Social Entrepreneur, Patient, 1000s of patient interviews/surveys, patient-focused perspectives, enough AI insights to be dangerous, espresso machine obsessed
Iowa City, Iowa
Joined March 2009
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5 star reviews for my #CX podcast @socialimpactcx!
“The best CX intro available” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Best in CX” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Insightful and encouraging!” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Listen to SocialImpactCX on iTunes apple.co/2qpD0xQ or YouTube bit.ly/2qqOCRY
John Corrigan retweeted
AI must make healthcare cheaper.
The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association estimates that more complex hospital coding added $942 million to Blue plan spending over two years, with no matching change in the care patients received. Hospitals disputed the analysis, saying patients are older and sicker and AI is capturing real complexity. But insurers are responding with AI of their own to review and challenge more claims. It's a pointless arms race.
So a growing share of bills now pass through two sets of AI: one coding the claim up, one pushing it back down. We (patients, employers, and taxpayers) pay for both, and none of it makes anyone healthier.
We cannot accept that.
@DrOzCMS has called technology a "deflationary force" for healthcare. He has also said AI may be inflationary in the short term, because it makes today's billing systems more effective. He's right, of course, but how short can we make that "short term"?
We'll know that AI in healthcare works when people pay less for better care. Better documentation should mean bills reflect care delivered, not diagnoses discovered. And when AI does the work, the price must fall.
That's how we priced @Doctronic:
1. Our AI is free
2. AI prescription renewals are free (in states that permit it)
3. A licensed physician prescription renewal is $19
4. A licensed physician video visit for most other needs is $39
Our $39 charge is less than half what Medicare pays for a routine office visit. But the biggest savings won't come from cheaper visits. The biggest savings will come from care that no longer requires waiting, driving, or any bill at all.
John Corrigan retweeted
To an insurance company, a denial is just another number on a spreadsheet.
To the patient, it means pain, bills and waiting for care their doctor says they need.
So who should make medical decisions—your doctor or an insurance company protecting its profits?
🤖 Made with AI
John Corrigan retweeted
.@AFergusonFTC nails why patients need actual, upfront prices in healthcare:
“When patients aren’t told in advance the price of healthcare, they are unable to compare prices like they do in every other market — and like in every other market, patients in the healthcare markets deserve to know the price of the services they’re being offered before they receive care.”
John Corrigan retweeted
A hospital can be “nonprofit” and still behave like the most ruthless business in town.
One of my clients is a nun who desperately needs a joint replacement, so we offered to pay cash. Upfront.
The hospital is demanding $80,000.
Medicare would pay $16,000.
Ironically, she has no income and would qualify for the hospital’s financial assistance policy where federal law would limit what the hospital could charge her.
But because she has a health plan that wants to pay a fair price, the hospital is demanding five times Medicare instead.
“Nonprofit” is a tax designation. Not a commitment to charity.
Read the whole dirty story at the link in comments.
John Corrigan retweeted
Employer: "We offer top-tier health insurance! Your monthly premium is only $220."
You: "Great. So if I break my wrist, insurance covers the medical bill?"
Employer: "No. You have a $6,500 individual deductible."
You: "So I pay $2,640 a year in premiums, plus $6,500 out of pocket before insurance pays $1?"
Employer: "Correct. But once you hit $6,500, we cover 80% until you hit your $9,100 out-of-pocket maximum."
You: "So I have to spend $11,740 of my own post-tax money in a single year before I get 100% coverage?"
Employer: "Yes, but it’s pre-tax payroll deductions!"
You: "My take-home pay is $4,200 a month. A single ER visit wipes out nearly 3 full months of my entire net income."
Employer: "That’s why we offer a Health Savings Account so you can save for it!"
You aren't receiving a healthcare benefit.
You are paying monthly access fees for the privilege of self-insuring against medical debt while your corporate employer claims tax write-offs for "providing coverage."
John Corrigan retweeted
Mark Cuban has spent years digging into America’s health care system. His verdict: opaque, convoluted and dominated by companies focused on getting bigger.
Patients don’t need bigger health care conglomerates. They need affordable care they can actually access.
John Corrigan retweeted
Organized medicine is putting the interests of doctors ahead of the interests of patients.
It's not a good look. Wasn't in the 1400s. Won't be when the future looks back at 2026.
Scribes didn't like the printing press.
De Strata begged the Doge of Venice to shut the presses down. Printed books were full of errors and forgeries, and easy access to immoral texts would endanger the reading public.
Trithemius said hand-copying had spiritual value no press could match, and anyone who thought otherwise was just lazy.
Medicine should at least come up with new arguments.
As a patient it seems that AI manifests in healthcare via automation that denies access to care, makes care more expensive & improves the profits/margins of both for profit & nonprofit players in big healthcare. Why should patients trust AI when their data is so easily abused?
As a patient it’s inexplicable that PBMs & GPOs have this exemption. Fraud is fraud. Profiteering is profiteering. Abusing patients for margin is sick and should be illegal. Abusers should be cut off from ANYTHING touching Fed $$ w/execs sent to prison & patient reparations paid.
The PBMs and their cousins, the GPOs, have an exemption from a Medicare fraud and abuse statute.
That is the Anti-Kickback Statute. Either the law is good and should apply to everyone, or it sucks and should be repealed.
Full episode here: youtu.be/lPsNHC5P-h0?si=nMii… @AndreaBee00722 @DutchRojas @HeathVeuleman @Laffincrow @noahkaufmanmd @BrandiChane
John Corrigan retweeted
Are physicians really the reason healthcare is so expensive? Doctor salaries are only one piece of the cost, while hospitals, administrators, and middlemen make up other parts of the system.
#Healthcare #MedicalCare #PatientCare #HealthcareCosts
This video is for educational purposes only and is NOT medical advice.
John Corrigan retweeted
$trillions wasted in healthcare , but yeah let’s focus on the the little blue slice of the pie
Perfect Sunday read - at least for a nerd like me: Evidence suggests millions of operations performed each year are unnecessary. Especially back & joints.
economist.com/leaders/2026/0…
As a patient I want healthcare AI to easily show primary positive benefit to the patient population or be prepared for patients to regard AI as a danger to overall well being. AI should first bring value to patients and their clinicians, not first & foremost to admin profiteers.
Accountability via @TheStalwart.
All the AI hype promised healthcare savings— but the AI "efficiency pitch" just hit a $2.3 billion snag. Where does this end up in five years? 4 key insights:
1⃣📈 AI-Enabled Coding Tied to $2.3 Billion in Costs: BCBSA researchers estimate roughly $663 million in extra inpatient spending and at least $1.67 billion in outpatient spending nationwide are linked to more aggressive, AI-enabled coding.
2⃣🩸 Diagnoses Tripled Without More Treatment: At hospitals with the fastest coding growth, the share of maternity patients coded with acute posthemorrhagic anemia jumped from about 4% to over 12% in under three years, while transfusion rates stayed flat.
3⃣💰 One Diagnosis, $22 Million in One Year: Increased coding of a single condition added $22 million to maternity related hospital costs in just one year across the facilities studied.
4⃣🏥 Coding Intensity Drives a Fifth of Cost Growth: Per member costs rose 9% between 2023 and 2024 in the study population, and coding intensity alone is estimated to account for about 20% of that increase.
#HealthTech #Upcoding
John Corrigan retweeted
I guess I’m confused
BCBS and others have used AI and machines to deny care under prior authorization for years. No concern on their end
Doctors or hospitals use AI to catch up and BCBS says this is inappropriate and driving up healthcare costs.
What’s good for the goose…
The Blue Cross/Blue Shield Association says that AI is already driving *up* healthcare costs, as hospitals use the technology to find instances where they can bill more for the same level of care. bcbs.com/about-us/associatio…
John Corrigan retweeted
premier care does not work when the physicians get 15 minutes for a complicated appointment.
We set the PCP’s up for failure and are shocked when it occurs.
We need to set the PCP’s and patients up for success. Success is called DPC.
John Corrigan retweeted
@grok The best rule for medical AI may be:
never outsource the reason.
AI can influence diagnosis or treatment, but the clinician should still be able to explain:
why the tool was appropriate
why the input was trustworthy
why the output fit—or didn’t fit—the patient
why the final decision was made
The BMJ piece explicitly says that whether you accept or reject an AI recommendation, you should have a reason beyond “the AI said so” and document it.
AI should compress cognition, not accountability.
"Whether you accept or reject the recommendation, have a reason that you can explain beyond 'the AI said so,' and be sure to document your reason."
Daniel Sokol gives tips on how doctors can use AI safely and responsibly
bmj.com/content/394/bmj-2026…
John Corrigan retweeted
A household earning about $17,000 a year ended up owing one hospital $180,000.
In 2024, a married couple in Racine, Wisconsin filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy with $223,779 in total liabilities. Medical bills accounted for 97.1% of their unsecured debt, including $180,000 owed to Froedtert Health and another $16,098 owed to Tomah Memorial Hospital.
Both hospitals participate in 340B.
Even if the household had put every dollar of its roughly $391 monthly margin toward the Froedtert balance, paying it off would have taken about 38 years. With the second hospital bill included, it would have taken more than 40.
Wisconsin also stood out in our broader review: a 340B-participating nonprofit hospital appeared as a creditor in 65% of the consumer bankruptcy filings we examined in the state.
Read more: hubs.ly/Q04wF6qD0
These records cannot tell us how much 340B assistance, if any, reached these patients before their bills ended up in bankruptcy court. That missing information is part of the transparency conversation happening now as Congress considers changes to the program.
On September 24, we’re bringing that conversation to the State of the Patient Summit during The Invisible Patient: Transparency and Accountability in 340B.
Join us on Capitol Hill as we put cases like this in front of the larger 340B debate and ask what patients should be able to see about the benefits generated in their name.
Register here: hubs.ly/Q04wG9Cn0
John Corrigan retweeted
The Cubs went 108 years between titles.
When they finally won in 2016, Game 7 went to extra innings, had a rain delay, and Cleveland had tied it with a two run homer in the eighth off Aroldis Chapman.
The Cubs were down 3-1 in that series. Kyle Schwarber came back from a torn ACL to DH in the World Series having not played since April. Ben Zobrist hit the go ahead double in the 10th. Then Kris Bryant fielded the last ground ball smiling before he'd even thrown it. It's the best Game 7 I've ever seen.
John Corrigan retweeted
but these agents need infrastructure to act on behalf of their patient
the biggest healthcare system in the world is AI.
@ChatGPT, @claudeai, instinct, @Muse , @interaction, @orchid_hq are the best healthcare agents.
isolated healthcare specific agents are just that, isolated
John Corrigan retweeted
Private equity firms and other corporate investors should not get to decide how doctors practice medicine. -Michael Fenne, Senior Policy Coordinator at PESP.
warren.senate.gov/newsroom/p…
HUGE: Elizabeth Warren, AOC, and other members of Congress have introduced a bill to push private equity out of healthcare.
The Stop Corporate Takeovers of Physicians Act would make it illegal for private equity, insurance companies, and other for-profit corporations to own or control medical practices.
It would also close state-level loopholes that private equity firms have snuck through, prohibit corporate interference with clinical decisions, and more.