Tuesday Jun 17, 2025

177. Behind the Curtain: A Hospital COO on the Flaws of Modern Healthcare | Hallie Woods

Hallie Woods spent 15 years inside hospital leadership, and she’s seen firsthand how the healthcare system actually works and who it really works for. In this episode, she joins Dr. Andrew Fix to talk about what happens when hospitals and insurance companies prioritize profit over patient care. Hallie shares what she learned as Chief Operating Officer of a large Denver hospital, where care decisions were often shaped by billing codes, time limits, and financial incentives. What does it mean when a system rewards volume over outcomes? And how does that affect the kind of care people actually receive?

Hallie also opens up about her own experience navigating the system, as a daughter who lost her mother after a rushed visit with a primary care doctor, and as a patient who discovered a cancer diagnosis only because she insisted on getting checked. These moments pushed her to build Accessum Health, a membership-based model designed to give people better access, clearer guidance, and more time with the care they need.

This episode explores how patients can take more ownership of their health: asking better questions, seeking second opinions, and recognizing when the system isn’t serving them. How do you advocate for yourself when you’re not sure what to ask? Where do you turn when the answers you’re getting don’t feel right? Hallie and Dr. Fix don’t just name the problems. They look closely at what can be done differently, and what it might take to shift the focus of healthcare back to people.

Quotes

“People always say [our healthcare system] is broken. I don’t say it’s broken. I say it works as it’s designed to. It’s this very complex, overly complex system that makes it challenging for people to get good preventive care, to get care when they need it. And it’s really designed for profit, unfortunately.” (04:02 | Hallie Woods)
“The business of medicine is designed to optimize profit. It’s designed to provide care for the sick. And it’s designed to figure out how we get more people into what I call the healthcare funnel, which unfortunately causes a number of different issues…” (06:24 | Hallie Woods)
“We’re all trying to code up, manipulate the system to get those billable codes, but a lot of really important work doesn’t fall within those billable codes, and that’s coordination.” (13:19 | Hallie Woods)
“As humans, we were designed to trust our physicians, our providers, because they have all the schooling. But unfortunately, you need to be your own advocate. You need to push and ask for things, because sometimes in this quick, quick system, it’s, as you said before, the squeaky wheel gets the oil, and you’ve always got to be the squeaky wheel when it’s you or your family’s health.” (24:47 | Hallie Woods)

Links

Connect with Hallie Woods:

www.accessumhealth.com

Hallie spent 15 as an executive in large, corporate hospital systems, most recently as the Chief Operating Officer of a large hospital in the Denver Metro area. In these roles, Hallie had first-hand insight into how the American healthcare system isn't serving people: focusing on quantity, not quality, and putting profits before people. Hallie started Accessum Health, a membership-based healthcare plan, to help provide better access and navigation for the American healthcare system.

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