The Strategy Catalyst Dispatch

This week's edition recaps our favorite intel and insights from the Fall 2025 CSO Forum held in San Diego. We also take a look at the new ACCESS model unveiled by CMS with outcomes-based payments.

In this episode of The Strategy Catalyst Dispatch, we explore a commonly cited theme in strategic plans that rarely gets commensurate investment: culture transformation. Matt Terry, Chief Strategy Officer at Wellstar Health System, shares how Wellstar has positioned culture as a strategic pillar to make it visible, measurable, and fundable alongside other enterprise priorities. Building on Strategy Catalyst’s Strategic Plan Compendium we examine: 

• How leaders are balancing culture transformation against near-term workforce needs 
• Which initiatives are proving most effective at reducing turnover and showing real ROI 
• How pipeline development and partnerships are being used not just to fill roles, but to reinforce culture and engagement 
• Which metrics executives and boards find most credible for tracking cultural change

To read the full Strategic Plan Compendium, click here: https://hmacademy.com/insights/strategy-catalyst/workforce/strategic-plan-compendium-learning-from-peer-health-system-strategic-plans 

This week's edition looks at Intermountain Health's pediatric growth strategy, Ballad Health's lawsuit against UnitedHealth, AI highlights from the HLTH 2025 conference, and a recent Senate HELP Committee hearing on 340B reform.

This week's episode covers the shifting landscape for CMS innovation payment models, the challenges that the government shutdown poses for AMCs, Amazon Pharmacy's new prescription drug kiosks, and the Hospital for Special Surgeries partnership with General Atlantic to establish a nationwide ASC chain.

 This week’s episode covers the ongoing federal government shutdown and its implications for health systems, including lapses in telehealth and hospital-at-home flexibilities, paused Medicaid payments, and the potential loss of coverage for millions if ACA subsidies expire. It also explores major insurers’ contraction in Medicare Advantage markets, Evolent Health’s sale of its ACO to Privia Health, and new visa fees that could intensify physician shortages by restricting international medical hiring. 

CFOs and COOs are navigating one of the most turbulent years in recent memory since 2020. From historic Medicaid cuts to escalating battles with payers, health system leaders are bracing for financial, political, and reputational pressures that demand new strategies.

In this episode of The Dispatch, we unpack the key themes from The Health Management Academy's 2025 CFO and COO forums:

• The fallout of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” and what comes next on site neutrality, 340B, and nonprofit status.
• Why payer relations have become an outright arms race and how AI is reshaping denials management.
• Workforce challenges: rising labor costs, unionization, and the push to build new pipelines.
• Where AI and automation are showing real ROI, from ambient listening to autonomous coding.