Dave Chase
Ep. 36 — A succession of friends dying early propels a hospital revenue cycle consultant to rethink the foundation of American healthcare / Dave Chase, Creator, Co-Founder, and CEO of Health Rosetta. When Dave Chase turned 40, he was stunned to realize that nearly a dozen of his friends all around his own age had died due to health problems. One in particular hit him the hardest, a successful executive who got cancer. “And really, at every step of the way the system failed. I mean, she got the wrong diagnosis which led to the wrong treatment plan,” says Chase. “Ultimately, this devastated her physically, financially, mentally, and she ultimately passed, she left behind a 10 year old daughter, and she was a single mother. And I realized this was a complete system failure. And I'd been a part of that system. And that was one of those road to Damascus moments for me, realizing certainly I was trying to do the right thing. But the more I looked at the system I was in, the more I realized it was, in some cases doing more harm than good. And the effects were just dramatic the more I dug into it, basically.” A successful hospital revenue cycle consultant at the time, Chase knew that he had to rethink his career and reason for being. He began to think deeply about some of the most intractable problems in the American healthcare system: The high rates of misdiagnosis and over treatment; the direct link between the two-decade-long employee wage stagnation and the escalating cost of healthcare; the devastating opioid crisis, about which he's written a book, The Opioid Crisis Wakeup Call; and last but not least, how the average American is what Chase describes as just "one stubbed toe away" from medical bill-driven bankruptcy. Since his existential crisis, Chase has become one of the most innovative thinkers on healthcare reform. As the Creator, Co-Founder, and CEO of Health Rosetta, he's working with employers and unions to transform the healthcare system. In this insightful episode, Chase lays out a concise roadmap of all the factors that have led to the national crisis in healthcare during this ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Transcript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan: By the time Dave Chase turned 40, 10 of his friends all around his own age had died due to health problems. There was one in particular that hit him the hardest. A successful hospital revenue cycle consultant at the time, Chase knew that he had to rethink his career and reason for being. Hello, everyone. I'm Chitra Ragavan, and this is When It Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm helping technology startups find their narrative. Since that crisis, Chase has become one of the most innovative thinkers on healthcare reform. Joining me now is Dave Chase. He is the creator, Co-founder and CEO of Health Rosetta, which he describes as a "do it yourself health reform movement" to help transform the healthcare system.' Dave, welcome to the podcast. Dave Chase: Thanks so much for having me. I'm looking forward to our chat. Chitra Ragavan: So how did you end up in healthcare in the first place? Dave Chase: Well, initially it was random, I was working with a consulting firm that's now Accenture. And as a new consultant straight out of school, they put you on a project and I was put into a hospital. And turns out, it was enjoyable, liked the team, liked the work and just kind of one thing led to another and have had much of my career in the healthcare industry. Chitra Ragavan: So what were you doing in healthcare when you turned 40, and you were starting to see that a lot of your friends had died? Dave Chase: By then I had moved on to the technology side. So I'd had a company that I had started. I mean, previously, I'd been at Microsoft and started their healthcare partnership ecosystem, that's about 28,000 partners that they have on the Microsoft platform, believe it or not, just in healthcare,