Last week on Radio Advisory, we broke down what healthcare leaders need to know for 2025 and beyond following the recent elections. But before we move on from 2024 completely, we have to acknowledge that there’s been a lot moving in the policy space this year, and frankly, there have probably been a few important policy areas on your radar that we haven’t discussed. That’s why this week, host Abby Burns invites Advisory Board experts Gina Lohr, Sarah Roller, and Paul Trigonoplos to dive...

(Note: This episode was recorded on November 7, 2024) The results of the 2024 elections are in: Donald Trump will be the 47th President of the United States, and we are all but certain to have a Republican trifecta at the federal level. Admittedly, there’s a lot we don’t know about what healthcare will look like under a second Trump administration—a lot will depend on who is appointed to key leadership positions overseeing federal health agencies and Congressional committees. But while we...

Conversations around GLP-1s in today’s healthcare market are mixed. Some stakeholders are thrilled with their potential, while others are filled with questions and even anxiety about how these powerful and popular drugs will impact their business. Many in the industry have been asking for months: “What can GLP-1s do?” But maybe this is the wrong question. Leaders should be asking “What CAN’T GLP-1s do?” To answer that question, live from HLTH 2024, host Rachel (Rae) Wood invites Rob...

Remote patient monitoring (RPM) has a surprisingly long history in healthcare. As technology improves, RPM can expand physician capacity, better manage complex patients, and improve total cost of care. Despite RPM’s potential, leaders often struggle to root RPM in a clear business case, or they underinvest in implementation, never fully integrating RPM into existing workflows and systems. This week, host Rachel (Rae) Woods invites Advisory Board RPM expert Lauren Woodrow and Advisory Board...

For years, the best word to describe Medicare Advantage (MA) was “untouchable.” Hugely popular among seniors, profitable for health plans—the hybrid public-private payment model grew to the point that it now covers more seniors than traditional Medicare. But in the past few years, the tide has started to change. And if you’ve been paying attention in recent months, you’ll have seen headlines announcing that payers that are scaling back their MA offerings and providers are exiting MA...

As care delivery becomes more complex and new disruptors join the scene, one thing has become clear: operational excellence is now table stakes in ensuring your organization’s financial sustainability and winning patients. In this episode, recorded live from Advisory Board’s 2024 Strategy Summit, guest host and Managing Director of Physician and Medical Group Research at Advisory Board, Sarah Roller, invites Dr. Mary Jo Cagle, CEO of Cone Health and Dr. Cynthia Horner, Chief Medical...

For years, health systems have been holding their breath to see if patient volumes would finally return to pre-pandemic levels. Because—per conventional wisdom--if volumes return, then so will operating margins. Right? Not so fast. In this episode, host Abby Burns invites Advisory Board experts Sebastian Beckmann and Elizabeth Orr to explore why with the positive volume forecast we see in our projections won’t automatically translate to a healthy financial outlook. Later, Optum Advisory...

Two weeks ago on Radio Advisory, we told our listeners that the number one area of focus for health system growth is operational excellence, and a major part of that is capturing all of the revenue on the table from your medical group. Healthcare organizations have spent the last decade buying up medical groups and physicians, in part because of the “promise” of downstream referrals. It is a long-held belief that physician employment leads to higher referral integrity. But according to an...

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid services released the Acute Hospital Care at Home payment waiver. The action was expected to usher in a new era of home-based care. But while it’s certainly grown in recent years, frankly, that massive shift hasn’t happened. The question is, why? This week, host Abby Burns invites Dr. Matthew Richards, Senior Medical Director of home-care enablement company Medically Home, to explore the role that home-base care...

(This episode originally aired on September 26, 2023.) Value-based care has been dominating industry conversations in recent years. Here on Radio Advisory, we talk a lot about best practices, how to make the right investments, and how to best prepare leaders for the future of value-based care. But given all this momentum, we want to spend time asking the question: what are the misconceptions or misaligned expectations that leaders have around value-based care? In this episode, host Rachel...

In the last few years, all eyes have turned to GLP-1s as an industry-altering answer to obesity treatment and weight management. But the fact is, these drugs can’t – and shouldn’t – work in a vacuum. There is a fear that attention on GLP-1s may even blind leaders to the other services that go into providing effective obesity care. So, what should leaders be thinking about when designing and and delivering effective obesity care? To answer that question, host Abby Burns invites Advisory...

When we talk about “health systems,” it can sound like we’re talking about a monolith. But in reality, the $1.4 trillion dollar health system sector is made up of a diverse range of players. Academics and safety nets; urban and rural systems; 1,000-bed systems and 25-bed critical access hospitals. The question is, especially as systems emerge from the financial hardships of the past few years, how do those differences translate to the ways systems are running at growth? In this episode, the...

We’ve talked a lot about AI on Radio Advisory, with a particular emphasis on generative models and their capabilities. But are there other models of AI that are flying under the radar? Today’s episode focuses on computer vision and its potential to shift how we think about the use of technology in healthcare. For the second episode in our series leading up to Advisory Board’s upcoming Strategy Summit, host Abby Burns invites digital health experts Ty Aderhold and Elysia Culver to break down...

It's no secret that climate change has had a massive effect on population health, but it’s also impacting healthcare business. Did you know that energy costs have gone up by 28% in the past five years? Health systems in particular can shave percentage points off their annual costs by reducing their energy consumption—but there is both a knowledge gap and an action gap keeping leaders from taking advantage of the opportunity. Advisory Board’s Strategy Summit on September 10-11 is all about...

This week, host Abby Burns invites Advisory Board expert Sebastian Beckmann back to Radio Advisory to provide an update—as promised—on what his team has uncovered about site-of-care shifts in the six months since he first brought this research to the pod. Hint: there’s about $50B at play. This episode is a modified encore of Episode 195: Site-of-care shifts: It’s time to go on offense.” In that episode, Sebastian and fellow Advisory Board expert Nick Hula joined Abby to break down how...

(This episode originally aired on September 12, 2023.) With rising costs and tightening margins, the industry is continually looking for ways to "bend the cost curve" while maintaining, or even increasing, quality and performance. One stakeholder in particular, employers, are feeling significant pressures from inflation, hospital consolidation, the rise of high-cost drugs, and more. While many legacy cost-saving strategies have focused on reducing employer costs, it may be time to shift...

(This episode originally aired on March 12, 2024.) The relationship between health plans and providers has always included an element of friction, but lately, it seems like the temperature is rising. And you've probably noticed – public contracting disputes increased by 69% between 2022 and 2023. That's why, in this episode, host Abby Burns invites Advisory Board experts Max Hakanson and Eileen Fennell to discuss why the state of affairs seems to be getting worse, how key flashpoints are...

Healthcare leaders have dozens of priorities on their plates, and achieving innovation is not as simple as just buying a new technology or implementing a new care model. Frankly, it can be overwhelming not just to see innovations through, but even to get started. So, what does it really take to innovate? And how do you align your organization’s challenges with the solutions or innovations that are being presented to you? In this special episode, live from Advisory Board’s 2024 Clinical...

It seems like a no-brainer for healthcare organizations to allocate time and attention to a health condition that is guaranteed to affect 50% of adults during their midlife years—but that hasn’t been the case. We’re seeing momentum around making menopause mainstream—from the White House directing research funding, to Hollywood stars talking openly about menopause, to the rise of femtech companies geared toward helping consumers navigate the clinical and social effects of menopause. But...

In recent years, we’ve seen large retailers like CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, and even Amazon add to their care delivery portfolios, specifically through offering low-acuity primary care services. But it seems like the tide may be shifting. In April, Walmart announced that it’s shuttering its primary care operations and virtual care arm—and it’s not the only one scaling back. The fact is, a number of retailers are retrenching on primary care operations. In this episode, host Abby Burns invites...

Radio Advisory first started production in April 2020 to deliver timely, critical messages to healthcare professionals navigating the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. Four years, 200+ episodes, and one million downloads later, Radio Advisory continues to bring insightful conversations and valuable insights to listeners passionate about driving positive change in healthcare. To celebrate our millionth download, host Rachel (Rae) Woods and the Radio Advisory production team revisit some...

Generative AI is one of the most widely discussed topics in the industry today. There is continued excitement, mounting anxiety, and dozens of questions for health leaders to answer. While the healthcare industry has been working tirelessly to adapt to the almost unbelievable rate of change, many organizations struggle with how to ethically implement and scale Artificial Intelligence. This week, host Rachel (Rae) Woods invites Duke University Health System's Chief Information Officer, Dr....

The healthcare industry has been rocked by the pandemic and thrown headfirst into a new era of technological and therapeutic revolution. Yet, in the midst of all this change and uncertainty, healthcare leaders are expected not just to survive, but actually drive value for their organizations, patients, and communities. The problem is, “driving value” is not only complex, but it’s also ambiguous. Leaders who talk about value across the industry may not even be talking about the same thing. So,...

The rise of generative AI has impacted healthcare in many ways – one of which is that it’s pushing Big Tech toward becoming not just a relevant, but a central player in the industry. And when we’re talking Big Tech, we have to include Google. Google’s activity in healthcare has been turbulent since it entered the space nearly two decades ago, but it’s impossible to deny the significance of the contributions it’s made to the industry. Now with the rapid growth of genAI, Google is refining...