-Fragile: Things That Gain From Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb; Manifesto For A Moral Revolution: Practices To Build A Better World by Jacqueline Novogratz; The Second Mountain: The Quest For A Moral Life by David Brooks.
Favorite Podcasts: B-Time (of course!), Revisonist History; How I Built This; This American Life; A Second Opinion, A Healthy Dose; Zeev Neuwirth: Creating A New Healthcare.
David Weingard was a healthy 36-year-old participating in triathlons when he was diagnosed with Type I diabetes. He had no family history of the disease and no where to turn for help. He searched the internet but was overwhelmed with information. He needed someone to help him sort through all this information and help him get on the right path – quickly. Luckily, David found a diabetes educator who helped him understand that being diagnosed with Type I diabetes was not a death sentence. David’s experience was so impactful that he was determined to help others that needed someone to help guide them through a difficult and confusing experience. David shares will us his journey and how his company, Cecelia Health touches the lives of those dealing with Diabetes in an impactful and meaningful way.
Show Notes: Favorite Books: Rules for Renegades. Inspiring Quotes from the podcast: “I always finish the race.” “When you have cash coming in the door you have choices.”
Public policy has significant impact on all corporations and it’s important for business professionals to understand this topic. However, public policy issues also generate as much “noise” as they do facts so it’s difficult to sort through and understand what’s important and what’s not. Mark Newsom, Founder and Principal of Health Evaluations a Washington, DC based consulting practice gives us solid advice and good tips as to how to gain an understanding of public policy and determine how to leverage it to grow your business.
Show Notes: Podcasts: Politico's Pulse Podcast & the Gist Podcast
In March of 2020, the US was beginning to shut down. Restaurants and bars were closed. Schools and libraries shut their doors. A debate was raging over the definition of an essential worker. CEO Keith Jones had to determine how to serve a precious and vulnerable population, children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, while ensuring continuity of care and the safety of his employees. I speak with Keith about key leadership decisions and the guiding principles he used to make these decisions during a time of many unknowns. Keith’s journey is truly a lesson in great leadership from which listeners will greatly benefit.
Gabe Flateman was one of several co-founders at Casper who took a painful, opaque experience and brought transparency, simplicity and joy to consumers. Now, Flateman is poised to do the same in healthcare. As co-founder and CTO of Tomorrow Health, Flateman is rethinking the world of home-based services such as Durable Medical Equipment which is often wrought with complexity and delays putting some of healthcare’s most vulnerable populations at risk. Hear how Flateman has learned from his experiences at Casper and elsewhere to rethink the consumer experience in home care. Having founded several companies, Flateman shares his journey, views on culture and some advice is you are thinking about a startup.
Show notes:
The Price We Pay: What Broke American Healthcare – and How to Fix it by Marty Makary; Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
Podcasts: This American Life; The Daily; Radiolab
In 2001, Ron Williams joined Aetna as its President and was charged alongside its CEO to right the ship. Williams was known for his operational chops but he soon discovered that Aetna needed to improve more than its processes, it needed to overhaul its culture and he proved to be the right man for the job. Williams later became Chairman and CEO of Aetna continuing to successfully grow the company and transition it within a rapidly changing healthcare ecosystem. Ron shares stories of how he was able to change the culture and return Aetna to a strong competitive position. Ron also shares his approach and philosophy to leadership. In his new book, Learning to Lead, Williams helps guide individuals at any stage of their careers by helping them understand: 1) Leading Yourself, 2) Leading Others and 3) Leading an Organization. This book is a “must have” for any professional, regardless of your title or desire to lead, you’ll be sure to learn something that will help you in your career.
Show notes: www.ronwilliams.net
Books: Book of the Dead (320 obituaries from the New York Times; Turning the Flywheel, by Jim Collins; A Crack in Creation by Jennifer Doudna; The Amazon Management System by Ram Charam
Podcasts: Malcom Gladwell: Revisionist History
Bea Wray stepped off the career ladder to be with her then very young children. Upon re-entering the business world, Wray lacked the confidence that she still had the skills she needed to be a successful executive. Wray leaned into her parenting skills to not only get back on the ladder but to keep climbing. Wray shares how she juggled her work and personal life and not always successfully. Wray’s authenticity and her approach for taking on a problem one bite at a time, serves as encouragement to anyone who is intimidated by the notion of jumping into the business world after some extended time off and still retaining a healthy relationship with your children.
Show notes: www.beawray.com
Bea's book What My MBA Taught Me But My Children Made me Learn. Available for pre-order on Amazon. Release date is December 1, 2020.
Favorite Books: Brene Brown: Daring Greatly, Rachel Hollis: Girl Stop Apologizing.
Professor Gordon Hewitt tells us that traditional corporate strategy tools such as SWAT analysis and identifying corporate competive advantage won't work in today's complex and dynamic marketplaces. Today's competitive dynamics fundamentally alter the nature and basis of competition. Companies must focus on value creation and not just incremental improvements. Organizations must shift their mindsets from better processes for the exisitng game, to creating new mindsets for new games. Professor Hewitt shares compelling arguments as to why companies need to rethink their corporate strategies.
Show notes: drghewitt@aol.com
Bunny Ellerin has a knack for seeing opportunities to create connections. First, she created the HBS HealthCare Industry Alumni Network and then she co-founded NYC Healthcare Business Leaders. In both situations Ellerin saw an unmet need, that people need to be connected and sharing information and experiences with each other and helping with career networking. Listen as Bunny shares how an accident propelled her into healthcare and how she has leveraged her unique career in business, academia, the medical community and academia to help herself and others collaborate and innovate.
Books: Reimagining Capitalism by Rebecca Henderson
Podcasts: Conversations with Dr. Bauchner
Follows Digital/Tech journalist Kara Swisher
Lightening strikes twice (in a good way) for Josh Landy, cofounder of Play with a Legend and founder of Bake with a Legend. Landy formed not one, but two successful businesses ased on former UK footballers and contestants from The Great British Baking Show. Josh makes dreams come true for individuals who want to interact with their favorite sports hero or baker. Tune in and hear Josh's journey and secrets to success!
Show notes: favorite podcasts include: How I Built This, Humans of Hospitality and Gary Vee. Social media: www.playwithalegend.com, www.bakewithalegend.com, @playwithalegend, @bakewithalegend
Have you ever felt like work was draining every ounce of your energy and you just couldn't get it back? If you want to be at the top of your game at work, you have to take time to refuel and re-energize. Lisa Levy Shaub is both a coach and coach mentor at WW. Lisa has helped thousands of people over her career including celebrities such as Oprah. Join Lisa as she talks about characteristics of resilient people and shares tips on how you can build your resiliency skills and be the best you can be.
Show notes: Instagram Lisa_NYC_Coach Linkedin: Lisa Levy Shaub,
This is Water 9 min video David Foster Wallace,
Amy Cuddy -- Power poses
How to make Stress our Friend Kelly Mcgonigal (TED TALK)
Mindset Carol Dweck Kristin Neff -- Self Compassion TED TALK
Telehealth has seemingly exploded overnight but in reality, this tool has been around for 80 years. The rapid increase is the result of the Coronavirus and the temporary relaxation of Federal and State regulations. What will happen after the Public Health Emergency is over? Join me as I discuss the growth of telehealth and what must happen to sustain the momentum in the future with Ann Mond Johnson, CEO of the ATA.
Show notes: Favorite Book: Endurance, Shackleton's Incredible Journey https://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Shackletons-Incredible-Alfred-Lansing/dp/0465062881/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1ZNP3UYX5FEX7&dchild=1&keywords=endurance+book&qid=1593638571&sprefix=endurance%2Caps%2C176&sr=8-2
www.americantelemed.org
Individuals have often found difficulty in accessing care for mental health and/or substance abuse issues. According to the National Institute of mental health, 1 in 5 adults have a mental health issue. Of those adults with a mental illness, only 42% receive treatment. For adolescents aged 13 – 18, 45% have a mental illness.
Substance Abuse also continues to be a problem. According to statistics from the Addiction Center, almost 21 million adults in the US have a Substance Abuse Disorder. Deaths due to overdose have tripled since 1990 and, between 1999 – 2017 over 700,000 Americans have died from a drug overdose. In 2017 34.2 million Americans received a DUI.
Anna Lindow, CEO and Co-founder of Brave Health is one of the many leaders stepping up to the challenge of helping people find quality, affordable behavioral healthcare. Anna, shares her vision and passion for behavioral health and offers an inside look at leadership inside a startup.
Shownotes: www.bebravehealth.com Film: The Last Dance: The Untold Story of Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls.
Cindy O’Dare real estate Broker extraordinaire, tells us how she acquired high profile clients like the Bee Gees, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and Eric Clapton by opening herself up to opportunities and taking chances. With over $1B in lifetime sales, Cindy shares how she acquired the entrepreneurial bug, and why it’s important to say “yes” and open yourself up to the many possibilities in front of you. Cindy's favorite book is "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie.
Customer behavior has changed suddenly with safety being a top concern. Frank Capek, Partner and Transformation Design Leader at Innosight, a strategic consulting firm focused on innovation, shares why companies must quickly adapt to serve both customers and employees in a way that addresses their concerns for safety, financial security and basic living needs. Many organizations are rethinking their operating models and must ensure, they don't lose site of the customer experience.
Notes: For more information on Ikigai go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikigai