Real Talk with Dr. Josh Luke

PSJH and the Future of Health Channel on Dash Radio recently began a new podcast partnership with Dr. Josh Luke. Based out of Southern CA, Dr. Luke has traveled the world sharing the well-kept secrets of the healthcare industry and educating families and businesses on how to escape the healthcare affordability crisis. Dr. Luke is relaunching his award-winning show Dr. Luke’s Waiting Room: The Healthcare Authority Podcast under the Future of Health Channel with a new name: Spend Less on Healthcare with Dr. Josh Luke.

We asked Dr. Luke to tell us a little more about how he got started on his path, why he believes his work is so important, and what drives his continued expansion in the healthcare financial arena.

Q: What is the primary drive behind doing the work you do?

A: I was working in sports marketing as my late grandmother was bouncing between an assisted living and nursing home, and I grew frustrated by her inability to access some basic things she needed. So I switched careers to become a healthcare administrator. I became a hospital CEO at age 32. I learned the industry from seasoned executives that saw healthcare hyperinflation spiral out of control decade after decade, and no one seemed to be concerned as long as the hospitals were thriving financially. It didn’t feel good to me that the majority of the executives were completely disconnected from the fact that American businesses are being bankrupted by the cost of providing employee health benefits, and American families are being kept from achieving their dreams while basic access to care has grown to cost more than $20,000 a year per family — before even seeing a doctor or getting one prescription.

By the time my mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in 2010, I realized that an entire generation had passed since my grandmother’s experience and the system had gotten worse, yet more expensive. I decided to leave the hospital C-Suite and use my platform as a social entrepreneur advocating for health systems to do the right thing: serve their communities and offer access to affordable care. Providence is one of the few health systems I would even consider partnering with as even in this day and age, very few health systems are putting their community first.

Q: Can you describe any major turning points that moved you from hospital CEO to Speaker and Author?

A: I always joke that I was never able to keep a job for very long, which is only partially true, but the point is I am a truth teller and am driven to add value and innovate. In American corporate culture that doesn’t always bode well. By the time my first book Ex-Acute: A former hospital CEO tells all on what’s wrong with American healthcare hit #1 best seller on Amazon, my social media following had already grown dramatically. But that took it to the next level and I started getting more speaking requests, even internationally. LinkedIn asked me to write for their Pulse healthcare community, and to do daily videos when they launched LinkedIn video in 2017. I was writing a column for Forbes.com, and then Forbes asked me to write Health-Wealth: Is healthcare bankrupting your business? It went to #1 on launch day on Amazon — that was cool.

Q: What keeps you motivated to continue helping people?

A: I have been blessed to have had some great work experience, as well as strong communication skills. Between writing columns, posting on social media and hosting a podcast, my entire focus now is on helping American families learn to Spend Less on Healthcare.

I created a free list of Ten Tips to start saving for families as well as a new Personal Healthcare Spending Reduction Tool. The new tool asks a series of questions, and our team then analyzes the answers to find out whether the user qualifies for assistance. If qualified, we guarantee that we will save your family more than $5,000 on healthcare costs in the first year as long as our recommendations are implemented. The tool was created by our not for profit organization Health-Wealth to help Americans Spend Less on Healthcare, and it has been wildly popular since its release in January 2020. We have seen large group participation — including churches who’ve suggested the tool to entire congregations — to answer the questions on the tool to start saving. I am hopeful that this will ultimately be my legacy; being America’s Healthcare Affordability Authority.

Q: How do you keep your sense of humor around doing the work that you do?

A: It’s been fun getting requests to be the main, entertaining Keynote Speaker at large association events, as for a while I was thought of as “just a healthcare guy.” I never particularly considered myself to be a comedian, but when you speak publicly as often as I do, you take note of when the audience laughs and engages and you add those anecdotes to your script for every event until the whole thing is entertaining and engaging. I have been blessed in that regard. Now when I am hired to do a keynote, I offer 250 copies of my book for audience members and host breakout sessions on a topic of the hosts choice as well, so I get to do a little bit of both! Oh, and people have started to ask which of my crazy sports coats I’ll be wearing even before I speak at an event — that keeps it amusing too!

Q: Thank you for sharing about yourself and your journey, Dr. Luke. Before we wrap up, can you tell us why your podcast Spend Less on Healthcare is important, and what people are going to learn by listening?

A: I’m on a mission to teach American families and individuals how to obtain basic access to high quality care, at an affordable price. By tuning in each week, listeners will get to hear simple tactics that can be implemented overnight to help them and their families eliminate wasteful healthcare spending. Each podcast brings a new Quick Tip of the Day to start saving, as well as stories from guests who share other ways that you and your family can start spending less on healthcare today!

Don’t miss Dr. Luke’s shows on PSJH’s Future of Health every Thursday at 6pm, for the new Spend Less on Healthcare with Dr. Luke, and Thursdays at 7 pm for a throwback of Dr. Luke’s Waiting Room here: http://future.psjhealth.org/podcasts