EP335: Why Is Private Equity Willing to Pay $55,000 per Patient to Primary Care Start-ups? With Brian Klepper, PhD

In Episode 335, Stacey Richter talks with Brian Klepper, PhD, longtime healthcare analyst and former CEO of the National Business Coalition on Health, about why private equity is willing to pay as much as $55,000 per patient to primary care start-ups — and the three distinct flavors of primary care operating today, from fee-for-service to direct primary care to what Brian calls industrialized (or advanced) primary care.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

✅ Why the 1990s HMO version of primary care was really a glorified, restrictive gatekeeper model

✅ The three kinds of PCPs operating today, and how they differ in the risk they take on

✅ What "industrialized" or advanced primary care (APC) requires to succeed — relationship, data, and digital capability

✅ Why a huge flurry of private equity investment into primary care can actually be a problem

✅ Why better patient-PCP relationships quantifiably translate to better care

WHY THIS MATTERS

Advanced primary care is, in Brian's view, one leg of a three-legged stool needed to transform healthcare — alongside high-performing specialty care and value-based reimbursement. But almost nobody in healthcare actually wants this transformation to happen, even though the math suggests we could get wildly better outcomes for 40% to 45% less than what's currently being spent.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

AEE5 with Alex Jung, Partner and Managing Director in Parthenon-EY, on why the HMOs crashed and burned

EP295 with Rebecca Etz, PhD: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Other Apps

=== LINKS ===

🔗 Show Notes with all mentioned links: Episode Page

🔗 Healthcare Industry Acronyms and Terms

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00:00 Introduction.

05:10 Is the HMO model of primary care a good model?

07:48 "Industrialized medicine is exciting."

08:59 What does primary care have the opportunity to do?

09:21 "The problem that goes along with that is that now immense amounts of money are being infused into primary care organizations."

10:15 Where does direct primary care and advanced primary care fit into this model?

13:35 "At the end of the day, what primary care really needs to be about is … the management of life issues as well."

14:05 EP295 with Rebecca Etz, PhD.

14:19 "Better relationships quantifiably translate to better care."

21:48 "Almost nobody in healthcare wants any of this to happen."

23:58 Why the huge amounts of money being invested into primary care is actually a big problem.

28:11 "We should be able to get wildly better health outcomes for about 40% to 45% of the money that we're currently spending."