Healthcare Q&A with Dave Chase
Dave Chase, author of The CEO’s Guide to Restoring the American Dream, The Opioid Crisis Wake-Up Call, and Co-Founder of Health Rosetta, was in Chicago recently speaking at Jellyvision’s Big Ideas Summit.
Dave spoke on the state of healthcare in Chicago — why costs keep rising, the overprescription of opioids, lack of high-quality doctors, and how we begin to fix all of this.
We had the opportunity to connect with Dave for a quick Q&A for The Healthcare Renaissance blog.
How far and wide is the healthcare revolution spreading?
At long last, change in healthcare has shifted from the “talk” phase to the “walk” phase. It’s amazing to see it happening in every corner of the country, in small and large organizations, in public and private employers and in rural and urban areas. Americans know that the healthcare system is broken and needs to be changed. It’s why healthcare reform is a hot topic in the 2020 election. The wise presidential campaigns will draw on the proven success of a DIY health reform movement that is well underway. They are learning the 8 Steps That Could Save Employers $500 Billion And Boost Education.
What are some current reforms?
Forward-looking organizations are shedding the tyranny of low expectations, where the best you can hope for is a “less bad” premium increase. The fact is that clinicians receive under $0.25 for every $1 ostensibly spent on healthcare. The many employers spending 20–55% less per capita on healthcare with superior benefits/outcomes are simply shedding the parts that aren’t truly healthcare. Namely, price gouging from often ineffective hospitals and drug supply chains.
What’s the effect of price gouging on the average American?
For the average worker who needs surgery, the old PPOs that facilitated price gouging with expensive cost-sharing plans bankrupted the average family. Hospitals are notorious for encouraging extractive PPOs because they benefit from health plans that mindlessly agree to pay their costly prices. It’s a driving force behind why the US outspends every other country in healthcare. By encouraging transparent pharmacy benefits and transparent open networks, that average worker can get care at a high-quality hospital for a fraction of the price. That translates to real change in people’s lives. Money that would have been spent on expensive healthcare can be allocated elsewhere: saving for a child’s college fund, buying a house, retirement.
Can you talk more about how we can make the healthcare industry more transparent?
We need visible prices that echo the “Fair Trade” approach where hospitals and clinics aren’t charging certain patients a different price. Hospitals and physicians need to be transparent and upfront about the costs of all services included as well as safety data regarding a hospital, procedure, or drug.
Additionally, hospitals and physicians have a moral duty to provide their patients with value-based care. We need to be honest with patients about effective treatments, specifically the least invasive options, and not just push the most expensive treatment. At the end of the day, it’s about helping people and saving lives. As healthcare professionals, the core principle of our job is to work in the best interest of the patient.
What is the human impact of these positive healthcare changes?
As great as it is to remove the waste and abuse, it’s the human impact on members of health plans that gets those in the vanguard of positive benefits change excited. For example, the hourly convenience store worker who took her family on a vacation for the first time ever because she was relieved of high-cost sharing for the expensive medication she was on. Why? Her employer got wise about drug sourcing and saved huge amounts so waived the co-pays.
