In the first episode of this two-part discussion, host Chethan Sathya, MD, sits down with entrepreneur Mark Cuban for a candid look at why Cuban has set his sights on fixing the economics of healthcare. Cuban shares how the “power of broke” shaped his risk mindset, why curiosity beats bravado, and how democratized knowledge and AI are lowering the barrier to entrepreneurship. He unpacks the origin and mission of his new pharmacy business, Cost Plus Drugs, which is all about radical price transparency, straightforward markups, and passing savings to patients. He also discusses his new pushes into mobile pharmaceutical manufacturing and how to apply his Cost Plus Drugs lessons to surgical procedure savings. Northwell is New York State’s largest healthcare provider and private employer, with 28 hospitals, 890 outpatient facilities and more than 16,600 affiliated physicians. We’re making breakthroughs in medicine at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research. We&#x27;re training the next generation of medical professionals at the visionary Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the Hofstra Northwell School of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. Get the latest news and insights from our experts in the Northwell Newsroom: Press releases Insights Podcasts Publications Interested in a career at Northwell Health? Visit our career site and explore our many opportunities. Watch episodes of 20-Minute Health Talk on YouTube. For information on our more than 100 medical specialties, visit Northwell.edu and follow us @NorthwellHealth on Facebook, Instagram, X and LinkedIn.

Mark Cuban: Disrupting the business of healthcare, part 1

20-Minute Health Talk

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** 20-Minute Health Talk

## Transcript

What made you say that you want to try to disrupt healthcare? It obviously happened before that cold email you got, right? That this was an important tackle. Mark Foncannon, I mean, no one looks at the economic side of healthcare and says, boy, this is perfect. We all love it. There's nothing to change here. And so whenever I see industries that are ripe for disruption, I mean, that's what gets me excited.

Mark Foncannon, I mean, you know, the economic side of healthcare was first, you know, it was front and center of being a mess. And, you know, for the most part, it still is. And, you know, the low hanging fruit was creating CostPlusDrugs.com because there's absolutely no transparency. Mark Foncannon, This is Chethan Sathya, MD. Thank you for joining us for this episode of Northwell Health's 20-Minute Health Talk.

Mark Foncannon, Today, I have the one and only Mark Cuban on with us. Need I say more? Mark, thank you for being here with us. Mark Cuban, Thanks for having me on. Mark Foncannon, Of course, of course. So listen, I have to say from the outset, I am from Toronto, so I am a Raptors fan. Mark Cuban, That's a good thing. They're not playing so bad. They're a decent team.

Mark Foncannon, True, true, true. So, you know, I think across healthcare, I can say, we've really been watching what you've been doing to disrupt healthcare. And we're going to get into the nitty gritty of that. I think, you know, you offer such incredible insight. Mark Foncannon, And on a personal level, I'll tell you, working on a number of public health issues, I really do appreciate your pragmatic nature to solving some of these issues. You know, we have to look beyond silence. Mark Foncannon, Appreciate that. Mark Foncannon, And so we're certainly going to talk about that a little bit. But I want to talk about your personal journey. Right? You started off in Pittsburgh.

Mark Foncannon, You know, tell us a little bit about how you develop such a tolerance for risk and kind of those early moments in your career. I mean, you talk about it a lot, but I'm just fascinated by it. Mark Foncannon, Yeah, when you're broke, there is no risk. You know, when you got nothing to lose, Daymond John from Shark Tank calls it the power of broke. When you got nothing to lose, there's only one direction you can go and it doesn't really matter if you fail or not.

Mark Foncannon, I mean, if you fail, you stay broke. And if you succeed, you're, you know, you get out of being broke. And that really was my motivation to be able to go out there and do unique and different things that my circumstances didn't allow. Mark Foncannon, And you've been fired, I mean, you talked about this, but you've been fired a number of times from your previous jobs. Mark Foncannon, Yeah, particularly when I was younger, I was not a good employee. You know, I remember working for Mellon Bank, one of the biggest banks in the state of Pennsy...

Mark Cuban: Disrupting the business of healthcare, part 1

Transcript

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Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
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Mark Cuban: Disrupting the business of healthcare, part 1

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.