System Dynamics
Check out 4sight Friday email and podcast.
Dave Burda curates a weekly email and hosts a weekly podcast discussing news that impacts market-based change.
Recent Press Mentions
Want to talk to David Johnson about a story you’re doing? Email info@4sighthealth.com.
Featured Articles
The Proof Case for Addressing the Negative Social Determinants of Health
Outcomes
Looking for Unconscious Bias in Healthcare? Just Ask Your Customers
When a business is struggling, one of the first things a smart business will do is ask its customers what’s wrong. It will take the customers’ concerns to heart and …
Outcomes
Wake Up Patient Safety in 2021
I’m on a patient safety rant, and I see no reason to stop now as we dive into 2021. In a post last month, I argued that making care safer doesn’t …
System Dynamics
David W. Johnson’s Recent Press Mentions
Want to talk to David Johnson about a story you’re doing? Email info@4sighthealth.com and we’ll set up a time. Quote: Why West Virginia and South Dakota are beating California …
Market Corner Commentaries
The Worst and Best of Times: Perspectives from Cain Brothers’ Healthcare 2020 Virtual Conference
2020 has been a year like no other. Investors in U.S. healthcare have navigated remarkable economic and societal disruption by maintaining their focus on long-term value in healthcare businesses and …
Consumerism
Why Losing Your Doctor is A lot Like Losing Your Barber
After I first moved to the town that I live in now from the town that I grew up in, I still went to my old barber. It was a …
Outcomes
The Proof Case for Addressing the Negative Social Determinants of Health
Up to half of all premature deaths are preventable by modifying behaviors and exposures that occur in communities.[1] “The Case For More Active Policy Attention To Health Promotion” sharpens readers’ …
Burda on Healthcare
The Market Response to the Building COVID-19 Mental Health Crisis
So far, my immediate family and I have dodged the coronavirus. With a wife who is a nurse, a daughter who works in public health, a son with a bachelors …
Innovation
Patient Safety Made Simple
Some ideas are so simple yet so brilliant that your reaction is “why didn’t I think of that!” When my dad experienced such a moment, he would say, “That’s a …
Economics
Why We Still Need to Keep Drug Companies on a Short Leash
Drug companies may end up saving us from the pandemic, but that doesn’t mean we can take our eyes of them for a second. A new research letter in the …
Burda on Healthcare
32 Ways to Fix Healthcare If You Stop and Take the Time
As our 24-hour news cycle has shrunk to 24 minutes and, in some cases, 24 seconds, over the past four years, we’re all missing, forgetting or glazing over important news …
Economics
Erasing the Hospital Community Benefit Fudge Factor
Years ago, when life was simpler, I did my own taxes. So did a good friend of mine. During tax season, we would compare notes on any changes in the …
Consumerism
Confirming Suspicions About Why Patients Are Crowdfunding Healthcare
In a recent commentary, David Johnson, founder and CEO of 4sight Health, pointed his finger at medical campaigns on the GoFundMe website as a sign of the growing unaffordability of medical …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, Checking Medicaid’s Pulse, 10/30/20
Checking Medicaid’s Pulse Where are Medicaid enrollment, expansion and innovation headed because of COVID and after the election? We talked about it on today’s episode of the 4sight Friday Roundup …
COVID-19
Why COVID’s a Win-Win-Win for Health Insurers
Every once in a while something comes along that reaffirms your belief that healthcare is an industry like any other industry and that healthcare reacts the same way to economic …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, What’s Next for Health Systems?, 10/23/20
What’s Next for Health Systems? It’s been an interesting year for the executives who run the nation’s health systems. How do they see the rest of this year and 2021 …
System Dynamics
Nixon Goes to China: Why Healthcare Leaders Must Learn from History
Long before Détente, one of the boldest foreign policy moves by any president was the establishment of diplomatic relationships with the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). President Richard Nixon was …
Economics
It’s Your Move: Health Insurers Counter Provider Consolidation
Hospitals, health systems, medical practices and other providers catch a lot of grief—and rightly so—for merger after merger and acquisition after acquisition that have done virtually nothing for patients other …
Innovation
Curating Knowledge in the Digital Age: Mining Massive Data Sets for Healthcare Insights
In the recent article Healthcare’s Age of Liquid Data, we explored why the healthcare industry must move aggressively to make healthcare data extremely connected. We identified three steps to make …
Economics
What’s Your State of Health?
As I watch COVID-19 cases ebb and flow around the country over the past eight months, I wonder if any place consistently is safer than another. After repeatedly watching this …
Market Corner Commentaries
America’s Frayed Safety Net Undermines Improved Primary Care
Key Takeaways Many high-cost Medicare and Medicaid patients suffer from multiple chronic conditions that have been poorly treated or left untreated, often for many decades. The healthcare system does a …
System Dynamics
What’s the Story on COVID and the Tenure of Hospital CEOs?
The only reason I’m writing this blog post is so I can refer to it and link to it a year from now. The lead of next year’s post will …
Economics
Healthcare’s House Flippers
If you come over, there’s a decent chance that HGTV will be on. The home-improvement channel is our default TV station. It runs in the background like a radio as …
Consumerism
COVID-19 Magnifies Consumers’ Love-Hate Relationship with Healthcare
We’re going to turn this week’s blog post over to consumers, who are going to tell you what they think about the healthcare system via two new opinion polls from …
Economics
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, How You Can Tell For-Profit and Not-For-Profit Hospitals Apart, 09/04/20
How You Can Tell For-Profit and Not-For-Profit Hospitals Apart We talked about the differences and similarities between hospitals and systems with different ownership structures on today’s episode of our 4sight …
Innovation
If Outcomes Matter, Then Start Paying Doctors to Use Clinical Decision Support Tools
No one likes to be told what to do. If there was a club for people who don’t like to be told what to do, I would be a member. …
Innovation
Achieving Data Aggregation at Scale: How Health Companies Will Adapt to the Age of Liquid Data
In Healthcare’s Age of Liquid Data, we explored why the healthcare industry must move aggressively to make healthcare data extremely connected. We identified three steps to make this happen – …
Economics
Bigger Isn’t Necessarily Better for Patient Care When It Comes to Health Systems
I think we all can agree now that provider integration doesn’t lower healthcare prices. When hospitals buy or merge with other hospitals, when medical practices buy or merge with other …
Policy
Op-Ed: Parochial politics killed health care transformation on Chicago’s South Side (Chicago Tribune)
Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in Bronzeville announced on July 29, 2020, it would close in 2021. It didn’t have to be this way. In January 2020, Mercy and three other …
Economics
Let Doctors Be Doctors If You Want Them to Be Good Managers
I know lots of doctors having covered healthcare now for nearly 40 years. One thing’s always puzzled me. Why would a doctor not want to be a doctor anymore and …
Innovation
Does Your Chatbot Have Lockjaw?
A few Sundays ago, I needed a tetanus shot. I sliced my finger open with a single-edge razor blade that I was using to scrap old wood glue off a …
Economics
Digging Deep (Into Your Own Pockets) to Root Out Low-Value Care
I’ve been to Oregon, and it’s beautiful. But I had no idea the state had a real problem with low-value care. I’m glad I didn’t get sick when I visited …
Economics
The Demand for Market-Driven Innovations in Medical Care Is All in the Numbers
One of the bellwethers I follow to see what direction healthcare is headed is the annual physician supply and demand reports from the Association of American Medical Colleges. If the …
COVID-19
How to Reduce Your Operating Costs When There’s No One Left to Furlough
I’m not independently wealthy, and as a journalist for nearly 40 years now, there have been times in my adult life when our family has lived check to check. Yet, …
Economics
Now Is the Time to Nip Low-Value Care in the Bud
The coronavirus pandemic exposed flaws in the U.S. health system that we knew existed but weren’t in a rush to do anything about because everyone (other than patients) was profiting …
COVID-19
Countering the Negative Consequences of COVID-Induced Healthcare Consolidation
The COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. is leaving a lot of financially struggling hospitals and medical practices in its wake. Experts predict that to recover—or perhaps as an opportunity to …
COVID-19
Consumers Counting on Private Sector to Produce Post-COVID Healthcare Market Innovations
Consumers want the private sector, not the federal government, to lead them out of this mess we call the U.S. healthcare system, which got a lot messier because of the …
Economics
Wealth and Income Inequality as a Cause of Societal Inequity
Wealth and income inequality have been defining issues in the United States. The added stress of Covid-19 has highlighted and exacerbated these imbalances not only regarding the economy and personal …
Policy
Patients Shouldn’t Expect Their Local Merging Not-For-Profit Hospitals to be More Charitable
For an old healthcare legal reporter, writing about antitrust and community benefits in the same blog post is about as good as it gets. The only thing missing is a …
COVID-19
COVID-19 Put the C Back in Healthcare Consumerism (that’s the uppercase C in Consumerism, not the lowercase c in Healthcare)
Restaurants across the country laid off workers, limited menus and closed because COVID-19 took away their customers. Hospitals and medical practices across the country furloughed workers, limited services and closed …
Policy
Understanding Despair, Capture and Profiteering in American Healthcare
In their recent book “Deaths of Despair,” Anne Case and Angus Deaton chronicle the rise of drug overdose, suicide and death by alcohol in the United States. Through their vivid …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | Grading Drug Companies’ Pandemic Response | Surviving COVID-19 Margin Pressures | An ACO Coincidence
Read 05/22/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, 05/22/2020
Big Pharma on COVID-19’s Center Stage David Burda interviews David Johnson and Gary Bisbee about the week’s biggest news around market-based change. David Johnson is CEO of 4sight Health. Gary …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | Health System COVID-19 Recovery | Outbreak Remakes Retail Pharmacies | Pandemic Medication Adherence
Read 05/15/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, 05/15/2020
COVID-19 Remaking Retail Pharmacies David Burda interviews David Johnson and Gary Bisbee about the week’s biggest news around market-based change. David Johnson is CEO of 4sight Health. Gary Bisbee is …
Consumerism
Why Patients Are Not Getting Their Money’s Worth on Quality Measures
When business management guru Peter Drucker uttered his famous adage, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it,” he probably wasn’t thinking about the patient experience in healthcare. But …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday | COVID-19 Forces Digital Transformation | Outbreak Knocks Down More Regs | Why We Need a Federal HIE
Read 05/08/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, 05/08/2020
More Healthcare Regs Fall to COVID-19 David Burda interviews David Johnson and Gary Bisbee about the week’s biggest news around market-based change. David Johnson is CEO of 4sight Health. Gary …
COVID-19
Life Has Changed and So Must We
Our world has changed fundamentally from the impact of two events. The first, acute and most noxious, is COVID-19. The second, enduring and most beneficial, is the digital age. COVID-19 …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, 05/01/2020
Which Way Will COVID-19 Move the Needle on Healthcare Spending and the Uninsured? David Burda interviews David Johnson and Gary Bisbee about the week’s biggest news around market-based change. David …
COVID-19
Healthcare’s COVID-19 Echo Chamber
What consumers think of the healthcare system in the U.S. and what the system thinks of itself are two very different things. The COVID-19 outbreak has exposed just how deep …
COVID-19
4sight Health COVID Coverage
Check out commentaries, news, opinions, articles and podcasts about COVID from the 4sight Health team. Click HERE. Topics include: The death and rebirth of medical practices by David Burda. Published …
4sight Friday |
COVID-19 |
System Dynamics |
4sight Friday | Don’t Be Woodrow Wilson | Predictive Analytics Combat COVID-19 | How Sick Will Medical Practices Get?
Read 04/24/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the 4sight …
COVID-19
Consumers Tell the Health System What They Think of Its COVID-19 Response
You know what I think about health system’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S., and you know what our 4sight Health contributors think about it. But what do …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, 04/17/2020
David Burda interviews David Johnson and Gary Bisbee about the week’s biggest news around market-based change. David Johnson is CEO of 4sight Health. Gary Bisbee is Co-Founder and Executive Chairman …
Outcomes
Differential Susceptibility of Individuals and Communities to COVID-19
COVID-19 strikes with alarming inconsistency. Most recover quickly while others die. The disease devastates some communities and spares others. Understanding why and how COVID-19 preys on some and not others …
Outcomes
Oh, hey. About that Accreditation Survey
Hospitals, health systems, medical practices, health plans, licensed clinicians and virtually every type of healthcare setting imaginable not only have to comply with countless state and federal regulations, they also …
4sight Friday
Podcast: 4sight Friday Roundup, 04/10/2020
David Burda interviews David Johnson and Gary Bisbee about the week’s biggest news around market-based change. David Johnson is CEO of 4sight Health. Gary Bisbee is Co-Founder and Executive Chairman …
Economics
Tone-Deaf GPOs Brag About Savings While Healthcare Workers Scramble for Supplies
Sometimes, it’s better just not to say anything. If you know anything about the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S., you know that the healthcare supply chain here has been a …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Weekly News Impacting Market-Based Change, Curated by Dave Burda
4sight Friday is a weekly email newsletter of opinions, insights and news we see impacting market-based change – either negatively or positively. A complementary podcast, 4sight Friday Round Up, launched …
System Dynamics
Pandemic Preparedness 101: Creating Appropriate Surge Capacity
In 2014, Israel opened a parking garage that can be turned transformer-like into a 2,000-bed hospital. The architects hired by the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa designed the walls of …
Economics
COVID-19 Will Test the Ability of Healthcare CFOs to Manage Financial Risk
Chief financial officers around the world are scrambling to figure out how to manage the short-term economic impact and the long-term economic effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on their companies …
Economics
Hospitals at the Margins
Almost every hospital or health system that I’ve covered over the past 37 years as a healthcare business reporter claims to be failing financially or on the brink of financial …
Economics
The Sorry State of Hospital Interoperability
Likely overshadowed by anticipation of HHS’ final information-blocking rules, which came out earlier this week, HHS’ latest annual report on hospital interoperability didn’t get much attention. But, if you read the …
Market Corner Commentaries
Why Strategic Partnerships Are Vital To Hospital and Health Systems Success
In our January 9th, 2020, Market Corner Commentary we identified the following five forces that are coalescing to drive more value into the delivery of healthcare services: More disciplined purchasing …
Innovation
The State of Our HLTH 2019: Hard Truths and Hope. A Post-Conference Report from HLTH 2019.
HLTH engaged 4sight Health to produce this exclusive post-conference report of the HLTH 2019 conference. HLTH gave 4sight Health and its five-member writing team carte blanche to attend all theme …
Economics
How Fee-for-Service Makes Doctors Choose Poorly
It’s not complicated. If you want doctors to stop performing or ordering low-value procedures and tests, stop paying for them. The reminder that providers respond to financial incentives as much …
Policy
Status Quo vs. Revolutionary Healthcare
As the presidential elections approach this year, each candidate is still struggling to convince the American people that her or his healthcare agenda will meet consumer needs. America spends more …
Economics
Which Way Will the Private Equity Pendulum Swing for Patients?
Before your physician asks you at your next office visit what brought you in today, you may want to ask them who owns their practice. Their answer may at least …
Consumerism
Not on the Same Page
Well, maybe I jumped the gun and gave the healthcare industry too much credit for finally recognizing that its future depends on redefining patients as customers and making them their …
Market Corner Commentaries
Widen the Funnel and Close the Gaps: The Summit-CityMD Combo Sees “Big Apple” Opportunity through Integrated Care Delivery
Private equity-funded delivery models are emerging to create more integrated care models that position well for value-based contracting. These new asset-light and consumer-oriented business models are changing healthcare’s competitive dynamics …
System Dynamics
Lessons Learned: One Health System’s Foray into Service Rationalization
An interview with OhioHealth’s Nikki Ross, System Director of Sterile Processing, on ways service rationalization works in today’s modern health system. When you pick up your dry cleaning and fill …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: J.P. Morgan Conference Report | An Epic Patient Data Failure | Having Fun with Healthcare Fraud
Read 02/07/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Market Corner Commentaries
Taking Healthcare’s Pulse: 4sight Health’s 2020 J.P. Morgan Conference Report
Each year on the second Sunday in January, the healthcare world descends on San Francisco for the J.P. Morgan conference and the circus that surrounds it. For the next week, …
Market Corner Commentaries
Healthcare Has No Clothes: J.P. Morgan 2020
(from Taking Healthcare’s Pulse: 4sight Health’s 2020 J.P. Morgan Conference Report) Each year on the second Sunday in January, the healthcare world descends on San Francisco for the J.P. Morgan …
Economics
Fun with Fraud Numbers
I’ve watched enough crime movies and TV shows to know that the law enforcement character who talks tough usually isn’t and, more often than not, is in on the crime, …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: The Outlook of Outlooks | Death by Merger | Fixing Medicare Advantage
Read 01/31/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Economics
Death by a Thousand Mergers
When the Centene Corp. completed its $17.3 billion acquisition of WellCare Health Plans late last week, it created a health insurer that now operates in all 50 states with a total …
Consumerism
What’s Going to Happen in Healthcare in 2020—or Not: A Meta Review of Industry Outlooks
Maybe it’s because it’s a new decade. Maybe it’s because the year 2020 makes for easy vision analogies. Maybe it’s because CMS projects national health expenditures to break the $4 …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Are Hospitals Listening to Patients? | Why Medicare for All Won’t Work | Veiled Threat from an EHR Vendor
Read 01/24/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Medicare Advantage Growing Pains | Injecting Healthcare Markets With Competition | Google Wants Your Patient Data
Read 01/17/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Blog
7 Ways States Can Save Consumers from Rising Healthcare Prices
Competition, regulation or both? Those are the choices facing states that want to make healthcare more affordable for their residents after years of unbridled prices hikes from providers and premium …
Burda on Healthcare
Growing Pains or Warning Signs for Medicare Advantage?
The Medicare Advantage program turned 21 this month. Like all 21-year-olds with new-found freedoms and responsibilities, whether it makes 31 in the same shape will depend on how well it …
4sight Friday |
System Dynamics |
4sight Friday: 4 Ways to Relieve Margin Pressure | Digital Health Betting Favorites | Have We Reached Poll Tax Status?
Read 01/10/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Market Corner Commentaries
Unrelenting Margin Pressures: Overcoming Healthcare’s Softening Revenues and Rising Expenses
Key Takeaways: Despite favorable rating agency outlooks, the 2020s promise to be healthcare’s most turbulent decade since the 1990s. It’s been a great 20-year run for the healthcare industry, but …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Clinical Decision Support Lacking | Quality of Care at Acquired Hospitals | Private Equity and New Cancer Drugs
Read 01/03/2020 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Blog |
Innovation |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
Interest in Clinical Decision Support Lacking
If you spend your Saturday afternoons watching home remodeling shows or cooking shows, you realize that having the right tools for the job makes all the difference. What you struggle …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: What Revolutionary Healthcare Leaders Read in 2019 | Healthcare Price Transparency Now and Forever
Read 12/20/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with …
Blog |
Consumerism |
Economics |
Innovation |
Outcomes |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
What Revolutionary Healthcare Leaders Read This Year: The Top 5 Commentaries on 4sightHealth.com for 2019
Here at 4sight Health, we like to call it like it is. We see and throw a flag on the things that prevent the healthcare system in the U.S. from …
Market Corner Commentaries
Overcoming Collateral Damage: Healthcare Price Transparency Now and Forever
Key Takeaways: Providers and payers fight the implementation of transparent prices with all their considerable resources and influence. Monopolies and monopsonies resist transparent pricing for their services because it threatens …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Assigning a Value to Diagnostic Tests | Drug Contract Commercialization Organizations | Healthcare Affordability in 2020
Read 12/13/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the …
Blog
Will 2020 Be the Year that Healthcare Gets More Affordable?
As 2019 draws to a close, the evidence continues to mount that healthcare affordability again will be the No. 1 challenge facing patients in 2020. What incumbent industry stakeholders, lawmakers, …
Podcasts
MARKET CORNER CONVERSATIONS: Khosrow Shotorbani, CEO & Founder, Lab 2.0 Strategic Services
Khosrow Shotorbani is the CEO / Founder of the Lab 2.0 Strategic Services, and a member of Project Santa Fe Clinical Laboratory 2.0. In Episode 19, Khosrow and David Johnson …
Blog
AHRQ Data Reveals Health System Search for Winning Formula
Pictures don’t lie. Neither do numbers. And these numbers paint of picture of U.S. hospitals and health systems remaking themselves in response to new economic forces challenging their long-term viability. …
Economics
Has Healthcare Lost Its Appetite for Value?
I get the feeling that the industry is moving on from this whole volume-to-value thing and will need to find a new analogy to replace that foot-in-two-canoes business that everyone …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday (on Tuesday): Converting Aging Senior Living Properties | Patient Engagement Wake-Up Call | Thoughts on For-Profit Healthcare
Read 11/27/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all with the …
Blog |
Consumerism |
Economics |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
Patients Need More Muscle to Crush Drug Prices
Everyone complains about high drug prices. That is, when they’re not complaining about high hospital prices. So what are you going to do about it? Or, better yet, what can …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Reimagining Healthcare Real Estate | The Disconnected Patient | Handwringing Over Ascension
Read 11/15/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
System Dynamics
4sight Friday: Repurposing Senior Living | Patient Safety and Great White Sharks | Healthcare Labor Flexibility
Blog |
Economics |
Innovation |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
Fireside Chat: Why You Should Join the Customer Revolution
Join us in downtown Chicago on Thursday, November 14 at 5:30PM at MATTER. Michael Allen, CFO of OSF Healthcare, will interview David Johnson about critical concepts in Dave’s new book …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Regulating Antibiotic Stewardship | A New Kind of Strategic Partnership | The Risk of Care Anywhere
Read 11/01/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, all …
Blog |
Outcomes |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
The Rush to Move Patient Care Out of the Hospital
Everyone wants patients out of the hospital, where the costliest of costly care takes place. Government payers. Commercial health plans. Patients. Doctors. Even hospitals want patients out of the hospital. …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Rethinking Academic Medicine | OBCs: More Marketing Than Market? | Podcast: Getting Urgent About Urgent Care
Read 10/25/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Market Corner Commentaries
A Second Coming: Medical Education’s Desperate Need for Another Flexner Revolution
On June 26th, 2019, American Academic Health Systems announced its intention to cease all medical activities at Hahnemann University Hospital by September 6th, 2019. With roughly 17,000 annual admissions, Hahnemann …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: The Regs That Rankle Doctors | Innovating Autism Care | Have Amazon Will Travel
Read 10/18/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Policy
Ranking the Regulations that Bother Doctors
I love healthcare industry regulatory burden surveys. From an academic standpoint, I’m interested in the topic of competition versus regulation and how each affects how healthcare markets function—or not—for patients. …
Blog
What Revolutionary Healthcare Leaders Are Reading: The Top 5 4sight Health Commentaries Over the Past Six Months
4sight Health’s writers and authors have published 57 blog posts, commentaries, podcasts and videos on 4sighthealth.com from January through June of this year. The topics are as varied as the …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Patients Demand Their Data | When Prescription Drugs Are Free | Pinpointing Healthcare Waste
Read 10/11/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: What Employers Think of Healthcare | The Staying Power of FFS | A Health System By Any Other Name
Read 10/04/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Blog |
Economics |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
Seeing Through Physician Participation in Value-Based Reimbursement Models
The more things change, the more they stay the same. I get the point of the expression. But, I didn’t fully appreciate how it applied to healthcare until I read …
Blog |
Economics |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
If You Scroll Down, You’ll Find Out What Employers Really Think About Healthcare
With open enrollment about a month away at most businesses that offer health insurance benefits to their workers, it’s time to look at what employers are doing and not doing …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: By Any Quality Measure | Healthcare Upselling | Affordability Takes Another Hit
Read 09/27/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Blog |
Consumerism |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
Has Room for Improvement
So, how’s it going? Do you think your hospital or health system or medical practice or health plan or pharmacy or life sciences company or post-acute care facility is providing …
Blog |
Economics |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
Upselling in Healthcare? It’s Just Business
As wary consumers, we’ve come to expect upselling. Need an oil change? Looks like you need a new air filter and radiator flush, too. That sports coat looks fantastic on …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Platforming Healthcare | Healthcare Blocking and Tackling | Why Patients Need Protection
Read 09/20/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Blog |
Economics |
Innovation |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
Platforming Health Care to Transform Care Delivery
NEJM Catalyst Article for September 19, 2019 David W. Johnson, MPP Amy Compton-Phillips, MD Hospitals used to be at the center of the health care universe. Today, new business models …
Consumerism |
Economics |
System Dynamics |
Healthcare Blocking and Tackling
Football season is upon us, and you’ll be hearing coaches at every level—high school, college and pro—talking about “getting back to basics” or “stressing the fundamentals” or “blocking and tackling.” …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Behind the Customer Revolution in Healthcare | Do Patients Trust Their Doctors? | Prices Up, Insured Americans Down
Read 09/13/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Blog |
Consumerism |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
Do You Trust Your Doctor?
When people my age were kids, there was a good chance that their parents wanted them to be doctors. Some wanted their children to be lawyers. I don’t recall anyone …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: The Customer Revolution in Healthcare | Skill Mix and Medical Practice Productivity | Is Walmart Coming for You?
Read 09/06/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
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Economics |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
Why Fee-for-Service Medicine is Bad for Your Health
The later in the day that you see your doctor you’re more likely to get the flu, get colon cancer and get hooked on prescription pain killers. OK, that’s a …
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Economics |
Innovation |
System Dynamics |
Higher Practice Skill Mix May Not Be What the Doctor Ordered
“Practicing at the top of your license” and “upskilling your workforce”are two popular healthcare buzz phrases right now. As account-hungry consultants breathlessly will tell you, when medical professionals spend their …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Paying Doctors Less | Disconnecting Social and Healthcare Spending | Colonoscopy Commoditization
Read 08/23/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
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Economics |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
Spend More. Pay More?
Everyone in healthcare is “all in” on a lot of things these days, and two things that are at or near the top of that list are social determinants of …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Healthcare Partnerships Get Creative | Time to Adapt or Die | Where Patients’ DNA Goes
Read 08/16/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Convenient Care Concerns | Healthcare’s Future Rulers | Staged Drug Market Competition
Read 08/09/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
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Consumerism |
Innovation |
System Dynamics |
Inconvenient Competition
When better customer service is a competitive threat, it really is time to rethink your business model. That was my first thought when I read the results of a survey …
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Consumerism |
Innovation |
System Dynamics |
Who Will Rule Healthcare in 2030?
What will healthcare be like 10 years from now? Not a lot of healthcare executives toiling in our system have the luxury to think about that as they deal with …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Rethinking Patient Safety Solutions | Coverage Cost Casualties | Smart End-of-Life Decisions
Read 08/02/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
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Economics |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
The Rising Cost of Family Coverage Is No Joke
You might have heard about this on the news. A new study is out that says employer-sponsored health insurance is getting really expensive. (How expensive is it?) Hmm. May your …
Consumerism
Desperately Seeking Market-Based Patient Safety Solutions – Burda on Healthcare
This Nov. 29 will mark the 20th anniversary of the release of the report, To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System, the seminal work by the Institute of …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Searching for ACO Outcomes | Liberating Medical Data | Delicious Medicare Benefits
Read 07/26/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Staffing Healthcare’s Future | Aligning SDOH and Reimbursement | Mandating Effective Clinical Practices
Read 07/19/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
System Dynamics
Repositioning Temporary Staffing Services: Meeting Healthcare’s Strategic (and More Permanent) Need for Labor Flexibility
American workers increasingly wear scrubs, not overalls or store uniforms.(1) In late 2017, healthcare surpassed manufacturing and retail to become the largest employer in the U.S. economy. 19 million people …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: What Healthcare Revolutionaries Read | Not-for-Profit Hospitals and Taxes | Healthcare Innovation Takes Many Forms
Read 07/12/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Economics
Should Hospitals Pay Taxes?
Many health systems and hospitals operate as Not-for-Profit (NFP), mission-oriented organizations that do not pay sales, excise, property or other taxes. In exchange, NFPs must publicly report the level of …
4sight Friday
4sight Friday: Employee Health Benefits Bellwethers | Time for Telemedicine | Regulating Hospital and Health System Mergers
Read 07/5/2019 Edition here. Curated by David Burda, 4sight Health’s news editor and columnist. Read his columns here. Find 4sight Health and industry opinions and news on market-based change, …
Economics
Pets versus Babies: Who Offers More Health Benefits at Work?
Everyone, including me, is always on employers to do more to improve the healthcare system in the U.S. We’re on them to use their healthcare purchasing power and insured-lives market …
Innovation
3 Successful Telemedicine Companies Disrupting Healthcare
In August 2017, Hurricanes Harvey and Irma devastated the South and Southeast regions. Florida evacuated over 7 million people, 7.4 million people lost power and almost 60 hospitals throughout the …
Consumerism
Surprise! Surprise! The Surprise Billing Legislation Could Usher in Government Price Controls. Nathan Bays, Guest Columnist
As the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) prepares to vote on the Lowering Health Care Costs Act, the issue of surprise medical bills will take center …
Innovation
VIDEO of Fireside Chat: Tom DeRosa, Welltower & David Johnson: Delivering Better Care, Outcomes & Health for Seniors
David Johnson interviewed Tom DeRosa, CEO of Welltower, for a packed audience at MATTER on June 19th. Tom considers Welltower a “platform for innovation on scale” in the realm of …
Economics
What Are Healthcare Executives Thinking? – Burda on Healthcare
I write a lot about what healthcare organizations and companies do, and I make educated guesses on why they do what they do based on my experiences, industry knowledge and …
Policy
States Foul-Tipping Regulatory Approaches to Control Healthcare Prices
A new Viewpoint in the Journal of the American Medical Association said states are trying, but largely failing, to control through various regulatory tactics the prices paid by private health …
Consumerism
Why Service Doesn’t Mean Services at Highly Rated Hospitals
What were you expecting, an ICU? A new study in JAMA Internal Medicine reveals that the hospitals patients rated highly for service were less likely to have the actual medical …
Economics
More on Why Employers Should Pay Attention to Behavioral Health
More on the what and the why of employers and behavioral health, and what both mean for remaking the nation’s healthcare system into one where outcomes matter, customers count and …
System Dynamics
Doctors and the Laws of Supply and Demand – Burda on Healthcare
It’s a great time to go to medical school and become a doctor. Ignore all the manufactured angst from organized medicine and opinion polls of aging physicians who say they …
System Dynamics
Hitting a Wall on EHR Interoperability, Patient Access
You know that moment when you “hit the wall” when you’re running a marathon? I don’t. But, I’m told that it typically happens around the 20-mile mark when your physical …
Outcomes
What Fish and Colonoscopies Have in Common
By now you know you should never order fish at a restaurant on a Monday. That’s because the fish likely has been lying around the kitchen since early Friday morning. …
Economics
Getting Urgent about Urgent Care: Health Systems Go Big on Retail
Historically, health systems have delivered acute care services in hospitals and ambulatory facilities. Their business models centralize care delivery in expensive settings to optimize their operations and revenue. In avoiding …
Outcomes
What Businesses Say They’re Doing About Their Employees’ Mental Health
The National Institute of Mental Health says 46.6 million adults suffered from some form of mental illness in 2017. Of those, 57.4 percent didn’t receive any mental health treatment for …
System Dynamics
The Deep State of Physician Prescribing Patterns
And you thought changing patients’ health behaviors was going to be hard. Try changing physicians’ drug prescribing patterns. That’s the lesson from a new study in Health Affairs that reported …
Consumerism
An Unbearable Burden (Part 2): Wide Variations in State Health Insurance Costs
The Healthcare Affordability Index (Index) is a simple and powerful metric for assessing the impact of rising healthcare cost on American living standards. The Index measures the relationship between the total …
Consumerism
Why Millennials May Be Pushing Us Off a Healthcare Cliff
I’m not sure that US millennials are going to have a happy ending when it comes to their healthcare. If I’m reading things right, in less than 30 years, when …
Outcomes
Death by Healthcare Knockoff
Knockoffs usually aren’t as good as the originals, whether they’re golf clubs, purses or pressure cookers. A new study suggests that you can add healthcare to the list, especially if …
Policy
Let’s Get Real: Medicare for All Can’t Work, but Affordable Health Insurance for All Can
As it has in the last three presidential elections, healthcare is emerging as a decisive political issue in the 2020 election. Unlike in those previous elections, however, universal health insurance …
Policy
This Is a Story About Where Healthcare Regulations Come From – Burda on Healthcare
Healthcare is one of the most if not the most regulated industry in the U.S. While its businesses like to blame overzealous bureaucrats for all the red tape, the current …
System Dynamics
Culture Change Isn’t a Natural for Healthcare Organizations
“We must begin by asking it, ‘What is losing?’ Losing is a disease. As contagious as polio. Losing is a disease. As contagious as syphilis. Losing is a disease. As …
Economics
The Universal Patient Experience of Debilitating Healthcare Costs
The lack of affordable medical care isn’t just a U.S. phenomenon. It’s a serious problem across Europe, according to a new report from the World Health Organization. WHO’s report identified …
Economics
Consolidating Retail Medicine: Positioning Single-Specialty Practices for Acquisition
Single-specialty medical practices are the front door of American medicine. Dentists, Dermatologists, Ophthalmologists, GI doctors, ENT doctors, Internists, Gynecologists, Obstetricians, Urologists and their “retail medicine” counterparts provide high volumes of …
Consumerism
Patients’ Growing Appetite for New Outpatient Care Models
If you believe in the adage “follow the money,” it would lead you to telemedicine. Analyzing billions of private health insurance claims, a new report said telemedicine is the fastest …
System Dynamics
Interoperability Battle Lines: Data Freedom Fighters vs. Entrenched Data Blockers
On a cold Minnesota morning in January 2018, Fairview Health Services CEO James Hereford addressed Twin Cities business executives regarding healthcare IT and innovation. (1) With an advanced degree in …
Consumerism
The Strained Relationship Between Doctors and Patients – Burda on Healthcare
What if you walked into your doctor’s office and there was a sign hanging in the waiting room that said: “Please do not confuse your Google search with my medical …
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Shining a Light on the High Risks of Low-Value Care
Low-value care doesn’t just drive up healthcare costs without providing any discernable medical benefit to patients. It can kill you. That’s the takeaway and market lesson from the latest study …
Economics
When Pillars Crumble: A Warning for Healthcare?
Raghuram Rajan’s new book The Third Pillar provides an insightful framework for understanding the interconnected relationships between the three pillars of modern society: governments, the markets and local communities. An …
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Economics |
Policy |
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When Blue is the New Green
I mean, what did you think was going to happen? A new study says big Blues plans that went for-profit dramatically raised their premiums right after their ownership conversions. The …
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Economics |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
Wither the Traditional Physician Office Visit
It’s not your imagination or the self-serving forecast of a healthcare consultant angling for your business. Fewer people are seeing their doctors in person in a physical office. It’s a …
System Dynamics
After the Breakups: Big Payers Find Vertical Love in New Faces
In rapid succession at the end of 2018, CVS closed its $70 billion acquisition of Aetna and Cigna closed its $67 billion acquisition of Express Scripts. The consolidated companies are …
Policy
The Immovable Force That Is Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance
Death, taxes and employer-sponsored health insurance. We know the first two are certainties in life, and new research again confirms the assurance of the third. Researchers from the School of …
Innovation
Everyone Knows What’s Going to Happen in Healthcare in 2019. Do You?
What’s going to happen in healthcare this year is anyone’s guess. Not really. What’s going to happen in healthcare this year is everyone’s guess. Like most of you, from mid-December …
Outcomes
Everything in Healthcare is Changing—Except One Thing
Much has changed in healthcare over the past 25 years. A lot has changed in healthcare over the past 25 minutes. But one thing hasn’t changed, and that’s the public’s …
Innovation
Bundled-Pay Evaluation a Study in Hospital Market-Based Behavior
What would you cut out if you suddenly had to reduce your monthly household expenses by 5 percent, 10 percent, or even 25 percent? I’m sure that some of the …
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Economics |
Policy |
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Medicare Advantage Bends Cost Curve the Wrong Way
Everyone sees what they want to see in the latest figures on national health expenditures released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services earlier this month. Most people see …
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Burda on Healthcare |
Economics |
Innovation |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
HHS Goes All In on Competition as the Way to Fix Healthcare Woes – Burda on Healthcare
Competition good. Regulation bad. That’s my caveman summary of HHS’ manifesto released on Dec. 3 on how to improve the quality and safety of patient care while simultaneously lowering healthcare …
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Innovation |
Market Corner Commentaries |
System Dynamics |
Frontline Decisions in Real Time: What Health Systems Can Learn from the U.S. Military’s Defeat of Al Qaeda in Iraq
“The teams were operating independently—like workers in an efficient factory—while trying to keep pace with an interdependent environment. We all knew intuitively that intelligence gathered on AQI’s [Al Qaeda in …
System Dynamics
Reader Response: Creating a “Freedom Platform” for Health Data
Dave, your article is nothing if not provocative and insightful. What does it mean for health data to be truly free? At MultiScale, we have been thinking hard about health …
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Economics |
Innovation |
Market Corner Conversations |
Podcasts |
System Dynamics |
MARKET CORNER CONVERSATIONS: JIM HARDING, FOUNDER & CEO, MULTISCALE HEALTH NETWORKS
Jim Harding, Founder & CEO of MultiScale Health Networks, joins David Johnson for Episode 13 of Market Corner Conversations. Jim discusses how he applied his experience as a serial tech entrepreneur …
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Outcomes |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
New Primary Care Provider, Same or Better Outcomes
Expanding the scope of practice for nurse practitioners and physician assistants may be a cost-effective way to manage the health of patients with chronic illnesses. That’s the market-based reform takeaway …
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Economics |
Market Corner Commentaries |
System Dynamics |
Brand-Heavy and Asset-Light: Moving Beyond the Acute-Care Mindset
For health systems, the day of reckoning is near. A recent Morgan Stanley report states that over 1,000 of the nation’s 5,000+ hospitals are currently weak or at risk of closing. …
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Economics |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
Few On The Same Page When It Comes To The Value of Value-Based Reimbursement
Yet another report shows that fee-for-service medicine is hard to kill. This time the culprits are a lack of faith in value-based reimbursement by clinicians and a lack of trust …
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Economics |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
Amplifying Transformation: Addressing Medicare Advantage’s Disadvantages
The U.S. healthcare system will not change the way it delivers care until it changes the way it pays for care. Perverse incentives riddle fee-for-service payment (FFS) and lead to …
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Economics |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
Pointing the Finger at Health Plans for Providers’ Price Variations
Wide variations in what providers charge for the same medical services are notorious. But providers are not acting alone. They’re aided and abetted—and some would say coerced—by health plans whose …
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Economics |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
It’s Commercial Health Plans That Are Keeping Fee-for-Service Alive
Far from pulling the plug on fee-for-service medicine, commercial health plans continue to give it CPR. A new report says well over half of commercial health plan payments to providers …
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Innovation |
Market Corner Conversations |
Podcasts |
System Dynamics |
MARKET CORNER CONVERSATIONS: Mudit Garg, Founder & CEO, Qventus
Mudit Garg, Founder & CEO of Qventus, joins David Johnson for Episode 12 of Market Corner Conversations. Mudit shares how he views the challenges clinicians push through to provide care data …
Innovation
No Time to Waste: Revolutionizing Healthcare Data Collection, Curation and Application
Healthcare data wants to be free, but it is oppressed. Entrenched oligarchs trap information within closed, centralized systems that prioritize revenue collection, misuse resources and tolerate medical error. Data gasps …
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Innovation |
System Dynamics |
A Concrete Description Of The Cloud
In the simplest terms, cloud computing means storing data and software applications on the Internet, in secure files, then accessing that data and programs over the Internet rather than from physical …
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Economics |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
Study Refocuses ER Coverage Debate on Patients
A new study reminds us that the squabble between providers and payers over coverage of unnecessary emergency room visits should be more about patients and less about who pays who …
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Burda on Healthcare |
Consumerism |
Economics |
System Dynamics |
Employees’ Premiums Actually Dropped This Year and Nine Other Untold Employer Health Benefits Stories – Burda on Healthcare
Every picture tells a story. So does every chart in the Kaiser Family Foundation’s annual employer health benefits survey. Here are 10 small stories from Kaiser’s latest survey that collectively …
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Consumerism |
System Dynamics |
Reducing Low-Value Care Gets Personal
It’s like FBI profiling but for doctors—doctors who order too many unnecessary diagnostic tests. Researchers from Canada have escalated the fight against low-value healthcare services by focusing on the doctors …
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Outcomes |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
Healthcare Worker Flu Vaccine Rates Offer a Lesson in Self-Policing
Short of making flu shots mandatory for healthcare workers, healthcare employers need to do much more to immunize their staffs from a virus that threatens their health and the health …
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Consumerism |
Economics |
System Dynamics |
An Urgent Message for Those Who Want Care on Demand
The news cycle in healthcare seems to be following the news cycle in politics. Twenty-four hours is now 24 minutes if not 24 seconds. With that in mind, let’s hit …
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Economics |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
A Lesson in Value-Based Payments from Across the Pond
If you paid your kids to clean their rooms and keep them clean, would they? If you stopped paying them, would they keep cleaning their rooms because they realized that …
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Market Corner Commentaries |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
As GM Goes, So Goes Healthcare: Dynamics of Demand-Driven Reform
“For years I [have] thought what was good for our country was good for General Motors, and vice versa.” Charles E. Wilson Last month, General Motors signed a 5-year agreement …
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Consumerism |
System Dynamics |
Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips Talks Platforming at MATTER, Chicago’s Healthcare Incubator
August 23, 2018, Amy Compton-Phillips came to MATTER, Chicago’s healthcare incubator. She presented her perspective on platforming in the industry and at Providence St. Joseph Health. Key points included: The …
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Innovation |
Market Corner Commentaries |
System Dynamics |
Belts and Suspenders: Major Healthcare Transactions Position Companies for Whatever Comes Next
During President Richard Nixon’s historic 1972 trip to China, the press asked China’s premier Zhou Enlai to comment on the French Revolution’s impact on world affairs. Zhou famously replied, “Too early to …
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Economics |
Market Corner Conversations |
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System Dynamics |
MARKET CORNER CONVERSATIONS: Amitabh Chandra, Harvard Business School
Amitabh Chandra, economist and the McCance Family Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, joins David Johnson for Episode 10 of Market Corner Conversations. Chandra shares his path form labor economist …
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Consumerism |
Market Corner Commentaries |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
Gawande’s Gift: Re-Imagining Corporate Wellness and Healthcare
Amid much fanfare, the Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, JP Morgan health venture (ABJ) announced on June 20th that its new CEO will be acclaimed author and surgeon Atul Gawande. Gawande starts his new job …
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Market Corner Commentaries |
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How Soccer Explains Healthcare: Collective Performance Defines Success (1)
The 21st FIFA World Cup kicked off on June 14th when host Russia trounced a weak Saudi Arabian team 5-0 at 81,000-seat Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. It equaled the most lopsided opening …
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Economics |
Market Corner Commentaries |
Outcomes |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
Pro-Market and Pro-Business: Not Always the Same, Particularly in Healthcare
Shortly after publishing Market vs. Medicine: America’s Epic Fight for Better, Affordable Healthcare in June 2016, I met with my former investment banking colleague, Jullia Quazi. Jullia arrived with a very funny story …
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Innovation |
Market Corner Conversations |
Podcasts |
System Dynamics |
MARKET CORNER CONVERSATIONS: JAKE CRAMPTON, MEDSPEED
Jake Crampton, CEO of MedSpeed, joins David Johnson in Episode 8 of Market Corner Conversations. Crampton shares how MedSpeed facilitates “intra-company logistics.” MedSpeed’s customers transform their transportation networks from cost …
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Economics |
Market Corner Commentaries |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
Superhero Healthcare (Part 2): Already Here; Growing Fast; Payment-Driven
Part I of Superhero Healthcare identified several bright spots within American healthcare where liberated caregivers deliver appropriate, efficient care to engaged patients; where the interests of health companies and their customers align; and where compassion, …
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Consumerism |
Market Corner Commentaries |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
Superhero Healthcare (Part 1): Liberating America’s Caregivers and Patients!
Most weekends in America, long lines form outside cineplexes as ardent fans of DC and Marvel Comics catch the latest iterations on the big screen. Since the dawn of motion …
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Economics |
Market Corner Commentaries |
System Dynamics |
Mission First: Mission Health’s Surprising Sale to HCA
On March 22nd, Mission Health in Asheville, North Carolina announced its intention to sell its seven-hospital not-for-profit (NFP) health system to HCA Healthcare, the nation’s largest for-profit healthcare system. The …
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Innovation |
Market Corner Commentaries |
System Dynamics |
Goodbye “Dr. Know-It-All”: Medicine’s Liberating Knowledge Explosion
The digitization and globalization of medical information is overwhelming traditional medical practices. Physicians confront a continuous avalanche of medical discoveries on disease origins, symptoms and treatments. By 2020, medical knowledge …
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Consumerism |
Innovation |
Market Corner Commentaries |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
Scaling Relationship-Based Care: “Different Spokes (Care Models) for Different Folks”
In 1970, Marcus Welby, MD became ABC Television’s first show to top network television ratings. Dr. Welby was a cheerful family practice physician with a soothing bedside manner who was …
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Market Corner Conversations |
Podcasts |
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Market Corner Conversations: Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips
Amy Compton-Phillips, M.D., joins David Johnson in Episode 5 of Market Corner Conversations. Amy is the executive vice president and chief clinical officer for Providence St. Joseph Health. She oversees …
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Consumerism |
Market Corner Commentaries |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
Upsizing Dentistry: Putting More Bite into Primary Care
Quad/Graphics, the American printing company, was founded near Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1971 by a husband and wife team. Harry and Betty Quadracci saw advantages in a family approach to doing …
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Innovation |
Market Corner Commentaries |
System Dynamics |
Platforming Healthcare (TM): Owning Hospitals Is So 2015
The news that Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan Chase joined forces to create their own healthcare company rocked the industry. The ten largest health insurers and pharmacy businesses lost …
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Economics |
Market Corner Commentaries |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
Fortress Healthcare Meanders Toward Value
There are more “suits” in downtown San Francisco each January for JP Morgan’s annual healthcare conference than the rest of the year combined. Heavy rain drenched San Francisco on January …
Economics |
Innovation |
Market Corner Commentaries |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
Is Tax-Exemption Necessary? Enlightened Health Systems Should Consider the Unthinkable
In the mid-1800s, English philosopher and political economist John Stuart Mill developed “Utilitarianism,” a framework for making moral decisions. In Mill’s formulation, an action achieves optimal social utility when it …
Consumerism |
Innovation |
Market Corner Commentaries |
System Dynamics |
5 Days that Shook the Healthcare World
In 1919, journalist John Reed published Ten Days that Shook the World, a first-hand account of the October 1917 Russian Revolution. During that dramatic 10-day period, Vladimir Lenin’s Bolsheviks took …
System Dynamics |
Lexington, Concord and Medicaid Drug Formularies: Massachusetts Fires Another “Shot Heard Round the World”
Market Corner Commentary for December 13, 2017 On the 19th of April in 1775, a ragtag Massachusetts militia confronted the mighty British army in search of Colonial munitions and rebellion …
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Consumerism |
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Honey vs. Vinegar: Value-Based Pricing Wins Customers and Market-Share
Common wisdom holds that “it’s easier to catch flies with honey than vinegar.” That aphorism also applies to payers seeking lower prices for routine healthcare procedures. It “tastes” better when …
Consumerism |
Innovation |
Market Corner Commentaries |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
Capitalizing on Comprehensive Care: Cultivating a Medicare Advantage Mindset
This paper is Part 3 in our series on payment reform. After highlighting various efforts to reign in healthcare costs over the past 50 years in Part 1, Part 2 …
Market Corner Commentaries |
System Dynamics |
Moving at the Speed of Medicine Part II: Taking “Systemness” to the Next Level
Football is a “system” sport. Offense, defense and special teams function as distinct units with their own coaches, schemes and measures of success. The better teams bring all these components …
Innovation |
Market Corner Commentaries |
System Dynamics |
Amazoning Pharmacy: Attacking “Indumbent” Business Practices
Sky-rocketing drug prices have captured the nation’s attention. President Trump echoes Senator Bernie Sanders when he asserts that drug companies are “getting away with murder.”[1] Republican and Democratic legislators alike assert …
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Consumerism |
Economics |
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Advantage Medicare Advantage: Delivering Healthcare’s Triple Aim to America’s Seniors
Hitting the Sweet Spot for Patients and Providers The United States is experiencing a demographic tidal wave. Baby Boomers are turning 65 in record numbers and that trend will accelerate …
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Policy |
System Dynamics |
Senate Republicans Confront Their Healthcare Waterloo: Now What?
Last weekend Senators Jerry Moran of Kansas and Mike Lee of Utah announced they could not support Speaker Mitch McConnell’s Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 (BCRA). Their defections put …
Consumerism |
Market Corner Commentaries |
System Dynamics |
A Chicago Story: Gun Violence; Budget Cuts and Social Contagion
It was an eventful July 4th weekend in the Land of Lincoln. The Illinois Senate over-rode Governor Bruce Rauner’s veto to pass its first state budget in over two years. …
Market Corner Commentaries |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
The Iceberg Cometh: Welcome to Sickville, USA
In the western suburbs outside Minneapolis, two men lead average lives. Surveying them as part of the general population, no health system, insurer or policy maker would notice anything that …
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Consumerism |
Innovation |
Market Corner Commentaries |
System Dynamics |
How Health Systems Get Technology, Innovation and the Patient Wrong
The minute I walked into the new digs of the clinic, I knew it was very different and could get the gist of what they were trying to do. It …
Economics |
Market Corner Commentaries |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
Symbiotic Disruption: Skilled-Nursing-REIT Ecosystem Adapts to Market Dynamics
Nature thrives on symbiosis. Its many ecosystems would not exist without important relationships between sometimes strange bedfellows. The oceans’ most colorful coral reefs, for example, are often found in clear …
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Economics |
Innovation |
Market Corner Commentaries |
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Darwinian Outsourcing: Big Pharma Adapts to Market Realities
by Kristin Carey and David W. Johnson Competitive markets drive innovations in business efficiency and strategy. Twenty-five years ago, Big Pharma companies did little outsourcing. Fortified by robust cash flows …
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Scaling Healthcare’s Mt. Everest: Peak Performers Engage Technology and Consumers
Climbing the highest mountains requires organization, preparation and strategy. Scaling Mt. Everest is a full-scale expedition. Large teams rely on a sophisticated infrastructure of supplies, equipment and support staff. A …
Innovation |
Market Corner Commentaries |
System Dynamics |
Moving at the Speed of Medicine: Turbo-Charging Performance with Strategic Partnerships
Insourcing is a time-honored practice employed by market-dominant companies. Rather than contract with external experts, companies dedicate internal resources for specialized functions. While generally less efficient, insourcing enables companies to …
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Economics |
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Letting Go: Steward Sells Its Hospitals and Embraces Patient-Centric Care
Last September, Massachusetts-based Steward Health Care System announced that it would sell its 9 hospitals to Alabama-based Medical Properties Trust (MPT) for $1.2 billion in a 15-year sale-leaseback transaction with …
Economics |
Market Corner Commentaries |
Policy |
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The Rise and Fall of Academic Medicine: AMC Competitiveness in Post-Reform Healthcare
Rome wasn’t built in a day and didn’t collapse overnight. After centuries of growth, prosperity and domination, the Roman Empire began a long slow decline at the peak of its …
System Dynamics
Behavioral Health Goes Local: The Emergence of Integrated, Community-Based Services
by Todd Rudsenske and David W. Johnson From addiction to depression to psychosis, mental illness exacts a growing toll on individuals, families, communities and health systems. We can measure its …
Market Corner Commentaries |
System Dynamics |
Winning “The Cub Way”: It Takes an Organization (Postscript)
On Saturday evening, the Chicago Cubs won the National League pennant and the City of Chicago went crazy. The Wrigleyville celebration rocked until dawn Sunday morning. After a 71-year absence, …
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Economics |
Market Corner Commentaries |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
Value Quest: Capital Formation Challenges for Non-Profit Health Systems
by David W. Johnson, James Moloney and Carsten Beith There’s a battle outside and it’s ragin’ It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls For the times they …
Market Corner Commentaries |
Outcomes |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
Market Evolution: Addressing Structural Flaws on Public Health Exchanges
After two-plus years of operations, clear structural flaws have emerged in the design and function of public health exchanges. Health insurance cooperatives have largely failed. Many traditional insurers have suffered …
Consumerism |
Economics |
Market Corner Commentaries |
Policy |
System Dynamics |
Epi(c) Pharmaceutical Market Failure
It was hard not to feel sorry for Mylan CEO Heather Bresch as she sat for an extended CNBC interview on the morning of August 25th. Clearly on the hot …
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Consumerism |
Market Corner Commentaries |
Market Corner Conversations |
System Dynamics |
Rankings and Reactions: CMS Launches Star Ratings for Hospitals
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars But in ourselves.” [1] William Shakespeare On July 27th, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its first-ever quality …
Consumerism |
Market Corner Commentaries |
System Dynamics |
Back with Vengeance: Vertical Integration’s Demons Wreak Havoc
With pride and promise just two short years ago, Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) introduced Prominence Health, a wholly-owned subsidiary, that would “significantly advance CHI’s ability to excel in a pay-for-value …
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Economics |
Market Corner Commentaries |
System Dynamics |
Asset-Light and Ready: Physician Groups Embrace Accountable Care
Hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky gave the business world its most over-used strategic metaphor, “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” In healthcare, …
Consumerism |
Innovation |
Market Corner Commentaries |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
Necessity Turbo-Charges Productivity at Cleveland Clinic Florida
Coming into 2015, Ozzie Delgado confronted a thorny problem. Cleveland Clinic Florida was experiencing expansive demand for surgical services. Occupancy was already at 92% and there would be no capacity …
Innovation |
Market Corner Commentaries |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
Big Data’s Ups and Downs: The Good, The Scary and The Creepy
Market Corner Commentary for February 10, 2016-Big Data’s Ups and Downs: The Good, The Scary and The Creepy Big data analytics are essential for understanding consumer preferences. Collecting, measuring and …
Innovation |
Market Corner Commentaries |
System Dynamics |
Righteous Analytics: Right Data. Right Time. Right Way
Market Corner Commentary for November 4, 2015- Righteous Analytics: Right Data. Right Time. Right Way Technology is on the cusp of channeling diagnosis and treatment toward best outcomes at lowest costs. …
Innovation |
System Dynamics |
Welcome Back, Kotter! Leading Health System Change
#Leading Change-Market Corner Commentary: June 24, 2015-Welcome Back, Kotter! Leading Health System Change A version of this commentary first appeared in “Academy 360” on June 11th In the popular 1970s …
Innovation |
Market Corner Commentaries |
Outcomes |
System Dynamics |
Deep Web Rising: Healthcare’s Looming Cyber Threat
A version of this commentary first appeared April 30th in “Academy 360”-Deep Web Rising: Healthcare’s Looming Cyber Threat Healthcare is a “target-rich” environment for cyber criminals. Cyber attacks on health …