Bill Gurley Talks Healthcare Consumerization and Solv with Ezra Klein

This week, Solv investor and board member, Bill Gurley, was invited as a guest on Vox’s “The Ezra Klein Podcast” to talk about one big trend he believes is happening now: the consumerization of healthcare. What ensues is a fascinating debate about the American healthcare system and The United States’ unique reliance on employer-sponsored healthcare coverage. Ezra and Bill also discuss potential impact that consumer applications like Solv, One Medical, telemedicine and others could have on how we access healthcare. You can listen to the podcast here, The Ezra Klein Show: VC Bill Gurley on transforming health care.

And because podcasts are long, some of our favorite highlights: (Edited for brevity)

38 minute mark: Bill on urgent care providers anticipating the needs of the consumer and meeting them there from office hours to parking to asking for reviews.

Bill posits that the switch to high deductible healthcare plans (HDHPs) is driving change in the marketplace and that change is actually resulting in better care for consumers. Urgent care providers are great example of this: they have way more focus on the consumer and entrepreneurism than any general practitioner has ever had. For example, pediatric urgent care facilities are open from 4:30pm — midnight because they know kids are in school from 8am — 3:00pm and parents are at work. A move towards creating better shoppers [of healthcare] can create better primary care.

1:00 hour mark: Bill argues that the consumerization of healthcare is already starting to happen; we’ve seen it happen in industries that were deemed “too big” to change.

Consumers have lived through this transformation in other industries. The financial industry is a great example of this where previously, consumers were beholden to “bank hours” which were 9:00am — 3:00pm and arguably because of this transformation in the banking world, today’s generation probably won’t know what that phrase means.

1:02 hour mark: Companies like Solv are building a technology layer to enable providers to deliver convenience — in addition to a great healthcare experience — to consumers.

Solv has built a marketplace on top of urgent care providers and is focused specifically on convenience: letting patients book a same-day doctor’s appointment when they need it most. In fact, 80% of its users are sitting in front of a doctor in 2 hours and at the same time, enabling providers to deliver this consumer-centric experience.

1:07 hour mark: Ezra agrees that consumers are already habituated when it comes to convenience, it makes sense that we’ll demand that with healthcare.

If you listen, we would love to hear your thoughts on Bill and Ezra’s different perspectives in the comments!