EP267: From Now Until June: Action Steps for Hospitals, Payers, Employers, Pharma, With Marty Makary, MD, MPH

In this episode, Stacey Richter talks with Marty Makary, MD, MPH, surgeon at Johns Hopkins and author of "The Price We Pay," about action steps for hospitals, payers, employers, and pharma from now until June, during the reactive phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Episode 267.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

✅ What made Marty Makary sound the alarm bells early on COVID-19

✅ What the next four to six weeks were likely to look like for hospitals and health care workers

✅ What business leaders should be doing right now to support the pandemic response

✅ Why rural hospitals were a particular point of concern

✅ What pharma and researchers should be prioritizing during this initial phase

WHY THIS MATTERS

Marty Makary lays out what the worst weeks of the pandemic's first wave were likely to demand: rapidly building hospital capacity, protecting frontline health care workers, and getting business leaders and pharma pointed at the right priorities. He's candid that "anything that can wait 3 months must wait 3 months," and that overfunding hospitals right now is a risk worth taking. The conversation sets up a second episode, released later that week, covering what comes after this acute phase.

=== LINKS ===

🔗 Show Notes with all mentioned links: Episode Page

🔗 Healthcare Industry Acronyms and Terms

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00:00 Introduction.

01:38 What happened that made Marty Makary sound the alarm bells on COVID-19.

03:12 Paul Kennedy's "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers."

04:21 "Everyone has an opinion, but no one's listening."

06:00 What the next 4-6 weeks will look like.

08:22 What we should do to support our highest-risk patients: health care workers.

09:16 How long will this initial phase last?

13:10 What business leaders should be doing right now.

16:11 "Critical care generally pays very well."

17:15 Marty's concern for rural hospitals.

17:30 "If we're going to overfund [something], I'd like it to be our hospitals."

20:54 "I think the pharma industry has also gotten a wake-up call … Maybe we should start working on viruses."

24:04 "We're at war with COVID-19 right now."

25:32 "We need to help researchers that are working specifically on lowering deaths from COVID-19."

28:23 "Anything that can wait 3 months must wait 3 months."

30:37 "We need everybody."

31:38 "Hospitals need to be focused on building capacity, number one."