Ideas in the Wild: Jeb Dunkelberger is Proposing Real, Comprehensive Solutions to the Problems Plaguing the American Healthcare System
Trillions of dollars spent every year, billions wasted, and all of it at the expense of American families. This reality is the American healthcare economy.
But here’s the good news: this industry was created by humans, which means it can be fixed by humans too. Unlike a rare disease with an unknown pathology, healthcare has known variables and processes — and we hold the power to change it.
In his new book Rich & Dying, Jeb Dunkelberger explains the problems and provides a framework for real, comprehensive solutions. Throughout his decorated career, Jeb and his teams have saved the industry billions in avoidable expenditures. I caught up with Jeb to learn more about what inspired him to write the book and his favorite ideas he shares with readers.
What happened that made you decide to write the book? What was the exact moment when you realized these ideas needed to get out there?
First and foremost I was exposed to the incredible cost of healthcare at 16 years old when my stepmother fought for six years and ultimately died from brain cancer. It was over $2 million in today’s dollars, obviously split between insurance coverage and my family’s cost-share.
Over the last ten years I’ve worked in Provider, Payer (Insurance), Technology, and Advisory (consulting) domains and felt that I had gathered enough of a perspective to develop an informed perspective on the industry — and I was devastated to realize that we are on an unsustainable trajectory as a sector. Cost of care is way too high, it’s keep wage growth stagnant in many industries (as the employer has to continue to pay more to cover the insurance cost and can increase wages) and the quality of care continues to lag behind other comparable companies that literally pay half as much as we do.
I’ve worked in twelve cities the last ten years and met incredible people from across the industry and have realized that there is a fast-growing subculture within our industry that knows there is a better way, continuously asks “why does it have to be this way,” and have demonstrated sustainable improvements within their microcosms. But they can’t impact the broader trajectory due to the fact they’re siloed and the belief that they’re the minority.
When in reality, I believe the majority of people in our industry want to do the right thing but can’t influence the broader sector trajectory due to the forces at play.
What’s your favorite specific, actionable idea in the book?
I think there are two parts to this response. There are actions for both the short and long-term. In the short-term, readers need to continue to ask the question “why?” We must have more people simply dig deeper into why things are done the way they are today in our healthcare sector, with an emphasis placed on understanding the root cause: i.e. who is making money off of the specific area of question, why is it remaining as the status quo, and do those interests (financial or otherwise) align with the broader populus?
The second action, which has a long-term focus, should be to join the Rich & Dying LinkedIn page where like-minded professionals will come together and continue to galvanize around a unified effort to reform the broader sector. This group will have projects focused on the local and federal level. I also think it’s incredible to see how many professionals share such similar perspectives, and together can have a material impact on the trajectory of our sector.
What’s a story of how you’ve applied this lesson in your own life? What has this lesson done for you?
Well I think the very act of writing this book has forced me to ask “why?” to just about every element of our delivery and insurance industry. This has also required me to reach out to many friends and industry experts for their opinions, which has shown me that there are an incredible amount of people who feel very similar to me that there must be a better way, but the foundational cornerstones of our sector are not going to allow for many of the reform efforts that we’ve tried before. This has shown me that we need three things to really make a change:
1) People need to realize that it’s ok to ask “why” and go against the grain if they feel a system is not aligned to the constituents that pay for it
2) These people need to realize there is strength and comfort in numbers; it will take thousands of professionals to truly see a sector-wide transformation through
3) If you know something is wrong, and you do nothing about it, then how do you live knowing people are dying of avoidable deaths and losing their homes and financial freedom from unavoidable situations?
For me, professionally, I’ve also moved to a leadership position in a formidable company that I think is uniquely positioned to drive much of the change discussed in the book. Taking this career jump has allowed me to “put my money where my mouth is” and begin to illustrate ways to make the change happen in real-time. I do not wish to be one that stands back and points out where others could have done better. I want to be in the foxholes with my fellow colleagues, solving the hard stuff together. I think this process also keeps you grounded, humbled, and based in plausible improvement ideas rather than the hypothetical and theoretical visions that so many romanticize but few truly try to implement.