Investigative journalist Marshall Allen teaches us how we can fight back against opaque and predatory medical bills.

Learn more about Marshall's work and get his outstanding new book, Never Pay The First Bill, here.

Full video with transcript.

Topics & Timecodes

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

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