Brian Klepper
is a health care analyst and commentator, Principal and Chief Development Officer for WeCare TLC, LLC, an onsite primary care clinic and medical management firm based in Longwood, FL, and Managing Principal of Healthcare Performance Inc., a consulting practice based in Atlantic Beach, FL.
He is an active author and speaker, and has provided health care commentary to CBS Evening News, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. He has published articles on Kaiser Health News, Medscape, Healthleaders, The New England Journal of Medicine, Modern Healthcare, Business Insurance and newspapers nationally.
He is a columnist for Medscape, focused on business of medicine and primary care, as well as a regular contributor to the Health Affairs Blog and other expert health care blogs. With his wife, he maintains Elaine’s Journey, which details their struggle against Primary Peritoneal (Ovarian) Cancer.
He recently served on the American Academy of Family Physicians’ Primary Care Services Valuation Task Force, and is a reviewer for Health Affairs and The Journal of Ambulatory Care Management. He serves on the Board of the Consortium for Southeast Hypertension Control (COSEHC), dedicated to translational medicine for vascular disease. He is an Advisor to the Lundberg Institute, the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative, which advocates for medical homes, and the Center for Value Health Innovation, which helps business identify and implement approaches proven to improve quality while reducing cost.
In January 2011, with David C. Kibbe MD, he began a campaign, Replace the RUC!, that focuses on the most important driver of inappropriate health care cost. That effort has resulted in a lawsuit by six Augusta, GA primary care physicians against the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) over its longstanding inappropriate relationship with the AMA’s Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC).
In is spare time, Brian is an offshore sailor.
Contact him at 904.395.5530 (o), 904.343.2921 (c), bklepper@gmail.com.
Pages
Category Archives: Elaine’s Journey
Truth at the End of Life
Elaine Waples Posted 3/5/13 on TEDMED Most of us have spent some time thinking about our own deaths. We do it with a sense of dreadful curiosity, but then we push it aside with “well, we’ve all got to go sometime.” Unlike … Continue reading
Hospitals: Are We All Talking?
Elaine Waples Complications from my cancer sent me to the hospital again recently. The news that I was in trouble came unexpectedly from my oncologist’s office Thanksgiving eve, following a routine blood test. “Your liver numbers are out of whack.” … Continue reading
An Archipelago of Health Information Islands
Brian Klepper Posted 12/27/12 on Medscape Connect’s Care and Cost Blog My wife Elaine was hospitalized for 6 days recently with an array of ailments related to her advancing cancer, so diagnosing and addressing her problems required a multidisciplinary approach. In addition … Continue reading
Getting Engaged
Elaine Waples Posted 9/21/12 on The Doctor Weighs In We hear inspiring things about patient engagement. The very concept has a hearty, spirited, “do-right” sound to it. I spent many years in human resources. I remember the conversations we had … Continue reading
Attitude
Elaine Waples Posted 8/31/12 on The Doctor Weighs In I’ve come to believe that seriously sick people are often subject to some very interesting comments from well-intentioned non-sick people. They are frequently inspired by #platitudes from self-help-books, Google chat rooms (heaven forbid), … Continue reading
Is Genomic Medicine Clinically Useful Yet?
Brian Klepper Posted 7/16/12 on Medscape Connect’s Care and Cost The news of my wife Elaine’s primary peritoneal cancer 27 months ago began a fevered effort to learn all we could about her disease and our options. Peritoneal cancer, which … Continue reading
Cancer Survivor on N-of-One’s Direct-to-Patient Ombudsman Model
Kevin Davies Posted 5/31/12 on Bio-IT World The long-term success of N-of-One, a Waltham Mass.-based company offering personalized cancer information, will undoubtedly be shaped by the vision of its newly appointed CEO, Christine Cournoyer, and strategic partnerships with companies like Foundation Medicine, … Continue reading
Marcus Welby, House and the Wizard of Oz
Elaine Waples At a recent dinner party my husband and I joined two other couples in a lively discussion on the frustrations of American health care. We rounded up the usual suspects – cost, quality, access, politics, and broken systems. … Continue reading
Is My Cancer in the Wrong Body Part
Elaine Waples Recently, our city hosted the fifth annual national marathon to fight breast cancer. This is not part of the Komen “race for the cure” but rather a grassroots effort that mushroomed from its inception five years ago into … Continue reading
Hello? Its Your Body Talking
Brian’s Note: For the uninitiated, Elaine – aka “The Boss” – is my wonderful wife, and this is her debut on C&C. As you’ll see, she’s a comfortable writer. Her message here is hugely important, and was made all the … Continue reading
Seeking What’s Possible
A little more than 13 months ago, my wonderful wife Elaine was diagnosed with stage 3c primary peritoneal (ovarian) cancer. So the last year has been filled with the ravages of chemo-therapy and all the miseries that attend it. A … Continue reading
An Anniversary!
Elaine Waples I am celebrating an anniversary! It has been one year since I began chemotherapy for stage 3c primary peritoneal (ovarian) cancer. Today I am in remission, enjoying life, and have learned to call myself a survivor. There were … Continue reading
