Offcall.com

Most people tune out when doctors rage about prior auth, opaque pricing, or middlemen sucking value out of the system. Except @mcuban.bsky.social.

Where we all see complexity, he sees opportunity. And he trusts doctors. Full episode:

www.offcall.com/learn/podcas...

"The relationship between doctors and insurance companies has become an abusive one." — Dr. Elisabeth Potter who went viral after posting about United Healthcare's prior auth practices online

Our full conversation here: www.offcall.com/learn/podcas...

It takes some real courage for a physician to admit when they're burned out. Or that their chosen specialty isn't working out for them anymore. Now Dr. Phil DiGiacomo helps other physicians find jobs outside of clinical medicine.

www.offcall.com/learn/podcas...

Dr. Resa Lewiss (author of MicroSkills, POCUS leader in emergency medicine): Medicine, and particularly academic medicine, does not teach us how to take care of ourselves.

RVUs 101: How Physicians Can Increase Their Pay with Dr. Glenn Loomis In the first of a three part series, Dr. Graham Walker speaks with Dr. Glenn Loomis on how to understand and leverage RVUs.

All about RVUs with Dr. Glenn Loomis for this week’s podcast. 3 part series on how physicians are paid. Next week: contracts! www.offcall.com/learn/podcas...

Podcast - Glaucomflecken Knock Knock, Hi! “Knock Knock, Hi! with the Glaucomfleckens” dives into the highs, lows, and WTFs of healthcare. Whether you’re in the medical field, live with a healthcare worker, or broke your arm o...

You can listen to @glaucomflecken.bsky.social @lglaucomflecken.bsky.social 's podcast Knock Knock Hi: glaucomflecken.com/podcast/ here!

Absolutely a pleasure to speak with @glaucomflecken.bsky.social on our podcast. He's not just funny, he really deeply cares about patients and doctors, and this chaotic thing we call the healthcare system.

www.offcall.com/learn/podcas...

Mark's thread with his replies here on Bluesky! bsky.app/profile/mcub...

Payors do this? Insurers do that.
Doctors do this? Pharma does that.

The rules of the game clash with the values of our people—and this friction leaves everyone, from patients to providers, deeply unhappy with what we’ve built.

🤒 Patients Lose Twice: Patients face inflated bills they can’t pay, leading to bankruptcies. Meanwhile, cash prices are often cheaper than insured prices, making the system feel completely 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗱.

🏦 Insurance Companies Benefit: Thanks to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), insurers must spend 85% of premiums on healthcare costs. Higher hospital prices mean insurers can justify higher premiums—and take a larger profit.

(85% of $10,000 is more than 85% of $2,000)

Then Cuban exposes the vicious cycle between payors and hospitals:
🏥 Hospitals Inflate Prices: To offset unpaid bills, hospitals charge inflated prices to insurers who they know will pay. An MRI might cost $450 for cash-pay patients, but if billed to insurance? $2,000.

Much of this comes from EMTALA, the ER law that says the ER will see you no matter what.

But EMTALA is an “unfunded mandate” — meaning if the patient can't pay, too bad. And how do hospitals balance their books if a third of the time their services are essentially free? 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗷𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘂𝗽 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀.

YouTube video by The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart Jon Stewart & Mark Cuban Talk 2024 Politics, Healthcare, Crypto and AI | The Weekly Show

"We’ve turned hospitals and doctors into subprime lenders without assets." @mcuban.bsky.social on what’s broken in American healthcare: the hidden consequences of a moral victory: 𝘥𝘰𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘴𝘬 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘢𝘺𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳.
🧵 1/x
youtu.be/bnhxbZlvMRQ?...

So glad physicians are finally speaking up about this

Health Insurers’ Profits Are Reaching New Heights The top five health insurers have raked in over $371 billion in profits since ACA passed. Over 40% of that went to the parent company of CEO Brian Thompson’s UnitedHealthcare, UnitedHealth Group — whi...

$371 billion in profits since ACA passed
Over 40% of that went to UnitedHealth Group

jacobin.com/2024/12/heal...

"Physicians are basically lied to."

"If you actually understood how the money works, then a physician would be much less easily manipulated."

The one, the only, Dr. Eric Bricker.

Full podcast episode and transcript:
www.offcall.com/learn/podcas...

In other words: doctors do the right thing and deliver the services, care, and procedures to patients, and then we hope that we'll get paid for them.

United literally says this in their documentation — but then will not guarantee any payment.

The Trend of Medicare Reimbursement for Total Joint Arthroplasty: Using Mathematical Models to Predict Possible Per-Hour Rate Out to 2030 While multiple studies have assessed the trends of Medicare reimbursement for orthopedic total joint arthroplasty (TJA) surgeries, none have forecasted reimbursement in relatable per-hour figures. The purposes of this study are to examine trends of reimbursement for primary and revision TJA and translate forecasted primary TJA reimbursement to relatable per-hour compensation.

www.arthroplastytoday.org/article/S235...

Projection study from Arthroplasty Today:

What People Don’t Get About Physician Pay One of the biggest misconceptions people have about doctors: that we are uniformly wealthy and have nothing to worry about as it relates to money.

There's a projection that Ortho will be making less than minimum wage in 2030 for hip or knee replacements. This is not sustainable for physician compensation.

www.offcall.com/learn/opinio...

"What we don't get is a lot of training and education around getting the most return on investment and financial impact from our career. That's why I'm really excited about Offcall."

So very proud to count Dr. Blauwet as a supporter as we build this for physicians!

I Moved From Academic Medicine to Private Practice — Here’s My Most Surprising Challenge Communication among specialty practices is failing, and patients stand to lose the most. How can we fix it?

Communication is a 𝗵𝘂𝗴𝗲 challenge in medicine thanks to outdated HIPAA regulation — and it's 100x worse for private practice and inter-system communication. And we're all busier than ever, so continuing to rely on fax machines is... awful.

www.offcall.com/learn/opinio...

Disappointing to see @vox.com reporting that "Providers – not insurance companies – are the primary drivers of high health care costs."

You could fire all the doctors in the US and you'd only reduce spending by 14.5%.

www.vox.com/policy/39003...

www.ama-assn.org/about/resear...

TIL it can cost up to $1M if a physician leaves an organization

klasresearch.com/archcollabor...

YouTube video by Dr. Glaucomflecken No More General Anesthesia

One thing I didn’t expect in the wake of the CEO shooting is the sudden attention on health insurance policy. I have seen this video and the BCBS policy itself go viral on almost every platform. People are waking up. Real lasting change in healthcare is coming. youtube.com/shorts/vWA2a...

We spoke with Dr. Tina Shah, intensivist and Chief Clinical Officer at Abridge about burnout for our launch of our podcast.

On 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗜 𝗗𝗼𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿, we interview physicians doing transformative work inside and outside of their clinical care.

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