EP268: After June: Action Steps for Hospitals, Payers, Employers, and Pharma, With Marty Makary, MD, MPH

In this episode, Stacey Richter talks again 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 after June, once the reactive phase of the COVID-19 pandemic winds down.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

✅ What "normal" is likely to look like once the pandemic starts winding down

✅ Why patients who need basic medical care right now aren't getting it, and what backlog that creates

✅ Why prioritizing which patients get care first is a new challenge for American medicine

✅ Why lowering insurance deductibles could be key to a successful recovery on the other side of the pandemic

✅ What hospital executives, payers, employers, and pharma should be planning for months out

WHY THIS MATTERS

Marty Makary looks past the immediate crisis to the second phase of COVID-19: a backlog of deferred elective surgeries, postponed visits, and skipped lab tests and imaging that will demand a kind of care prioritization the US health system has never really had to do. He argues the pandemic is exposing gaps in teamwork and coordination in medicine, and that decisions made now around deductibles, pharmacy access, and hospital planning will shape how well the system recovers. Makary sees real opportunity buried in the disruption, alongside a hard question few in health care have had to answer before: who gets to go first?

=== LINKS ===

🔗 Show Notes with all mentioned links: Episode Page

🔗 Healthcare Industry Acronyms and Terms

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00:00 Introduction.

02:23 What "normal" will look like in June.

03:46 Why people who need basic medical care right now aren't getting that care.

06:13 "For the first time, we've got to think now about prioritizing which patients need to get in line first."

07:51 "We see gaming of the system."

08:05 "We don't do a good job of prioritizing."

10:07 Why teamwork and team building are a problem in medicine.

12:57 The incredible heritage of the medical profession.

13:52 Will there be a decrease in outcomes?

14:33 Why lowering insurance deductibles will be key in making successful strides on the other side of this pandemic.

17:23 The great things to come out of the pandemic.

21:41 "Everybody's right … [they're just] looking at it from their point of view."

21:56 What's in store for pharmacies coming out of this pandemic.

24:53 What hospital executives should be doing, looking and planning months out from now.

25:48 "We've never asked ourselves, 'What would take priority?'"