Talking With: Jerry Topitzer of Comedy Series “Upcode”

This edition of Talking With focuses on creator-actor Jerry Topitzer, after premiering his award-winning comedy web series “Upcode” on YouTube.

Everyone has heard about doctors needing to over-prescribe, over-bill, over-diagnose in order to get paid enough from the penny-pinching insurance companies to cover their costs. This is known as “upcoding”.

In the new series “Upcode,” Jerry stars as the rule-following, good-hearted Dr. Fritz, who learns committing medical fraud might be the only way to save his practice from a ruthless insurance company.

This darkly-comedic show first screened at several film festivals, taking top awards at Vancouver Independent Film Festival, Tokyo International Short FF, Roma International Short FF, and Seoul International Short FF.

To learn more, we are Talking With: Jerry Topitzer.

Why did you want to create “Upcode”?

JERRY: First, I knew I wanted to make a comedy; and second, I'm passionate about satire and shining a light on real issues. My father was a psychologist and as a teenager I helped him occasionally with his bills. This gave me a front-row seat to see how insurance companies had all the financial power and routinely and arbitrarily reject or delay paying bills from medical professionals. As a patient, I and nearly everyone I knew had a nightmare story about dealing with an insurance company not paying for medical bills, which is personally not only frustrating but can be devastating financially. There have been some dramas that have dealt indirectly with our broken healthcare system, but I was not aware of any comedies that had dealt with the topic.

Satire lives best when a community or country has somehow gotten used to an absurd system, and our healthcare system certainly qualifies. The US spends 50-150% more than other major industrialized nations on average on healthcare and yet we have among the worst healthcare outcomes. Insurance premiums have gone up 400% since 1999 even though customer satisfaction for the health insurance industry is the lowest among all industries ranked by JD Power & Associates. As a system, our healthcare industry is almost comically insane and the more I researched the issues, the more I found an absurd system that needed to be shown in a new way.

Where did you start as the creator of the project?

JERRY: The germ (pun not intended I promise) of the idea for “Upcode” actually came from an embarrassing story that a friend of mine shared about having seen a very snarky and judgmental doctor about a possible STD. A group of actors and I thought the story was funny and decided to make a short film about it. I thought it would be fun to play the doctor and like any diligent actor I did research into why a doctor would be so mean or angry that he'd take his dissatisfaction out on a patient. Like many people, I believed that doctors as professionals had the highest job satisfaction rates due to their status and perceived financial stability. I learned however the opposite is the case. 78% of doctors report feeling burnt out. 46% reported wanting to leave the profession and 49% would NEVER recommend the profession to their children because of the increasing onerous paperwork and daily battles they need to fight with insurance companies. And all of the above stats are BEFORE COVID!

Once I learned about the huge conflict between doctor and insurance company, I realized how it (like any conflict) could be ripe for narrative and comedy. One could easily see how a huge evil monolithic insurance company could serve as a perfect greedy unfeeling villain, because frankly, they are! Because doctors are often put in impossible situations and required to bend the rules in "marking up" or upcoding their bills in order to get reimbursed fairly for their work with patients, this reminded me of my favorite protagonists in comedy. These are smart but highly flawed characters placed under a lot of pressure - always really fun characters to play.

As an actor, what helped you the most in bringing Dr. Fritz to life?

JERRY: I just loved the idea of a character who is a genius in one way (his ability to diagnose patients in an almost Sherlock-Holmes-ian manner) but also has a huge blindspot in the business side of running his practice. I guess another thing that helped me was my own background. I actually worked on Wall St in one of the premier structuring teams in the largest investment bank in the world before I left to pursue being an actor and creator. So, I was around some of the smartest financial minds in the world for almost 10 years. That gave me a window into how inordinately smart /genius-level folks behave and what makes them tick. What's great is many of those same people also often have major blindspots in how they see the world or themselves. That dynamic or mismatch to me is just a joy to play as an actor.

Was it difficult to take on a serious topic in such a comedic way?

JERRY: Honestly, yes! I'd say it was not easy because a lot of information has to be quickly distilled so the audience can understand the dynamics without weighing it down with too much technical stuff. It's easy for this to get VERY boring or unfunny due to the weight and complexity of the issues involved - so the writing process took a long time, and we ended up having to really cull through the barest essence of the issues. But the challenge was fun and made easier by collaborating with an award-winning screenwriter in Greg Fortier, my co-writer. For example, there's a scene where the main characters in the office are trying to explain medical codes to each other and they're all completely confused - it was very difficult but fun to do.

I also realized quickly how many interesting character-types there are in healthcare. Of course, there are doctors and nurses, but there is, I learned, a natural sort of turf-war between doctors and nurse practitioners. There's the office receptionist who sees all. We also meet relentless pharmaceutical sales-rep who hounds the practice, along with the evil employees of AmalgamatedHealth. All of these characters were very fun to explore. We also realized that if we told the story from the perspective of a doctor and his staff, and made each character have their own challenges and needs, all fighting in their own way to get ahead - in essence have everyone trying to "upcode" their lives - this could be really fun, and reflect something very universal, human, and, hopefully funny too.

Did you discover anything about yourself from working on this project?

JERRY: I discovered a lot of things. I have a real empathy for the medical profession - not just the stress of their jobs but the challenges they (especially primary care doctors) face with insurance companies AND how patients get screwed in the middle. I also re-discovered a new understanding of my father who passed away while we were in post-production. Creating this world brought back so many memories of his days as a solo practitioner and what challenges he faced, and the grace with which he faced them. My father, unlike Dr Fritz (and me) had absolutely no ego. And he was never embittered by his battles with insurance companies and that zen he had about his own purpose and calling was truly an inspiration looking back. Such grace is something I aspire to but fall short of daily.

What do you hope audiences will take away from watching it?

JERRY: First, I hope they laugh because that's our highest priority! But second, I hope they see the absurdity of the system and understand how crazy it is that we've entrusted giant insurance companies with our money in the form of insurance premiums and how they've literally made a business out of routinely hoarding it from us just when we need it most, when we’re most vulnerable and sick. It's absurd and wrong.

What inspires you the most creatively?

JERRY: I absolutely love comedy and I believe it has a real place in making us come together and see things differently. “Upcode” was written and developed because I am trained as an improviser and so we wrote scenes often based on improvisations and then we'd rewrite and improvise again, then rewrite again. That process of active-writing with other talented actors and improvisers is so delicate but when it comes together it's magical. We've been lucky to be accepted to 10 film festivals that honor TV pilots - but none of them have been live, so we have yet to experience our work in front of a live audience. That's another thing as comedy creators - we live for the ability to feel the effect of our work on a live audience - so we're dying for the moment to screen this in front of a live audience soon!

Finally, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?

JERRY: I am so proud of the work that so many talented actors and creative professionals have put into this. Although the cast and crew are made up of professionals, we have no ‘big-name stars’ and so our way to make more of “Upcode” is to build an audience online and prove our market to a streaming platform who will hopefully pick it up. We know we're a bit of a long-shot - taking on a controversial topic and lambasting a major corporate industry with no major stars on our side is a risky venture. But hopefully folks will watch, and see how amazingly perfect this cast is and that it's a story whose time has come, and support us so we can make many more. The feedback we've received from festivals and audiences from our limited release online has been truly amazing and humbling. Our next season arc is truly hilarious and action-packed and we cannot wait to bring it to audiences everywhere! So PLEASE watch and subscribe to our channel!

Watch Full Episodes of “Upcode” now on YouTube