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Scott Becker - 5 Stories We Are Following at Becker's Healthcare 10-2-26 · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  - This is Scott Becker with the Becker's Healthcare
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  - podcast.
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  - Today, we're gonna cover five stories that we're
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  - following at Becker's Healthcare and that have impact
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  - on the healthcare marketplace and industry.
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  - The first story is
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  - more insurers are exiting Medicare Advantage.
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  - At the end of the day, and I
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  - know some people will take offense to this,
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  - but only theoretical types and those that are
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  - making money from it seem to love Medicare
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  - Advantage. And I know that's an overstatement.
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  - Today's article by Jacob Everson, we had a
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  - podcast on this as well, seven more health
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  - system owned insurers exiting Medicare Advantage.
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  - And then some of the big plans are
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  - scaling back on Medicare Advantage as well.
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  - Not to even mention that on the other
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  - side of the table, a lot of hospitals
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  - and health systems
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  - really dislike
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  - contracting with Medicare Advantage plans.
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  - Second,
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  - trial begins now for Yale New Haven's older
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  - physician cognitive test policy.
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  - The the testing that Yale New Haven has,
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  - which is similar at lots of other places
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  - and companies and systems,
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  - is that at 70 years old, a physician,
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  - he has to take a cognitive test to
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  - make sure they could keep on practicing.
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  - And this was challenged by the Equal Employment
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  - Opportunity Commission that brought action against Young Living
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  - Health.
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  - This is a fascinating situation as a larger
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  - and larger percentage of physicians are 65 and
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  - older,
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  - and everyone hates to be tested as a
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  - prerequisite to keeping their license. At the same
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  - time, of course,
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  - nobody wants somebody that's out of it doing
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  - their surgery or taking care of them. So
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  - fasting, fasting issue with lots of different issues.
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  - Third, there's an article today
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  - by Scott King
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  - on how 10 health care COOs
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  - and strategic leaders are watching how AI is
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  - changing their roles. What I think is fascinating
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  - here as opposed to some physician societies that
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  - have been quite negative about the use of
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  - AI in medicine,
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  - this article talks about many leaders being quite
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  - pleased
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  - with where AI is helping
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  - and helping to streamline some of the things
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  - that they're doing. So a really interesting article.
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  - Fourth, an article on physician compensation,
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  - and this is based on a white paper
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  - from AMN Healthcare. It was in the staffing
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  - business. It says, essentially, the average starting salaries...
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  - The starting salary for all physicians
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  - hit 4 to 19,000
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  - in 2025
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  - to 2026
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  - according to the white paper.
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  - Now now, again, a lot of specialists make
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  - a lot more than that. The primary care
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  - earnings were less than that, but the average
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  - moved up to 420,000.
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  - As we have less and less physicians, this
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  - is gonna be a challenge, and you're naturally
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  - gonna see some of these numbers go up.
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  - We're willfully out of balance on the number
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  - of physicians needed versus numbers we have.
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  - Finally, fifth,
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  - we we did a quasi op ed today
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  - on needing more physicians,
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  - and some of the professional societies
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  - really
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  - seemingly not behind that effort.
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  - Right now, it takes four years of college,
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  - four years of medical school, four years of
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  - residency and fellowship to become a physician.
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  - There's no wonder
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  - it's become extremely expensive and inefficient to create
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  - doctors.
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  - It's become harder and harder to constantly track
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  - the best and brightest to medicine. We've gotta
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  - figure out a way to fix that pathway.
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  - That is just a problem.
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  - You also have, a bunch of the physician
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  - societies recently released a release
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  - sort of cautioning on the use of AI
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  - in health care. It's not that I agree
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  - or disagree, but it seems so much part
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  - of the territorial effort of physician societies, which
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  - I view as hyper problematic.
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  - Thank you for listening to the Becker
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  - Healthcare Podcast.
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  - We hope you enjoyed this.
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  - Please always feel free to let me know
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  - if you enjoy it or hate it. I
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  - know lots of different opinions on this issue
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  - of physician training and AI medicine.
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  - You you can always reach me and always
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  - love to hear your comments. Thank you so
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  - much for listening to the Doctors Healthcare podcast.