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

Today we’re having a compelling discussion about pricing in healthcare. I’m joined by three thought leaders who are disrupting the status quo in both the business and policy arenas.  By popular demand, we’ve invited back my longtime friend and colleague, Professor Larry Van Horn.  Larry is a renowned expert and researcher on health care management and economics at the Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management.  Larry served as an advisor to the Trump Administration on healthcare price transparency and on the Health and Human Services Quality Summit Panel.  I’m also joined by Patrick Quigley, co-founder and CEO of Sidecar Health, an innovative new health insurance model that gives consumers the ability to pay directly for care — often at steep discounts to the prices that patients would be charged through traditional insurance plans. And by Paul Ketchel, Founder & CEO of MDsave, a company whose unique bundling technology makes medical procedures price transparent, shoppable, and instantly transactable – ending surprise billing for consumers.   In our discussion today, we ask the tough questions regarding how to reform our healthcare system to make it more transparent and affordable and look at some solutions geared to better serve the patient.

Mike Uchrin is the CEO & Co-Founder of Monogram Health, an innovative, exciting new company that’s transforming one of the most complex and underserved areas of healthcare: managing chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Monogram partners with health plans to fill a systemic gap in kidney disease care with a new, in-home, evidence-based model that improves patient outcomes and quality of life while dramatically reducing costs for the health care system. One in 7 adults suffer from chronic kidney disease and ESRD, and the cost of covering people with kidney disease represents 20% — or $114 billion — of traditional Medicare expenditures. In our discussion today, Mike shares how Monogram is creatively and proactively addressing this national care challenge.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky is the 19th Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prior to leading the CDC, she served as Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Walensky was on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic and conducted research on vaccine delivery and strategies to reach underserved communities. She is also an influential scholar whose pioneering research has helped advance the national and global response to HIV/AIDS. We are honored to have her on the show today, where she’ll be sharing the latest on the Delta variant, how our pandemic response is shifting, and where the CDC is headed in the years to come beyond Covid-19.

Dr. Shantanu Nundy is a primary care physician, technologist, and business leader who serves as Chief Medical Officer for Accolade, which helps over 2 million people navigate the health system. In addition, he practices primary care in the greater Washington, DC, area and serves as a senior advisor to the World Bank and a lecturer in health policy at the George Washington University Milken Institute for Public Health.   He is the author of the powerful new book, Care After Covid: What the Pandemic Revealed Is Broken in Healthcare and How to Reinvent It: https://www.amazon.com/Care-After-Covid-Pandemic-Healthcare/dp/1264259123   In our discussion today, Dr. Nundy shares compelling patient stories that force us to ask some hard questions about our healthcare system – and think about how we need to change to meet the needs of all patients – not just those who can make it to the clinic and afford care.   For more from Dr. Nundy: Nundy penned an op-ed in the Washington Post about how the pandemic changed healthcare and uses his mom’s experience reversing her diabetes with a virtual program as an example: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/health-care-covid-diabetes-home/2021/05/12/ae298558-b26e-11eb-ab43-bebddc5a0f65_story.html   Nundy’s interview on the NPR Shots blog: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/05/13/996233365/how-health-care-in-the-u-s-may-change-after-covid-an-optimists-outlook

This past year has sparked a major care transition and greater awareness of the need for and value of home-based care. And that is our topic today – focusing on Landmark Health I have with me today two experts in the field: Adam Boehler, the founder and CEO of Landmark Health for its initial five years, and since then, former head of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, the first CEO of the new U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, and now founder & CEO of Nashville-based Rubicon Founders.  And Nick Loporcaro, CEO of Landmark Health, who has led the company since 2018 following Adam’s departure to government service.  Landmark is the largest provider of in-home medical care for seniors with complex chronic conditions, and operates in 18 states and growing. Our conversation today is a fascinating look at how two brilliant leaders can make a seamless management transition that allows an innovative, fast growing-company to maintain its culture and continue to grow, thrive, and further its mission for seniors with chronic disease.

This episode is brought to you by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies are in every ZIP code… in every state, working to improve health and expand access to care. Community by community. For the health of America.   Jacob Sattelmair is Co-Founder and CEO of Wellframe, a digital health management company… providing care management and advocacy solutions to health plans nationwide. Under his leadership, Wellframe has partnered with dozens of health plans all across the country ...  to improve their relationships with members, to close gaps in care, …and improve health outcomes.   Jake is a Harvard-trained epidemiologist who has also been a World Economic Forum Young Global Shaper.  He shares with us how his own personal health experiences and doctoral research influenced his decision to take a risk, to innovate,  and start Wellframe. He’s got an amazing story which will inspire you.

Dr. William Schaffner, a familiar and nationally recognized face and trusted voice on all matters COVID during the pandemic, is an infectious disease colleague of mine … when I was doing heart and lung transplants at Vanderbilt University medical enter. Today he is the medical director and past president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. He’s Professor of Preventive Medicine in the Department of Health Policy and Professor of Medicine in the Infectious Diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. A little over a year ago, Dr. Schaffner joined us as one of the nation’s leading experts in infectious diseases… to shed light on the novel virus we now …all know too well, …Covid-19. Today he’s joining us again to share all that we’ve learned, what we’re still learning, what we can anticipate, and how this record-setting scientific progress is changing the future of science forever. Stay tuned and together we will learn a lot. For more information about the topics in today’s episode: • Article by Dr. William Schaffner, “With a global pandemic, it is more important than ever to keep up on recommended vaccinations,” https://www.bcbsprogresshealth.com/insights/with-a-global-pandemic,-it-is-more-important-than-ever-to-keep-up-on-recommended-vaccinations • Vaccines: Safe, effective and necessary: https://www.bcbsprogresshealth.com/data/vaccines-safe-effective-and-necessary • Vaccine Myth vs. Fact: https://www.bcbsprogresshealth.com/myth-vs-fact For more on how BlueCross BlueShield companies are working to address Covid-19 and the health challenges brought on by the pandemic: • Aiding the most vulnerable seniors with vaccines: https://www.bcbsprogresshealth.com/five-min-read/aiding-the-most-vulnerable-seniors-with-vaccines- • Postponement of routine care due to COVID-19 increases public health risk: https://www.bcbsprogresshealth.com/data/postponement-of-routine-care-due-to-covid-19-increases-public-health-risk • Fighting for America’s health since the start of the pandemic: https://www.bcbsprogresshealth.com/community/fighting-for-americas-health-since-the-start-of-the-pandemic

On June 30th, community health collaborative NashvilleHealth, the Metro Nashville Public Health Department and the Nashville Health Care Council hosted a timely discussion on Covid and re-opening Music City, USA – Nashville, Tennessee.  We’re sharing this discussion with you as a close look at how one southern city is handling vaccine distribution, addressing vaccine hesitancy, adapting to new variants of Covid, and adjusting to our new normal. I want to thank our event sponsor, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, for making this panel possible.

Today we’re sharing with you a special episode.  I recently sat down with Andy Slavitt for Book TV’s After Words program, where we discussed in detail Andy’s new book: Preventable: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response. Andy Slavitt is uniquely qualified to tell this story.  As the former head of Medicare and Medicaid and one of our nation’s most recognizable and influential voices in healthcare, Andy was working with key players inside and outside of the government throughout the pandemic.  Most recently, he served in the Biden Administration as the lead White House advisor on the country's Covid-19 response. You’ll want to hear his incredible insights, the stories he has from the frontlines of the response, and what we need to do to prevent unnecessary loss of life in future health crises. Thanks to C-SPAN’s Book TV for allowing A Second Opinion to share this important content with our listeners.  Find more compelling After Words conversations here: https://www.c-span.org/series/?afterWords

Today we’re sharing with you a discussion we had on June 22nd with the Cato Institute on medical malpractice litigation, legislation, and the future of reform.   I’m joined by Professor David Hyman, a physician, the Scott K. Ginsburg Professor of Health Law & Policy at Georgetown University Law Center, and an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute.  He is the coauthor of Medical Malpractice Litigation: How It Works — Why Tort Reform Hasn’t Helped, the book we are discussing today. You can find it linked in our show notes.   I’m also joined by Dr. Richard Anderson, the chairman and CEO of The Doctors Company, the nation’s largest physician-owned medical malpractice insurer.  He was a clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego, and is past chairman of the Department of Medicine at Scripps Memorial Hospital, where he served as senior oncologist for 18 years.  Dr. Hyman and Dr. Anderson agree there are serious problems with medical malpractice litigation today, but each advocate different solutions.