Recently, I read a book by David Goldhill called “Catastrophic Care: How American Health Care Killed My Father–And How We Can Fix It.” Although I certainly don’t agree with everything that Goldhill says, he caused probably the biggest forehead slap I’ve had in years. There’s a massive foundational element of our healthcare system that somehow has become so a priori, so taken as a complete truth that it is rarely, if ever, discussed as anything other than completely fixed and immovable.

Reimbursement is certainly an incentive for providers. And it’s no secret that if a provider is gunning for maximum reimbursement, payer mix matters and so does the number and type of procedures, tests, etc. A provider can leave it all to chance, or be proactive about attracting the patients with certain payers and for certain procedures. Today I speak with Lonnie Hirsch from Hirsch Healthcare Consulting about what marketing looks like during these interesting times we live in.

How do we redesign patient experience so that the system supports patient satisfaction so not all the weight is on the doctor or providers? What elements are solely in the physician’s hands? How much transparency leads to improvements vs. upset and burnt out physicians? Today I speak with Dr. Paul Rosen, who spends 80% of his job threading these needles in pursuit of engaged and satisfied patients and physicians and nurses.

Jan Oldenburg has written a couple of books on the theme of how to best engage with patients and encourage people to engage with providers. And we talk about this, and why she’s ditched the term “patient engagement.”