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Scott Becker - Healthcare's Changing Landscape: 5 Stories to Watch 7-10-26 · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:02
  - A special thank you to ECG
• 0:04
  - Management Consultants.
• 0:06
  - ECG has been working exclusively
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  - with health care organizations more than fifty years.
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  - ECG
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  - offers a comprehensive range of services
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  - spanning the entire health care ecosystem.
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  - ECG's roots
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  - in contracting and reimbursement
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  - run especially deep.
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  - Their payer strategy experts have worked in all
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  - 50 states and have built relationships with every
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  - national and regional health care plan.
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  - They recognize the issues that matter the most
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  - to both providers and insurers
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  - and understand the unique market dynamics impacting provider
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  - reimbursement.
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  - ECG
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  - asks the tough questions and tells clients what
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  - they need to hear, not just what they
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  - want to hear. To learn more about ECG,
• 0:49
  - visit ecgmc.com.
• 0:52
  - And thank you for listening to the Becker's
• 0:54
  - Healthcare podcast. Thank you to ECG management consultants.
• 0:59
  - This is Scott Becker with the Becker's Healthcare
• 1:02
  - podcast.
• 1:03
  - Today's discussion
• 1:05
  - is gonna help us talk through a few
• 1:07
  - of the bigger concepts that are going on
• 1:08
  - in health care, and we'll use a few
• 1:10
  - stories that came out in the last couple
• 1:12
  - of days in Becker's health care to illustrate
• 1:14
  - some of these points.
• 1:16
  - The the the first concept is
• 1:19
  - watching
• 1:20
  - hospitals fine tuning
• 1:21
  - the aftermath of what was a huge nursing
• 1:24
  - shortage and sort of the acceleration
• 1:26
  - and improvement that's going on there, but some
• 1:28
  - of the challenges still remain.
• 1:31
  - The other thing we'll talk about is hospitals
• 1:33
  - getting out of the insurance business and also
• 1:35
  - about hospitals continuing to close units
• 1:38
  - to streamline cost
• 1:40
  - in in in that type of process.
• 1:42
  - Finally, we'll talk a little bit about more
• 1:44
  - and more employers
• 1:46
  - getting out of covering GLP ones
• 1:49
  - for essentially employees
• 1:51
  - for weight
• 1:53
  - loss
• 1:53
  - versus diabetes.
• 1:55
  - And here's sort of five
• 1:57
  - of of the stories along those lines.
• 2:00
  - I'll start with this.
• 2:01
  - Regional One Health, the great system,
• 2:04
  - closing their extended care hospital, laying off a
• 2:07
  - 103 people.
• 2:08
  - This was covered today in Becker's HealthCare.
• 2:11
  - It runs on the on the sort of,
• 2:14
  - right after a couple stories about
• 2:16
  - number of health systems closing maternity units and
• 2:19
  - ED units, emergency department units,
• 2:22
  - as well as a few hospital closures.
• 2:25
  - So we're we're continuing to see that where
• 2:27
  - hospitals kinda streamline operations and try and get
• 2:30
  - into better financial shape.
• 2:32
  - Second story we're covering, Memorial
• 2:34
  - Herman shuttering its commercial insurance business.
• 2:37
  - Again, a sign of the times, health systems
• 2:40
  - continue to find it really tough to be
• 2:42
  - an insurance business. They're just really outmanned
• 2:45
  - by much larger insurance companies and everything else.
• 2:48
  - Third, two stories on nursing,
• 2:51
  - advocates
• 2:53
  - undergoing a plan to close the nursing skills
• 2:56
  - gap before graduation.
• 2:58
  - Essentially, this is aimed at getting more inpatients
• 3:00
  - and ICU nurses where it's being harder and
• 3:02
  - harder to fill some of those spots and
• 3:04
  - to grow some of those skills.
• 3:07
  - Next,
• 3:08
  - HCA's Mission Health drops the bachelor of science
• 3:11
  - in nursing requirement for nurses in North Carolina,
• 3:14
  - And I think that's fascinating too. It's, again,
• 3:16
  - a sign of the fact that they need
• 3:18
  - nurses. We're getting closer and filling the gap,
• 3:20
  - but there's still challenges. And I think the
• 3:22
  - stories coming out of advocate and ACA's Mission
• 3:25
  - South are are both
• 3:27
  - along those lines talking about we're getting closer
• 3:30
  - on the nurse shortage, but still need to
• 3:32
  - fill different gaps and and filter in gaps
• 3:34
  - and skills. Finally, fifth, we're gonna talk about
• 3:37
  - University of Vermont
• 3:38
  - Health pauses employee GLP one coverage for weight
• 3:41
  - loss. Again, aside of the times where this
• 3:44
  - has just become
• 3:45
  - too expensive to maintain
• 3:47
  - for so many people, and quite frankly, people
• 3:49
  - are getting better deals outside of their employers,
• 3:52
  - and it's lost costing the health system not
• 3:54
  - nearly as much. In any event, thank you
• 3:57
  - for listening to the Becker's Health Care podcast.
• 3:59
  - We hope you find this helpful. We we
• 4:01
  - thank you for listening.