Fight Unfair Medical Bills And WIN (w/Marshall Allen) | An Investigative Journalist Explains

We can, and MUST, fight back against opaque and predatory medical bills. Here’s how. Links to Marshall Allen’s book, audio podcast, transcript, and more: Your support keeps us independent and mild-to-moderately awesome: Show, podcast, music, support, shop, social media, and email: Key Topics: 0:00 Intro: Marshall’s work exposing the abuse of front line healthcare professionals during the early pandemic 2:47 Marshall’s work at the Las Vegas Sun exposing the abuse of foreign medical graduates on J-1 Visa programs 10:26 “Normalization of deviance” in US healthcare, exposing it with Dr. Marty Makary, and the most amazing hospital experience Marshall’s had 14:50 New U.S. hospital price transparency rules and how & why hospitals aren’t complying 16:09 Why you should care about healthcare costs even if your employer is “paying,” and how even doctors get screwed when they become patients despite their knowledge of the system 19:49 Who is the REAL customer in healthcare and why the big legacy players almost never side with the patient/consumer, the $10,000 COVID test, medical loss ratios and insurance shenanigans, and the epidemic of unnecessary care/surprise bills 28:52 Fighting back with a secret weapon: suing in small claims court for unfair medical bills 35:35 A case example of small claims victory, and the use of gag orders by health systems to silence patients who win 38:39 Self-insured employers are the key to healthcare reform, if they would just act (why you don’t NEED government single payer to cover everyone) 43:34 The nature of disruptive innovation in healthcare with winners and losers, parallels to journalism’s disruption by the internet 47:28 Demand an itemized bill, always 51:39 Centers of Excellence model and how companies adopt it to save money and improve quality while encouraging innovation 54:36 Why employers are resistant to change and why they can’t afford to be any longer