The Business of Healthcare Podcast

Physician-turned-entrepreneur Dr. Eric Bricker joins Dr. Bob Kaiser for a discussion about healthcare reform through a financial lens. Bricker is a former internal medicine physician who co-founded Compass Professional Health Services. He sold the company to Blackstone-owned Alight Solutions then started AHealthcareZ, a healthcare finance video journal, to educate employers about the factors affecting their healthcare costs and quality. Bricker also discusses his new book, Healthcare Money Campfire Stories, which addresses in storyteller fashion how money influences healthcare and the practice of medicine.

Dr. John R. Mehall joins host Dr. Bob Kaiser to discuss healthcare staffing challenges. Mehall is CEO of CV Staffing Solutions. He explains how the company he founded helps solve those challenges by providing personnel to hospitals in medically underserved geographical areas with locum tenens surgeons. Mehall also founded and manages Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery Associates, an independent cardiothoracic surgical group in Colorado.

Ken Robbins, CEO and founder of Response Mine Health, joins host Dr. Bob Kaiser for a discussion about what customer-focused healthcare looks like in an environment where patients play a much more active role in purchasing and consuming the healthcare services they receive. They also discuss what healthcare providers can do to make the transition.

Dan Klein, president and CEO of Patient Access Network (PAN) Foundation, joins host Dr. Bob Kaiser to discuss how the charity he helms helps underinsured people pay for out-of-pocket expenses. Prescription medications that can treat life-threatening, chronic and rare diseases are often very costly. Klein discuss how PAN has put together a robust network of patient advocacy groups to link patients with resources and support to help defray those costs.

Heidi Rasmussen, chief operating officer of freshbenies, joins host Dr. Bob Kaiser to discuss her company’s innovative approaches to healthcare benefits that help consumers save money and become smarter healthcare consumers. Rasmussen, a UT Dallas alumna who earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the Naveen Jindal School of Management, co-founded freshbenies with her husband, Reid.