A Second Opinion with Senator Bill Frist, M.D.

Today’s episode is a little different. Last week I virtually joined the Greater Charlotte Healthcare Executives Group to share experiences and lessons learned from my years in transplantation, politics, and now in the private sector.  It’s a wide-ranging discussion that covers what drew me to pursue elected office, who my mentors were, and I give my take on Covid-19 and how the pandemic is transforming healthcare. Thanks to my former staffer and Greater Charlotte Healthcare Executives Group President Ryan Campbell for a fantastic interview and for letting me share the discussion with our listeners.

On September 30th, the Nashville Health Care Council and NashvilleHealth co-hosted a virtual conversation on Health Equity with United States Surgeon General Jerome Adams.  We’re sharing this discussion with you today. As our “Nation’s Doctor,” Vice Admiral Adams works to advance the health of the American people.  His motto is “better health through better partnerships.” He oversees the operations of more than 6,000 uniformed health officers who serve in nearly 800 locations around the world, promoting, protecting, and advancing the health and safety of our nation. He is also a member of the President’s Coronavirus Task Force, and previously served as the Health Commissioner of Indiana, where he led the State’s responses to Ebola, Zika, and to the largest HIV outbreak in the United States related to injection drug use. Before we turn to the episode, I want to take a moment to thank my friend, Dr. Herman Williams, for personally sponsoring this event. Dr. Williams is a board member of NashvilleHealth and author of CLEAR! Living the Life You Didn’t Dream Of.  You can find out more at hermanwilliamsmd.com.

Diane Seloff is an expert business strategist and operations leader.  We worked together in building Aspire Health, the nation’s leading non-hospice, community-based palliative care company that was acquired by Anthem in 2018.  In our conversation today, we do a deep dive on how to build a multi-million dollar healthcare company from the ground up – the successes, the failures, and the lessons learned.    Diane and I continue to work together today in our new company, CareBridge, where she serves as Chief Operating Officer.  

Last week I joined my longtime friend, Emmy-award winning television host Larry King to talk Covid-19, the 2020 Presidential election, and the Administration’s successes and shortcomings in pandemic response. Our interview aired on his show, PoliticKING, which you can find on Hulu and Ora TV.  New episodes air every Tuesday and Thursday at 9:30pm ET.  Thanks to Larry and his team for letting me share our interview with our listeners.  

Dr. Prabhjot Singh is Associate Professor of Medicine, Health System Design and Global Health at Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine, as well as Special Advisor for Strategy and Design at the Peterson Center on Healthcare.   Dr. Singh was the inaugural Director of the Arnhold Institute for Global Health at Mount Sinai and founding Chair of the Department of Health System Design and Global Health. He also served as Vice-Chair of Medicine for Population Health.   Before coming to Mount Sinai, he was a faculty member at Columbia University and co-chair of the One Million Community Health Workers Campaign, a partnership of organizations dedicated to increasing the number and quality of health workers in sub-Saharan Africa.   Throughout his career, he has focused on how advances in community health systems globally can improve health in America, and is the author of Dying and Living in the Neighborhood: A Street-Level View of America’s Healthcare Promise.  Show Notes: More info on Dr. Singh’s book, “Dying and Living in the Neighborhood: A Street-Level View of America’s Healthcare Promise”: http://www.prabhjotsingh.org/dying-and-living   Dr. Singh’s 2013 op-ed: “Harlem hate crime victim Prabhjot Singh: I’m feeling gratitude,” NY Daily News, 9/24/13, https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/hate-victim-prabhjot-singh-feeling-gratitude-article-1.1466721

Avik Roy is the President of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity -- FREOPP.org a non-partisan, non-profit think tank that conducts original research on expanding opportunity to those who least have it. Avik is one of our nation’s sharpest policy minds, and has advised three presidential candidates on policy, including Marco Rubio, Rick Perry, and Mitt Romney. Avik and I have worked together for years at the Bipartisan Policy Center, engaging with colleagues across the aisle to formulate bipartisan health care reform solutions.  On today’s episode, he shares how he’s working to make a bipartisan healthcare deal a reality, one Member at a time.  Papers & websites mentioned in today’s episode: Bipartisan Policy Center, “Bipartisan Rx for America’s Health Care”: https://bipartisanpolicy.org/report/bipartisan-rx/ The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity: https://freopp.org/ Avik Roy, “A Pathway To Consumer-Driven Universal Coverage,” Health Affairs, March 2020: https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/abs/10.1377/hlthaff.2019.01435 Avik Roy, “Medicare Advantage for All: A patient-centered plan for universal coverage and permanent fiscal solvency”: https://freopp.org/medicare-advantage-for-all-ace74a1cb3bb Avik Roy, “Bruce Westerman’s Fair Care Act: Market-Based Universal Coverage”: https://freopp.org/bruce-westermans-fair-care-act-market-based-universal-coverage-74480ea70d1a We also wanted to share with our listeners FREOPP’s newly announced World Index of Healthcare Innovation, a first-of-its-kind ranking of 31 national health care systems on quality, choice, science & technology, and fiscal sustainability. Learn more here: https://freopp.org/wihi2020-505b1b60bce6

Dr. Dexter Shurney is the Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President of Clinical Affairs for Zipongo​, the San Francisco-based based digital health and wellness company that focuses on enabling healthy eating. Zipongo is “Healthy Eating, Made Simple”.  Dr. Shurney also serves as the current president for the Academy of Lifestyle Medicine. I know Dexter from his time in Nashville, when he was Vanderbilt’s Chief Medical Director of the Employee Health Plan for the University and Medical Center.  His personal wellness journey is one that has evolved hand in hand with his career path, and his own experience is a testament to food as medicine.  

On August 18th, the Nashville Health Care Council and NashvilleHealth co-hosted a virtual conversation on Health Equity and Action to Eliminate Disparities, part 1 of a 3-part series.  We’re sharing this discussion with you today, where I’m joined by leading experts in the field: Cara James, President and CEO of Grantmakers in Health. Dr. James is a nationally recognized thought leader in health equity and improving health outcomes for vulnerable populations. She previously served as Director of the Office of Minority Health at CMS, where she developed the agency’s first Equity Plan to Improve Quality in Medicare and its first Rural Health Strategy, and I know her from her time at the Kaiser Family Foundation, where she served as Director of the Disparities Policy Project and Director of the Barbara Jordan Health Policy Scholars Program.   And Dr. Andrea Willis, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. A pediatrician by training, Dr. Willis previously served the State of Tennessee as the director of CoverKids, helped develop Tennessee’s federally approved State Children’s Health Insurance Program, and served as deputy commissioner for the Tennessee Department of Health. I have the privilege of regularly working with and learning from Dr. Willis on the NashvilleHealth Governing Board. In our discussion, we explore health inequity and its long-standing threat to business and community growth and vitality.  And we outline actionable steps for individuals and organizations to take to reduce racial health disparities, and become part of the effort to turn this historic national moment into a movement.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin is the President of the American Action Forum.  An accomplished academic turned influential policymaker, he has served as Chief Economist of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush, and later as the 6th Director of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, which provides budgetary and policy analysis to the U.S. Congress. You may remember Doug from his time on the campaign trail, where he was Policy Director for Senator John McCain 2008 presidential campaign.  Now, at the head of the American Action Forum, he and his team provide timely analysis and modern communications strategies to promote innovative, free-market solutions to build a stronger, more prosperous nation. 

Dr. Jonathan Perlin is the President of Clinical Services and Chief Medical Officer at HCA Healthcare.  As one of the nation's leading providers of healthcare services, HCA is comprised of more than 180 hospitals and over 2,000 sites of care in 21 states and the United Kingdom.   Before joining HCA in 2006, Dr. Perlin served as Under Secretary for Health in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.  I vividly remember working with Jon when I was Senator Majority Leader and he served as chief executive officer of the Veterans Health Administration, leading the nation’s largest integrated health system.   In today’s episode, you’ll hear how Dr. Perlin’s team at HCA has pioneered new approaches to care – reducing sepsis deaths and adverse health outcomes for newborns; his early efforts that shaped electronic health records today; and what thought provoking question from Bill Gates has stayed with Dr. Perlin and changed his approach to health system leadership.