David Donald Marcus

David Donald Marcus was born in Detroit, Michigan on January 22, 1943 and died in Fishers, Indiana, on April 20, 2020 of complications from the new coronavirus.

He leaves behind to mourn his loss his wife of 46 years, Leah Marcus; his brother, Michael Marcus; his two daughters, Emily and Lauren Marcus; two grandchildren, Addie Dunbar and Isaac Maze, and a host of other relatives and friends.

David was a wonderful man, brilliant, funny, and warm hearted. He was a devoted husband and father and a great friend, “old reliable,” always there to help in good times and bad.  His professional relationships often grew into friendships. Executives would refer to David as “my trusted go-to guy.”

A list of his career highlights illustrates his wide range of talents. David’s love of books started at age four when he devoured comics and taught himself to read, add, and subtract by studying newspaper ads and the sports pages.  His lifelong interest in writing started in high school, where he edited the biweekly school paper. His first job was as a teen affairs columnist for a local daily.  At the University of Michigan, where he got his BA degree, he was an editor of the Michigan Daily and helped steer the paper and the university through a very turbulent era of controversy and change.  One might suppose from all of this that he would follow a career in journalism.  But he chose instead to pursue a PhD in Victorian literature – especially Charles Dickens – from the University of California at Berkeley and taught English at UC Irvine and the University of Illinois at Chicago before making a radical career switch into the field of medical economics.

He picked up an MBA in healthcare administration from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management while working in the Northwestern University Hospital Department of Psychiatry and after that at the American Medical Association.  In 1988, he and his family left frozen Chicagoland for Austin, Texas, where he headed the Texas Medical Association’s Department of Healthcare Finance.  This job, which he loved, took him all over the state of Texas to meet with and advise hospitals and medical groups.  He also published widely in the field of healthcare finance, most notably producing his influential book The Medicare Maze (1989), a guide for hospitals and medical practices in implementing the new and impossibly intricate rules for Medicare funding and reimbursement.

David retired from TMA in 1998 and moved with his family to Nashville, Tennessee, where he founded his own company, Physician Payment Resources, and, as a sideline, became a highly skilled trader of stocks and ETFs.  During his twenty years in Nashville, he never went to the office but adamantly stated he was not retired.  Finally, in 2017, he retired in earnest and moved with his wife to Fishers, Indiana, to be near their daughter, Lauren and granddaughter, Addie. He spent his final fifteen months at Grand Brook Memory Care of Fishers, and the family would like to offer its staff their heartfelt thanks for their wonderful care of him during his time there, especially during his final months.

David loved travel (Europe, Japan, Australia, India, and the Caribbean), cooking, classical music, and making jokes in a hilarious Yiddish accent.  He taught those around him how to savor life and enjoy the small things.  His sunny personality warmed everyone he met and he shall be missed dearly. L’Chaim!