The Business of Healthcare Podcast

Episode 22: A Look at the Chaotic and Complex Healthcare Insurance Industry

Dr. Robert Kaiser, director of the MS is Healthcare Leadership and Management program for professionals at the Naveen Jindal School of Management, joins Dr. Britt Berrett for a discussion about the chaotic and complex healthcare insurance industry. Kaiser recently joined the Jindal School faculty after 12 years as Senior Vice President at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He co-founded the company’s Health Benefit Solutions division, an integrated offering within Merrill Lynch retirement services that is focused on healthcare and longevity. In this episode, he offers a look at that industry from an insider’s perspective.

Sep 24, 2018

Episode 21: Healthcare: To Ration or Not to Ration?

Dr. Britt Berrett discusses whether we have reached that critical juncture in healthcare at which rationing is now a necessity. If so, how do we make the tough decisions to implement such a drastic measure?

Sep 12, 2018

Episode 20: Strategies for Recruiting and Retaining Top Healthcare Talent During Physician Shortage

In this episode, Bob Collins, managing partner of The Medicus Firm, joins host Jimmie Markham and co-host Dr. Britt Berrett to discuss the challenges associated with the increasing physician shortage and the strategies recruiting companies use to hire and retain top healthcare talent.

Jul 12, 2018

Episode 19: Dr. Britt Berrett Appears on KLIF Radio Show “Leading the Way”

In this special episode, Dr. Britt Berrett makes a guest appearance on “Leading the Way,” a live interview show on KLIF 570-AM during which business leaders discuss their secrets for creating cultures of high performance and success. Berrett discusses his journey to success, including:

1. What he learned both in his first job and as a midnight-shift hospital administrator
2. The two life experiences that caused him to become involved in healthcare,
3. His top two mentors,
4. The most significant experience that developed his skills as a leader,
5. The best advice he would give to the next generation of healthcare leaders,

And much, much more.

Jul 3, 2018

Episode 18: Educational Requirements To Pursue a Healthcare Management Career

Dr. Britt Berrett interviews healthcare management major Meagan McDonald, a student at the Naveen Jindal School of Management who is pursuing a fast-track program that will earn her both a BS in Healthcare Management and an MS in Healthcare Leadership and Management in five years. They discuss the educational requirements needed to succeed as an administrator in the healthcare industry today.

Jun 22, 2018

Episode 17: Mark Madden on Soft Skills Healthcare Leaders Need

Host Jimmie Markham, communications manager for the Naveen Jindal School of Management at The University of Texas at Dallas, welcomes Mark Madden to the show. Madden is executive vice president and managing principal of Cejka Executive Search.

They discuss the leadership soft skills needed to thrive at various career levels in the healthcare industry today. Madden offers advice to entry-level and midlevel administrators as well as C-suite executives on the building blocks they need to be successful.

Jun 1, 2018

Episode 16: Telemedicine Could Become the Future of Acute Care

WellVia Chief Technology Officer Peyton Reaves joins Britt Berrett to discuss telemedicine. Proponents of this healthcare model, through which patients can contact a physician via phone, website, video chat or app, believe that it is the future of acute care.

Reaves and Berrett talk about the details, including how technology solves the problem of clogged emergency rooms, whether telemedicine will move into specialty medicine and chronic care, and how WellVia cleared the regulatory hurdles put in place for remote-care practitioners.

May 7, 2018

Episode 15: What is the Future of Healthcare?

Host Dr. Keith Thurgood discusses the future of healthcare with guest Dr. John McCracken, the program director of the Alliance for Physician Leadership, an educational partnership between UT Dallas and UT Southwestern Medical Center based at the Naveen Jindal School of Management.

The program trains practicing physicians in the business practices needed to lead healthcare change in a volatile industry. Thurgood and McCracken discuss the implications of the switch from fee-based to value-based medicine, how long that transition might take and the disruptions that could make for a rocky transition.

Mar 19, 2018

Episode 14: Mabu the Healthcare Robot

Mabu, the personal healthcare companion robot, makes an appearance in this episode via her creator, Cory Kidd, founder and CEO of Catalia Health. Guest host Keith Thurgood, director of the Jindal School’s MS in Healthcare Leadership and Management for Professionals program, asks Kidd about healthcare challenges related to cost and quality associated with chronic-disease care management and how Catalia’s unique artificial intelligence solution addresses them.

Mar 5, 2018

Episode 13: Apps, Pricing Transparency and Sigma Six for Healthcare

Dr. Britt Berrett interviews David Toomey, senior vice president of Sharecare’s enterprise division. They talk about how Sharecare’s digital solutions and other technology can put more information into healthcare consumer hands. They also discuss how pricing transparency and Six Sigma in healthcare knowledge and processes will empower consumers and employers, and transform the healthcare industry by reducing costs and improving quality.

Feb 20, 2018

Episode 12: VUCA and the Bitter Pill

Dr. Britt Berrett and guest Dr. Keith Thurgood, director of the Executive MS in Healthcare Leadership and Management (for professionals) at the Naveen Jindal School of Management at UT Dallas, discuss leadership concepts that Thurgood utilized while serving as a major general in the U.S. Army. Thurgood relates those concepts to healthcare leadership and describes how best to apply them to the industry.

Feb 7, 2018

Episode 11: Innovative Healthcare Solutions — Getting From Bench to Bedside

In the first episode of 2018, Dr. Britt Berrett interviews Peter Baek, MD, CEO and founder of Vigilant Labels, a business that expedites required syringe labeling — to the patient’s advantage. Baek discusses the problem he faced as a practicing anesthesiologist and how he arrived at his innovative solution.

He also explains how his MS degree in Healthcare Leadership and Management (for physicians) from the Executive Education program at the Naveen Jindal School of Management at UT Dallas helped him launch his business.

Jan 19, 2018

Episode 10: Interview with Dr. Jason Wolf of the Beryl Institute

In this episode, Dr. Britt Berrett welcomes Dr. Jason Wolf of The Beryl Institute to discuss the patient experience, defined by Wolf’s organization as the sum of all interactions, shaped by an organization’s culture, that influence patient perceptions across the continuum of care.

Berrett and Wolf talk about the success that the Beryl Institute has had in creating what Wolf describes as “a global community of practice dedicated to improving the patient experience through collaboration and shared knowledge.” Wolf also offers advice to future healthcare leaders on how to succeed in the industry.

Dec 12, 2017

Episode 9: Dr. Marilyn Moon on Pricing Transparency

Dr. Marilyn Moon joins Dr. Britt Berrett in today’s episode. Dr. Moon is an institute fellow at Washington-based American Institutes for Research. She is the former chair at the Maryland Healthcare Commission, where she headed up a pricing transparency project that ultimately became WearTheCost.org.

The website provides consumers in the State of Maryland with cost and quality information related to various elective procedures so that they can make better-informed healthcare decisions. Both passionate advocates for healthcare reform, especially as it relates to consumer information, Moon and Berrett discuss the website, Altarum (AIR’s partner in developing WearTheCost.org) and the direction in which pricing transparency is headed.

Dec 1, 2017

Episode 8: Dr. Jim Rickards and Oregon’s Coordinated Care Model

Dr. Jim Rickards joins Dr. Britt Berrett for this episode, in which they discuss Rickards’ recently published book, Our Health Plan: Community Governed Healthcare That Works (New York: Morgan James Publishing: 2017).

Rickards, a radiologist who earned his medical degree from Indiana University School of Medicine, also holds an MBA from Oregon Health and Science University. He is the senior medical director at Moda Health in Portland, Oregon. He was a pioneer in developing the Coordinated Care Model for the state of Oregon as a new way to deliver healthcare services to its nearly 1.1 million Medicaid members.

Nov 14, 2017

Episode 7: Applying Kotter’s Eight Steps to Healthcare

In the episode this week, Dr. Britt Berrett applies the eight-step change management model found in John P. Kotter’s international best-selling book Leading Change to a healthcare organization.

Nov 2, 2017

Episode 6: A Graduate Student and Her Professor Discuss Healthcare

This week Dr. Britt Berrett turns hosting duties over to Dr. Keith Thurgood, a Jindal School faculty member. Thurgood interviews Sahar Kuzbari, a graduate student enrolled in the program that he directs, the Executive Master of Science in Healthcare Leadership and Management for Professionals). Thurgood and Kuzbari discuss leadership and its role in driving the future of the industry. They also discuss details of the cohort program and speak about its professional benefits, which include:

1. Insights gained through round-table discussions with fellow healthcare professionals who are enrolled in the program and who provide differing, real-world perspectives from various industry sectors,
2. Case studies that equip students with practical tools that they can implement in their workplaces immediately, and
3. A collaborative learning environment in which student professionals interact with faculty members and other industry experts.

Oct 16, 2017

Episode 5: Onsite Visit at Texas Health Allen

In this week’s special episode, Dr. Britt Berrett and graduate students from the Healthcare Leadership and Management program visit Texas Health Presbyterian in Allen, Texas. Berrett interviews Jared Shelton, who discusses leadership lessons and the changes he made when he was hired as president of the hospital. Shelton helped change his facility from a subpar hospital with unhappy physicians into a well-known healthcare provider with more satisfied employees. This podcast goes over some of the key struggles of running a hospital — in Shelton’s case, as one of the youngest hospital presidents in the country.

Shelton suggests that aspiring healthcare leaders join and become actively involved with the following organizations:

• American College of Healthcare Executives
• Healthcare Financial Management Association
• Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society

Oct 2, 2017

Episode 4: Preparing for a Healthcare Leadership Position

This week’s episode features guest Dr. Keith Thurgood, director of the Executive MS in Healthcare Leadership and Management for Professionals at the Naveen Jindal School of Management. Thurgood and host Dr. Britt Berrett discusses the advantages of obtaining a graduate degree for mid-career healthcare professionals who want to advance to executive positions and be able to make an immediate difference.

Sep 15, 2017

Episode 3: An Interview with Healthcare Industry Leader J.R. Thomas

In this week’s episode, host Britt Berrett chats with J.R. Thomas, a successful leader in the healthcare industry. Thomas, former CEO of MedSynergies and current co-managing partner at healthcare advisory company Thomas Marshall Group, LLC , talks about how he got into healthcare and what he did to help him become successful.

Thomas goes over the costs of starting up in the healthcare industry and tells how his banking background helped him succeed in launching his company. Thomas and Berrett discuss challenges in the healthcare industry and what Thomas thinks are the best way to overcome them. Finally, Thomas goes over some leadership tips and styles that have helped him throughout his years in healthcare.

Aug 23, 2017