Every year I look again on the interviews I performed or webinars I reported on and pull out a couple of of the quotes that basically received me to rethink a few of my assumptions in regards to the healthcare system. So here’s a baker’s dozen from 2023 that I hope you will see thought-provoking as properly. I’m wanting ahead to extra fascinating discussions on well being coverage, informatics, and enterprise points in 2024!

“If hospitals and different employers of nurses are actually severe about addressing the drivers of burnout, they actually need to dispense with these concepts of throwing pizza events and doing resiliency trainings, and as a substitute be aware of what nurses say they want, which is manageable and secure workloads.”
— Karen Lasater, Ph.D., R.N., affiliate professor at Penn Nursing 

“We have created a system that has quite a lot of related overhead, a lot of which does not do something for anyone. Take into consideration what number of federal taxpayer {dollars} go to Medicare Benefit advertising and marketing. It’s staggering,”
— Sachin Jain, M.D., M.B.A., president and CEO, SCAN Group & Well being Plan

“With points like granular consent……it’s not serving to sufferers and it’s not engendering confidence in EHR techniques, HIEs or the federal authorities that the overwhelming consensus appears to be that that is too arduous. Simply strive one thing. And at the least, be prepared to return out and say ‘we’re not going to get it proper the primary time. That is sophisticated, however we all know this can be a precedence.’”
— Nichole Sweeney, J.D., in-house basic counsel and chief privateness officer for Maryland-based CRISP Shared Providers

“You can most likely get all people in america who actually understands psychological well being parity into a big ballroom. And due to that, you’ve quite a lot of worry and quite a lot of confusion as to what’s truly concerned…..You’ve received individuals who say, ‘Lastly, I’ve received a hammer that I can use to get these insurance coverage firms to do the whole lot they’re alleged to do.’ And also you’ve received the insurance coverage firms saying, ‘Oh, nice, right here comes a hammer, and you continue to have not even instructed me precisely what I have to do.’”

— Shawn Griffin, M.D., CEO of the nonprofit healthcare accreditation group URAC 

“If the capital markets and personal fairness particularly and others are pouring all this cash in to attempt to remodel healthcare, for those who do not play that recreation, you are going to have your cheese moved with out you being concerned. So a giant a part of why I feel lots of people work with us and work with different gamers is as a result of they’re making an attempt to determine what the market is telling them. In any company function, all day lengthy you’re like a horse with blinders on. You are making an attempt to be sure you maintain your operation working. I can say this as a result of I am a former chief of firms, and that was how I ended up in LRV as a result of there have been so many issues taking place once I was at Premier, particularly in AI on the time, that I did not have any visibility into. And I assumed, who may I’m going speak to, who may I’m going work with that may be a market translator for me? So that you’re making an attempt to take these blind spots away.”
—Keith Figlioli, managing associate at enterprise capital agency LRVHealth

“The doctor teams which are embracing Medicare Benefit are likely to have a major care operate, the place they’ve the attribution of the lined lives and the place they get to maintain the financial savings from the capitation and the place they will additionally largely management the coding of diagnoses and the administration of the care, whereas hospital techniques which have determined to shun Medicare Benefit are these that do not have a major care base and depend on referrals, the place denials and prior auth actually matter for folks’s entry to them. So it is not but clear whether or not these two diverging paths will go and whether or not one will outlive the opposite. Neither path has been rigorously evaluated to this point and albeit, it’s too early to inform what the implications are for suppliers or sufferers on a big scale.”
— Zirui Tune, M.D., Ph.D., affiliate professor of well being care coverage and medication within the Division of Well being Care Coverage at Harvard Medical College

“Secretary Mark Ghaly of the California Well being and Human Providers Company did a fireplace chat with us in fall of 2021. He is actually been an enormous supporter of this concept of a rising tide raises all boats. That’s actually not an unusual phrase, however I feel it was actually very acceptable that he used it given how he and the state companies which are below him have come collectively to handle the inhabitants as a complete in that public sector multi-payer alignment. They’ve actually finished that superbly. To me, that is a vital message for states to listen to, as a result of they’ve the ability. They do not have to attend for the personal sector. Medicare will get to do it on the federal degree. Medicaid can do it on the state degree. And relying on the state, the general public worker profit program could be a big further associate in that, particularly for the states which have large enrollment in these plans. They’ve the flexibility to drive high quality in a manner that is very highly effective. That is the factor that I might say is the best alternative relating to addressing fairness.”
— Kristine Thurston Toppe, vp of state affairs on the Nationwide Committee for High quality Assurance (NCQA), a healthcare accreditation group

“We created a roadmap over three years in a sure order, as a result of some issues are dependent upon others. I wish to do some intelligent issues with knowledge, however I want the information infrastructure first. I wish to do some automation with bots, so we have to put within the bots and software program and get folks skilled up on the right way to use it. The evaluation on when to do issues consists of asking: how prepared is the group for the expertise? How mature is the expertise for the use case? How are the customers in getting access to that expertise? If it is one thing that may be a shiny object that excites all of the nerds on the market, however the medical doctors should not actually occupied with it, I am not going to place that ahead. One good instance is faucet and go. You are taking your badge and also you faucet it to log in. Emory has not rolled that out but. I am doing that instantly, as a result of I do know from earlier expertise that everyone loves it. It is simple to do. Different issues are rather more complicated. When it comes to home-based care, it’s going to take quite a lot of logistics so that’s within the out years. But it surely’s nonetheless on the record.”
— Alistair Erskine, M.D., M.B.A., Emory Well being’s chief info and digital officer

“So long as we’re hospital-centric in all of our processes and approaches to ship provides and sources and labor, it’s very arduous to pivot to a unique setting and to really take into consideration that setting as being the cornerstone for care versus considering of the hospital being the cornerstone for care. So this can be a large paradigm shift. I do assume there’s a rising recognition of the feasibility of it and and more and more, the worth of it.”
— Christine Ritchie, M.D., M.S.P.H., professor of medication at Harvard Medical College

“As soon as we began doing telehealth-only, over 30 p.c of all new sufferers coming into our program had by no means been in an in-person [opioid use disorder] therapy program earlier than. We have been lastly tapping into that invisible 90 p.c that different applications do not serve. And that is simply the whole lot for making an attempt to really handle this public well being disaster.”
—  Brian Clear, M.D., Bicycle Well being’s chief medical officer

“Labs have been very sluggish to return on board, despite the fact that they’re an actor below the information-blocking prohibitions, and it is a bit campaign of mine to attempt to assist the labs perceive that they should come on board. All of the labs are federally required to share knowledge at the moment, directly, with out particular effort within the type and format that is been requested they usually’re simply not doing it. If I have to get all of David’s labs from each lab that has seen him within the final 10 years as a result of I wish to see his longitudinal lab file, that is not potential as a result of persons are actually breaking the regulation.”
— Steven Lane, M.D., M.P.H, chief medical officer at Well being Gorilla

“A part of the rationale why I got here to the VA from the personal sector, past feeling honored to have the privilege to take care of our nations Veterans, is that I assumed that the VA can function a beacon of what care and fee fashions must be for CMS and the personal sector. The VA has an incredible alternative and suppleness to do that. That is why the VA was a frontrunner in telemedicine properly earlier than the COVID pandemic. What we are able to successfully show may very well be part of conversations on what adjustments ought to occur within the personal sector. We’re reaching the outcomes and measuring the issues that matter critically to our Veterans and reaching the price avoidance that’s vital for long-term sustainability.”
— Cole Zanetti, D.O., M.P.H., the performing director for value-based care within the VHA’s Heart for Care and Fee Innovation (CCPI) and a senior advisor to the VHA Innovation Ecosystem