- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Physician Leadership
- Sports Medicine
- Value-Based Care
- Healthcare Administration
- Health Policy
- Orthopedic Surgery
- Practice Management
“A veterinarian that's 117 years old who hasn't practiced since 1923.” That is who Mark Cuban says ends up on the other end of the peer-to-peer, and any interventional radiologist who has fought for coverage of a procedure will recognize the call. On this episode of the BackTable Podcast, Dr. Ruchika Talwar, value-based care leader, talks with Mark Cuban, entrepreneur and founder of Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company, about who actually sets the price of care in the United States. They trace how a cold email about drug shortages led to Cost Plus Drugs and then Cost Plus Wellness, an open source library of direct contracts between self-insured employers and providers; why his direct contracts trade fewer denials and peer-to-peers for a better price by trusting the doctor; why focused surgery centers with no middleman make strong partners for employers; and why he believes the contract, not the published price, is where the real problems hide.
Timestamps
Resources
- Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company
- Cost Plus Wellness: an open source initiative by Mark Cuban
- Mark Cuban dives into direct contracting. Becker's Hospital Review. 2026
- Form 5500 filings search (EFAST2), U.S. Department of Labor
- KFF. 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey
- Gag Clause Prohibition Compliance Attestation. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
- New generic drug company named after Mark Cuban first founded by a part-time radiologist. Health Imaging
More about this episode
The conversation then turns practical for physicians. Mark Cuban lays out how hospitals, clinics, and independent practices can find the self-insured employers among their own patients and offer direct contracts or carve-outs, why a promise to trust the doctor can earn employers a better rate, and how he runs contracts that stretch past a thousand pages through several AI models in turn. He and Dr. Talwar also cover what employers can learn from Form 5500 filings, the national changes he would make, from ending gag clauses to standardized public contracts, and why both see misaligned incentives as the root of the problem.