
Season 2 Episode 5 – Drug Prices are too high! But are they Really?
Are Drug Prices Really too High? In the last episode, we talked about why what we think about drug prices is often mythical. This episode
Tom has had an extensive history in healthcare. As an Angel Investor, Mentor, and Advisor at Keiretsu Forum & Venture-Med and an established operations guy with serial successes with startups, transitional companies, and turnaround situations, Tom has had a long career serving in the fields of science, technology, and healthcare-related industries. He is an active board member in both for-profit and not-for-profit companies. Tom has written numerous articles in healthcare, health tech, health policy, politics, and the economy of healthcare. He is currently the principal author, along with several other contributors, of Health Reform 2.0: Beyond partisan divide lies pragmatic solutions – a working whitepaper focused on moving beyond the partisan rhetoric of the ACA (Obamacare) to a simple, efficient, effective, accessible and affordable healthcare system.
Tom has been involved with healthcare reform for many years, going back before President Obama’s election. He was active during the debate, advising on how to get services to the underserved effectively. He was a strong advocate for using true patient-centered systems to improve the quality of care and patient outcome and was pivotal in the insertion of the concept of coordination of care and benefits as a repeated tenant of the Affordable Care Act. Tom is one of the few people who has read almost every word of every piece of legislation that came out of the various committees and the various versions of the final legislation.
Tom’s understanding of the history of care in America helps him get others to understand how we got to the non-system we have today and how this system needs to fundamentally change to develop into the system we need for tomorrow. Tom’s work on this whitepaper, mentioned above, has been heralded as a fresh and valid approach to move beyond the ACA or Obamacare and get to a truly workable solution.
In the healthcare space, Tom has long maintained a passion for serving the underserved and has founded, supported, and worked in various companies to serve the most fragile among us. He has developed several detailed approaches to solving the issues in the current and evolving healthcare system. Because of his understanding and expertise in the business of healthcare, he has been invited to conduct multiple congressional briefings on healthcare reform in Congress, meeting with more than 100 congressional representatives.
He has been a guest on HuffPost Live to talk about health care issues and is a frequent keynote speaker on the topic for many groups and events. Before his latest book, The History and Evolution of Healthcare in America: The untold backstory of where we’ve been, where we are, and why healthcare needs more reform, Tom published Delusional Ravings of a Lunatic Mind— a collection of essays on healthcare, politics and their interaction of both with the economy Both books are available at Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, and other bookstores.
2008 – Begins Healthcare reform effort and works to inform congress in more efficient ways to serve the underserved population
2009 – Continues meeting with congress focused on techniques and legislation to spread risk and burden while reducing waste and fraud
2009 – Begins demonstration project of Help4U platform. 2010 – Rollout of a demonstration project of Help4U Platform.
2010 – Provides congressional briefing on techniques to increase service to the underserved and reduce waste through full coordination of care and benefits systems
2010 – Published whitepaper Rational National Healthcare Plan – focused on areas to revise or repeal sections of the ACA.
2011 – Delusional Ravings of a Lunatic Mind – published.
2012 – The History and Evolution of Healthcare in America: The untold backstory of where we’ve been, where we are, and why healthcare needs more reform! – published.
2013 – Develops an innovative model to lower start-up failure rates through angle Investment networks. Joins Venture-Med. Participates in a consortium of passionate healthcare professionals to develop Beyond Obamacare Paper.
2014 – January, Begins development of Health Reform 2.0: Beyond partisan divide lies pragmatic solutions
2014 – March, publishes whitepaper at Health Reform 2.0 website
2014 – September, Tom presents Health Reform 2.0 outline at Oregon Biosciences Association Annual Conference.
2015 – Publishes Health Reform 2.0 Blog
2016 – Revises Health Reform 2.0 Proposal and presents to various members of Congress
2017 – Launches Healthreform 2.0 Podcast with his co-host Tim Henning
2018 – Launches Healthreform 2.0 Youtube Channel
Are Drug Prices Really too High? In the last episode, we talked about why what we think about drug prices is often mythical. This episode
High Drug Prices With Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar’s recent announcement that HHS is targeting rebates as one of the reasons for America’s
Hostile healthcare One of the reasons our healthcare quagmire is so dangerous is the hostile and predatory nature of competition within the industry. In this
Healthcare is Predatory – Let’s Look at Drug Rebates The current debate about high drug prices and the focus on attacking rebates is the right
Healthcare Reform is a mess Welcome to Season 2 of Healthcare Reform 2.0. In this episode, we recap the past few months and tell you
Healthcare’s Price Transparency sucks! There is no real Price Transparency. Healthcare costs and pricing have no relationship to anything. What you told the cost is
Heart Attacks are deadly, so are the medicine and technology that underlies the care. On June 27th, 2018, Cohost Tom Loker had a nearly fatal
Mammography the Gold Standard Mammograms are the gold standard for breast cancer detection and diagnosis, yet their accuracy leaves a bit desired in normal breasted
We Need Real Health Reform It’s time to fix this healthcare quagmire. We have seen the government’s idea, ObamaCare, and it’s not working. We have
Government cant fix healthcare The healthcare diatribe has continued to get more vitriolic. Most spouts contrived talking points from either side driven into our heads
In this episode, Tom discusses Dan Brown’s Book Inferno and how it may not be as much of a work of fiction as we think!
Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare cost to much. Medicare and Medicaid costs are still out of control, no cost containment efforts have had any effect, yet
Sign up now to always get our latest articles, whitepapers, and other work.