Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / GLP 1 Breakthroughs, Global Leadership Moves, and Hospital Deal Activity with Molly Gamble

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GLP 1 Breakthroughs, Global Leadership Moves, and Hospital Deal Activity with Molly Gamble · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  This is Scott Becker with the Becker's Healthcare
• 0:02
  podcast.
• 0:03
  Thrilled today to be joined by Molly Gamble.
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  Molly's the extraordinary
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  vice president of editorial affairs at Becker's Healthcare,
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  and she joins us regularly to talk about
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  what stories she's watching most closely in health
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  care. Mala, can you take it away and
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  tell us about a couple of the stories
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  that you're watching closely currently?
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  Absolutely. Thank you so much, Scott. It's good
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  to be back with you. I've got three
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  diverse headlines out of our newsroom just this
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  week that I thought were pretty interesting, and
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  there's stories behind the story. So I thought
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  we could touch on those. But the first
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  is this new oral GLP one and how
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  the race just got a little bit more
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  competitive this week. The FDA approved Eli Lilly's
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  daily weight loss pill, Fundeo,
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  making it only the second oral GLP one
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  cleared for obesity in The US. That comes
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  after Novo Nordisk got their pill approved back
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  in December.
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  And what makes this approval a little bit
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  more interesting is that it it cleared the
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  FDA in just under fifty days after Eli
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  Lilly submitted its application.
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  It's the fifth approval under this new program,
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  this new pilot, the commissioner's national priority voucher
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  program,
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  that launched in June. So FOUNDEO, if you
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  take a step back,
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  second oral GLP one now on the market
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  in The US, but also the fastest approval
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  for a new molecular
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  drug since 2002.
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  This is gonna go live
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  on Lilly's direct to consumer site, $1.49
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  a month,
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  for the starting dose before rolling out to
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  retail pharmacies and other telehealth platforms. And Eli
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  Lilly is looking into this drug and investigating
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  it for type two diabetes, sleep apnea, hypertension,
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  and other conditions too, Scott.
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  But but that's amazing at $1.50 a month.
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  That's amazing. I mean, that's game changing, isn't
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  it? Yeah. When you and I were speaking
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  about GLP ones, you know, a year and
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  a half ago, like, this was not on
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  the table.
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  So it it's interesting to see even now
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  the oral
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  options available. Now there's a, you know, a
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  two horse race for oral
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  GLP ones that just got more competitive this
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  week. So, this competition seems to be a
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  a really good thing for consumers, so we'll
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  see how this continues to play out.
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  That that's amazing. That's literally fantastic, and I
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  love to see the FDA moving more quickly.
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  That's fantastic too.
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  Great. And let's hope it goes well and
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  people do well with the oral GLP one
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  drug and and so forth. Tell us what
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  else you're watching closely because that that that
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  GLP one at $1.50 a month and people
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  paying $3.05, 600 for the ZepBalance, the other
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  the other shots.
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  You you bring this down to $15,200 a
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  month, it starts to be more it starts
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  to be the same cost as a a
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  nice gym membership for a lot of people
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  and and, and and and probably equally effective
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  or part of their part of their health
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  routine. That's fantastic.
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  Yeah. And I should mention, Scott, that that's
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  the direct to consumer option. So it's it
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  starts at $25
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  per month for those with commercial cup health
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  insurance
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  and then $1.49 for self pay.
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  So,
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  again, this was not an option for people
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  when we talked about GLP ones not too
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  long ago, but I think when it comes
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  to direct to consumer access,
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  free home delivery, and then those price points,
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  it's it's moving in a in a it
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  has some serious momentum for how people are
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  able to access this drug.
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  A 100%. That's fascinating. And and tell us
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  what else are you watching currently now? Yeah.
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  The Cleveland Clinic London is is shifting around
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  some leadership. This is, Cleveland Clinic London, it
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  its campus open in 2022
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  across the pond. It'll be sending one of
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  its senior most leaders to,
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  the London site. This is gonna be Barry
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  Ridgeway, doctor Barry Ridgeway.
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  She's a long time clinic leader. Doctor Ridgeway,
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  she's been there for nearly two decades. She
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  trained at UCSF, UC San Diego, completed her
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  fellowship at Cleveland Clinic, and then has led
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  the system's
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  OBGYN
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  Institute and global access initiatives.
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  So really an insider's insider.
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  The outgoing London president, doctor Rob Lorenz, he's
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  gonna move into a new role managing Cleveland
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  Clinic's relationship
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  with the Ellison Institute of Technology Oxford. So
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  staying in that UK orbit,
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  and then back home in Cleveland, the search
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  for a new enterprise chief of staff kicks
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  off immediately.
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  So, Scott, I just wanted to note this
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  development. Cleveland Clinic London has has really, in
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  a short time, established itself as a a
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  top tier private hospital in The UK, and
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  tapping
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  a a leader of doctor Ridgeway's caliber signals
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  the system is really doubling down on that
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  market. Also interesting that its outgoing leader isn't,
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  you know, returning to The US necessarily or
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  leaving Cleveland Clinic, but will be really more
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  tightly managing this relationship with Oxford. So something
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  to note, and I think we're always interested
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  in how these global
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  footprints of domestic health systems are maturing and
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  developing, and this this leadership change, is worth
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  noting.
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  No. Fantastic and fascinating. And we we look
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  up to Cleveland Clinic and what they do
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  and fasting to see the changes there. So
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  it's sort of fasting to see some real
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  turnover at Cleveland Clinic London and also to
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  see this oral GLP one thing come out
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  and really start to move. That's gonna be
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  fascinating. That's as you start to get down
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  to a 100 to $200 a month, this
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  starts to become game changers in terms of
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  the availability
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  to a lot more people and and a
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  real positive from,
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  you know, I still I know it's still
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  quite expensive, but getting closer and closer to
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  making sense from a health equity perspective that
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  this becomes widely available, not just to people
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  that are wealthier and can afford it. That's,
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  I think fantastic.
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  Mhmm. Completely agree. And I'm also interested in,
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  like, what we'll see those investigations will bear
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  out when it comes to those other health
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  needs and and perhaps other conditions that could
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  be
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  effective for. The last thing I'll note is
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  just hospital deals. We continue to see some
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  some lumpy activity here, I would say. You
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  know, we saw CHS
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  this week complete a a a bigger sale,
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  a 180
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  bed hospital offloaded
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  to Huntsville Hospital health system, a more local
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  health system that now has 15 hospitals in
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  Alabama.
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  That was a $459,000,000
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  deal.
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  CHS, this is not unusual. The system has
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  been for for years now really trimming down
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  its hospital count, and
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  reconfiguring its portfolio.
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  But as much as you've seen CHS and
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  investor owned system offloading, others are are buying
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  up. LifePoint Health has agreed to acquire
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  eight hospitals from Scion Health. Those are in
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  Mississippi, Texas, Tennessee,
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  West Virginia, Idaho, Wisconsin. So really a diverse
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  area. And then, back in February, Prime Health
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  Care looked to it it acquired Lewistown
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  based Central Maine Health Care. So taken together,
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  just some interesting activity, Scott. You've got some
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  of the big investor owned national systems like
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  CHS continuing to restructure and even nonprofits like
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  Ascension trying to offload acute care hospitals
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  while other operators, LifePoint Prime, even local systems
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  like Huntsville are are stepping in to to
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  scoop those up and expand. So I just
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  wanna make note of that deal that went
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  through today. It was a a bigger price
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  point than some of the others we report
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  on at an individual level as of late.
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  Yeah. Fantastic. No. Fascinating to see and fascinating
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  to see how community health systems has reshaped
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  itself, what Prime Healthcare is doing, and all
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  these other systems are doing. Really, really remarkable.
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  Molly, as always, thank you so much for
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  joining us on the Bechtris Healthcare podcast. Remarkable
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  leadership. Can't wait to visit with you on
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  our CEO advisory call next week. Thank you
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  so much for joining us. Thank you so
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  much, Scott.