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Scott Becker - 9 Stories Shaping Healthcare Currently 2-12-26 · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:02
  A special thank you to ECG
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  Management Consultants.
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  ECG has been working exclusively with health care
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  organizations for more than fifty years.
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  visit ecgmc.com.
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  And thank you for listening to the Becker's
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  Healthcare podcast. Thank you to ECG management consultants.
• 0:58
  This is Scott Becker with the Becker's Healthcare
• 1:01
  podcast.
• 1:02
  We're gonna briefly talk through nine or so
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  stories that we're following in health care that
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  sort of set the tone for some of
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  what's going on in health care currently.
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  I'll go through nine quick stories.
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  Alright. First,
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  Cigna announces that's gonna cut 2,000 jobs.
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  Its overall medical membership is down year over
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  year,
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  cutting 2,000 jobs. The CEO says, essentially, trying
• 1:25
  to make sure the house is in order
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  and that they're sharp and lean.
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  Second, CVS Healthcare,
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  which also owns Aetna,
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  is the second largest of the huge insurers
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  of the big revenue insurers.
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  Ultimately, UnitedHealthcare
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  is the the largest about the third or
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  fourth largest company in America by revenues.
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  CVS Health is right behind them.
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  CVS
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  reported that their profits went down about 60%
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  from the year prior. So that's a move
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  in the wrong direction.
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  Lower profit in '25 versus '24.
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  Third, another story that's a sign of a
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  sign of the times,
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  another Indiana hospital notes that they're phasing out
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  maternity
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  services.
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  Again, this is part of the Johnson Memorial
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  Health System, and and just a sign of
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  the times that you see systems phasing out
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  maternity services, they just can't staff them and
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  make them work in rural areas and so
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  forth.
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  Fourth story that we're following today, North Star
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  Health Alliance files for bankruptcy.
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  This is a
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  system that operates
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  three or so hospitals in in a couple
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  affiliates. And so that's that's that. That's number
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  four story.
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  Another system sort of filing for bankruptcy.
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  This story that we're following is Mayo Clinic
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  receives a $100,000,000
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  gift. And and, again, the sign of the
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  times that big systems
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  really are doubling down on philanthropy and how
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  they manage philanthropy dollars,
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  really helps the bottom line and help systems
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  to be able to continue to to thrive.
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  Sixth,
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  systems are in the process of preparing for
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  a spike in an uninsured patients, and we
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  have a story about that that we're following
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  as well.
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  And, again, it it concerns about
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  reduced Medicaid traffic and people coming off of
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  Medicare Advantage or coming off of Medicare, and
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  being able to fill those gaps economically
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  at systems.
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  Seventh of the story we're following is the
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  launch of Trump Rx, which will cover about
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  40 discounted drugs to begin with, and we'll
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  see how that continues to flow through and
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  what happens with that.
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  Eighth, a story about that we're watching closely,
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  the hardest clinical jobs to fill. And, again,
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  this continues to be a big issue in
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  health care, as jobs become very difficult to
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  fill, and and we're keeping an eye on
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  that as well.
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  Finally, the ninth story that we're watching today
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  is the ongoing war breaking out over GLP
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  one drugs and price wars between different companies,
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  the movement towards pills,
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  the fights with some of the distributors to
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  do compounds and compounding like HIMS and HERS
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  and and a lot more. Again, those are
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  nine of the stories that we're following currently.
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  Couple of them deal with very difficult times
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  at some of the payers. A couple deal
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  with, a hospital closing down maternity services,
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  another health system filing for bankruptcy,
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  and also worrying about the increase in uninsured
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  patients. So overall,
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  a bit of a challenging time in health
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  care. Those are nine of the stories that
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  we're that we're watching closely, and and thank
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  you for listening to the Becker's health care
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  podcast. Thank you very, very much.