The Content Crib Podcast

Why Building A Physician Brand Now Decides Who Patients Choose Tomorrow #17

• Eric Anderson and Chris Grosse

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We trace how denied claims, long waits, and opaque billing push patients toward concierge and cash-pay care, and why transparent pricing beats networks. We share why physician brands now decide demand, plus how social proof and simple funnels win trust.

• insurance friction driving direct pay adoption 
• physician personal brand as job security and demand engine 
• PCP shortages and the rise of concierge models 
• transparent pricing versus opaque billing as core battleground 
• AI and informed patients reshaping expectations 
• social proof, reviews, and content guiding provider choice 
• medical tourism for cost, access, and outcomes 
• practical steps to become a transparent physician


SPEAKER_00:

The weirdest plot twist to all of this is insurance companies are accidentally driving patients to cash medicine by making their own product unusable, which is wild. So like every denied claim creates another direct pay convert. So it's almost that the real battle is not cash versus insurance. It's more transparent pricing versus opaque pricing. I think the cash movement is the real power here. Welcome, Content Crib episode 16. How you doing, Eric? I am fantastic, Chris. How are you? I'm doing great, doing great. I thought we'd talk about kind of the direction of healthcare. You know, meanwhile, we're not experts on the space, but we do spend a lot of time in it and spend a lot of time with people that are experts in the space. I mean, I guess we're kind of experts in our own right, you know, customized medicine and you know, helping uh medical professionals with their brand and whatnot. But um thought that we covered some topics. What do you think about that?

SPEAKER_01:

Let's do it. Love it. Because I actually had some interesting conversations this week with uh some physicians slash founders who wondered why they needed to have a personal brand. So this this is perfect timing. Why don't you start off with that if you if you want to let that one let it rip? Yeah, so it was an interesting conversation. I had a uh a talk with a physician that I know really, really well, and he was pretty much like, you know, I won't share who it is, but uh he's he basically said, Hey, you know, I work for a hospital, I work for a a large healthcare provider, and you know, why do I need to go down this road a personal brand? Why do I need to do this? You know, and I said, Well, it's because you need to have your patients know you before they meet you. You gotta, you got you have to be, you know, top of mind. And he said, Well, why do I need to be top of mind? Because the hospital and the clinic does all they do all that marketing for me. And my reply was, Well, if your partners are getting lots of people coming in and asking for them, and they're not asking for you, does that make you expendable? And kind of I could see his eyes kind of open a little wide, and he's like, Well, you know, I have a contract and I can do it. I'm like, Yeah, you have a contract, but I meet lots and lots and lots of guys who and ladies who are at the end of their three-year contract, and it's time for their group to make a decision, and you know who they make the decision for. So anyway, it was just an interesting conversation that opened his eyes to why he needed to have a brand, why he needed to be able to market effectively to patients. And he realized real quick, he's like, Yeah, I get it. Yeah, and I he said, you know, the thought process I think with a lot of surgeons is or a lot of physicians is, you know, I don't have a lot of competition out there. That's true. You probably don't have a lot of competition in some areas, but there's gonna be others who are gonna be employing methods to get patients to come in their door, and if you're not doing it, you're eventually gonna lose to your competition, it's just inevitable. So I thought it was an interesting conversation.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and I'm glad you brought that up because it's along the lines of the topics that I wanted to discuss today, and and as we're seeing healthcare in America evolve and PCPs becoming stretched super thin, there's like a PCP shortage right now. Uh and at the same time, they're becoming almost extinct because people are uh realizing they can go elsewhere and get better better service, better attention, but they're paying out of pocket, but they're realizing they need to optimize their health. So I you know, I'm seeing it in my neck of the woods. I'm seeing, you know, in Florida is a huge market. I'm sure you see it on every corner. Uh concierge, medicine, med spas, people are, you know, selling out$2,000 a year. Um, you know, I do. My question, I guess, is is this the future or just healthcare segregating with better marketing? And I kind of, you know, and I think it's so important to understand where this is going because of the personal brand and building a following and becoming that thought leader.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I I am this is my personal opinion. I think and love to hear what you think. I really believe that we're starting to watch the marketplace take two very separate paths, and almost like in Europe that occurs and in Canada and other countries, you know. Um, I don't know about you, but healthcare insurance is incredibly expensive. And I'll probably ruffle some feathers when I start saying all this stuff, but you know, it's incredibly expensive, and you gotta wait, you know, three months to go and see your primary care physician, or I can buy an extremely low-cost plan if that's what I want to do. I can do that because I'm self-employed. And then I have a concierge medicine doc where I can go see at any point in time, and it's about the same cost. What would you do? And that's that's just me seeing it. And I think that's what we're well what what we're seeing right now is the marketplace is it's changing, and there's um because of the shortage of PCPs, that's a big deal. What do you what do you think?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I mean, it's almost more expensive to try to use your insurance because time is money, and the time is such a premium right now. You know, everyone is working around the clock these days. Um, you know, we're always connected. And, you know, that 30$40 urgent care visit to get better quicker, whether that's you or your family, or you know, if you need an MRI, you can go down the street and get it for you know, three to four hundred dollars instead of fighting, you know, insurance companies. Because you're the insurance we're paying for now doesn't cover anything. We're paying, you know, 15, 25 grand a year, somewhere in between there, for pretty much nothing. Uh and it is an interesting path, as you said, where it's going. And the public interest at the same time is taking uh note of that and also really diving into you know lifespan, health span, optimizing their health to be more productive in society and to feel better. So I think that's a lot of things happening at once, which makes it super interesting. And you know, medicine is moving faster than ever with AI and different formulations. I mean, we're seeing it right now. You know, we do tons of clinical studies um as well as uh different formulations. I mean, there's AI applications to try to figure out uh better uh formulas for certain medications that are being developed. So I think all to say uh the public is more educated than ever. I mean, I think I'm not alone saying that I've used you know language models like ChatGPT or Claude to type in uh certain health struggles I might be dealing with before you know calling my doctor.

SPEAKER_01:

I do it all the time. Yeah. And and and I I really I mean I don't recommend that, but yeah, no, I know no. We are not in any way, shape, or form giving medical advice here. Um but at the same time, you know, the cost of insurance and the cost of you know having to go to your PCP and then get referrals to go different places, you said it best. I mean, if you can afford to have concierge medicine or you can have it, you know, that that type of your initial point of contact. So the the whole reason we're talking about this is, you know, ten years ago, did you hear any marketing from a concierge medical practice? No. Meds well, no, you didn't hear any of that. And now you s you hear it, but I think it's going to be a flurry of more activity that occurs as people are trying to attract these patients because they realize it's such a it's it there's such a void in the marketplace for somebody who's very, very catered to the patient. And I you know, and I'm not putting down the primary care providers and and big practices. It's not their fault. It's a lot of it is just the system, it's a system overload. 100%. And and I don't know about your area, I'm sure where you are, it's just like mine. You know, the PCPs have created these huge practices with you know, there's 20 of them in there, and you know, it takes forever. It's just it's it's it's not a great model. And I think, you know, I I we could probably do three podcasts on this, but you know, over and over and over, you see Amazon trying to get into you know the the healthcare world, and you know, Walmart I think is doing it, you know. Now, is that the answer? I don't know. But obviously, when you have competitors like that trying to enter into it, it's a lucrative space and they need to get they're trying to get a foothold, they just don't know how to do it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and I think the weirdest plot twist to all of this is insurance companies are accidentally driving patients to cash medicine by making their own product unusable. Yeah. Which is wild. So like every denied claim creates another direct pay convert. So it's almost that the real battle is not cash versus insurance, it's more transparent pricing versus opaque pricing. I think the cash movement is the real power here. Um, it's forcing providers and patients to have have a choice or make their own choice, what's better for their life, which I think is terrifying the whole system. And it's also that battle between, okay, well, should these providers make a cash uh, you know, make cash hand over fist for services? Well, let the marketplace determine that, right? Let I'm a big proponent of letting the physicians get back control and steer the marketplace back towards the patient. Because ultimately, physicians want what's best for the patients, not these C-suite execs that are just squeezing every last dollar to you know private equity out of these hospitals and these groups. So I like to see what's happening right now, and I think it's really exposing it. You know, we have good friends and colleagues that are really, you know, ringing the bell on this, like Preston Alexander was on our podcast early on when we launched Content Crib uh podcast. And I think all of this is to say these are hot button topics that you know we hope everyone is interested in hearing about, but really we just want to get to the point where it's more important than ever to now use that voice and use your platform to talk about what you're an expert in so people will follow you and trust you to ultimately use you for your services.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, and here's a uh little tidbit if you're listening and you're a physician and you say to yourself, Well, how would I ever start in this? I would immediately steal Chris's idea of being the transparent physician and being very transparent about your fees, and uh that's a refreshing point of view and a refreshing way to look at it because anybody who's listening to this right now has gotten the bill from the emergency room or has gotten a bill from something you're like, you charged me this for this. I would have never done this if you told me up front, and obviously that's by design why they don't, but anyway, you should steal Chris's idea of the transparent physician. Anyway, that's my thought on that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I mean it's you know, there's bad actors too that are kind of taking advantage of the situation. So um, you know, let the marketplace determine where you want to go as well. Check Google reviews, get some recommendations from friends, and uh follow those providers you want to get your services from if you're a patient. Now, back to if you're a provider, I think that there's a lot of great examples about people doing it the right way. You know, we have several surgeons and doctors in our uh in our tribe that are that are doing it the right way, and ultimately patients are on social media and they're on Google and they're looking for education and they're looking for trusted people. I was just talking to my wife this morning about finding a doctor um that we're looking for for something, you know, that one of us is dealing with, we don't need to go down that. But um, and it's that's the way we're gonna do it. You know, look up Google reviews, try to see other people that have experienced the same way, see if they're sharing any content on their social medias, and then make some phone calls and ask how that their um you know how their funnel works, you know, how the consultations work, and and go from there. And you know, hopefully maybe one maybe one of them is sharing a lot of videos on their one of their social media pages talking about how how it works being a patient at the practice that they, you know, that the practice they own.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. And you know, the thing is is is is there is some examples out there of physicians who are doing that, but I think they're really the ones that are diving in and and you know, you know, you can see those who are out on social media, the the Dr. Molly's, Dr. McClellan's, you know, the Dr. Sigmund's, Dr. Redlers, those guys that are out there that are doing this on a regular basis. Now people go, you know, oh yeah, I I'm in I mean orthopedic help, and I'm in, you know, right outside of Boston. Who's that guy with the wavy white hair that does the cool TikToks? That that's how they're going to remember you. So that's Dr. Sigmund, if you guys are all wondering what I'm referring to, but that's where it's all going to. That's where it's that's where it's going to move towards.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and another interesting one is medical tourism. And I I think this is so fascinating because more and more Americans are flying out of the country to Turkey for hair transplants or Mexico for dental work. That's a big one, the dental work. Don't get me started on root root canals, how terrible those are for you long term.

SPEAKER_01:

So Johns Hopkins has a uh has a facility in Panama. I mean, you know, there's wow, I didn't know. Yeah, they have a facility in Panama, and and they're you know, there's watch how that's that is going to explode. It really is, and and it is because you know you can go to a you know a country and get fantastic care for a third of the cost. Um yeah, I I I do know that there are some out there that even have the like the cruise ship model, and I don't remember some of the companies that are doing that, but uh you know it's uh go get your total knee done on a boat. I don't know if I'd want to do that or not.

SPEAKER_00:

Pirate ship surgery.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. If anything goes wrong, they just kind of throw you over the side, nobody knows. But um I'm kidding, of course. Yeah, but it's it's interesting that that's that concierge, and you know, there's so many people who are traveling abroad for stem cell therapy and things of that nature, too.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, yeah, we had to do a little bite-sized episode this week, and uh thought this would get the uh the juices flowing with some, you know, those of you that are listening. And uh yeah, I thought this was a fun little mini episode for us today.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, a little bit of a uh a different way to look at things for marketing. So, and uh, you know, who knows? Maybe we'll record another uh episode this week and keep them coming like this. I I like that, Eric. All right, take care. All right, see ya.