David W. Johnson

As giants in the world of technology, Epic’s Judy Faulkner and Alphabet’s Ruth Porat are among America’s most prominent business leaders. In keynote addresses delivered three days apart in August, they offered sharply differing perspectives on AI’s emergent capabilities — and starkly different ideas regarding its application to healthcare. For me, the differences call to…

In April 1999, “The Modern Library” published its list of the top one hundred nonfiction books of the 20th century. Number one was “The Education of Henry Adams,” an intellectual autobiography written in 1905 by the great grandson and grandson of John Adams and John Quincy Adams, respectively, the second and sixth presidents of the…

Vendor pronouncements that AI technologies can transform the healthcare revenue cycle are commonplace and overblown. While both health systems and suppliers want to believe that AI can be their savior, there are limits to how it can improve payment mechanics between commercial health insurers and providers. No revenue cycle company flew closer to the sun…

Unlike other consumer people-oriented businesses, healthcare essentially operates independently of its end-users (also called patients, consumers and/or customers). Individuals engage providers to diagnose and treat their ailments, while third parties largely pay for any services rendered. This convoluted relationship among providers, patients and payers creates two fundamental anomalies within healthcare business models that distort the…

In  a remarkable and surprising show of bipartisanship, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act on Dec. 11, 2023, by an overwhelming 320-71 vote. Avoiding hyperbole, the act lives up to its name. It seeks to equalize Medicare payment for the same drugs administered in the same way, whether in…

The United States continues to struggle with daunting inner-city health and healthcare problems borne out of innate social inequities. Effective solutions are few and far between. One initiative on Chicago’s South Side, launched just before the COVID-19 pandemic, encapsulates the potential and perils of system restructuring. In that distant January of 2020, four Chicago safety-net…

The OrthoForum is the premier convening and advocacy organization for large, independent orthopedic physician groups. In March 2022, I gave a keynote address at The OrthoForum’s Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida. Attending the conference at the posh Grande Lakes Ritz-Carlton gave me a front-row seat to the economic forces reshaping orthopedic care delivery in the…

Gravy train is a railroad term that originated in the early 1900s. It described a well-paid train run that didn’t require much effort. In modern parlance, speakers use it to describe easy-to-do tasks and cushy situations. The problem with gravy trains is that riding them too long engenders lazy, sloppy and wasteful behaviors. New York…

What is going on with nonprofit health systems? I recently gave a keynote address to an investor forum that included CEOs from roughly a dozen nonprofit health systems. We dug into the structural and environmental challenges confronting their organizations. When queried, over half the CEOs admitted that their asset-heavy business models were not sustainable. Most…

Smart nonprofit health systems should pay their local, state and federal taxes as though they were for-profit companies.  You did just read that. I contend that it makes business sense for leading nonprofit health systems to pony up and pay taxes. In the long run, health systems that start paying taxes will create a new…