2024 was filled with upswings and downswings in the healthcare industry. Whether it was unprecedented cyberattacks, the continued rise of GLP-1 therapies, or the return of hospital volumes, healthcare leaders stayed busy. And things aren’t expected to slow down in 2025.

To give you a preview of where we may be headed, this week, hosts Rachel (Rae) Woods and Abby Burns invite five Advisory Board experts to break down what their teams will be researching in 2025 and why these topics matter for health leaders. Throughout the episode, our experts preview how health system service lines, value-based care, care variation reduction, artificial intelligence, and specialty pharmacy will change in 2025 and beyond.

Links:

• The state of the industry: What healthcare leaders need to know for 2025
• Get early access to our 2025 executive briefing
• Service lines and specialty care landing page
• Value-based care landing page
• Artificial intelligence landing page
• Hospital and health system trends landing page
• 4 common pitfalls in care standardization — and how to overcome them

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A transcript of this episode as well as more information and resources can be found on www.advisory.com/RadioAdvisory.

A top podcast for healthcare leaders, with over one million downloads, Radio Advisory is your weekly download on how to untangle the industry's most pressing challenges to help leaders like you make the best business decisions for your organization.

From unpacking major trends in care delivery—like site-of-care shifts and the rise of high-cost drugs—to demystifying stakeholder dynamics, to shining a spotlight on priorities that may get overlooked, we're here to help. Our hosts and seasoned researchers talk with industry experts to equip you with knowledge to confront today's unanswered questions in healthcare. New episodes drop every Tuesday.

The healthcare industry talks a lot about “change management,” the idea that through careful stewardship, the process of change can be made a little bit easier. The problem is, it’s a lot easier to talk about change than it is to manage it well. This is especially difficult when it comes to digital transformation, a space that is evolving almost too fast to keep up with. So how should leaders be thinking about navigating change in such a complex environment?

To answer that question, in the first episode of a two-part series on managing digital change, host Rachel (Rae) Woods invites Advisory Board digital health expert John League, and later, Optum Advisory Vice President of Digital Transformation, Matt Matousek, to break down why the industry might need to shy away from the term “change management”, what it means to manage change well, and give on-the-ground examples of organizations who have had success with digital transformation.

Links:

• John’s LinkedIn post
• Optum Advisory: Healthcare Consulting Services
• Ep. 214: Is Governance the answer to AI integration? Duke says yes.
• 4 key issues that will shape the future of digital health

We are pausing release of Radio Advisory episodes out of respect for the tragic passing of Brian Thompson. We will resume this podcast in the new year.

The state of the industry: What healthcare leaders need to know for 2025

Get exclusive, early access to Advisory Board’s annual “What CEOs need to know” briefing.

Advisory Board is a subsidiary of Optum. All Advisory Board research, expert perspectives, and recommendations remain independent.

A transcript of this episode as well as more information and resources can be found on www.advisory.com/RadioAdvisory.

Employers have been saying for years that they can’t absorb any more cost growth for health insurance; health plans feel like they’ve squeezed about as much juice as possible out of traditional cost mitigation levers. Both are looking for creative alternatives to curb rising health costs. Enter ICHRAs.

Usually, when we talk about the health insurance landscape, we focus on Medicare, Medicaid, or employer-sponsored insurance. But roughly 21 million people in the US are covered by individual marketplace plans, and in 2020, a new type of plan hit the individual market, moving health insurance from a “defined benefit” to a “defined contribution” in an effort to curb employer health costs.

In this episode, host Abby Burns invites Advisory Board health plan expert Morghen Philippi to shed light on what Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements, or ICHRAs, actually are, how employers, plans, and providers are responding to their rise, and what leaders need to keep an eye on when it comes to these plans.

Note: This episode was recorded prior to the 2024 elections. Given the results, it is unlikely that the enhanced subsidies referenced in this episode will be renewed, which will affect the health of the individual marketplace. If enhanced subsidies expire at the end of 2025, you can expect it to have a direct impact on the individual market and on ICHRA viability, specifically. That said, because of the first Trump administration’s role in establishing the ICHRA model, the incoming administration may work to support ICHRA growth.

Links:

• Is the cost of employer-sponsored insurance at a tipping point?
• Market outlook for individual and small group health insurance
• Ep. 176: Test, fail, and test again: Morgan Health's approach to employer costs
• Enhanced subsidies propelled ACA marketplace enrollment. What’s next?

What health system growth will look like in 2025

Get exclusive, early access to Advisory Board’s annual “What CEOs need to know” briefing.

A transcript of this episode as well as more information and resources can be found on www.advisory.com/RadioAdvisory.

Last week on Radio Advisory, we broke down what healthcare leaders need to know for 2025 and beyond following the recent elections. But before we move on from 2024 completely, we have to acknowledge that there’s been a lot moving in the policy space this year, and frankly, there have probably been a few important policy areas on your radar that we haven’t discussed.

That’s why this week, host Abby Burns invites Advisory Board experts Gina Lohr, Sarah Roller, and Paul Trigonoplos to dive into three major policy areas of the last year: Medicare drug negotiations, changes to physician employment and payment, and an emerging mandatory bundled payment model called TEAM. The experts unpack how these policies are affecting the industry, how the elections outcomes may impact them, and, critically, how much attention leaders should be paying them going forward. In other words, should leaders consider each policy a big deal, a little deal, or no deal?

Links:

• Ep. 230: Elections results are in: What healthcare leaders need to know
• State-level healthcare ballot measures that passed (and failed)
• CMS’ TEAM payment model is here. How should hospitals prepare?
• Transforming Episode Accountability Model (TEAM)
• Your guide to CMS' 14 value-based payment models
• Medicare announces 10 new drug prices following negotiations
• A federal judge just blocked FTC's noncompete ban
• The Hospital Benchmark Generator
• Market Scenario Planner

(Correction: An earlier version of this episode misstated that there is a $200 out-of-pocket cap on drug spending going into place. That number is $2,000 and references the Medicare Part D out-of-pocket cap set to begin in 2025. We have removed the number from the audio.)

Get exclusive, early access to Advisory Board’s annual “What CEOs need to know” briefing.

2 ways labs can embrace innovation to drive revenue and accelerate growth

Market Scenario Planner

A transcript of this episode as well as more information and resources can be found on www.advisory.com/RadioAdvisory.

(Note: This episode was recorded on November 7, 2024)

The results of the 2024 elections are in: Donald Trump will be the 47th President of the United States, and we are all but certain to have a Republican trifecta at the federal level. Admittedly, there’s a lot we don’t know about what healthcare will look like under a second Trump administration—a lot will depend on who is appointed to key leadership positions overseeing federal health agencies and Congressional committees. But while we wait for those appointments, what can we anticipate based on President-elect Trump’s first term, campaign, and the Republican platform?

This week, hosts Rachel (Rae) Woods and Abby Burns invite Advisory Board experts Natalie Trebes and Ben Palmer to break down the implications of a second Trump term on the healthcare industry. They unpack how power dynamics have shifted since the first administration, and what we’re likely to see on issues like the ACA, enhanced subsidies, Medicaid, drug pricing, abortion, and more.

Links:

• What the 2024 elections mean for healthcare
• The election is over. Here's how to talk to your team today.
• Ep. 206: 24th Secretary of HHS Alex Azar shares his vision on healthcare transformation
• State-level healthcare ballot measures that passed (and failed)
• Why healthcare leaders should look to their state elections more than the national race

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A transcript of this episode as well as more information and resources can be found on www.advisory.com/RadioAdvisory.

Conversations around GLP-1s in today’s healthcare market are mixed. Some stakeholders are thrilled with their potential, while others are filled with questions and even anxiety about how these powerful and popular drugs will impact their business. Many in the industry have been asking for months: “What can GLP-1s do?” But maybe this is the wrong question. Leaders should be asking “What CAN’T GLP-1s do?”

To answer that question, live from HLTH 2024, host Rachel (Rae) Wood invites Rob MacNaughton, CEO of lifestyle intervention and obesity management organization Calibrate, Rita Glaze-Rowe, President at life sciences research organization Real Chemistry, and Dr. Spencer Nadolsky, lipid and obesity specialist and founder to break down the cross-industry perspective on GLP-1s and how the healthcare leaders should be thinking about both the potential and limitations of these novel therapies. In a market that is buzzing around the novel medications, these experts suggest a new focus on comprehensive weight management programs.

Links:

• Treating Obesity At Scale: Real-World Outcomes Using Medication And Intensive Lifestyle Intervention | Calibrate
• Real Chemistry - AI and Ideas Transforming Healthcare
• Ep. 222: It's not just GLP-1s; here's what comprehensive weight management looks like
• Ep. 159: Ozempic, Wegovy, and our questions on weight management drugs
• How 3 health systems provide comprehensive care for obesity
• 4 key elements of comprehensive obesity care (and how they look in practice)

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What the 2024 elections mean for healthcare

[Webinar, 10/24] How the 2024 elections could impact the healthcare industry

A transcript of this episode as well as more information and resources can be found on www.advisory.com/RadioAdvisory.

Remote patient monitoring (RPM) has a surprisingly long history in healthcare. As technology improves, RPM can expand physician capacity, better manage complex patients, and improve total cost of care. Despite RPM’s potential, leaders often struggle to root RPM in a clear business case, or they underinvest in implementation, never fully integrating RPM into existing workflows and systems.

This week, host Rachel (Rae) Woods invites Advisory Board RPM expert Lauren Woodrow and Advisory Board cardiovascular expert Kristin Strubel to break down why RPM technologies aren’t being properly utilized, guide leaders on where to place their strategic bets, and share use cases for how RPM can improve quality and finances across service lines.

Links:

• How 4 specialty service lines are embracing remote patient monitoring
• The rise of remote patient monitoring: Ensuring accessibility
• 3 strategies to unlock the potential of remote patient monitoring
• How Frederick Health saved $2.3M through remote patient monitoring

What the 2024 elections mean for healthcare

Mapped: Key healthcare-related ballot measures to watch

A transcript of this episode as well as more information and resources can be found on www.advisory.com/RadioAdvisory.

For years, the best word to describe Medicare Advantage (MA) was “untouchable.” Hugely popular among seniors, profitable for health plans—the hybrid public-private payment model grew to the point that it now covers more seniors than traditional Medicare. But in the past few years, the tide has started to change. And if you’ve been paying attention in recent months, you’ll have seen headlines announcing that payers that are scaling back their MA offerings and providers are exiting MA contracts. The MA market has gone from “untouchable” to “volatile.”

The question is: why is this happening, and what does it mean for payers, providers, and seniors moving forward? In this episode, hosts Rachel (Rae) Woods and Abby Burns invite health plan experts Max Hakanson and Chelsea Needham to dissect what is going on in MA and how plans and providers are—or should be—navigating the changing tide.

Links:

• Ep. 203: Value series: Is the future of VBC in specialty care? Zing Health & Strive Health say yes.
• Ep. 149: Senior Care (Part 1): Specialized primary care for an aging population
• Ep. 150: Senior Care (Part 2): The rapid growth of Medicare Advantage
• 3 traits health plans want in a provider partner
• 4 traits providers want in a health plan partner
• Around the nation: CMS releases Medicare Advantage Star Ratings

[Webinar, 10/24] How the 2024 elections could impact the healthcare industry

A transcript of this episode as well as more information and resources can be found on www.advisory.com/RadioAdvisory.

As care delivery becomes more complex and new disruptors join the scene, one thing has become clear: operational excellence is now table stakes in ensuring your organization’s financial sustainability and winning patients.

In this episode, recorded live from Advisory Board’s 2024 Strategy Summit, guest host and Managing Director of Physician and Medical Group Research at Advisory Board, Sarah Roller, invites Dr. Mary Jo Cagle, CEO of Cone Health and Dr. Cynthia Horner, Chief Medical Officer of Amwell and President of Amwell Medical Group, to unpack what it takes to achieve operational excellence, why adaptive leadership is essential to success, and why true operational excellence does not have to be as daunting as it seems.

Links:

• Cone Health | We're Right Here With You
• Hybrid Care at Scale | Amwell
• 8 lessons for facility planners from our recent strategy summit
• Pivots for a sustainable future
• Provider operations

Pivots for a Sustainable Future Virtual Summit

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A transcript of this episode as well as more information and resources can be found on www.advisory.com/RadioAdvisory.