EHH Podcast_ Saul Marquez: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Everyone Hates Healthcare Intro:
For many people today, healthcare feels like we’re behind enemy lines. The system is geared to take care of us, but why do we feel like we’re in it alone? Everyday stories are a powerful way to shine light on the gaps that make you feel this way. I’d like to welcome you to Everyone Hates Healthcare, where we bring you real people’s healthcare stories unfiltered. And now your host, Michael Swartz.
Michael Swartz:
Hey, everyone, it’s your host, Michael Swartz, and here’s another episode of Everyone Hates Healthcare. I’m so excited to bring to you an incredible guest, Saul Marquez. He’s a healthcare executive and media influencer. For the past decade, he has been a leader at well-known companies like Stryker Orthopedics, and Medtronic. The mission of his work is focus on improving outcomes and business model success in healthcare. In addition to his leadership in the corporate world, Saul is an incredible entrepreneur at heart. As the founder of one of the top healthcare podcasts, Outcomes Rocket Podcast, and Smooth Podcasting Production, he and his team are focused on helping businesses and leaders more effectively deliver their message and value to customers. With over 700 interviews published to date in a following of over 70,000 a month, he’s seeking to help founders get found, and innovators implement their ideas as quickly as possible. Saul, welcome to the show, I’m so excited to have you here!
Saul Marquez:
Michael, thank you so much. Yeah, man, I’m excited to be here with you. I really appreciate the invite!
Michael Swartz:
Yeah, your background, your podcast, I have been a fan for probably since I got into healthcare, one of the top of my list, on my favorites. Let me ask you, how did you end up getting into healthcare and creating a podcast?
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, no, I appreciate the question, Michael, and I appreciate you, you listening to the podcast and obviously, those of you listening, I also had Michael as a guest on my podcast. He totally crushed it, and so glad to return the favor here. You know, I’ve been in healthcare for the last 15 years. I’ve just, I’ve always had a love and a passion for doing something that could directly impact people’s lives, and the thing that got me interested in healthcare from, at a very young age was sort of an accident that I had. We were playing in the park and, you know, I grew up in a not very affluent area, so it was like a cement park, Michael, and there was these monkey bars and I was on top of the monkey bars, my cousin was like jumping off, he was an older cousin, I wanted to be like him. And so instead of jumping forward, I fell back and my head hit the bars, and then it hit the cement, and I was out. And I ended up at the local county hospital, and you know what, it didn’t matter. They took good care of me, and I remember driving away the next day. I was there for a day.
Michael Swartz:
The whole night?
Saul Marquez:
The whole night, yeah, because I was out, man. I mean, I hit my head really hard. They had to do MRIs and a bunch of work, right, to get it done. And at that time, you know, we honestly, I don’t even know what happened with that bill or anything because we, my mom and dad didn’t have insurance. We were on probably Medicaid because we were that poor growing up and who knows what happened, but what I know is, I walked away from that. And I remember seeing the hospital in the rearview mirror and I thought, wow, these people are amazing. Like, I seriously thought I would die. I was a kid, I wasn’t going to die, but I was in awe, right? I was in awe with the medical profession, and ever since then, you know, I’ve always been in awe of it and the direct impact that we can have on people’s lives through healthcare. And so, yeah, man, you know, I got out of college and I got started in the medical devices field, and I haven’t looked back since.
Michael Swartz:
That’s incredible. From early on, how old were you at that?
Saul Marquez:
So I was, when that happened, I was six.
Michael Swartz:
Wow, so your whole life you’ve been thinking about healthcare in one way or another?
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, I, just intrigued by it, you know, and just loving it.
Michael Swartz:
So you fall off the monkey bars and then you have this experience, you end up getting into medical devices. Tell us how you got into podcasting, where did that connection come from?
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, no, thank you. You know, the podcasting thing came up as sort of a way for me to do more. So, you know, I was enjoying the work that I was doing at the time and, with Medtronic and, you know, alleviate pain, restore health, extend life. That’s the motto, that’s the mission. I mean, how awesome is that, right? And so when you spend time doing what you love, you can’t help but think about what you could do that’s even bigger. And so this happens a lot with physicians and clinicians, right? They’re like, man, I’m seeing and making a difference in all these patients’ lives at the bedside, but how can I scale the level of impact beyond? And that’s where a lot of physicians, clinicians end up joining companies or they become administrators at hospitals, and they and they end up touching the population, right? And so I said to myself, beyond helping my customers through giving them innovative medical devices, what can I do to improve outcomes and improve these innovations in business? And so I landed on this idea that there’s a gap, there’s a gap in between the conferences where we can actually help each other by telling each other’s stories and really just sharing best practices. And I said, there’s got to be a way to do this continuously, like every single day of the week. And so I landed on this idea through a friend who’s a podcaster. He’s like, man, why don’t you do a podcast about this? And I said, wow, this is a good idea. So I landed on this podcast idea that I was going to do it five days a week, that I was going to be available every single day of the work week for people that are healthcare leaders in their respective verticals of healthcare, the $3.6 trillion dollar healthcare economy here in the United States, and man, it just kind of took off. You know, year one was a little slow, but after year one, it just kind of started, like the listeners started tuning in and we started getting some really cool guests and the rest was history. But the thing that I feel really good about is that every single podcast we put out there, it’s helping these amazing leaders like yourself, right, Michael? I mean, the work that you’re doing at Health Karma is just incredible. Being able to share that with people that might not know about it, it was how we felt we could do more with beyond kind of that quote-unquote bedside.
Michael Swartz:
That is awesome, I have to tell you, Saul, I don’t know how many companies I have found listening to your podcast, and I’ll listen to one of your episodes and it would be some incredible, innovative technology company. And I’m sitting there thinking and I’m like, wow, I need to partner with this company, I need to talk to them. So what you’ve done is you really have created an incredible brand and incredible show, and any of you that haven’t listened to his podcast, I would recommend checking it out, it’s definitely one of the top ones out there. But, so you’ve been in healthcare pretty much your whole life. Is there one experience that you’ve had with healthcare that resonates, that, with the moment you said, okay, healthcare should not be this way?
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, man, you know, Michael, that’s a really great question. I’m going to answer this question with a really kind of personal story. I mean, let me just tell you, to begin with, I’ve had a lot of conversations with people around their experiences, around surprise bills, around how am I going to afford this? How do I access the care that my child needs or that I need? And so there’s definitely a lot of challenges in our health system. And so for me, it was, you know, I was really kind of working with my grandfather. He was having, he was in his eighties, he’s passed now. But at the time he was in his eighties, and he started feeling dizzy. And so, you know, really I mean, we took him to the hospital. We took, because he really was like starting to pass out, and they’re just like, hey, yeah, we’re going to watch him. And my wife, who also works in medical devices, in fact, she works in the pacemaker business, she started asking the doctor all these questions and she’s like, well, actually, I mean, it looks like rather than just watching them, he needs a pacemaker, you know, just based off of what we’re seeing here. And it just kind of felt, Michael, like, you know, because he didn’t have insurance, they kind of wanted to do something a little more conservative and maybe not exactly what my grandfather needed. And I got a little pissed, to be honest with you, you know, because there’s ways to take care of people, you know, and whether or not they have insurance. And so anyway, thankfully, my wife was there to help guide the situation. And, so we stuck with them through the whole process. He got his pacemaker and you should have seen them, and like just right after he got it, I was in the room with them and he just like you could see color in his face again, where before he was like pale, almost like turning blue. And thankfully it worked out well. You know, he got another six, seven years of life after that. And, but what if my wife wasn’t there? You know, what would have happened?
Michael Swartz:
Oh, my God, that’s exactly what I was thinking. I mean, think about how many people don’t have that person standing right there.
Saul Marquez:
That’s most people.
Michael Swartz:
Most people, especially during COVID. I mean, you’re not even able to go into the hospital. And how do you know what to do? How, because was your wife in pacemakers at this time?
Saul Marquez:
She was, so that’s why we were able to figure it out.
Michael Swartz:
Oh, my gosh.
Saul Marquez:
I know. So, you know. So let’s just say, you know, they would have sent him back home and then the same thing would have persisted. He would have showed up again, another ER visit, another unnecessary cost, and then maybe he would have gotten it then, you know. But like what could have happened is he could have showed up again, maybe not, maybe he could have had an event and the thing is you just don’t know, and that’s the challenge of healthcare, right? It’s like you’re in a situation that’s very emotional because healthcare is emotional. You just want to get the issue taken care of and the whole concept of price or, you know, what do I need goes out the window because you’re standing in front of a physician that’s got ten plus years of knowledge over what you know, you know? So there’s a lot of challenges. There’s a lot of challenges.
Michael Swartz:
Well, price is the last thing on your mind, especially when it’s something like a pacemaker. You have to get that in, you’re going to get that in no matter what. So not only do you not know what’s best for you, luckily your wife was there, had experience with pacemakers. But after the fact, especially if you don’t have insurance, you’re going to end up with just a massive bill, and then you have this other problem, and what that’s going to create is stress, and more stress creates more problems. It’s just, it’s tough out there. So luckily, your wife was there.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah. You know, luckily, and even like so, I have this background in healthcare, I couldn’t have known that because I just don’t do cardiac, you know, that’s not my thing.
Michael Swartz:
And most people wouldn’t. Most people wouldn’t, I mean, it’s just trying to find where to go, what to do. And what would your advice be in somebody in any situation, a pacemaker or not, but if they’re sitting there, they’re alone, whether it’s in the health system or trying to figure out what they need to do from that experience, what would you have done?
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, you know, definitely great question, Michael. From that experience, I just, you know, look, we ultimately have to trust our caregivers, right? I mean, we, because they are, our health is in their hands, particularly in emergency situations like that. So really, it’s be, trust your caregiver, but also if possible, like verify it, you know, and find out if maybe you get a second opinion. Thankfully, we didn’t have to go there, but let’s just say, hey, you know, they sent us home and he’s still looking bad, go to a different hospital, you know, go to a different clinic, call somebody that might know. So that would be kind of what I would say is just find another way. You know, if you’re not satisfied with the first response that you get, find a way to get a second or third or fourth response because you know yourself and you know your body, you know your family, right? So somebody gives you a response you don’t like, you don’t have to accept it, especially if it’s not an emergency, right? You know, so that would be my one thing that I’d say. And then the second thing I would say is that, look, as much as we know that there’s things going not well, like, you know, or things that are not really, there’s a lot of problems. You know, there’s a lot of problems in the way that we access care, there’s a lot of problems in how care is delivered, outcomes are not where they should be. We spend more money per capita in this country on healthcare, and our lifespan is shorter than most developed nations, big issues. But at the same time, there are a lot of kind, and good-hearted, and well-intentioned physicians and caregivers that are doing the right things. So there is that important piece where you should trust, trust that when you’re in that situation where you do need help, that they are trying to help you, they are trying to give you what’s best for you.
Michael Swartz:
I think that’s incredibly powerful, the trust, I think you’re exactly right. I think what scares me about healthcare today is because of what price not knowing the complexities, there’s starting to be distrust with the people that are actually providing the care, the physician, the nurses. And they got into healthcare, a lot of them got into healthcare, let’s say the majority of the ones I’ve spoken to have got into healthcare because they want to provide care, they want to help people. I mean, I knew a nurse and she was by far one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, and she would tell me stories about her day at the hospital, and they really do care. And I think that idea of trust is something that’s, you can easily lose sight of with the ups and downs and not knowing where to go, what to do, how to do it when it comes to your healthcare.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, that’s such a great point, Michael. And a lot of times the physicians don’t even know what it costs.
Michael Swartz:
And it blows my mind every time I hear that, it really, really does. So a couple of years ago, we used to, our company had a marketplace. Think of like Priceline or Expedia, but for medical services, but we would get providers and we would offer them a place so that we could help drive them cash patients, so they could focus on delivering care. And we would ask them for their pricing and services and it would blow my mind how many practices were like, what do I need to provide you? We would get 40 pages of billing codes. What am I supposed to do with this? We would get, they would have no idea sometimes. So you’re right, it’s not only us as healthcare consumers, as patients that can’t see clearly, but it’s the doctors, it’s the nurses, it’s the providers that are hurt a lot of times in that same position.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, Michael and I love that, how you connected the dots there, right? It’s like so the pricing, it’s not the physician’s fault, like, and so don’t let that pricing distrust, create distrust in that patient-physician relationship because there’s still great intentions there and they want to do the right thing.
Michael Swartz:
So one of the things that always scares me the most is because of people’s feelings about, they have a bad experience, they get a surprise medical bill, they go to the wrong place. They, because of how complex the system is, they’re losing trust in the system, their insurance, and the scariest part about it is losing trust in the doctors and the people that are actually providing care. And I think that could be a threat to our society because they’re the ones who are going to take care of you when you need. So I think trust, don’t let price, question price, ask how much it’s going to cost, go out there, be smart about your healthcare, but don’t let a bad pricing experience make you look at a doctor in a distrustful way.
Saul Marquez:
Well said.
Michael Swartz:
So I have to ask, it’s been biting at me. I mean, you’ve been, had 700 podcasts. What’s the craziest guest story that you’ve heard, if you don’t mind telling me and everyone?
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, wow, man, that’s a really great question. There are so many stories and like, you know, one of the questions I like, I love to ask all of my guests is what inspires your work in healthcare? And some of the responses are incredible, Michael, and I think of people that have lost a loved one to suicide and created a mental health company as a result. I think of entrepreneurs that have not been happy with the way that their loved one was treated through the care management process, and they’ve created technology that is high-touch, high-tech to help with the care coordination, I think of people who like, so this other guy had a had an issue. He loved going on vacation with his family, and, you know, he was in this castle in the south of France and he needed insulin because he’s a type one diabetic. And he put his insulin in the freezer underneath the counter at the castle and it froze.
Michael Swartz:
Oh, my.
Saul Marquez:
So he was just like, and they were in the south of France. So like where are they going to go, right? And this was back in the nineties before cell phones, right? So they scrambled and figured out a way to get some insulin for him, and as a result of that, he created a company that refrigerates, it’s a handheld or a refrigerator for your insulin that you can see and measure the temperature and travel with it. So like, you know.
Michael Swartz:
That’s awesome.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, I’m mentioning a lot of stories here and ultimately there are so many stories that, you know. And I’m inspired by the work of entrepreneurs in healthcare that say, you know what, we don’t have to deal with this. The opportunity to innovate in healthcare has never been greater, and with the COVID pandemic, oh, my gosh, Michael and everyone listening, it was just I mean, everybody knows, it was a difficult time and it was very challenging for all of us. It was stressful, it was just demanding and a lot of change we, was asked from our government to our employers, to our customers. And the way that we responded and the way that our government responded by way of loosening some of the regulations, like FDA approvals, and then how quickly a lot of health systems have implemented digital solutions. I mean, this year we have made like ten years worth of progress in digital health innovation, and so I’m so excited about the people that are seeing this and saying, well, are you saying, Saul, that if I see or feel something in healthcare that I’m not happy about, I could actually do something about it? The answer is yes, you can do something about it. And, you know, just like you Michael, right? You’re doing this thing, you’re making healthcare more accessible through Health Karma, and you’re educating people. You saw a problem, you’re doing something about it, and everybody listening to this can do something about it too. And that’s what I love and I’m very excited about.
Michael Swartz:
That’s awesome. I mean, I think what really resonates with me about what you just said is the stories, is the story of somebody’s problem that they experienced in healthcare and how it gave them the idea to fix that problem themselves. And I think there’s nothing better for entrepreneurs when they have a problem themselves or their family, their loved ones, their friends, and they say, look, we got to create a better way, it has to be. And stories have always been something that really inspires me. Why are we doing this podcast right now? I think what I’ve loved about being in healthcare is speaking to people of all walks of life and just hearing from them. Hearing their experience with healthcare, hearing their ups, their downs, and what they did about it. And look, we created this so that I wasn’t just keeping all these stories to myself, kind of like what you did with Outcomes Rocket, bringing people’s story of the why. Why did they create this? Why? That’s what’s more powerful than the what.
Saul Marquez:
I totally agree, Michael. You know, it’s big. And you know, you, I listened to one of your first episodes on this podcast and you told your story, and, you know, I totally get it, man. And I think you’re doing incredible work because of that experience when you didn’t have insurance and it makes a difference, you know, and so don’t feel like it’s too complicated, and if anybody tells you it’s too complicated, then there’s some profit.
Michael Swartz:
Yeah.
Saul Marquez:
There’s some interest there that is causing it to be too complicated because it’s really, is not.
Michael Swartz:
Yeah, and now we have the technology all over the place. Like you said, COVID has made healthcare take ten years of a leap forward, so I agree. If anybody, if you are going through, going to see a doctor, going to pick up your prescription, really doing anything, ask questions, ask somebody. Don’t be afraid, don’t think that you just have to go where you’re told to do. Don’t think that you just have to pay for the prescription at this price, there’s most likely a better way. Take control of your healthcare and you’ll be amazed at what your experience will be like. But Saul, I got to say thank you for coming on to the podcast, and for any of you listeners, I recommend going to your favorite podcast hosting platform and finding Outcomes Rocket. Subscribe to it, listen to it, because I’m telling you, there is a company that will come on that you’ll hear about that all of a sudden you’ll be like, this could solve my problem. So, Saul, I got to thank you for coming on.
Saul Marquez:
Hey, no, I appreciate the plug there for sure, Michael, and the opportunity to be here with you and your listeners, and I love what you’re doing. You know, the episode you did with me was good healthcare starts with understanding it. Your mission at Health Karma is a beautiful mission that I think is going to empower so many people. So I’ll definitely keep tuning in to you, my friend, and I want to say thank you. Thanks for the opportunity.
Michael Swartz:
Awesome, and thank you all for listening. And again, go to Outcomes Rocket, go to Health Karma, take control of your healthcare and I’ll see you next week.
Everyone Hates Healthcare Outro:
Hey listeners! Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Everyone Hates Healthcare. If you have a healthcare story, we want to hear it. All you got to do is shoot me an email with My Healthcare Story in the subject line to mystory@HealthKarma.org. Also check out all the episode notes, resources, and more ways you can take control of your healthcare. All you got to do is just visit HealthKarma.org/Podcast. While you’re on there, help us out. Don’t forget to drop us a rating, a review, and share it with all your family and friends. Can’t wait to see you next week!
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