The FREOPP Brain Trust: Marty Makary
Marty Makary has taken on powerful interests driving up the price of health care — and won.
In August of 2019, Marty Makary and a team of researchers at Johns Hopkins University published a paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association entitled “Prevalence and Characteristics of Virginia Hospitals Suing Patients and Garnishing Wages for Unpaid Medical Bills.” Marty’s team searched 2017 Virginia court records, and discovered tens of thousands of lawsuits by hospitals against Virginians for unpaid medical bills. 71 percent of the hospitals engaging in garnishment of patients’ wages were “non-profit” in name.
Intuitively, it makes sense for hospitals to get paid what they’re owed. But in many cases, hospitals intentionally charge unaffordable prices, far higher than what insurers pay, often through surprise medical bills that patients never agreed to. Lawyers working for the hospitals scour patients’ records to identify homes and other property that they can seize. Students at the University of Virginia were barred from enrolling if they had outstanding hospital bills.
Patients who can’t afford to pay can lose their homes. In Virginia, some sold their clothes to pay their electric bills. A follow-on study found that just ten hospitals are responsible for 97 percent of hospital lawsuits against patients in the U.S., led by Virginia Commonwealth University’s medical center and the University of Virginia’s University Hospital.
The public outrage resulting from Marty’s research led VCU and UVa to end the practice of suing patients for unpaid bills. “This is a proud moment for us,” said UVa Health System chief financial officer Douglas Lischke.
Patients, on the other hand, were proud of Marty and his team, who showed that a small group of dedicated researchers could make a difference in the lives of tens of thousands of patients. “Financial toxicity is a medical complication,” says Marty. “Our oath to care for people means taking care of the entire person.”
Martin Adel Makary was born in Liverpool, England, and grew up in Baltimore and central Pennsylvania, where his father was a hematologist at the Geisinger Medical Center. “The culture of rural Pennsylvania was extremely gracious and welcoming, even for an Egyptian guy from Liverpool,” he says. Marty then went to Bucknell, where he majored in biological sciences. After Bucknell, Marty graduated from Thomas Jefferson University’s Sidney Kimmel Medical College, and then obtained a Master’s in Public Health at Harvard, where he also served as student body president. “I absolutely loved every minute of learning and the chance to serve in student government.”
Marty joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 2002, where he pioneered “The Surgery Checklist,” a simple routine of common steps, like reviewing the surgical plan before operating, that dramatically improved surgical outcomes for patients. The checklist was made famous by Atul Gawande in his book, The Checklist Manifesto.
In 2019, Marty published his second New York Times bestselling book, The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care — and How to Fix It, described as “a must-read for every American” by Steve Forbes and “a deep dive into the real issues driving up the price of health care” by Don Berwick, who served as the acting director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under President Obama. The book tells the harrowing stories of patients who struggle to navigate an unaccountable system of six-figure bills and indifferent health care executives. The book also shows how a group of disruptors are re-designing health care to make it more honest, more precise, and more affordable. “The movement to restore medicine to its mission is alive and well,” Marty says. “We are seeing a grass-roots movement to cut the waste in the system and deliver high-quality care in a way that consumers love.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Marty was a leading voice, alongside FREOPP, in arguing for a balanced, science-based approach to economic and social restrictions. In his role advising H-E-B, the Texas-based grocery chain, Marty worked closely with H-E-B management to ensure that the company could keep its essential workers safe, and deliver food to millions of Texans.
As a member of FREOPP’s Board of Advisors, Marty works with us to identify ways we can learn from our response to the pandemic, and more broadly to build a better, fairer, more affordable health care system. “FREOPP is an impressive group of people, unafraid to challenge establishment thinking on behalf of everyday Americans. It’s an honor to be a part of FREOPP’s work to infuse fresh new ideas into health care.”
Follow Marty on Twitter: @MartyMakary
