Sanjay Prasad, MD, FACS, Author of 'Resetting Healthcare Post-COVID-19 Pandemic: The Patient Handbook,' on the Hospital Finance Podcast Interviewed by Mike Passanante:Subjects Covered Are: 1) Where health care in the US is headed2) 2014 all-inclusive price model benefits3) Flaws in the surgery referral process4) Resetting Healthcare bookWhat do you do when your doctor recommends surgery to you or to a loved one? Do you question their decision? The answer for the vast majority of Americans is no. Most of us have been trained to trust our physicians completely. After all, they’re the experts. They should know best.In his new book, Resetting Healthcare: Post-COVID-19 Pandemic, The Patient Handbook, Dr. Sanjay Prasad examines the lack of transparency in surgical care and offers a solution to the problem: a new, innovative tool called SurgiQuality that connects patients with qualified surgeons, offering second and third opinions, and even suggesting more conservative, non-surgical solutions as appropriate. Dr. Prasad reveals that between 10–20 percent of all surgeries in the US are unnecessary, either because of misdiagnosis or because a more conservative therapy may have been just as or even more effective. “The referral process is the heart of the problem in surgical care,” says Dr. Prasad. “Patients are referred by their primary care doctor or emergency room physician to surgeons without concern for cost or outcome. Once told they need surgery, most patients are shocked, nervous, anxious, and scared. They feel they must trust the opinion of their physician without questioning anything.”Dr. Prasad has been a practicing surgeon for nearly thirty years in the super-specialized field of otology, neurotology, and skull base surgery, a subspecialty within otolaryngology head and neck surgery (ENT). Prasad is one of the few surgeons in his specialty to complete three fellowships in neurotology, advanced head and neck oncologic surgery, and cranial base surgery. He is an assistant clinical professor at George Washington University and the founder of SurgiQuality and SurgiConnect. His thirty years as a surgeon has given him deep insight into the flaws in the surgery referral process.“I founded SurgiQuality with the mission to connect surgical patients to best-in-class surgeons who operate in a cost-efficient environment,” says Dr. Prasad. “Using SurgiQuality, a personalized concierge hand-holds the patient from the moment they are told they need surgery all the way through recovery.”

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