Steve Wiggins has seen a thing or two in his more than three decades as a healthcare entrepreneur. His Oxford Health Plans introduced “pods,” a precursor of the Accountable Care Organization and he led HealthMarket, an early player in the consumer directed health plan space. He’s carried the same themes into his current  role as founder and Chairman of Remedy Partners, the leader in Medicare’s Bundled Payments for Care Initiative (BPCI).

As you’ll hear in this podcast, Steve’s a big believer in bundles, offering them as a proven solution for a large portion of the healthcare dollar, within almost any healthcare financing framework from traditional commercial coverage to Medicare for All.

Here’s what we discussed:

• (0:18) What is a bundled payment? How does it relate to other new approaches like ACOs?
• (3:05) Did bundled payments start in Medicare rather than the private sector? If so, why?
• (6:52) How well has BPCI worked? What does the future look like?
• (11:01) How do episodes and bundles tie in more broadly? I often hear that chronic care or end of life care are the big cost drivers, not episodic care. Can those statements be reconciled?
• (15:10) How should we think about bundled payments and related topics playing into the campaign, or should we just give up on that?
• (19:14) You’ve founded quite a few healthcare companies over your career. How does this Remedy compare?
• (21:41) How do you expect the company to evolve in the next few years?

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By healthcare business consultant David E. Williams, president of Health Business Group.