Healthcare Disrupted: Why the Next Big Innovation Won’t Come From Healthcare

In this episode of the Better Outcomes Show, we dive into a bold prediction about the future of healthcare: The next wave of real innovation — the kind that transforms how we deliver care, engage patients, and improve outcomes — won’t come from within the healthcare industry.

Instead, it will come from outside.

Tech giants like Amazon, Apple, Walmart, and others are entering the healthcare space not to play by the traditional rules, but to rewrite them. They’re not dependent on fee-for-service reimbursement or burdened by legacy EMR infrastructure. They’re consumer-first, data-driven, and laser-focused on convenience and outcomes — not billing codes.

So, what does this mean for providers, practice owners, and healthcare leaders?

It means the time to adapt is now.

What we cover in this episode:
-Why the healthcare industry is structurally incapable of disrupting itself
-How tech giants are positioned to lead the next wave of care innovation
-The business models these companies are using — and how they differ from traditional healthcare
-What small-to-mid-sized providers can do to stay relevant and competitive
-How to rethink your value proposition outside of third-party payer systems
-Where the opportunities lie for independent clinics to innovate at the edges

Full episode note: https://rehabupracticesolutions.com/better-outcomes-160

Podcast: https://www.betteroutcomes.show
Get the Book: https://amzn.to/3M2UZ6x
Book a call with me: https://calendly.com/rehabu/discovery
Connect with Me: https://www.rafisalazar.com

If you'd like to learn more about Strata EMR & RCM and achieving a 99.99% reimbursement rate for your PT, OT, or SLP Clinic head over to stratapt.com and book a demo with their team!

Can you use Free Healthcare to build a profitable business?

What if you gave away your clinical services… for free? Not as charity. Not as a one-time promo. But as an actual business model. I recently revisited Chris Anderson’s book Free: The Future of a Radical Price. I read it in 2013 and recently picked it back up — and it got me thinking: How could we apply this to healthcare? The cost of delivering digital care (videos, plans, consults) is rapidly approaching (nearly) zero.

That opens the door to radically different care delivery models — ones that lower access barriers and still generate real revenue. So, in this episode, I dive into ways that clinicians could build a profitable business offering free healthcare services.

In a world where trust, access, and attention are more valuable than ever. Offering “free” services could be a strategic move — not a loss. For clinicians willing to rethink their model, there’s real opportunity here. Curious — if you had to give away your clinical services for free,
what would you monetize instead? Shoot me an email if you've got some ideas!

What we cover in this Episode:

-How a Freemium model could work in delivering healthcare services
-The idea of a Cross-Subsidy model for private practice healthcare services
-Membership models, like Direct Primary Care
-Sponsorships or Ad-based Healthcare services
-Data Exchange & Research Recruitment Models

Full episode note: https://rehabupracticesolutions.com/better-outcomes-159

Podcast: https://www.betteroutcomes.show
Get the Book: https://amzn.to/3M2UZ6x
Book a call with me: https://calendly.com/rehabu/discovery
Connect with Me: https://www.rafisalazar.com

If you'd like to learn more about Strata EMR & RCM and achieving a 99.99% reimbursement rate for your PT, OT, or SLP Clinic head over to stratapt.com and book a demo with their team!

Real Healthcare Innovators Read Outside of Healthcare

I covered this topic in a LinkedIn article recently, but thought the idea of reading outside of healthcare warranted its own podcast episode. Here's the main idea: if you want to be truly innovative in healthcare, you need to read outside of healthcare. Being well-informed in your field is just the baseline. Everyone should be doing that. What often sets leaders and innovators apart stems from their ability to take insights and ideas from outside their field and apply it to their industry.

You’d be surprised at how often ideas from seemingly unrelated fields can unlock new ways of thinking about your own work. A story about survival in the Alaskan wilderness might teach you more about resilience and process management than the latest leadership manual. A deep dive into the history of jazz might shift your perspective on improvisation and problem-solving in ways that no business podcast could.

The more I read outside the typical business playbooks, the more I’m convinced: if you want to stand out in your field, you sometimes have to look beyond it.

What we cover in this Episode:

-Why reading outside of your industry provides unique insights that can be applied to healthcare
-How reading broadly can help you communicate, lead and innovate in healthcare
-The reason that innovation to the industry will come from outside of healthcare
-A few of the recent books I've read and the insights I pulled from them that applied to healthcare

Full episode note: https://rehabupracticesolutions.com/better-outcomes-158

Learn More: https://rehabupracticesolutions.com
Podcast: https://www.betteroutcomes.show
Get the Book: https://amzn.to/3M2UZ6x
Book a call with me: https://calendly.com/rehabu/discovery
Connect with Me: https://www.rafisalazar.com

If you'd like to learn more about Strata EMR & RCM and achieving a 99.99% reimbursement rate for your PT, OT, or SLP Clinic head over to stratapt.com and book a demo with their team!