Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Scott Becker - 3 Things Going Well in Healthcare 6-30-26

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Scott Becker - 3 Things Going Well in Healthcare 6-30-26 · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  - There's a small circle of people who truly
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  - understand what it takes to lead a health
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  - system right now. The decisions are enormous.
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  - The variables are constantly shifting, and the stakes
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  - of getting a call wrong don't stay contained.
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  - That's not a complaint. It's a structural reality.
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  - And it's why the most effective c suite
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  - leaders are deliberate about where they go to
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  - pressure test their thinking.
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  - Becker's fourteenth annual CEO and CFO roundtable
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  - brings together more than 1,500
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  - executive level attendees
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  - and nearly 400 speakers for four days built
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  - around growth, financial sustainability,
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  - workforce strategy, and the leadership questions that don't
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  - have easy answers.
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  - Join us November second through the fifth in
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  - Chicago.
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  - For the agenda and event details,
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  - visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  - and click on the events tab in the
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  - upper right.
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  - This is Scott Becker with the Beckers HealthCare
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  - podcast.
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  - Today's discussion,
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  - three things that are going well.
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  - So so here's the issue. We spend so
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  - much time talking about things that are going
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  - really poorly in health care or quite challenging.
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  - The trip blame going in the wrong direction,
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  - supply
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  - and going in the wrong direction
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  - that we don't spend enough time, I think,
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  - focusing on some things that are going really
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  - well. I'm gonna touch on three of those.
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  - Before that, I'll make a quick general observation.
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  - The first general observation is that for a
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  - population of 350,000,000
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  - people,
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  - the system is un imperfect, but we do
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  - a pretty good job better than any other
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  - large country in the world, meaning a country
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  - with 50 or a 100,000,000 people or so
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  - of taking care of our people at every
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  - end of the of the spectrum economically.
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  - So as challenging as it is,
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  - in judging ourselves not against countries of five
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  - to 10,000,000 people, but countries with 50, a
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  - hundred, two hundred million people,
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  - we do an incredibly
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  - good job. And we shouldn't ever take that
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  - for granted because it can get a lot
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  - worse and quite frankly will if we don't
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  - fix the supply and demand issues.
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  - But when you compare us overall,
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  - particularly at the lower end of the economic
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  - spectrum
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  - to countries like China, India, Nigeria, and a
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  - ton more larger countries,
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  - that are
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  - amongst the five largest countries in the world
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  - or top 10 largest countries in the world,
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  - we do a remarkably good job. So that's
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  - just a level set a little bit. I
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  - know it's an unpopular concept.
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  - But here are three things that are going
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  - quite well.
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  - First,
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  - we'll talk about,
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  - artificial intelligence,
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  - imperfect
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  - cascading use cases,
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  - but starting to see real improvements both on
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  - the administrative and the clinical side.
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  - More and more on the administrative side, we're
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  - moving towards a spot where some of the
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  - things have become a need to have versus
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  - a want to have.
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  - Ambient listening technology,
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  - a lot of the revenue cycle stuff, a
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  - lot of the administrative back office stuff has
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  - become a need to have versus a want
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  - to have. And you're also seeing tremendous
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  - levels of improvement every day on the clinical
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  - side. Quite frankly, I think we're gonna solve
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  - our primary care shortage
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  - by not having more primary
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  - care physicians,
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  - but having PAs and and nurse practitioners
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  - and others with the aid of AI, with
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  - the aid of primary care oversight,
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  - take care of our primary care shortage over
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  - the long run. I think that's where we're
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  - going. So some of those things are going
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  - really well. Doesn't mean we still have lots
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  - of shortages and looming challenges, particularly in specialty
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  - areas, but I do think there's a lot
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  - to be thankful for there.
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  - The second thing I'll talk about is we're
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  - watching
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  - right before our eyes
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  - one of these
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  - very quick who moved our cheese moments.
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  - We're we're seeing essentially
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  - thirty million people a year now are on
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  - GLP ones. Something like forty seven or 50
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  - million have tried that. But what's fascinating about
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  - this and how quickly it's changed is, just
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  - a couple years ago, people were getting their
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  - GLP ones
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  - through their physician's office, through their health system
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  - physician, and so forth.
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  - Now I would guess that the huge, huge
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  - majority of that is coming through the telehealth
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  - provider services.
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  - And in this effort by the telehealth providers
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  - was sort of minimum,
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  - some physician oversight,
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  - etcetera,
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  - it
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  - it it's really moved a ton of strain
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  - off of what otherwise would be falling on
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  - your primary care physician's offices
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  - and your health system offices.
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  - So I think largely an incredible movement
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  - of an example right before our eyes of
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  - care moving outside of hospital health systems
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  - and taking some stress off the hospital health
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  - systems and the traditional practitioners offices. Sort of
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  - it happened before our eyes. It's fascinating to
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  - watch. It is a caveat or not a
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  - caveat. As a follow on point to that
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  - and add on point,
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  - we're also seeing there this incredible
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  - movement
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  - towards the consumerism there and that drive down
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  - the cost and price of GLP ones. Just
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  - a couple years ago or even a year
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  - ago, it was all going through insurers, a
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  - thousand bucks plus a month.
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  - Now you get into this real consumer paying
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  - for it situation,
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  - and a lot of the semi or the
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  - compounded semi good types are down to 100
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  - to 200 a month.
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  - Even the prescription
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  - name brands are down to 300 to 500
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  - a month. And this is just a huge
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  - improvement. An example of free enterprise working side
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  - by side with the nonprofit health system and
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  - and health care universe that we set up.
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  - So those are two things so far that
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  - are going really well. But a third thing
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  - that I think is going really well,
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  - there's been this incredible
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  - improvement in acceleration in the training of nurses
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  - and nurse practitioners in our country. We're now
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  - producing about 200,000 nurses a year,
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  - plus we're importing about 30,000 nurses a year.
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  - In between the two, we've all but staunched
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  - the flow, the loss, the blood loss we're
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  - having in the nursing establishment.
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  - During COVID, we went down from five million
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  - to four million nurses. We're essentially back to
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  - those numbers. We're now actually matriculating
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  - more nurses each year than we're losing. Doesn't
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  - mean there's still not allocation problems and challenges.
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  - People will say, oh, nursing education is not
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  - as good as it was. But at the
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  - end of the day, this is a huge
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  - improvement.
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  - At the same time, not that the negative
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  - on this, but we've made none of that
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  - improvement in how we're training and educating physicians.
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  - We do an incredible job of educating physicians,
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  - but incredibly expensively and incredibly long, and other
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  - countries do it just as well in a
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  - shorter time frame or less expensively. In any
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  - event, those are three things that are going
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  - really well.
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  - I'd love your feedback on this episode.
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  - (773)
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  - 766-5322.
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  - If you're the first person to give me
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  - feedback on this, I'd love your thoughts. I'd
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  - love your also thoughts on what else is
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  - going well.
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  - We will send you a $100 Amazon gift
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  - card. You gotta be the first one. You
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  - can't be someone who's claiming the gift card
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  - recently,
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  - but would love to hear your feedback on
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  - your thoughts on this. I thought it was
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  - time for a little bit of positive news
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  - of what we're seeing positively in the health
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  - care sector. Doesn't mean we don't have big
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  - challenges, big problems, but there are a lot
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  - of things that are really moving in the
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  - right direction right before our eyes. Thank you
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  - for listening to the Becker's health care podcast.