The Business of Healthcare Podcast

Episode 42: The Age of Healthcare Consumerism

Ken Robbins, CEO and founder of Response Mine Health, joins host Dr. Bob Kaiser for a discussion about what customer-focused healthcare looks like in an environment where patients play a much more active role in purchasing and consuming the healthcare services they receive.  They also discuss what healthcare providers can do to make the transition.

Aug 9, 2019

Episode 41: Hemp Farmer Jim Pollock and the Rise of CBD Oil

Hemp farmer Jim Pollock joins host Dr. Bob Kaiser for a discussion about CBD oil and tries to separate the hype from the reality — its history, explosion in popularity, path to legality and what the future holds for this controversial product.

Jul 30, 2019

Episode 40: The Impact of Medical Interpretation on Healthcare

This episode features language-access experts Esther Diaz and Manuel Higginbotham. They join host Dr. Bob Kaiser for a discussion about medical interpretation and translation and its impact on the healthcare industry. Diaz is language-access advocate and co-founder of the Texas Association of Healthcare Interpreters and Translators. Higginbotham is language-access manager for The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and president of TAHIT. They discuss training and certification, legal requirements, staffing issues and other complexities related to providing interpretation and translation services for patients who need access to healthcare services.

Links to websites discussed during the episode and other useful links:

• The 13th Annual TAHIT Educational Symposium (Sept. 13-14, 2019 in Houston)
• American Translators Association (Arlington, Va.)
• Metroplex Interpreters and Translators Association (Dallas-Fort Worth)
• Houston Interpreters and Translators Association
• Austin Area Translators and Interpreters Association (Austin, Tex. Location)
• National Council on Interpreting in Healthcare (Washington)

Jul 11, 2019

Episode 39: How Charities Help Patients Pay for Out-of-Pocket Prescription Costs

Dan Klein, president and CEO of Patient Access Network (PAN) Foundation, joins host Dr. Bob Kaiser to discuss how the charity he helms helps underinsured people pay for out-of-pocket expenses. Prescription medications that can treat life-threatening, chronic and rare diseases are often very costly. Klein discuss how PAN has put together a robust network of patient advocacy groups to link patients with resources and support to help defray those costs.

Jun 27, 2019

Episode 38: Aligning Financial Incentives with Quality Incentives

Andrew Thorby, CEO of Care Continuity, joins host Dr. Bob Kaiser to discuss the challenges the healthcare industry faces as it grapples with aligning financial incentives with quality incentives. They also discuss a LinkedIn article Thorby wrote about the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA).

Jun 11, 2019

Episode 37: Company Offers Fresh Way to Do Healthcare Benefits

Heidi Rasmussen, chief operating officer of freshbenies, joins host Dr. Bob Kaiser to discuss her company’s innovative approaches to healthcare benefits that help consumers save money and become smarter healthcare consumers. Rasmussen, a UT Dallas alumna who earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the Naveen Jindal School of Management, co-founded freshbenies with her husband, Reid.

May 24, 2019

Episode 36: Business-Savvy Nurses

Michelle Podlesni, RN, president of the National Nurses in Business Association, joins host Dr. Bob Kaiser for a discussion about how nurses can benefit from learning business skills. They also discuss her book, UnConventional Nurse: Going from Burnout to Bliss! They also touch on ways nurses can acquire business skills, such as attending the NNBA Conference and entering the NNBA Shark Tank Competition.

May 6, 2019

Episode 35: Could the U.S. Government Soon Compel Healthcare Price Transparency?

Dr. John F. McCracken, director of the MS in Healthcare Leadership and Management for Physicians program at the Naveen Jindal School of Management, joins host Dr. Bob Kaiser to discuss a recent public notice by the Department of Health and Human Services that could have wide-reaching effects on pricing transparency in the healthcare industry.

Apr 23, 2019

Episode 34: An Insider’s Advice For Entering the Healthcare Management Field

Dr. Forney Fleming visits the studio for a chat with Dr. Bob Kaiser about the preparation needed to launch a career in healthcare management. Fleming, who had a successful career as an orthopedic surgeon prior to transitioning into academia, is the director of the master’s program in healthcare leadership and management at the Naveen Jindal School of Management at UT Dallas.

Apr 2, 2019

Episode 33: The Role of Primary-Care Physicians in Transition to Value-Based Care

Christopher Crow, an MD and executive MBA graduate of the UT Dallas Naveen Jindal School of Management, joins Host Dr. Bob Kaiser for a discussion about the role that primary-care physicians can play in transitioning healthcare to value-based care. As co-founder and CEO of StratiFi Health and president of Catalyst Health Network, Crow has created a model for optimizing the patient-physician relationship to improve care and reduce costs.

Mar 20, 2019

Episode 32: The Evolution of Telemedicine to Virtual Health

Sajid Ahmed, CEO of WISE Healthcare, joins host Dr. Bob Kaiser for a discussion about why “telemedicine” is now better referred to as “virtual care.” And eventually “virtual care” will become, simply, “care,” Ahmed says, with technological advances such as artificial intelligence and increases in comfort levels among practitioners and patients who use them.

Mar 5, 2019

Episode 31: Massively Replicating Existing Fixes in Healthcare

Dave Chase, creator and co-founder of Health Rosetta, joins host Dr. Bob Kaiser to make a provocative claim: that every big problem in healthcare already has been solved. The existing challenge, Chase says, is how to massively replicate proven solutions to reduce costs, improve quality and satisfy all constituents in the healthcare ecosystem. Chase and Kaiser discuss Healthcare Rosetta’s blueprint in achieving massive changes and the progress Chase and his team have made so far.

Feb 19, 2019

Episode 30: Curtailing the Effects of Social Determinants on Spiraling Healthcare Costs

Dr. Len M. Nichols, an economist, discusses his paper, “Social Determinants as Public Goods: A New Approach To Financing Key Investments iIn Healthy Communities,” with Dr. Bob Kaiser. Nichols is director of the Center for Health Policy Research and Ethics and a professor of health policy at George Mason University. His research delves into how improving social determinants of health — factors such as economics and social conditions — can play a key role in curtailing spiraling healthcare costs.

Feb 4, 2019

Episode 29: How Medicare Bundled Payment Initiatives Can Be Used Successfully In Commercial Healthcare Markets

Dave Terry, CEO of Boston-based Archway Health, joins host Dr. Bob Kaiser, director of the master’s degree program in healthcare leadership and management for professionals at the Naveen Jindal School of Management. They discuss how healthcare payment reforms such as the bundled payment initiatives found in Medicare can fit into the commercial healthcare market to drive down costs while improving patient outcomes. Archway Health recently published a white paper in partnership with the Health Care Transformation Taskforce that explains the 10 elements essential to a bundled payment contract.

Jan 24, 2019

Episode 28: How To Become a More Effective Healthcare Consumer

Dr. Robert Kaiser, director of the master’s degree program in healthcare leadership and management for professionals at the Naveen Jindal School of Management, interviews Leslie D. Michelson, chairman and CEO of Private Health Management. They discuss key points from Michelson’s book, The Patient’s Playbook, in which he outlines how patients can best navigate today’s complex and expensive healthcare system by taking matters into their own hands and becoming more effective healthcare consumers.

Jan 7, 2019

Episode 27: Market-Based Models in Healthcare

Host Dr. Bob Kaiser converses with guest Dr. Rita Numerof, founder and CEO of St. Louis-based Numerof and Associates, about the transition from fee-for-service to market-based models in healthcare. They also discuss healthcare disruptors such as the partnerships between Amazon- JPMorgan Chase-Berkshire Hathaway, CVS-Aetna and Walgreens Humana.

Dec 17, 2018

Episode 26: The “Human Factors” Approach to Redesigning and Improving Healthcare Delivery

In this episode, Dr. C. Adam Probst, Director of Human Factors Clinical Operations for the Baylor Scott & White Health Corporate Office of Patient Safety in Dallas, joins Dr. Bob Kaiser, director of the master’s degree program in healthcare leadership and management for professionals at the Naveen Jindal School of Management to discuss how cognitive engineering is used in in healthcare.

The way people arrive at and use health processes, procedures and results are key components of cognitive engineering, the “human factors” approach, to medicine. Probst and Kaiser discuss how Probst analyzes and acts on human factors to improve the design of healthcare delivery.

Dec 4, 2018

Episode 25: How Cognitive Computing Can Break Down Silos Between Healthcare Providers and Payers

In this episode, host Dr. Bob Kaiser, director of the master’s degree program in healthcare leadership and management for professionals at the Naveen Jindal School of Management chats with Joan Butters, co-founder and CEO of Xsolis, a healthcare technology firm based in Nashville, Tenn.

Inefficiencies in information sharing between healthcare providers and payers are one of the major problems driving high costs in the industry. Butters and Kaiser discuss the roles that high-tech tools such as cognitive computing, artificial intelligence and data analytics can play in breaking down those silos.

Nov 19, 2018

Episode 24: Health Insurance Costs, Part 2

In Part One of this two-part series about spiraling healthcare costs, Dr. Britt Berrett and Den Bishop, president of Holmes Murphy, discussed ways to get a handle on spiraling healthcare costs from the perspective of the healthcare insurance industry. In Part Two, they tackle Medicare and consider the idea of a single-payer-for-all system.

Nov 2, 2018

Episode 23: Health Insurance Costs, Part 1

Dr. Britt Berrett speaks with Den Bishop, president of Holmes Murphy, for a two-part series on spiraling healthcare costs. Bishop leads a Dallas-based consulting firm that connects employers with cost-effective, custom-built health insurance plans. In part one, Berrett and Bishop discuss ways to get a handle on spiraling healthcare costs from the perspective of the healthcare insurance industry.

Oct 23, 2018