The Goldfinch Health
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CMS TEAM 2026: Is your hospital ready to take the plunge?
During the webinar, Brand Newland, William Kiefer, and Dr. Bret Alvis, MD, discuss how the Transforming Episode Accountability Model (TEAM) from CMS will impact your surgeries in the coming years. They also dive into how you can employ Enhanced Recovery surgery/recovery protocols to maximize performance and minimize your financial risk for 2026 and beyond.
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“Kill the Refill”: Combating Post-Surgery Opioid Harms and Costs by Attacking a Hidden Villain
A quarter century into the Opioid Crisis in America, nearly every person, family, and community has been touched by the Crisis in some way. Prescription opioids continue to fuel this epidemic, including when patients are introduced to opioids via a key gateway, surgery. Goldfinch Health has supported patients preparing for and recovering from major surgery…
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It’s Time to Kill the Refill!
During the webinar, Brand Newland, PharmD, and Peter Hegi discuss how a seemingly innocuous VILLAIN — the SINGLE opioid refill after surgery — is covertly wreaking havoc on our people, their families and our communities. It turns out that the TRUE cost of a $10.56 opioid refill after surgery is as follows: It’s clear that…
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The Case Against Combos
Why leading healthcare providers are turning to oxycodone monotherapy as part of multimodal pain management regimens designed to better treat pain and reduce opioid exposure for patients and families Opioid plus acetaminophen (APAP) combination products—hydrocodone/APAP (Lortab, Norco, Vicodin) and oxycodone/APAP (Percocet)—have been among the most commonly-dispensed medications in America over the last 20 years. Proactive,…
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Preparing for Surgery When You Have a History of Opioid Use Disorder Can Be Challenging; Here’s What You Need to Know
Every patient approaching surgery should be concerned about persistent opioid use, Opioid Use Disorder (OUD), addiction, and leftover prescription medications. One group should have grave concerns—those patients who have a history of Substance Use Disorder (SUD). The Opioid Crisis has now raged on for over two decades. As a result, it is estimated over 20…
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Move Women’s Surgeries Out of the 19th Century with Health Navigators
Would you accept using the same technology in place in 1843 for well, anything? I wouldn’t. So it makes me wonder why so many physicians continue to use invasive approaches to that date to that period. Having a health navigator or a patient advocate service on your side as you go through this life-changing procedure…
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How “Surgery as Unusual” is Like Business as Unusual
By Cal Beyer; VP; Workforce Risk & Worker Wellbeing, ACAP Health Works When a change agent assumes leadership of a struggling team, unit, division or company, these leaders frequently throw the gauntlet down. They’ll say we are embarking on a change management initiative. They’ll make bold statements that this will not look, feel, or sound…
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Surgery & Seniors
Surgery & Seniors: How to avoid the costliest complications in surgery patients over age 65 Nearly everyone has had the unfortunate experience of watching a loved one who is over the age of 65 undergo a surgery—and then never return to the person you once knew. Something has been lost. The toll is significant, both…
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A Tale of Two Surgeries and a Mystery Solved
The Patient is the Center of Excellence: A Tale of Two Surgeries and a Mystery Solved Several years ago, we learned a story of two patients, two surgeries, two dramatically different outcomes, and one mystery. The first patient underwent a major surgical procedure to remove cancer from her colon. This patient either did her research,…
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Why Everyone Needs a Healthcare Navigator
When we buy a new home, prepare a tax return, or face a legal issue, we don’t think twice about finding an expert to help. When facing serious medical procedures, we trust the advice of our neighbor’s cousin and whatever we can find online. Can’t we do better? Especially when it comes to surgery, everyone…
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Surgery Quality Analysis & Blind Spots
Lowering healthcare costs while increasing surgery quality? Sounds impossible. But with the right insight into surgery quality and action, it’s entirely possible. To get your no-cost assessment, contact Goldfinch Health today! When it comes to providing the best in medical benefits, it’s easy to have blind spots to where those services could be improved. We…
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MSK care is too expensive (in ways you may not have considered)
MSK. A three-letter abbreviation for musculoskeletal conditions (back, hips, knees, shoulders) that rings in the mind of disability and employee benefits professionals. High-cost claimants. Long leave periods. Productivity diminished. Employees lost. Bills escalated. Lives changed. According to the Integrated Benefits Institute, MSK-related issues lead to: 756k short-term disability claims each year in the US (that’s…
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Trainwreck-Proofing & Cost Containment in Healthcare
Nearly everyone in employee benefits can immediately think of a case that made cost containment in healthcare impossible. Maybe they call it a high-cost claimant. Or perhaps they think of it as a trainwreck case. Protect your people. Protect your plans with Goldfinch Health. Find out how we make surgery forgettable. The patient faced a…
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Opioids, Women & Employee Benefit Strategies
You won’t find the face of the opioid crisis in an unemployed 28 year-old man; it’s an employed and insured 52 year-old woman. And that can be helped with the right employee benefit strategies. How Much Is Outdated Surgery Costing Your Company? Find out now. That means employers could bring an end to this era.…
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The Power of an ERAS Protocol Checklist
Recently, I spoke with a physician leader championing the implementation of Enhanced Recovery After Surgery across an 11-hospital system. What is ERAS Protocol? The ERAS protocol emerged as a clinically-valid, patient-centric rethinking of the standard surgery experience 20-plus years ago. Over 7,000 articles have been published in the medical literature to support the extensive benefits…
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Demand 21st Century Surgery with Healthcare Advocacy
It sounded like a miracle, but it wasn’t — it was a result of sound healthcare advocacy on behalf of a patient. One day after undergoing a colorectal operation to remove cancer, the patient was up and about and asking to go home. Don’t let your employees, your plans, or your patients suffer through second-rate surgeries.…
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Opioids: The dangers of re-exposure and how we can be part of the solution
Meet Brett. Heavily involved in high school sports, a shoulder injury led to surgery. And that, as it does for millions of patients each year, led to a prescription for opioids to manage the pain. With that decision, the script changed. But not immediately. Brett recovered and moved on with his life, which included a…
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Finding Health Equity in Surgery and Recovery
Finding Health Equity in Surgery and Recovery Bias, both unintentional and intentional, contribute to differences in the quality of care received by patients in the United States. The consequences of these disparities can be catastrophic to patients and their families. A 2002 report to Congress –just as relevant today as it was 20 years ago—detailed…
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The Risk of Costly Suboptimal Surgery Has Never Been Greater
The Risk of Suboptimal Surgery Has Never Been Greater (due to Covid-19) Thankfully, rays of sunlight have appeared through the darkness of the Covid-19 pandemic. As life returns to “normal,” healthcare no doubt will resume traditional patterns as well. This leaves business, employee benefits and human resource leaders facing critical questions, including: How do I…
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Patients Who Manage Post-Surgery Pain Best Know This
Patients Who Manage Post-Surgery Pain Best Know This If you’ve spent any time in the aisles of your local pharmacy, you know there are A LOT of non-prescription medications available. Hundreds of options exist for cough, cold, allergies, pain and other conditions. And, for the most part, that is a really good thing. Easier access—no…
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What You Need to Know to Prepare for the Best Experience in Surgery and Recovery
What You Need to Know to Prepare for the Best Experience in Surgery and Recovery By Mario Leyba, MD, and Brand Newland, PharmD An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure Going into surgery as healthy as possible is among the most important things you can do to prepare for successful recovery and…
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An Olympic-Sized Innovation
An Olympic-Sized Innovation Dick Fosbury had an idea. An engineering student moonlighting as a high jumper at the 1968 Olympics, Fosbury put his science background to work. Rather than take the conventional approach of jumping over the bar with a scissorkick, what if instead he went over the bar backwards, head-first? That’s right, backwards. And…
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Pulling Back the Curtain on Physician Referrals
Pulling Back the Curtain on Physician Referrals Over 100,000 times today in the United States, a visit between a patient and his/her physician ended with something like this: “I recommend you speak with a surgeon.” That simple statement sets a complex set of wheels in motion, not the least of which are the wheels turning…
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Surgery: Under the Microscope
Surgery: Under the Microscope “The Butchering Art” by Lindsey Fitzharris offers an in-depth and, shall we say, colorful look at the primitive days of surgery and healthcare. When it comes to the understanding of human health and the delivery of care, we should all be thankful to be alive in 2020 and not 170 years…
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What to Expect When You’re Expecting (to Need Surgery)
What to Expect When You’re Expecting (to need surgery) 4 Things to Know as You Consider Surgery If you’ve never had surgery, or (thankfully) haven’t had surgery in awhile, you might be surprised by what’s possible today in surgery. Four things to know! 1. Seek a minimally-invasive procedure whenever possible. Today, many of the most…
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Asking the Right Questions is the First Step in Better Surgery
Asking the Right Questions is the First Step As we have worked with patients in helping them to find the best way through surgery and back to their lives, we continue to be reminded of the importance of being an informed patient. Informed patients understand: The need for surgery Alternatives to surgery, if any, and…
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The Most Important Part of the Opioid Crisis Isn’t What’s Happened; It’s What Happens Next
The Most Important Part of the Opioid Crisis Isn’t What’s Already Happened; It’s What Happens Next Updates about the Opioid Crisis in America have dominated news reports in recent years, and especially in recent weeks. The final week of August 2019 brought two ground-shaking turns in the decade-long story: An Oklahoma judge ruled Johnson & Johnson,…
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Most Vulnerable Patients Make Costly Surgery Decisions
Research: Most Vulnerable Patients Make Costly Surgery Decisions A recent Goldfinch Health survey revealed critical insights into health literacy and the way consumers consider surgical decisions. Spoiler alert: novice surgical patients make costly decisions and they and their employers shoulder the consequences. But, first, a bit of background. We asked consumers: “Imagine you just found…
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The World’s Best Cup of Coffee
The World’s Best Cup of Coffee “Center of Excellence” It’s a term you may have seen used by health insurers, hospitals and surgery centers in recent years. You might be surprised to learn no universal definition exists for qualifying a surgery center for the distinction. At its worst, a hospital or surgery center hanging the…
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Taking the Temperature of Surgery Quality
Taking the Temperature of Surgery Quality Ubiquitous in modern society, the thermometer was once a breakthrough technology centuries in the making. When leading scientists some 300 years ago finally put together the necessary elements, what resulted was revolutionary. At a glance, you could know the temperature. You didn’t know relative humidity, wind speed, or any…
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A 19th Century Physician & 21st Century Healthcare
What a 19th Century Physician Can Teach Us About 21st Century Healthcare While excitement and optimism largely define a trip to the hospital for the delivery of a new baby today, a different emotion accompanied a visit to an 1840’s maternity ward. Fear. At that time, one in ten mothers would die before she left…
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The 4-Hour Workweek Approach to Employee Healthcare
The 4-Hour Workweek Approach to Employee Healthcare “The 4-Hour Workweek” by Tim Ferriss has spent years on the New York Times bestseller list by selling a provocative idea—maybe we’re all working too hard? One of the most intriguing concepts covered by Ferris in the book is the effectiveness of combining the Pareto principle with Parkinson’s…
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The Role of Employers in the Opioid Epidemic
Lake Wobegon and the Role of Employers in the Opioid Epidemic Garrison Keillor of A Prairie Home Companion made famous a quaint place known as Lake Wobegon. In this fictional town it was claimed “all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average”. Recently, what’s come to…
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The Inspiration that Drives Goldfinch Health
Our Inspiration Why Goldfinch Health? Why attempt to transform something as complex as the surgical experience? This is why. We’ve witnessed first-hand the vast difference between high-quality, advanced surgical experiences and lower-quality, outdated experiences. We have watched family members and loved ones undergo unnecessarily-invasive procedures and long recoveries. We have seen complications of the status…
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Goldfinch Surgery Experience
A clinically-validated health navigation approach to surgery that delivers the best possible experience from pre- to post-operative life and beyond.