“I realized that 95% of the scheduled surgeries, like shoulder/knee repairs, back fusions, even some pelvic floor surgeries, they're no more effective than doing nothing at all, on average.” - Heidi Ojha Heidi Ojha, founder of Aware Health and recently a part of our MSK roundtable, joined me this week in studio to talk about why there are so many unnecessary surgeries performed in this country, why these surgeries happen in the first place, and how she’s trying to change that. Heidi’s worked as a clinician before founding Aware and estimates that about 95% of scheduled surgeries led to no more positive outcomes than doing nothing at all. This is especially alarming given that MSK is the biggest chronic spend on most health plans. Heidi and I also expanded on the notion that behavioral health plays a huge part in why and how so many surgeries are performed. Outside of the cost to the plan, unnecessary surgeries are often risky for the patient and can lead to complications, and even other surgeries that add even more risk. Join us this week to find out how we can stop unnecessary surgeries from happening. Chapters: 00:00:00 Meet Heidi Ojha 00:09:14 Exploring Non-Invasive Healthcare Options 00:15:33 MSK Chronic Spend 00:18:14 Managing Surgery Claims for Cost Savings 00:27:11 Incentivize Care, Not Profit 00:35:08 Claims Data Impact on Diagnostic Accuracy 00:41:13 The Necessity Of Imaging 00:50:14 Patient-Centered Approach To Healthcare Key Links for Social: @SelfFunded on YouTube for video versions of the podcast and much more - https://www.youtube.com/@SelfFunded Listen on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1TjmrMrkIj0qSmlwAIevKA?si=068a389925474f02 Listen on Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/self-funded-with-spencer/id1566182286 Follow Spencer on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/spencer-smith-self-funded/ Follow Spencer on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/selffundedwithspencer/ Key Words: #MSKHealthcareCosts #ConservativeCare #BehavioralHealthExpenses #EmployerPlanSpend #FeeForServiceModel #DataAccessibility #DiagnosticAlgorithms #PatientEmpowerment #HealthcareSystemsOptimization #AvoidingSurgeries #ChronicHealthcareSpending #PatientCenteredCare #selffunded #podcast MSK Healthcare Costs, Conservative Care, Behavioral Health Expenses, Employer Plan Spend, Fee For Service Model, Data Accessibility, Diagnostic Algorithms, Patient Empowerment, Healthcare Systems Optimization, Avoiding Surgeries, Chronic Healthcare Spending, Patient Centered Care, self funded, podcast