Over 30 million Americans suffer from some form of kidney disease, and roughly 600,000 people have their kidneys fail. It's a chronic disease that requires chronic treatment, and there is a Fortune 500 healthcare company dedicated to supporting people living with it. DaVita, an Italian phrase meaning "give life", is number 357 on this year's 500. It runs almost 3,000 outpatient dialysis centers across the country and is working to transform from a dialysis company into a holistic kidney care company. Javier Rodriguez took over as CEO of DaVita in 2019, after 21 years with the company.
In today's episode of Leadership Next, Rodriguez joins hosts Alan Murray and Michal Lev-Ram to discuss the scale of the kidney disease crisis and how DaVita is addressing it. He explains DaVita's plans to shift from a fee for service to a value based model with the goal of providing care to people earlier in life before their kidneys begin to fail, and how this change will affect business. Rodriguez also discusses navigating the healthcare staffing shortage, Berkshire Hathaway's investment in DaVita and tech innovations in healthcare. He also shares his personal story of immigrating to the U.S. from Mexico and his decision to turn down $250 million in government pandemic relief funding back in 2020.
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